Gimme A Kiss Recap Part Four: Chpt 9 - 12

CHAPTER NINE: 

Back in the Police station Fisher questions Alice on how Kirk died. Alice says it must have been the bends since he was diving down far and surfacing to quickly. The lifeguard that came onto the boat said he thought that was very unlikely but Alice didn't think he knew what he was talking about. The strange thing is that Kirk who has lived beside the Ocean his whole life was a really good swimmer so for him to drown is sort of odd. Alice seems appalled almost when Fisher asks her if she shared her air with him at all. She was all like “why would I do that?” Alice was also the only one in the water with scuba gear on.

(You know I really don't understand this part. Her father only wanted her in the water with scuba gear. Alice said she thought it was because there must be a current in the area and that was what probably got Jane. Except there was a shit load of kids in the water looking for her? Wouldn't it be safer for the ones with gear to be in it in case they got caught in the freaking current as well? Just saying. Something fishy is going on.)

(Reading the first bit of this again maybe it was Alice that drowned Kirk. She was his ex and even though she said she didn't care that her best friend and ex were dating she probably did. Perfect opportunity to get back at him. Although really freaking harsh though. Anyways..gawd maybe she also killed Jane to since Sharon obviously eventually told her that she was okay?)

(Omg Alice's father only let her scuba dive down. Was it the father that killed Jane? Damn he has motive to! He doesn't want anything to tarnish his angel daughter. Maybe that was why he was so understanding of Jane before, because he was going to take her out of the equation. I think he is almost crazy enough to do that too!)

I think Fisher believes that Alice knows something more but when he presses her she just starts crying. He asked if it was possible for Sharon to have killed Jane, or if Jane committed suicide. Alice said no to both.

CHAPTER TEN:

Jane finds the power going out strange considering the phone went dead before the lights went out. She looks for the fuse box on the deck, but it's not there. The door to the garage wouldn't open so she decided to go out the front door and circle around. She opens the door and hesitates for some reason. Then a gun shot!? (This just gets stranger and stranger because who the hell is messing with her. I'm going to guess either Sharon or the cheerleader at this point. Man to many people have a motive!)

Jane dives back into the house and hits the ground trying to figure out who the hell is trying to kill her. Jane goes upstairs and searches the bedroom for a gun. A window in the room explodes in a shower of glass.

“She [Jane] seriously doubted if she fired a single shot into the air that they would get scared and run away.” 

(Just the visualization of Jane shooting out the window and the person getting scared and running off makes me laugh. Like 'oh shit! They returned fire! Gotta go!” Hey it's 1am in the morning when I'm writing this, lol, cut me some slack.)

She decides her only option is to guard the front door and wait for dawn. Fifteen minutes later she hears someones footsteps approaching the door and she creeps closer. She grabs a fire poker on the way by the fireplace and when the person comes in she realizes there is no way she can pull the trigger so instead she hits the intruder over the head with the poker.

(OH CRAP SHE HIT SHARON?!?!?! What is going on? Sharon is her best friend! Was she that jealous of Jane and Kirk that she would take revenge on Jane for Kirk's death?)

(Hmm not Sharon then.) A Molotov cocktail comes barreling through the shattered front door window and now the house is on fire. All escape routes are blocked off save the front door and balcony door and obviously who ever was shooting was still out there so it's not like they can march out the front door. (So wait, whoever it is was, was waiting for Sharon to go inside before they started the fire. That means someone had to have heard Sharon tell Alice that Jane was okay and was at her parents cabin. Although maybe it still was Alice. She came to the cops willingly later on, she might be doing that to make her self look innocent! Woah if that is the case some freaking friend! And why hurt Sharon? Sharon did nothing!)

Jane is in a serious shitty situation. She can't go out the front door because of the unknown crazy shooter is still out there, the balcony door only leads to a deck with a really big drop and even if they went over the side and shimmied down the poles they still could fall on the rocks below. That also would only work if Sharon was conscious since the blow to the head knocked her out and her head is bleeding pretty bad.

Jane has a moment of hesitation where she almost tries to go over the balcony and leave Sharon to die but she realizes she can't do that. Their only option is to go upstairs. She carry’s her up there and was considering dropping Sharon from the bedroom window when the gunner shoots out another window. She lugs Sharon into the bathroom and dumps her on top of the scuba equipment. There is a window here but she can't find anything to break the glass and the window won't open. (All I can say is HELLO YOU HAVE A FREAKING GUN! Even if she didn't want to shoot out the glass and let the person outside trying to kill her know what she was doing she could still use the butt of the gun to break the glass.)

“We're going to die, and all because Mr. And Mrs. Less keep a gun in their bedroom, but not a scale in their bathroom.”

(~face palm. Seriously Jane?!?!? You have witness this night at least 2- 3 times that a gun can and will break a window if shot at. So for you to say this is completely dumb! I mean com on!)

The fire continues to climb and reaches the bedroom. They are now totally stuck upstairs with no way out. Sharon wakes up for a moment before lapsing into unconsciousness again. Jane is horrified but then realizes that Sharon is better off not knowing what is about to happen. Jane turns on the air to her scuba tank and breathes it in while she watches the fire spread towards her. But then she has an idea. She turns the shower on, removes Sharon from the tub and gets in herself.

(I really hope she isn't thinking that she can just wait the fire out in a tub full of water? I don't really think that will work.)

CHAPTER ELEVEN: At the police station:

Alice is still crying and Fisher is kicking himself for demanding she tell him where Jane and/or Sharon are. She eventually says that she has nothing more to say. Fisher leaves Alice for a moment to search out Officer Rick. While he was looking for him he sees that Patty is in a room by herself. He takes this opportunity to talk with her before her parents and lawyer return.

He asks her who he thinks killed Jane after convincing her that she hadn't drowned but burnt up in a cabin. She doesn't hesitate to say Alice's father. (Curious.)

(Gawd how I hate Alice's father and if this is true that is so horrible!)

“I've watches that fat-ass since I was ten. He's my dentist. He's got deep sexual hang-ups, if you know what I mean. He's got something against the human body, thinks it's disgusting. He must look in the mirror too much. He probably heard what Jane wrote in her diary and wasted her before she could contaminate his darling daughter.”

Fisher is unconvinced at first and asked Patty how he would know. Patty says that if Jane told anyone then he probably heard it since he gets gossip from all of his patients. Fisher realizes that Jane told Sharon the plan IN his office! Could he have heard it that way? OR Alice for that matter?

Fisher leaves Patty and finds Rick. He asks if their people found a second body yet and if there was a car anywhere near the cabin. Negative to either and Fisher finds the car thing curious. He also asks that he get Dr. Hilt to preform a full autopsy on Kirk and focus on anything strange in his blood. Rick ask him if he is on to something and he says maybe.

He returns to Alice to see that her father is with her being all bitchy. (Gawd I hate her father. This to me makes it look like he is guilty of something or he knows something.)

“My point, sir, is that you don't appear to give a damn about what happened to her.”

The man's bulging neck turned a deep shade of red. He poked the air with his finger. “You stop right there! I always did the best for Jane, tried to show her the right way to behave. It's not my fault she got involved with the wrong kind of boys.”

Fisher let his irritation show. “And what in heaven's name does her taste in boys have to do with her death?”

(Yes Dr. Palmer what does that have to do with anything.)

Fisher heads home after a long night but has this nagging feeling that something is not right, so he decides to drive to the cabin and take a look around. He doesn't see anything significant so he starts back. He notices a bike shoved into the woods at the bottom of the hill and a bit further down he sees tire tracks on the side of the road. When he looks closer he sees that the car was actually pushed to point down the hill. He spots a piece of burnt flesh on the ground. (Ewww!)

(Okay Jane is alive and it is Sharon they found dead. Just saying.)

He puts two and two together and comes to the same conclusion. Jane (or someone) switched the dental records.

CHAPTER TWELVE:

Jane is currently hiding in Alice's closet waiting for her to come home. She has already made it to Dr. Palmer's office and stole some stuff for her feet and bandages since they are burnt to a crisp. She also had grabbed some chloroform. She also, I presume, switches the dental records at this point. (So I was half right earlier.)

She reflects and takes blame for her share of the results of her actions but not for all of it. She was determined to make Alice pay. (I guess by now she figured it was Alice who killed Kirk and who attacked and set the cabin on fire. I think here she also realized just how stupid her whole revenge scheme was and how it got so out of hand.)

“Why did I care who knew I was horny, when everyone is horny.”

Just then, she hears the garage door opening and she gets the chloroform ready. She overhears Dr. Palmer and Alice talking. It almost seems like Dr. Palmer knew exactly what happened and what part Alice played in all of it but we can't be to sure because we can't hear the whole conversation. If he does he sure thinks that if they pray God will forgive them. (Seriously!)

Alice comes into her bedroom and goes to grab a nightgown from her closet and Jane pounces. Pressing the chloroform rag to her face, Alice passes out. She begins to drag her to the Palmer's unused guest house out back. On the way she has to take a break and reapply some numbing solution to her feet.

She gets Alice inside and points the gun at her when she starts to come around. Alice is confused considering she was sure that Jane had died in the fire. Jane lets her know that she made one mistake, that she forgot that she had scuba equipment with her and that the water took a long time to fail. She bundled herself up in her gear, soaked herself with water and trapped as much as she could in her suit then ran as fast as she could to get out of the house.

Alice denies any involvement and Jane calls bullshit. She says she figures Alice knew about the plan before Sharon was supposed to tell her so she used the opportunity to kill Kirk. Alice still denies it. Jane had a lot of time to think before Alice came home and knew that Kirk had to be the common denominator (seriously ugh Jane I figured that out a long time ago) because both of them had him as a boyfriend. Jane tells Alice that Kirk told her that he had ruined her and Alice freaked out and attacked Jane. They wrestled for a minute before Alice whispered that he did ruin her.

“He gave it to me. He needed to get rid of it. He didn't care about me. He didn't care about what my father would say?” 

(OMG Alice is freaking losing it or already has lost it. I pretty much figure it has to do with her cold sores.)

“I don’t care about your gun Jane. You shouldn't have cared about mine. Everyone knows about us. They've read your diary. And they've just got to look at me. We would be better off dead.” pg 141

(RIGHT ALICE. Like you have the right to decide that because of what Kirk “gave you and Jane” that you should kill her because in your opinion she would be better off dead. I didn't see you coming home to kill yourself Alice! Only now because Jane is there do you even consider the possibility.)

Alice finally admits that she left Jane's diary open on the desk for Patty to see. She also admits that she killed Kirk by letting him breathe “air” from a second tank she had on her back that was filled with laughing gas. She offered him some air when he was 40 feet below the surface. He was worried for Jane so he kept diving deeper and deeper. While Alice is telling this story she is fooling around with a scuba tank, the scuba tank, that she had filled with laughing gas. Jane realizes she has opened the valve and wants to light a match, killing both of them.

“I'm not crazy Jane. A crazy person doesn't know what she is doing. It's just that lately I've been so upset. I'd see you and Kirk together, holding hands, smiling, kissing.” She winced. “And then it came back and wouldn't go away, and I - “ A shudder went through her. “My father says that if we ask, we are forgiven. Maybe we should ask together, Jane, right now.”

(OH MY WORD. You have completely LOST it Alice!!)

“My father told me boys will give you things. I should have listened to my father.” 

(Turns out what he “gave” her was cold sores because he had to get rid of them so he could get another girlfriend. ~blink blink blink OMG what the hell has Alice's father been teaching her!)

Jane laughs at her telling her it's just a cold sore and that it's no big deal. Alice is not convinced and says that only bad boys give it to you which makes Jane laugh harder because Alice does not understand that it is a virus that you catch and are not given. The laughing gas is also effecting both of them at this point.

Alice is still adamant about lighting the match and Jane tells her that if she wants to die go ahead but that she already died twice today and that was enough. But she was too drugged up to even really move, not that she could get out anyways since Alice locked the door.

Just the someone bursts through the door, picks up Jane and takes her out. It is Fisher! He goes back in for Alice. He sets Alice down and goes back to Jane looks at her feet and tells her he is going to get her to the hospital. Alice's father comes out and freaks out and Fisher elbows him in the chest and he falls into the pool! (WOOT! Take that Dr. Palmer!)

(And that is basically the end. Sort of a quick and abrupt ending. The only burning question I have is why did Alice feel the need to also kill Sharon? Because she might have liked Kirk? It doesn't make sense. Alice could have started the fire before Sharon got there but it seemed like she purposely waited for her to get there. I guess we will never know.)

FINAL THOUGHTS: I am pretty sure this is the first time I have ever read this book because none of it seemed remotely familiar to me. A few years back I was actively trying to find Christopher Pike and R.L. Stine books to complete my collection and I am thinking this is one of them. It definately isn't my favorite by Pike but it was still fun to read and well written.

CONTINUE ON WITH: Gimme A Kiss: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3.