Total pages in book: 136
Estimated words: 131789 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 659(@200wpm)___ 527(@250wpm)___ 439(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 131789 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 659(@200wpm)___ 527(@250wpm)___ 439(@300wpm)
And now that the initial shock of this place has worn off, I dry my face with my sleeve and take a moment to absorb the scene in a new light.
“We should go,” RJ says.
I shake my head. “No. I’m good now.” Because you’re here with me, I almost say, but just because I sobbed in his arms like a toddler a second ago doesn’t mean I’ve suddenly transformed into a silly romantic. “It might be helpful if we talked this through. Tried to make more sense of what happened that night.”
I move closer to the water’s edge, then turn to examine the woods to our left. “The cops did a half-assed sweep of the place after the ambulance left but they didn’t find anything significant. Beer cans and spent joints. More used condoms than I’m sure they cared to find. The usual stuff. But nothing from that night.”
RJ clicks on his phone flashlight and uses it to scan the area. “The car didn’t come in the same way we did.”
“No. There’s a road.” I point my own light at two wooden posts around the far side of the boathouse that mark where there used to be a gate. The dirt road is now obscured by shrubs, but still passable if you know where you’re going. “Whoever was driving pulled the car around this side then went into the water.”
“The police report I saw was pretty scarce.”
“This whole fucking case is scarce. Casey’s drug test at the hospital came back positive, but she insisted she hadn’t taken anything knowingly. All she remembered was drinking the punch. The doctors seemed skeptical of her story. But I know my sister. She’s not into drugs.”
“I assume the police questioned her?”
“Oh yeah. They spent hours grilling Casey in the hospital and afterward. Got statements from most of us at the dance. And through it all, Casey maintained she didn’t know what she was given, when she left the dance, or how she got in our car. Only that she had some vague instinct someone was with her and she was pulled from the car.”
I step away from the water, heading toward the boathouse itself. I study the crumbling structure, almost suspiciously, because other than the person who drugged my sister, this broken-down building is the only witness to what went down that night.
“The cops told us there was nothing to pull off the boathouse camera,” I tell RJ.
We duck under spider webs to step inside. Beside a deserted bird’s nest, the camera is still mounted to a wooden beam in the ceiling. RJ pockets his phone and jumps for the beam.
“Be careful,” I blurt out, but he easily lifts himself up to straddle it, then takes his phone out again to shine the light on it.
“There’s a sticker on here for a security company.” He snaps a picture before throwing his leg over to jump down. The landing kicks up dirt and dust that catches in the shards of moonlight peeking through the holes in the roof.
I wrinkle my forehead. “What can you do with that?”
“I’ve got some ideas.”
“Like?”
“I’ll let you know. Could be nothing. But I need to check a couple things first and would rather not get your hopes up before I do that.”
His vagueness is disconcerting, but what other choice do I have? It’s been months since anyone has lifted a finger to help figure out what happened that night. We’ve been abandoned by the police, the school, and anyone who might have sprung a conscience to come forward with information.
Crazy as it sounds, RJ is my last best hope. And that feeling, hope, is something that’s been missing in my life since Casey almost died.
I reach for RJ’s hand and hold it tightly. “Thank you.”
Chapter 41
RJ
I never did find out how the game ended. Hopefully Fenn won’t quiz me about it. But after our adventure at the boathouse, Sloane and I didn’t bother heading back to the stadium to find Fenn or check the final score. We’d felt like the parents who’d forgotten to pick up their kid when we found Lucas in the parking lot sitting on the trunk of the car. He was chill about it, though, by the time we dropped him off at the junior dorm.
“Computer lab tomorrow?” I offer as a goodwill gesture.
He hops out of the car with his smile undeterred. “Yeah, sure thing.”
Sloane’s house is on the opposite side of campus. But when I pull away from the dorm and reach the stop sign, she puts her hand on the steering wheel.
“It’s still early. I don’t have to be home yet.”
She couldn’t stop being dead-gorgeous if she tried. But at night, in the colored glow of the car’s lighting, she’s mystical. It’s her superpower.
“What’d you have in mind?”
She licks her lips and now I’m dying to find out what’s happening behind those cunning eyes.