The Killings (An Olivia Miller Mystery Book 1) Read Online Free

off the hair dryer?” Ynes asked.
    Colleen’s eyes widened. For a moment, Olivia didn’t think she was going to answer.
    In a hushed tone she said, “I was in my room putting on makeup. I heard shouting. It was coming from the living room. My bedroom door was shut. At first, I thought the guys were joking or maybe had some sports thing on TV and were excited about whatever they were watching. But then, I don’t know, the voices didn’t sound right. I went closer to my door to listen. Something seemed wrong.” She wrung her hands together and glanced down.
    The girls waited, not wanting to push Colleen. “You don’t need to tell us,” Melissa said.
    “I want to.” Colleen sucked in a breath. “What I heard was over quick. Shouting. A scream.” She clasped her hands together to try to conceal their shaking. “I heard some footsteps coming down the hall. I thought of pushing my desk chair up against the door. My room doesn’t have a lock on it. But I was afraid I would be heard. I hurried over to the closet trying to be as quiet as I could. I got in and closed the door. I waited. I heard someone turn the knob and open my bedroom door. I held my breath. I prayed that no one would come to get me. I almost passed out.” She looked up. “Then Olivia opened the closet door.”
    “Did you hear Olivia call your name?” Ynes asked.
    “No.” Colleen turned her pale face to Olivia. “Did you call for me?”
    “I think so,” Olivia said. “I don’t really remember.”
    “You did,” Ynes told her. “I wondered why the hell you took off down the hall. I thought you were crazy. I worried the killer was still in the apartment. But when you yelled for Colleen, I knew what you were doing.”
    “I was afraid you were hurt,” Olivia said to Colleen.
    “That’s when you saw the killer in the hall,” Ynes said.
    “You saw him?” Colleen’s voice was thin and high-pitched.
    Olivia nodded. “I saw someone. I don’t know if it was the killer.”
    “Who the heck else could it have been?” Melissa asked.
    “I was just thinking. Maybe, it was someone coming to the party,” Olivia said. “Couldn’t they have come up the back staircase? It just jumped into my mind that it could have been someone else. Couldn’t it have just been another person coming to the party?”
    They sat in silence, thinking.
    “But he had a ski mask on,” Melissa said.
    “It could have been his costume,” Ynes said. “We all had some Halloween thing on.”
    “Why did he run then?” Melissa asked.
    “Fear? Afraid to be blamed for the deaths? Not knowing who we were? He could have been scared by what he heard and took off,” Olivia said. “I don’t think we can assume he was the killer.”
    “It’s certainly possible that who you saw in the hallway was just a party-goer,” Ynes said. “Or,” she hesitated. “It was the killer.”
    They considered the possibilities.
    “So maybe you didn’t see the murderer at all.” Melissa looked at Olivia and breathed out a sigh of relief. “That makes me feel better. I worried he might come after you.”
    “A guy who was at the party, Jack something,” Olivia said. “He told us he was smoking at the back door of the apartment that night. He said he saw two people wearing ski masks leave the building.”
    “Two people?” Ynes asked. “Together?”
    Olivia shook her head. “Jack said they didn’t seem to be together. They left the building at different times.”
    “How can we find out who these people in the ski masks are?” Melissa asked.
    “I don’t think we can find out,” Ynes said. She looked at Olivia. “Did you tell the police you saw someone in the hallway?”
    Olivia nodded. “Yeah, I told them. But there wasn’t much to say. I couldn’t see enough to give a very accurate description.”
    “What could have been the motive?” Ynes addressed the question to Colleen.
    “Were the guys into anything that would put them in danger?” Olivia asked. “Did they have