Booby Trap by Sue Ann Jaffarian Page A

to be okay again.”
    “What I understand is that you will always feel the pain from the loss of Laurie, and from the loss of your parents and grandmother, but your life will continue, Lisa. You will be happy again, in time.”
    “My being happy is an impossibility now.”
    I thought about her comment and made another guess. “Were you and Laurie twins?”
    Two things had struck me about Lisa Luke’s appearance the moment I set eyes on her. One, she looked remarkably like my deceased friend Sophie London. She was tall and blond and plump, with curves in all the right places. The face was different but the build and sensual beauty were very similar, except that Lisa appeared to be very shy and withdrawn, where Sophie had been gregarious and confident. The other thing that struck me and struck me hard was, except for her build, Lisa was the spitting image of her sister Laurie. It was as if someone had taken Laurie Luke and inflated her.
    Lisa shook her head gently. “No, I’m older by two years.”
    “I take it you two were close.”
    “Yes, very close. Almost two halves of the same whole. We were all we had in the world. We had no other family, just each other.”
    An ugly thought occurred to me, and as much as I wanted to push it away, I couldn’t. “I imagine when Kirk came into the picture, things changed between you.”
    Lisa looked at me, confusion about my question filling her intelligent, distraught face. Then the light went on. “You mean, was I jealous?”
    “It would be natural.”
    She thought about it and sniffed back more tears. “I was used to Laurie dating. Men have always buzzed around her like bees to honey. She wasn’t just beautiful, she was fun and outgoing, smart and kind. She was gone a lot, while I’m more of a homebody.”
    “But an engagement is different from dating. Soon she would have married and moved away, leaving you alone.”
    Lisa nodded. “Yes, I thought about that quite a bit. And she knew it bothered me. She could always tell what I was feeling.” Lisa picked up her glass and drank some lemonade. “But Kirk’s a doll. Both he and his family welcomed me as much as they did Laurie.” The tears started to spill again. “And now I’ve lost them both.”
    She put down her glass and excused herself, heading off down a hall to the right of the kitchen. I got up and went back to the photos, picking up and studying one showing Kirk with his arms around both Lisa and Laurie. Both Luke girls looked happy and content, like Nordic bookends on either side of a handsome fairytale prince.
    I was about to poke around some more when I heard a scratching and slight meow. Looking around, I saw no cat or evidence of one. In our house, Seamus’s cat toys were always underfoot, right along with Wainwright’s playthings. I walked to the kitchen area and looked around. Not a single food or water dish either. Again I heard a meow and scratching. I looked down the short corridor where Lisa had disappeared, but she wasn’t anywhere in sight. To the left of the kitchen/living area was a closed door. The meowing was coming from the other side. I cautiously opened the door and took a peek. Just inside the door was a dark gray fur ball. Two big, round amber eyes stared back at me in a mixture of fright and relief.
    I opened the door a little more and bent down to coax the animal to me. “Here, kitty. Come here. I won’t hurt you.” The animal took a tenuous step in my direction, followed by two scoots back into the room. It wanted to come to me but wasn’t quite sure if it should take the chance.
    I focused my attention from the cat to the room. The drapes were open and the daylight revealed a nicely decorated but cluttered, large bedroom. The queen-size bed was unmade and the dresser was filled with photographs, cosmetics, and knickknacks. Clothes were scattered everywhere. In the corner was a desk sprinkled with papers, except for the middle where there was an obvious clearing. Perhaps it was