Run, Girl (If You Can)

Aiden called in sick to work the next two days and spent most of his time in his family's apartment with his little sister, who had been plagued by nightmares. She had gotten so little sleep that their mother didn't make her go to school.

He tried to distract her as best he could. They played endless board games and two-player video games that Sophie actually liked (such as Mario Kart). It seemed to be helping a little but the dark circles under her eyes only got worse over time.

Poor kid. She should be worrying about which colleges she wanted to apply to, not about a murder. Who exactly had she found, anyway? And why did that body have to be in his family's neighborhood?

He got his answer around dinner time two days after the incident. Sophie's phone rang while their mother was putting a casserole in the oven. Her face turned white as she listened mutely, eventually saying thank you and hanging up.

"Who was that?" Aiden asked with a frown.

"Detective Flynn," she said faintly. "The body matched a missing person report that was filed yesterday and they called a family member in to identify it. Her name was Lacy Knighton."

He fell backwards out of his chair. "Lacy Knighton?! Did she have black hair and light green eyes?"

Sophie grimaced remembering the blood matting that hair. "Yes. Did you know her?"

"Sort of. My boss is the one who knew her. I only met her once."

How could he explain that he had been investigating this woman at his boss' request for years? No one in his family even knew what the true nature of his job was. They thought he was like any other IT worker in Hale Investments' call center.

"What was she like?" she asked, a bit hesitant.

Aiden bit his lip. He didn't want to speak ill of the deceased but there really wasn't anything good he could say about the woman. From what little he had seen of her, he thought she was a spoiled brat but Aaron seemed to think she was the devil incarnate.

"…she was really rich and loved to shop. That's about all I know about her," he lied.

"Oh." Sophie rubbed her forehead as if warding off a headache. "If she was really rich, how did she end up in the Bronx?"

He had been wondering the exact same thing. Lacy Knighton lived, shopped, and partied exclusively in Manhattan as far as he had seen. She didn't seem like the kind of person to come to such a rundown neighborhood of her own accord.

"I have no idea," he admitted, his mind still racing.

Had she been moved after death? Or did someone lure her here? Either way, it was highly unlikely she was the victim of a random mugging. This was premeditated by somebody smart; the murderer knew it would be harder to find her in a place she didn't usually go.

But who would kill Lacy? She didn't have any enemies that he knew of aside from Aaron.

As much as Aiden liked joking about how his boss would kill him, he knew he wasn't the type. If he was going to kill her, he would have done it before she could try and trap him in an engagement rather than making Aiden do that terrible favor and pose as a fake fiancée.

Besides, Aaron was in Rochester with his family right now. He probably hadn't even heard about this. Should he tell him?

He didn't want to wreck his friend's vacation but at the same time, Aaron had gotten pissed off in the past when he was kept out of the loop on something. If he found out Aiden knew about it first and hadn't told him…

He sent his boss a text, praying he didn't shoot the messenger. Then he tried to change the subject because Sophie was looking a little pale.

"So…want to play another game of Monopoly?"

===

Robert volunteered to watch the babies as they napped and told Keeley and Aaron to go spend some time at the pool. It was their last day of vacation, after all. She was grateful for the chance to relax a bit before having to go back to worrying about their Lacy problem.

The pool at this hotel was not only huge but also much less crowded than most pools she had been to. There were a few families with kids swimming around but there couldn't have been more than fifteen people there total. Not bad at all.

Aaron had fallen asleep on a deck chair. What exactly was the point of them spending time together if he was out cold?

Keeley stood over him and he screwed up his face to recoil against the water droplets hitting his eyelids and cheeks. He squinted at her tiredly.

"What are you doing?"

"Come swim with me, I'm bored."

"…do I have to?"

"Yes," she said as she tugged on his hand. "You've never gone swimming with me."

He frowned as he thought about it. "You're right. How did that end up happening?"

She rolled her eyes at him as she heaved him off the chair. "Because you were a hopeless stick in the mud. Now come. On."

A slightly mischievous look appeared in his eye. A second later, he charged at her and wrapped his arms around her waist before they both fell into the deep end with a splash. When they came back up he was smirking.

"Would a stick in the mud do that?"

Keeley spat out a bit of water that had gotten in her mouth since she was caught off guard. "I did use the past tense," she pointed out.

His smirk softened. "So you don't think I'm boring anymore?"

"I never thought you were boring…" Except during high school round two when she was mad at him but there was no need to mention that now when they were having a good time.

"Really?"

"When we first met I thought you were mysterious. There's nothing boring about that."

Aaron blinked at her in surprise. "That's why you originally liked me?"

"Originally I just wanted to figure you out. I had never met anybody like you. The liking came later."

Had she really never mentioned this before? She could have sworn she said something back when they were dating in college. Maybe she kept it to herself after all. Aaron wasn't the only one with communication issues back then.

He gave a simple nod and continued treading water, accepting her answer. Keeley flipped over and began floating on her back. They had come an awfully long way since she first found him interesting.