Scammed

by Kristen Simmons

  “Please. He sent someone to do his dirty work.” She shakes her head. “Someone I knew. That I trusted. A friend’s father.”

  I go still.

  “Geri’s dad.”

  Margot nods. “I was waiting for Jimmy at his dorm. Maurice showed up there, said Geri had told him I was in trouble. That we should both come with him.” She closes her eyes, reliving a horror I can feel stretching across the table. “It was pretty clear by the time we crossed the state line that Geri hadn’t sent him.”

  “What happened?”

  “Maurice had a gun. He said it wasn’t personal, that Geri always said good things about me. Then, I don’t know, he had a change of heart, I guess. He threw me out of the car and told me never to come back to Sikawa City. That was the last I saw of either of them.”

  In a blink, I’m in the car with Grayson as he speeds down the road toward the site of Susan’s accident. When I open my eyes, I’m back with Margot.

  “Maybe he let Jimmy go, too?”

  She shoves back in her chair. “If he did, Jimmy would have found me.”

  I shiver at the certainty in her voice.

  “It doesn’t make sense,” I say. “Why would Dr. O send me to look into Jimmy’s disappearance if he knew what I’d find?”

  “Because it’s a perfect way to make sure he’s buried the evidence. You didn’t know Jimmy or me. You’re a fresh pair of eyes. If you couldn’t find anything, it means he did a good job.”

  My heel begins to tap as I remember Moore telling me in the garage that I wasn’t supposed to find anything. I’d thought he meant that was because Sterling had covered it up, but maybe he’d been talking about Dr. O.

  “And if I did find something?” I ask.

  “He knows he can control you,” she says. “He can, can’t he?”

  I think of Mom’s new apartment, her job with Wednesday Pharmaceuticals. I think of Mark Stitz, now lying in a hospital bed. Is that because I told Dr. O that he’d seen the senator talking to Jimmy before his disappearance? The day Belk picked me up, he’d been scoping Mark as he walked by the hot dog stand. Just need to get an idea of who’s involved.

  If word about Jimmy’s disappearance got out, and the senator was blamed and went to jail, Dr. O wouldn’t be able to control him anymore.

  I need to slow down. These are theories. She’s yet to give me any proof.

  I hide my trembling hands beneath the table. “It could have been Sterling that hired Geri’s dad.”

  “It wasn’t.” She absently peels back the corners of the paper beneath her fingers. “Why do you think I took this job? I had to be absolutely sure Sterling wasn’t involved. I knew he’d talked to Jimmy before Maurice picked us up. I thought if I got close to the staff, someone would know if the senator had knowledge of what had happened, but it turns out he’s being jerked around like the rest of us.”

  I thought she was trying to out me to Sterling, but maybe she was just looking for clues about Jimmy, too.

  “Susan knew her brother was dangerous,” says Margot. “When I called her—”

  “Hold on,” I say. “You knew Susan?”

  Margot’s cheek indents. “She used to come by the house and have dinner with us. She gave me her number in case I ever needed a reference.” Margot’s sigh is bitter. “Once upon a time, I was trying to get into art school.”

  “What did you say?”

  “That I’d left Vale Hall. That I was afraid for Jimmy. I asked her for help. I figured of all people, she would know what to do.”

  “Why?”

  “Because she’d witnessed her brother’s anger firsthand.”

  “Nice try,” I say, an image of the director staring at his sister’s painting filling my mind. “Dr. O adored Susan. He was a wreck when she died.”

  Margot snorts. “Is that what he told you?”

  My heel hammers against the floor as I recall Matthew Sterling’s changed votes. It wouldn’t be the first time Dr. O’s lied to me.

  She passes the paper she took out of her purse earlier my way. “Caleb said you’d need proof.”

  Before I look at it, I size her up, trying to gauge if this might be another lie. She only laughs, a quiet, jaded sound, and crosses her arms over her chest.

  I open the fold, reading the printed words at the top of the copy.

  ORDER OF RESTRAINT.

  Scanning through the handwritten words, I find Susan Griffin’s name under Applicant. Below it reads, Temporary order of protection against bodily harm, stalking, or threats by stepbrother, David Odin.

  I read the names again, just to be sure.

  It could be a fake.

  Something tells me it’s not.

  I place it carefully back on the lacquered table.

  “Where did you get this?” Everything inside me is shaking. I know about restraining orders. I tried to get Mom to file one against Pete.

  “I have my methods.” She leans closer, points to a section that outlines two head contusions from physical attack.

  Head injuries prior to the accident.

  This is Caleb’s police report.

  He was right.

  I didn’t listen. I thought he was being swayed by Margot, who was trying to bring down the program out of spite. I’m not solid, like she said. I bent under the pressure of Dr. O.

  I’ve been living under the roof of another abuser.

  Dr. O must have known what this report entailed as soon as I brought it up. He got rid of Caleb because I said he’d seen it. Dr. O needed to hide the truth before anyone else found out that he’d beaten up his own sister.

  “The director’s hated the senator from the beginning,” says Margot. “Ever since Sterling came into office, he’s been voting on bills that have taken money out of Dr. O’s pocket. Susan believed in his cause, though, and when she started supporting him, Dr. O got mad. He attacked her, and when she tried to protect herself, he paid off a cop to have the restraining order disappear.”

  I am still, piece after piece settling into place.

  Jimmy must have seen Susan after this happened—at the restaurant opening when she came to Sterling for help.

  “Dr. O gets rid of people who get in his way,” she says. “Me. Jimmy. Susan. Matthew Sterling.”

  Again, I think of Mark Stitz lying in a hospital bed at First Presbyterian. Did Geri’s dad have something to do with that? Did I cause Mark to get hurt?

  Have I done the same to Caleb?

  “You asked what I wanted.” The con is back; there is fire in Margot’s eyes and ice on her tongue. “I want Dr. O to pay for Jimmy, and Susan, and everyone else he’s hurt. I want to destroy him, the way he’s destroyed me. I need someone on the inside to do that, and Caleb won’t, not while you and the others are in danger.”

  I can’t leave. That’s what he said when I asked why he wouldn’t come with me. I’d thought it was Margot, twisting up his head. That she was trying to punish him, or punish me. At the very least, I thought that he was protecting his father’s care.

  But he was protecting me.

  Bile churns in my stomach. I need to find Caleb. I need to make sure Dr. O doesn’t hurt him the way he did Jimmy. I think of Maiko, Jonathan, Christopher. Caleb’s father. I need to get to them, now.

  “He’s gone,” I say, ready to stand. Ready to run. “Dr. O sent him away last night.”

  From the distance comes the blare of sirens. Another joins it. There must be a wreck nearby.

  Fear brightens Margot’s gaze. “Where did he go?”

  “I don’t know. I thought you might.”

  She scrambles to grab the phone in her coat pocket and scrolls through the screen. “He hasn’t called. He probably doesn’t even have a phone. I didn’t.”

  I don’t have my phone, either—I left it at school, in my room, in case security tried to track where I was going today.

  The sirens are getting louder. Louder. A headache pounds at the base of my skull.

  “Does he know where you liv
e? Would he go there?”

  She shakes her head.

  The sirens are screaming now. People are looking out the front windows into the street. As we watch, a blue police car comes to a screeching halt in front of the Macintosh Building. A second follows just behind, stopping right in front of the entrance.

  Then a white van, the side painted Channel 7 News.

  Margot and I look at each other, then jump up. There are many offices in that building, but a lot of bad seems to originate from Sterling’s. She stuffs the restraining order back into her purse, and together we shove out the door, just in time to see another cruiser and news van—this one for Pop Store—show up.

  “What’s going on?” Margot says.

  “There!” I point to Emmett and Ben, who’ve just emerged on the sidewalk beside the hot dog truck. Ben’s hands are clasped over his head. Emmett’s pointing at someone just inside. Out of the news vans jump reporters and men with cameras. Traffic is already stopped by the flood of pedestrians into the street.

  We rush toward the other interns as the cops pull a man out of the building in handcuffs. He’s wearing a blue button-down shirt and is surrounded by police. I recognize Lewis to his right, holding a coat high enough to cover the man’s face.

  But it doesn’t matter. We all know who he is.

  Matthew Sterling is being arrested.

  “No comment!” Lewis is shouting at the reporters shoving their microphones through the gaps between the police.

  “What’s going on?” I ask when we reach Ben and Emmett.

  “They think he killed someone,” says Emmett.

  “What?” asks Margot.

  Ben’s shaking his head. “I went inside to quit, and these cops nearly broke down the door trying to get to him. All I heard is they found some phone at his house with a dead woman’s prints on it.”

  The sirens fade beneath the screaming in my head.

  I look to Margot.

  She stares back, and it’s clear that whatever lies brought us together must be shoved aside. We’re on the same team now.

  Dr. O has planted Susan’s phone at Matthew Sterling’s house, and now the senator’s taking the fall. The blackmail over changing positions on bills is over, and soon Grayson will be called to testify against his father.

  He’s in danger, and if anything Margot’s said has been true, so is everyone else in that house.

  I need to warn them.

  I need to get back to Vale Hall before someone else gets hurt.

  CHAPTER 36

  “Geri?” I shout into the phone as I race across the platform to catch the next train. Ben won’t be happy to find his cell missing from his pocket, but as I left mine at home, I didn’t have much of a choice. I slipped it right out of his coat pocket as he and Emmett went to talk to the cops. It’s a good thing he hasn’t changed his passcode since the night I unlocked his phone at Risa’s.

  “Yes. Yes. Why are you yelling?”

  “You need to call your dad. Tell him to stay away from Caleb.”

  Silence.

  “Geri?”

  “What are you talking about?” she says in a hushed tone.

  “Dr. O hired him to get rid of Margot and Jimmy Balder. He might be coming after Caleb next.”

  “No,” she says. “He wouldn’t do that. You don’t know what—”

  I sprint toward the closing glass doors, slipping in at the last moment. The man I ram into hits the standing pole with a grunt and backs out of my way.

  “I just saw Margot,” I say. “She told me everything.”

  “You…”

  “Geri.” I don’t have time for this. Bands are squeezing around my chest, and the dread is thickening in my belly. “Your dad let Margot go, but Jimmy’s gone, and Caleb’s next. Dr. O cleans up his messes, you understand?”

  Her sharp curse fills my ear.

  “You have to hurry,” I say.

  Over the line comes the sound of a closing door and a rustle of fabric.

  “Margot’s okay?”

  “She’s okay.”

  “I didn’t know,” she says. “I swear.”

  “Call your dad,” I tell her, groaning as the train makes its first stop. “Tell him you’re close with Caleb. That dance on Family Day—tell him it was real. He saved Margot because he knew she meant something to you.”

  “How do you know he’s doing this?”

  I don’t. It’s just a hunch because he went after Margot and Jimmy. For all I know, Dr. O could have sent someone else after Caleb.

  Caleb’s smart. He knew what happened to Margot. He’ll be ready for anything.

  Please be ready for anything.

  The train picks up new passengers and speeds on again.

  “I’ll call him,” she says, panic lacing through her voice. “You’re coming home?”

  “Yes.”

  She hangs up.

  The next stop peels back another layer of my already raw patience. I call Charlotte for a pickup, but she doesn’t answer. I try Henry’s phone, but it goes straight to voicemail. I can’t remember Sam’s number—it was erased when the phones were cleared, and I never reprogrammed it. Caleb’s is already disconnected.

  Where is Caleb?

  Why did Dr. O plant that phone on Matthew Sterling now?

  Geri’s dad. Mark Stitz. Jimmy Balder. I think of Margot, driven out of town beside her boyfriend, convinced she was about to die only to be dumped on the side of the road and told to skip town.

  I think of Grayson, running Susan Griffin off the road.

  I think of Henry, and Sam, and Charlotte.

  I have to warn them, but I have to be careful. If Dr. O knows, we’ll all be in trouble.

  Someone on the inside, Margot said. That’s what she needs to take down Dr. O—to destroy him, the way he destroyed her.

  I can’t be that person. I need to get out before I end up disappearing. I need to get my friends out before it’s too late.

  But if we leave, there’s no stopping Dr. O from erasing us anyway. Henry can’t go home. Sam’s mom is in prison. Charlotte can’t stay in a youth shelter pregnant.

  I don’t know what to do.

  At the last stop on the blue line, I run for the exit, hoping that Charlotte and Sam will miraculously be waiting in the Jeep outside. But as I scan the cars parked on the curb, it’s only a black sedan I see.

  And leaning against the car is Belk.

  His open coat hangs down to his knees, showcasing his round torso. His black hair is tucked back in a blunt ponytail. His voice presses through from my memories: Is that the intern supervisor? Just need to get an idea of who’s involved.

  Mark is in a hospital now because of what I told Dr. O. Belk was just verifying which domino was the next to fall.

  It’s too late to run, he’s already seen me. Even if I try, it will do me no good. I’ll be hunted, and my friends won’t know they’re living in the house of a monster.

  I wish Moore were here.

  I wish Charlotte and Sam were here.

  But mostly, I wish for Caleb.

  “Get in,” Belk says as I approach. The dead look in his eyes slows my steps.

  “What are you doing here?”

  “Get in,” he says again.

  I do.

  Like before, when he picked me up at the campaign office, I sit in the backseat, chauffeured by my security officer. The leather upholstery creaks under my denim-clad thighs. I keep my thumb poised on the seat belt buckle.

  He doesn’t speak until we exit the lot.

  “Dr. O’s looking for you.”

  Playing dumb feels like the smartest option. “Why didn’t he call me?”

  “Your phone’s at school,” he says. “You didn’t tell anyone you were leaving today.”

  Belk’s fine when he’s teaching class, but alone, he has a definite creeper vibe. Though Moore might be rigid, and not always friendly, I’ve never felt unsafe with him.

  Not like I do now.

  The train stat
ion isn’t far from Vale Hall. The spaces are already stretching between the houses, giving way to giant properties nestled in the woods.

  “I left a message for Moore,” I say. “Charlotte said she’d pick me up after her assignment.”

  “And yet, here I am,” says Belk.

  Dr. O, or maybe Belk, must have called Charlotte looking for me and told her to come home. She would have told them I needed a ride from the station.

  We’re at the gate, and Belk types a code into the freestanding metal box. With a squeal, the iron bars open, and a new fear shivers down my spine.

  “Where’d you take Caleb last night?” I ask.

  He doesn’t answer.

  We roll down the drive, the gate closing with a screech behind us.

  “What’s Dr. O want?” I ask.

  More silent treatment.

  “Am I in trouble for forgetting my phone?”

  Not a word.

  My anxiety grows, chilling my blood. He stops in front of the house and I leave the car, stomach doing somersaults as I climb the steps to the front door. Placing my hand on the bronze handle, I’m swamped with memories of my first time here. The disbelief that this was really happening. The hope that I would be accepted.

  Now there is only fear.

  I will be brave. For Charlotte, and Sam, and Henry, and the others.

  I am Brynn Hilder from Devon Park.

  Dr. O’s office is just inside the front door, on the right opposite the spiral staircase. His door is open, but I don’t go inside, because there’s a girl standing at the edge of the kitchen beside Moore. She’s got a ragged backpack over her shoulder, and a slouch to her shoulders. Her hair is dyed black, though her roots are white blond, and when she turns, I see dark eyeliner, red lipstick, and a nose ring.

  I’ve seen her before.

  Moore is already walking toward me, the girl following a few steps behind. She’s taking in the art on the walls with wide eyes, like I once did.

  “I thought we discussed the phone issue.” Moore heads me off, jaw clenched. I do recall a discussion, shortly after I traded phones with Caleb and Grayson took me on a joyride to the site of Susan’s accident. I may have made some promises about being reachable at all times.

  I lean around him, pointing to the girl.