The Perfectionists

by Sara Shepard

  “When I was here last, he’d been sent some photography equipment in a box. Maybe there was cyanide in there. I think he put it in his car, though, so I have no idea if it’s still here.”

  “I’ll check the bedroom,” Caitlin said.

  “Mackenzie and I will get the living room,” Ava volunteered. “That leaves the office.”

  Parker looked at Julie. “Let’s do this.”

  Julie had a tiny LED flashlight attached to her key chain, and she swept the walls as they made their way down the cramped hallway and into the office. An IKEA desk held his computer, and a small three-drawer file cabinet sat beside it. A bulletin board on the wall behind the desk contained dozens of ticket stubs for concerts and Mariners games, a “save the date” for a couple named Tony and Mandy, and a copy of his class syllabus.

  There was just enough illumination from the streetlight outside to see what they were doing. Julie didn’t see the box they were looking for, but it was possible the materials were no longer boxed up. She opened the top drawer of the file cabinet and started flipping through the files. Parker bent over the desk. A bulging folder turned out to have nothing but graded homework in it. Beneath that was a scrap of notebook paper. She squinted to make out the handwriting.

  Hey Mister Granger, I was wondering if I could get some extra help from you if you know what I mean. Love, You know who.

  The note smelled like someone had sprayed it with Coco Mademoiselle. Parker wrinkled her nose and crumpled it in her hand. Pathetic.

  Julie gestured toward the computer. “Get his data off of there.” She pulled a pink flash drive from her pocket.

  “Got it,” Parker said, heading to the computer and inserting the drive. Her fingers moved quickly, remembering the days when she and Nolan used to wipe his father’s computers clean just to mess with him. Ironic that something she and Nolan used to do together would come in handy in nailing his killer.

  Files uploading, said a message on the screen. As Parker waited, she scanned the rest of the desk. The top drawer had nothing but pencils and a stapler inside, but when she jerked open the next drawer, she swallowed a cry of surprise. Right on top was a bulging manila envelope. Scrawled across it, in handwriting she recognized from the chalkboard, was JULIE REDDING.

  She glanced at Julie, whose back was still to her. Why did he have a file on Julie? Were there transcripts inside? Personal details? Maybe he knew about her mom’s, uh . . . quirks. Parker fingered the folder, too afraid to look inside. She picked up the envelope and shoved it into her messenger bag. Julie had protected Parker since the accident. Now it was Parker’s turn to do the same.

  Then she spied something else. Under the envelope was a yellow legal pad covered with Granger’s handwriting. Parker picked it up and angled it to catch the light from the window. When she made out the first line, she almost dropped it.

  Nolan—Cyanide

  “Julie,” she whispered. Julie’s head snapped up, and she turned around. Parker gestured wildly for her to come read over her shoulder.

  Claire, music rival. Stepmother. Parker’s dad. (?)

  “It’s dated,” Julie breathed. “October eighth.”

  “The day we talked about And Then There Were None,” Parker said. A splintering shot of pain went through her forehead. Her whole body flinched, but she tried to keep centered. She had to keep her head.

  Julie’s eyes scanned the paper. “Look, it’s a transcript of everything we talked about. He did hear us.”

  Parker swallowed hard. “We should tell the others.”

  They ran to the living room. Ava was combing through Granger’s mail while Mackenzie examined his bookshelf.

  “Guys!” Julie hissed.

  They both looked up. A moment later, Caitlin emerged from the bedroom. “No box, but I did find his private stash of pictures,” she said.

  “Forget that.” Julie held up the notepad. “He has a transcript. He wrote down everything we said that day in class.”

  Mackenzie stood up so fast she hit her head on one of the shelves. Ava covered her mouth with her hand. Everyone flew over to examine the transcript. A small, guttural sound escaped from the back of Mac’s throat.

  “Do you think it’s enough to incriminate us?” Caitlin asked. “It’s just hearsay.”

  “Yeah, but who knows what else he’s got on us?” Ava asked, her eyes wide. “What if he recorded us that day in class?”

  “Or what if he has another copy?” Mac asked. “Like on his computer, maybe.”

  “I’m getting all that data off his computer,” Parker said. Then she touched the outside of her messenger bag, thinking of the envelope inside. What could it say about Julie? Why did he have it? A cold, clammy feeling seemed to spread over her. The ache in her head throbbed rhythmically, like someone was driving a stake down the middle of her forehead and hammering it in a bit farther with every heartbeat, trying to break her in half.

  Julie looked at her. “Is the data transfer almost done?”

  Parker nodded. “I’ll go check on it.” But as she was on her way back to the office, footsteps sounded on the porch. Someone cleared his throat. Keys jingled, then came the metallic sound of the lock catching.

  Parker froze. A jolt of terror shot through her body.

  Ava turned toward the rest of them, her dark eyes wide and blazing. “Hide!” she breathed.

  Parker’s eyes met Julie’s. Frantic, Julie thumbed toward the bathroom . . . and the open window. Go to the car, she mouthed to Parker. Parker nodded swiftly, then darted into the bathroom, hefted herself onto the sill, and tumbled out the window . . . just as Granger opened the front door.

  CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE

  AVA WATCHED AS HER FRIENDS ducked behind curtains and shut themselves in closets. But instead of following them, she stood in the middle of the room and smoothed down her hair. When Granger opened the door, he stared at her, his eyes wide. He was in his running clothes, and his hair and skin glistened with sweat.

  “Ava?” he said, looking more confused than angry. “What are you doing here?”

  Ava had done some very quick thinking in the last thirty seconds, and she knew what she had to do. It was the only thing that would save them, the very thing she’d done with Nolan the night he died. She parted her lips pensively, cocking her head to one side and glancing up at him with wide eyes. “I thought I’d surprise you.”

  From the corner of her eye, she could just make out Mackenzie, huddled behind the couch. Ava’s stomach felt like she was on a roller coaster swooping up and down, but she forced herself to keep it together. Because if Granger figured out why she was really in his house, there was no telling what he would do.

  He set his keys down on a table by the door and turned to look at her. Something vied with the surprise on his face—it took her a moment to recognize it as lust. “By breaking into my house and standing here in the dark?”

  Ava swallowed her fear and took a few slow, slinky steps toward him. His eyes lingered on her hips, then flitted back up to her face. “Do you want me to go?” she murmured. She put a hand on his chest, willing herself not to grimace. The very thought of touching him was repulsive to her now. But she had to.

  “No,” Granger decided. “Definitely not. Just . . . what made you change your mind?”

  Ava put on her best innocent-damsel pout and looked down. “You’re my teacher, Mr. Granger. This is wrong, and I was scared. But I couldn’t stay away from you. I wanted this too much.”

  Then, bracing herself, she leaned up to kiss him. He pulled her sharply close. Her nostrils filled with his musky smell. He pressed his lips to hers, his arms tight around her. Ava could feel the strength in his muscles. It would be easy for him to hurt her, if he wanted to.

  Then he let go of her, a strange smirk on his face. He took a few steps toward the couch. Ava was sure he’d see Mackenzie there behind it. She tensed, not sure whether to flee out the door or to throw herself on him. But then he plopped down on the couch, eyeing her appraisi
ngly.

  “I don’t know, Ava,” he teased. “You kind of hurt my feelings. You’re going to really have to prove you want to make it up to me.”

  “Anything you want,” Ava said.

  A naughty smile appeared on Granger’s lips. “Okay, then. Let’s start with your shirt.”

  She froze. “What?”

  Mr. Granger leaned back against the couch and gave her a nod. “You heard me. I want to see you take your clothes off. Slowly.”

  Her cheeks felt like they were on fire. Ava wasn’t sure what she’d been planning—she was wildly improvising, trying to buy them some time to figure out how to escape—but she didn’t want to do this.

  She looked down at herself. She was still wearing the button-down shirt-dress she’d worn out with Alex that night. She glanced up to see Granger, his head back against the sofa, watching her under hooded eyes. Slowly, she unfastened the top button. And then the second button.

  “Like this?” she asked, her voice low and husky.

  He sat forward suddenly, his eyes going wide. “Yes,” he said hoarsely. “Like that.”

  She thought about the other girls watching her do this from the corners and felt sick to her stomach. This isn’t me, she wanted to say. But she didn’t have any choice. One by one, button by button, she unfastened the front of her dress. She slid one shoulder free so it was bare. Mr. Granger had a hungry leer on his face, his eyes glittering in the half-light.

  She shrugged off the dress and stood in her bra and panties, feeling utterly humiliated. He stood up and stepped closer to her, resting his hands on her hips. “You’re so beautiful,” he murmured, leaning toward her for a kiss. She put her finger up to block his lips.

  “Now can I make a request?” Ava asked, her heart pumping fast again. “I want you to take a hot, steamy shower and get clean for me,” she asked. “I want this to be perfect.”

  A greedy smile spread across Granger’s face. “Sure. Want to join me?”

  “I would,” Ava murmured, looking at him from under her eyelashes. “But I have something special I need to prepare while you’re in the shower.”

  His eyes lit up. He looked up and down her body one last time. Then he let go of her and went into the bathroom. Turned on the light. Shut the door.

  Ava strained to listen. The moment she heard the water hit tile, she hissed to her friends, “Get out of here! Hurry!”

  Mackenzie popped up from behind the couch. “Ava, that was . . .”

  “Don’t,” Ava pleaded, pulling her dress back on and grabbing her shoes. “I feel so disgusting.”

  “I was going to say amazing,” Mac said.

  The others came out from where they’d been hiding, faces pale and drawn.

  “You just saved our asses,” Caitlin whispered.

  “Let’s get out of here,” Julie said. “We don’t have much time.”

  Ava shook her head. “I’ll be right behind you. I have to do one more thing first.”

  The girls hurried out the door. Mackenzie stopped at the doorway, looking like she was going to argue, but after a moment she turned and followed the others. Ava hurried into his office, grabbed the flash drive, and then ran through the kitchen and out onto the patio.

  He was up at six AM digging in the backyard, Alex had said.

  The yard was dark, but the moon was pushing its way through the clouds. It only took her a moment to find the fresh dirt overturned in the corner.

  Ava knelt down and started scooping dirt out with her hands. It was moist and rich, and it stuck to her skin as she dug, but she didn’t slow down. Just a few feet down, her hands found something hard and rectangular. She brushed off the last bit of dirt and pulled it out.

  It was a plain metal box with a latch. Hands trembling, she fumbled at the latch until it sprang open.

  Another flash drive.

  She stared down at it, her mouth hanging open. Then she realized—it was quiet. Too quiet.

  The shower was off.

  Ava slipped both flash drives into her pocket and turned to run down Mr. Granger’s lawn in her half-buttoned dress. Her bra peeked out with every stride. The hem of the dress flipped up to reveal her underwear. Her bare feet sank in the dewy grass. Caitlin’s headlights blazed to life in front of her, and the back door swung open for her to leap in.

  “Drive!” Ava screamed as she slammed the door.

  It wasn’t until the girls were speeding down the street that Ava looked back out the window and saw someone in the street, staring after her. At first she thought it was Granger—that he’d figured it out. But then her throat caught. It wasn’t Granger at all.

  It was Alex.

  CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO

  CAITLIN DROVE FAST AND BLIND, running up on the curb as she took a quick right. No one seemed to be following them. She could just make out Ava’s face, ashen and streaked with mud, in the rearview mirror. She looked as if she was going to throw up.

  She peeled out onto a main road and stepped on the gas. “Slow down,” Julie said in a strangled voice. “The last thing you need right now is to get a ticket.”

  Caitlin relaxed her foot on the pedal a little, but her knuckles were still white on the steering wheel. They’d just broken into someone’s house. They’d just watched their teacher practically have sex with Ava. And the way she’d felt, hiding in the kitchen—well, she never wanted to feel that terrified again.

  Once they’d gone through two stoplights, Ava looked around cautiously and held up something between her fingers. It glinted under a streetlight as the car passed it. “I found this buried in his backyard.”

  “What is it?” Mackenzie asked, squinting.

  “A second flash drive,” Ava answered.

  “Give it here.” Julie grabbed it. Then she rummaged around in the backpack she’d brought and pulled out a laptop. It chimed as she turned it on and waited for it to boot up.

  “Did you say he’d buried it?” Caitlin asked.

  “That’s right,” Ava said. “Alex saw him bury something.” Her face fell when she said Alex’s name. “I found a metal box, and this was the only thing in there.”

  “What do you think he has on here?” Caitlin wondered. “More pictures of girls?”

  “It’s got to be something bad enough to bury,” Ava posited. She squeezed her eyes shut. “I’m sure he realizes I just screwed him over. Maybe he even knows the drive is missing. If we can’t bust him soon, he’ll come after us.”

  “You guys.”

  They all looked at Julie. Her face shone blue in the light from her computer. “This isn’t Granger’s flash drive.” She looked up, her eyes full of terror. “It’s Nolan’s.”

  Everyone gasped. Caitlin clamped her mouth shut, her skin prickling. She pulled into an empty parking lot. A dingy brick building housing a plumbing supply store loomed in the distance. Across the street, the bright lights of a 7-Eleven cast an eerie pallor on the pavement.

  “But that’s good, right?” Caitlin broke the silence, twisting around and looking at Julie. “I mean, why would Granger have it buried in his yard? The fact that he had it will be incriminating.”

  “It would have been, if we’d left it in his yard.” Julie started opening files, staring down at the screen. “Now, as far as anyone knows, we have it.” She moved her finger on the trackpad. “His email is on here. The messages are current up to the day he died.”

  She turned the screen so that Caitlin and Mackenzie in the front seat could get a good look. Caitlin watched as she opened the Sent folder. Caitlin leaned over to see better, her eyes widening. There were dozens of emails to Lucas Granger.

  Julie opened the first. The subject line read only Extra Credit.

  Hey Mr. G—I think that you may have made a mistake when you graded my paper on Jean Cocteau. I’m pretty sure it should have been an A.

  Then Julie clicked on an attachment. It was a still shot of Mr. Granger leaning toward Justine Williams. Ava gasped.

  Then Julie opened an email that said F
ield Trip. Caitlin squinted at the message.

  You’re a funny guy, Mr. G. Unfortunately I cannot provide all originals unless we double the amount we previously agreed on. My car got keyed again. Fixing that is expensive, you know?

  “Like Nolan needed teacher-salary-level money,” Mackenzie muttered. “The guy was loaded!”

  “Let’s try not to feel too sorry for Granger,” Julie snarled.

  Caitlin’s heart pounded. She reached for her phone in her pocket. “I’m calling Detective Peters. This is some serious proof that Nolan was blackmailing him.”

  “I told you,” Ava said.

  “Yes, do it,” Julie ordered.

  With shaking fingers, Caitlin dialed the station. It rang six times before someone picked up. “I need to speak with Detective Peters,” she said after the officer identified himself. “Please,” she added.

  The officer snorted. “Peters is off duty. Do you want to leave a message?”

  She blinked. Since when were detectives off duty? She thought they were like doctors, always on call. “Is his partner there? Detective Mc . . . McGillicutty?”

  “Miss, if you haven’t noticed, it’s ten PM. Is this urgent?”

  “Well, it’s really important. It’s about the Nolan Hotchkiss case. I’ve . . . found something. Maybe I could drop it with you?”

  The cop paused, almost like he was considering it. Then he said, “You’ll have to speak to Peters. I’ll tell him you’re coming. What’s your name?”

  Caitlin froze. Something about telling him her name seemed like a bad idea, but she did it anyway. The cop repeated it back to her, and then said Peters would see her at noon tomorrow. Then the line went dead.

  Caitlin turned to the others, her mouth hanging open.

  “Well?” Mac asked. “Are we going?”

  She shook her head, explaining what had happened. Julie’s shoulders slumped.

  “What should we do in the meantime?” Mackenzie asked.

  They all went silent for a long moment, thinking. Then Caitlin started her car again. “I guess we do what we have to do,” she said. “We get through the night . . . and then we go rat this jerkwad out.”