“No.” She gave him a sarcastically sweet smile, and headed back to the counter to help a customer.
“Aghhh!” Josh cried in frustration. “That’s it! I don’t have time for this!” He grabbed Jasmine’s shoulders, and forced her to turn and face him. He didn’t even care that people were casting suspicious sidelong glances in their direction. “You’re going to listen to what I have to tell you, Jazz. You don’t have a choice!”
“Are you threatening me?”
She tried to sound strong, but her voice came out more timid. Her tough girl façade was fading as Josh’s grip on her tightened. The scared look in her eyes grew to panic as she tried to struggle but couldn’t pull free. Josh realized he must have looked crazed, and loosened his grip on her shoulders. When he spoke again, he softened his tone.
“No, Jazz, of course I’m not threatening you. But someone else is. That’s why I have to talk to you. Now, please, just come with me for a few minutes.”
Jasmine was watching him with a mixture of confusion, awe, and fear as she debated. Finally she let out a heavy breath that sounded almost like a grunt. “Okay. But not now. My break is in two hours. We can talk then if you can you wait?”
Josh sighed. “I’ll guess I’ll have to.”
Josh spent those two long hours on a bench across from the store, alternately biting his nails and picking at the peeling paint on the wall. His eyes never strayed far from Jasmine. He carefully examined every customer who walked in and out of the store, just in case any of them were suspicious. Most of them did look suspicious, since the vast majority of them were dressed like vampires or covered in facial piercings. But none of the faces in the mall were familiar. Josh certainly didn’t see any of the people on Bryan’s suspect list, at least not since he had run into Kevin.
When it was finally time for Jasmine’s break, she insisted on going to the food court, even though Josh would have preferred somewhere more private. She even made him pay for her dinner in exchange for her time. Josh was more than happy to comply. At least he knew she would be safe while they were together.
“So, Josh, are you going to explain yourself?” Jasmine asked as she took a bite out of her hamburger.
For the third time that day, Josh summed up the whole mess that had become his life. Jasmine listened to the story with calm indifference while she munched on French fries and slurped her soda as obnoxiously as possible.
“I don’t want to scare you, but I thought I should warn you. Soooo. . . .” Josh watched her chew nonchalantly on a French fry. “Do you believe me?”
Jasmine crossed her long legs thoughtfully. “Actually, I don’t believe a single word of it. The only reason I listened this long is because the story was so interesting. Really Josh, you should write a book or something.”
Josh wasn’t surprised by her reaction. At his point he was used to a less than positive response to his theories, but this time it was more important than ever to convince his audience that the story was true. Jasmine’s life depended on it.
“Jazz, this isn’t a joke. I swear that every word I’ve said is the truth. Someone wants to hurt you!”
“Someone already did hurt me.” Jasmine crumpled up her napkin and tossed it onto her plate with so much force that it bounced off onto the floor. “And this whole stupid story about serial killers . . . it’s just your twisted way of getting back at me for yelling at you in front of your new girlfriend!”
Josh shook his head, feeling defeated. “Why won’t you just listen to me?”
“Because I’m not an idiot!” Jasmine exclaimed. “Give it up, Josh! I’m not falling for it.”
Jasmine picked up her black leather handbag, stood from the table, and dumped the remnants of her dinner into the nearest trashcan. Then she headed out of the food court without saying another word. Despite her belligerence, Josh was only a step behind her.
“Where are you going?”
Jasmine rolled her eyes. “Not that’s it’s any of your business, but I’m going back to work. My break is over.”
“I’ll come with you.”
“No! You won’t!” Jasmine finally lost her patience. “Don’t even think about it or I swear, I’ll tell the mall guards that you’re harassing me! Go home, Josh! Nobody wants you here, especially not me. If somebody really is after me, and that’s a pretty big if, I’m more than capable of taking care of myself.”
“So you just left her there?”
Josh hated the disapproval he heard in Rosa’s voice. The cool wind coming in through the open windows of his freshly painted and repaired Mustang did nothing to cool his burning cheeks. He felt awful all over again. Not even the fact that his parents had relented and given him back his car keys made him feel any better.
“There was nothing else I could do! I can’t follow her around for the rest of my life, can I?” He grumbled. “I just wish she had taken my warning seriously. She thought the whole thing was a big joke.”
“Do you think she’ll be all right?”
That was a question Josh had asked himself a thousand times throughout the previous sleepless night. “I hope so. Jazz is nothing like Lily. She’s tough. She’s doesn’t scare easily, and she can hold her own in a fight. I think she’ll be all right as long as she’s on her guard.”
Josh could feel Rosa studying him, even though he kept his eyes glued to the road. “You’re still worried. I can tell.”
“I’m very worried,” he admitted. “I know these threats are serious.”
“What about your investigation?” She made quotation marks with her fingers. “Did you and Bryan find anything worthwhile yesterday?”
Josh thought about the earring, and he found himself glancing inconspicuously at Rosa’s ears to see if they were pierced. They were, but the flashy dangling butterflies hardly seemed her style.
“Josh, red light!”
Josh looked back at the road and slammed on his breaks just in time. He came to a screeching halt centimeters away from a truck. Rosa’s white fingers were gripping the dashboard almost as tightly as Josh’s held the steering wheel. Neither of them spoke, even after the light changed to green and they started moving again. They were both too shaken up.
Josh couldn’t believe that he was so busy examining his girlfriend’s ears that he had almost crashed his car. He didn’t actually suspect Rosa, but he didn’t tell her about the earring or reveal their list of suspects. They were both quiet when they pulled into the student parking lot. Josh’s stress level was through the roof, but he felt a little better when Rosa took hold of his hand. He wrapped his arm around her waist as they walked into school, glad for at least a few minutes of normalcy. They were hardly through the doors when two equally frantic people accosted them.
“Oh Josh!” Elena cried. “It’s so horrible!” Her eyes were red and puffy as she threw herself into Josh’s arms. He was too surprised to think about pushing her away. He dropped his hand from Rosa’s waist and wrapped his arms around Elena, patting her soothingly. At the same time, he felt his stomach sink. Something bad had happened. Something really bad.
“Elena, what’s wrong?” he asked.
“You didn’t hear.” Bryan looked slightly less hysterical than Elena. “Everyone’s been talking about it.”
“What?” Josh demanded.
“It’s Jazz.” Elena sobbed onto his shoulder. “She was attacked last night. They don’t know if she’s going to make it!”
Chapter 20
Elena was gone. Rosa had taken the frantic girl down to the nurse’s office to try to calm her down. In the meantime, Josh and Bryan snuck off to the yearbook room where they could talk without being overheard. They were cutting homeroom, but the possibility of getting detention hardly seemed to matter in light of this new disaster.
“Bryan,” Josh snapped. “What happened to Jasmine? Tell me everything!”
“She was attacked last night at the mall,” Bryan explained. “One of the girls she works with is a junior here. She was quick to
spread the word this morning. Jazz was hit from behind with a crowbar or something. When they found her, she had no wallet or jewelry, so the cops think it was a mugging. I think we know better.”
Josh had to clear his throat to get any the words past the lump that had suddenly developed there. “Have you heard anything about her . . . her condition?”
“Rumor has it that she’s critical.” Bryan had trouble looking him in the eye as he spoke. “She’s in a coma.”
Josh leaned back against the wall and closed his eyes. He felt horrible having left her alone. “Maybe we should go back to the cops,” he suggested. “They have to believe us now. They can’t think it was a coincidence that two of my ex-girlfriends were attacked.”
Bryan shook his head. “Think again, buddy. If we go to the cops now, who do you think is going to be on the top of their suspect list? Jasmine and Lily went to different schools. They had different friends and different enemies. The only connection between the two of them is you. We can’t go the cops until we have some kind of evidence or you’ll be the one who winds up behind bars.”
“What about the notes and the earring?” Josh argued.
“What about them? Didn’t Gibula already suggest you had written them yourself? And wasn’t it you who pointed out that we have no idea who that earring belongs to or if it’s even connected? Trust me, Josh, you don’t want to go to the police again. Not yet.”
Bryan was right. The last thing he needed was to have the cops on his case. His father harassed him enough. “Okay, you’re right. No cops.”
“Good. Hey, man, are you all right? You’re looking a little funny.”
Josh hadn’t even realized that his whole body was trembling. Once Bryan brought it to his attention, he felt his legs shuddering and he had to sit down. He tried to pull himself together, despite the overwhelming guilt he felt, and the possibility of the cops fingering him as a suspect. Bryan shouldn’t be worrying about him. He was the one who had just buried his little sister.
“I’m fine,” Josh told him. “Just a little shaken up, that’s all. I just talked to Jazz last night.” He filled Bryan in on his meeting with Jasmine.
“You idiot!” Bryan swore when he was finished. He punched the wall for emphasis, putting a large dent in the plaster. “You left her alone? What’s wrong with you? Didn’t you realize this would happen? How could you be so damn stupid?”
It was probably the fact that Josh knew Bryan was right that fueled his own anger. It was one thing to silently rebuke himself, and something else entirely to have someone screaming accusations at him. Josh took out his frustrations on his yearbook supplies, and with one quick motion, sent all the papers and photos that had been arranged in neat piles flying off his editor’s desk.
“What was I supposed to do? Follow her around for the rest of her life? She was at the mall, surrounded by hundreds of people! I thought she would be safe. I thought that I . . . that she. . . .”
His lame explanations trailed off as he realized there was no excuse for what he had done. Jasmine was hurt. She might even die, and all because of him. Josh pressed his fingers against his eyes to stop the tears that threatened to sneak through. He sat back in his chair and put his arm over his eyes so Bryan wouldn’t see his weakness. He couldn’t cry. No matter how much he wanted to.
Bryan put a hand on Josh’s shoulder. “I’m sorry, man. I had no right to yell at you. You did the best you could, I guess. You couldn’t have possibly watched her every second. Don’t torture yourself over it.”
That was easy for Bryan to say. He had nothing to regret. “No, you’re right,” Josh said miserably. “I shouldn’t have left. Jazz would be safe right now if I hadn’t left her alone. I could have stopped this from happening.”
“You have no way of knowing that.”
While Bryan tried to sound compassionate, Josh only felt patronized. “Let’s not talk about this anymore, okay? Let’s just move on. Did you talk to any of Lily’s friends about the earring?”
“Yeah. I called every single girl that Lily had programmed into her cell phone. I think they thought I was nuts, calling them about a stupid earring when my sister died a week ago. But none of them knew anything about it.”
“So there’s a good chance that the earring really did come from the killer,” Josh said thoughtfully.
“I’m afraid to get my hopes up,” Bryan admitted. He pulled up a chair next to Josh. “If it turns out to be nothing, we’ll be back at square one.”
“Did I miss something? When did we get off square one?”
“No one ever said this was going to be easy.” Bryan shrugged. “I don’t suppose you noticed any of our suspects at the mall last night? That would just be too convenient.”
“No, I didn’t,” Josh began, and then darted forward in his seat. “Wait a minute . . . Kevin!”
Josh hadn’t been able to stop thinking about Jasmine long enough to get back into detective mode. But Kevin had been at the mall, and he’d been acting strange lately. Always bitter and angry for reasons Josh couldn’t fathom. Could he have been at the mall stalking Jasmine? Was he lurking in the parking lot, waiting for her?
“Kevin was there?” Bryan repeated. “What was he doing?”
“I guess he was shopping, just like everyone else at the mall.” Josh suddenly felt defensive. He couldn’t believe he suspected one of his oldest friends of murder. It was ridiculous and he felt like it was Bryan’s fault for putting crazy notions into his head.
“I know this is hard for you,” Bryan sympathized. “Just because Kevin was at the mall doesn’t make him the killer. It could be a coincidence. Besides, I don’t think that butterfly is really Kevin’s style.”
“No, it isn’t.” Josh chuckled despite himself, but then he had a thought that wiped the amusement off his face. “Bryan, what if the earring was planted? What if it was Kevin, and he dropped the earring in the car to make us think it was one of the girls?”
“I never thought of that. Damn, do you really think the killer is that smart?”
“They were smart enough to get away with murder,” Josh reminded him. “The person we’re dealing with is obviously crazy, and crazy people are usually smart. They’re dropping clues all over the place, but nothing we can use. They’re playing with us. This is all a game to them.”
“They may have made their first mistake,” Bryan observed. “I can’t imagine they intended to keep Jazz alive. They must have thought she was dead when they left her there. If only she would wake up! We could learn so much from her.”
“I guess we’ll have to wait and see. I hope to God that she does wake up, even if she doesn’t remember a thing.” Outside, Josh heard stomping feet in the hall, indicating that classes were changing. “Come on. We already missed homeroom.”
Bryan nodded his agreement. They both stood from their chairs and walked out into the hallway. Kevin was strolling by the door just as they stepped out, and greeted with them with his usual charm. He looked at Bryan with undisguised contempt.
“Man, what are you doing with this drunk? Don’t you know a total loser when you see one?”
“I think you should shut your mouth, Kevin!” Josh told him. “Before someone shuts it for you.” Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Bryan’s muscles tensing and knew he was ready for a fight.
“I was only joking around,” Kevin said, but his voice was lacking even the slightest hint of sincerity. “Me and Grant here are old pals. Aren’t we pals, Grant?”
“Oh yeah,” Bryan replied sarcastically. “We’re best buddies.”
“See, what did I tell you?” Kevin slapped Bryan’s back just a little too hard. “We’re all great friends.”
Bryan looked about ready to explode, but he somehow managed to maintain his composure. “I’ve got to get to class,” he said through clenched teeth. “Josh, we’ll talk later.”
Once Bryan was out of earshot, Josh turned to Kevin and tried to sound civil in the hopes of getting some information. “Sorr
y I blew you off at the mall last night. I was in a hurry to get back before my dad found out I snuck out with his car. So what were you doing there anyway?”
Josh was sure his voice sounded strained, but Kevin didn’t seem to notice. He shrugged nonchalantly. “I was just picking up some stuff. Listen, I should get going. I’ll see you at lunch. Okay?”
“Sure.” Despite his reluctant agreement, he watched Kevin disappear around the corner with growing suspicion. Kevin hadn’t been carrying any bags when he ran into him. So what was he “picking up” at the mall?
When the bell rang and Josh realized he was late for his first class, he decided to skip it all together. Instead, he went back into the yearbook room. Cropping the photos of the cheerleaders seemed like a better idea than listening to some boring lecture on the Civil War. He switched on his computer and waited for it to buzz to life.
When he pulled up the cheerleading file, Elena’s face was the first to pop up on the screen, greeting him with a huge smile and pompoms waving. As he studied the photo more closely, Josh did a double take and nearly fell out of his chair. At first, he thought it was his imagination. He magnified the photos three times just to be sure. The evidence was unmistakable. The butterfly earrings definitely belonged to Elena.
Chapter 21
Josh tapped his pencil nervously against his desktop as he sat in English class and stared at Elena. He cared even less about the discussion on Pride and Prejudice than he would have under normal circumstances. All he could think about were Elena and her butterfly earrings. She was mean, conceited, and a gossip, but it was hard to believe she was capable of murder.
Josh was studying Elena so intently that he accidently snapped his pencil in half. He shook his head as he tossed the broken pieces onto his desk in frustration. He was so sick of suspecting everyone he knew of murder. He hated that people had been hurt and he was helpless to stop it. He especially hated that his entire world had turned upside down. This was his senior year. It was supposed to be one of the best years of his life. Now everything was falling apart, and it all came back to the fact that he was a player.
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