by Gen Griffin
“Your boy-toy didn't mind being written up?” Kelsey was watching Gracie intently.
“David?” She dropped the pink dress on the ground, positive she'd never wear it again as long as she lived. “David doesn't give two shits about being written up. He laughed in Patty's face when she told him he could get dining hall duty as punishment.”
“He's not a student here,” Kelsey said the words in a matter of fact way.
“How did you figure that out?” Gracie looked over at Kelsey with surprise. “It took Patty 45 minutes, a computer and David's driver's license before she finally admitted he wasn't lying when he said he didn't go to school here and she couldn't do a damn thing about him.”
Kelsey let out a deep, throaty laugh. She stood up and made a big show of stretching all five feet, two inches of her body out as completely as possible. Kelsey legitimately wore a size small, but she bought all her clothing in an extra-small. Her spaghetti strap tank-top left absolutely nothing about the shape of her abdomen, breasts or nipples a secret.
“Please, Gracie. You think I wouldn't have noticed a guy like that wandering around our boring little campus?” Kelsey put her long, painted-black nails on her hips. “He's exactly my type. If he went to school here, I'd have already licked every inch of his body like he was my Popsicle.”
“Um, no. I don't think so,” Gracie shook her head at Kelsey, suddenly feeling possessive. “David is mine. He's my boyfriend from my hometown.”
Kelsey barked out a short laugh of disbelief. “Get real, Gracie.”
“I'm not lying,” Gracie said defensively. “You and everyone else in the dorm saw us earlier. You don't think he's mine?”
“Oh, maybe you are telling the truth. He had a kind of small town vibe to him. He probably is your boyfriend from back in whatever hillbilly hellhole of a town you grew up in.” Kelsey shrugged her shoulders. “Not that it really matters who he is. The only reason you brought him here was because you're trying to save your reputation after Friday night. It’s no secret that your date with Brett Parker was the biggest fail of your life.”
“What?” Gracie blinked at Kelsey, unable to hide the shock of fear that ran from the base of her skull to the tip of her toes.
“He completely humiliated you, Gracie. I didn't even think you'd have the balls to show your face back on campus after what he said about you online. Though I will admit that crashing the social in a non-existent dress with your tongue down some biker boy's throat wasn't a bad way to counteract the rumors. If I didn't share a room with you, I might have thought twice about believing what Brett said.” Kelsey sneered at Gracie with obvious pleasure in her gloating brown eyes. “I do share a room with you, though. I know Brett was telling the truth when he said you kissed like a dead fish and had a pussy that hadn't been used in so long, the bitch has mothballs in it.”
“What?” Gracie was completely stupefied. “He said what?”
“Oh, come on. I know you read every word he wrote about you. Hell, the whole campus read every word he wrote about you.” Kelsey grinned and fluffed out her long, mahogany curls.
“I haven't even looked at Facebook in days,” Gracie said. It was the truth. Most of the people she cared about either didn't have accounts or didn't log onto them very often. The only reason Gracie had her account was because several of her professors strongly recommended joining the class online as well as in person.
“You are so full of shit.” Kelsey rolled her eyes and pulled her phone out of her bra. Kelsey preferred to keep her phone in her bra at all times, regardless of whether or not the outfit she was wearing actually had pockets. She clicked through several screens and then held the phone up to Gracie. “You really expect me to believe you haven't seen what Brett said about you?”
Gracie squinted at the phone. She recognized Brett's personal page. The sight of his very alive, very blue eyes staring at her from the screen made her shudder. “I haven't looked at Facebook since Friday morning.”
“Brett said, and I quote, “This bitch is so cold she kisses like a dead fish that’s been on ice in the cooler since Monday. Not spending money on some hoe that thinks she's too good to put out. Looks like it’s the Take-A-Taco drive-thru and then I'll be ditching this bitch. She ain't put out in so long, I bet her puss has mothballs in it.” Kelsey laughed, as if every word had been too hilarious. “Your big date turned into greasy tacos and getting ditched. I bet you had to call your boyfriend from home to come get you just so you could save face. I'm surprised you even came back to campus after Brett humiliated you like that.”
Gracie stood in the middle of her dorm room, wearing nothing but her underwear, and felt her cheeks flush bright red with anger.
“It sure didn't take Brett long to figure you out, did it?” Kelsey was still laughing.
Gracie clenched her fists tightly against her sides. She suddenly didn't feel all that bad about having shot Brett dead Friday night.
Chapter 6
The cops showed up at Gracie's door on Tuesday afternoon.
“Grace Malone?” One of two uniformed officers said her name as she walked up to the door.
Since she had nowhere to run to, Gracie nodded at the cop who had said her name. She wasn't entirely surprised to see them. She'd swung by the dining hall for a to-go lunch and changed her mind because the D-hall had been crawling with cops. They had been going from table to table taking names and asking if anyone knew anything about Brett's whereabouts.
“We have a few questions for you regarding the disappearance of another student here, Brett Parker. We'd appreciate it if you could spare a couple minutes of your time.” It was a statement and not an actual question. The younger deputy leaned against the wall, looking bored as Gracie nodded. She opened the door to the room and the cops followed her in.
“If y'all don't mind me asking, why are you here?” Gracie frowned at them unhappily.
“You aren't aware that Mr. Parker is missing?” The cop looked noticeably surprised.
“I'd heard he was missing,” Gracie said with a shrug. “I just didn't really believe it. Brett isn't exactly the most dependable guy I've ever met.”
“Mr. Parker has not been seen or heard from since Friday night. His family became concerned when he missed an important event, his mother's birthday party, I believe.” The older cop eyed Gracie speculatively for a moment before continuing. “According to everyone we have spoken with so far, you appear to have been the last person who spent time with Mr. Parker before he disappeared.”
“Oh.” Gracie tried to look surprised. She knew she was the last person who had seen Brett alive, but it wasn't information she wanted to share with the cops. Gracie sat on the edge of her bed and tried hard to keep from blushing with embarrassment. “I think everyone on campus knows my date with Brett was a disaster. He wrote on Facebook that I kissed like a dead fish and he was ditching me. I don't know what happened to Brett after I got out of his car.”
“It would be helpful, Miss Malone, if you would tell us about the evening you spent with Mr. Parker. In detail, please.”
“Of course,” Gracie forced herself to smile at the officer. “Anything I can do to help.”
He took a notepad out of his pocket and gestured for her to begin speaking. Gracie took a deep breath and prepared to deliver the slightly altered version of the truth that she and David had decided to tell.
“I met Brett in British Literature class. We talked for a few weeks and then he asked me if I wanted to go out to dinner with him. I was bored, so I said yes.” Gracie twirled a strand of her long blonde hair around her fingertip. “I have a boyfriend back home, but I'm bored to death here. I thought a date would break up the monotony a little bit.”
The older cop's eyebrows raised up at her mention of a boyfriend. “Does your boyfriend know you're dating?”
“He knew I might. I'd already told him I wasn't sure about the long distance thing. We'd kind of decided to have an open relationship while I'm at school.”
“Tell us about the date,” the younger cop said. She looked at his name tag. Officer Rollins. The older one was Lieutenant Smith.
“Not much to tell. He showed up 30 minutes late and I think he was high. We were supposed to go out to a nice dinner but he asked me about sex right off and I said no. He got mad and took me to Take-A-Taco.”
The officers waited, looking impatient. Gracie was taking her sweet time getting to the lies. It was the next part that she dreaded. David had told her to tell the cops the truth, but she wasn't sure how much of the truth she could tell before she started looking more guilty than innocent.
“You got tacos?” Officer Smith asked.
“Actually, no.” Gracie hadn't thought about it until he asked. “We never actually got the tacos. He kept trying to stick his hand up my skirt, and I got mad and told him to stop. He said that if I wasn't going to put out,” Gracie prepared herself to tell the lie, “he was going to put me out of his car.”
“Are you saying that Mr. Parker sexually assaulted you?” Rollins asked.
Gracie hesitated and then shook her head no. “I'm saying he was pushy. Really pushy. I don't sleep around. When someone invites me out to dinner, I expect to go out to dinner. Talk. Maybe go to a movie. I barely know Brett. I wasn't going to let him touch me like he owned me. ” Gracie blinked back tears and bit her lip. She hadn't expected it would be this hard to tell them what happened. She felt humiliated as Rollins handed her a tissue off of her own desk.
“You felt Mr. Parker was touching you inappropriately?”
“He was pressuring me,” Gracie said. “And I think he was on drugs as well.”
“Why do you say that?” Lieutenant Smith didn't look so bored all of a sudden.
“He was really jumpy,” Gracie told the truth. “He fidgeted constantly. I don't think he ever stopped moving the entire time we were together. He kept rambling from conversation topic to conversation topic. He was just all over the place.”
“He was behaving erratically?” Officer Rollins clarified.
“Yes, sir. Erratic is a good way to describe how he was acting. For example, when I told him I wasn't going to do anything sexual with him, he drove straight out of the Take-A-Taco drive-thru without even picking up the food. He got mad and he just floored it out of there.”
“He left without getting the food?” Rollins appeared thoughtful.
“Right.”
“What happened after you left Take-A-Taco?” Smith asked.
“We argued some more. He'd said he was kicking me out of his car, but then he didn't want to stop to let me out. He was driving really fast, easily 80 or 90 miles per hour. He kept turning down all these really rural back-roads. I didn't know where I was. I was scared he was going to smash us into a tree or a ditch. I wound up begging him to let me out of the car.”
“I assume he eventually let you out of the car?”
“He did. About 10 minutes after we left Take-A-Taco, he pulled over and I got out. He didn't say anything else to me. He just said that if I wanted to get out, I could go. I got out and he took off down the road. I didn't see him again.”
The cops seemed to mull that over for a moment. “Where did he leave you?”
“On some random dirt road a couple of miles away from Highway 27.” The question took Gracie by surprise. She answered with the truth because hesitating would have been a dead giveaway that she was lying.
“Do you remember which way he was going when he sped away?”
“I wasn't really paying attention to him except for making sure that he actually left. I was just so upset. I must have sat on the side of the road and cried for twenty minutes.”
“Did you call the cops?” Smith asked. She could feel disapproval radiating off of him.
She bit down hard on her lower lip. “I wasn't under the impression that ditching your date was illegal. I figured I'd just look stupid. I was scared and embarrassed. I couldn't believe I'd let myself be put in that kind of situation. My Uncle Frank is the Sheriff of Callahan County. He's always lectured me about protecting myself and I still ended up in a bad situation. I was so ashamed.”
Officer Rollins nodded. “That's a common reaction among women who've found themselves in bad situations.”
“How did you get back to campus?” Smith asked, not appearing to be too moved by her story.
Gracie took a deep breath and tried to tell her story exactly the way she and David had rehearsed.
“I didn't come back to campus,” she said. “I was too embarrassed. The longer I sat there, the worse I felt. I couldn't imagine having to face my roommate and tell her what had happened. I just wanted to be somewhere safe.”
“So?” Smith asked.
“I called David and begged him to come get me,” she said.
“David?”
“My boyfriend. From home,” she explained. “I told him a really quick version of what had happened and how sorry I was for doubting our relationship.”
“Your boyfriend from home,” Smith repeated, disbelievingly. “Did he come?”
Gracie nodded.
“You're telling us that you waited on the side of the road for this guy to drive all the way up here from Callahan County?” Rollins asked.
“It took him about three hours,” Gracie said, trying not to cry and failing. They didn't believe her. She didn't even believe her.
“You waited on the side of the road for three hours?”
“What else was I supposed to do?” she asked. “I was in the middle of nowhere wearing four- inch heels. I don't really have any friends here. I don't have anyone here I trust enough to call. I could only imagine what Kelsey would say when I got back here.” She waved her arm around the dorm room. “I waited until David drove up here, got in his truck, and told him to take me home.”
“Home?” Rollins asked.
“Possum Creek.”
“You went all the way back to your hometown?” Smith asked.
She nodded. “I couldn't handle being at the dorm. I just wanted to go home, tell David-” Cal... “Tell him how sorry I was for the way I'd been acting, curl up in a ball at his place and not come back. Things haven't been going great here anyway.”
The cops silently digested the information she fed them.
“You came back,” Smith said.
“You didn't even come by the dorm to pick up any clothes before you left for the weekend?” Rollins asked.
Smith gestured to Rollins. “You didn't need clothes for the weekend?”
Gracie mentally found herself admitting that David had probably been right about her having to come back in order to solidify her alibi. She looked between them, unsure who to respond to first. “I have stuff I keep at David's. Besides, he has enough money to buy me anything I need.”
“Really?” Rollins seemed skeptical.
“David owns his own mechanics shop. It’s the only one in town. He's older than I am.” She hoped her explanation would help ease the suspicious expressions on the cops faces. “He's one of my older brother's good friends.”
Smith nodded. “He has plenty of money?” He seemed to have something on his mind.
Gracie didn't know where he was going with this, but she confirmed it anyway. “More than enough to buy me clothes for the weekend. I think the shop does pretty well.”
For a moment they all sat in silence.
“Let me just make sure I've got this straight so far. You're telling us that your boyfriend came up here, picked you up off the side of the road, and drove you back down to Callahan County?”
Gracie nodded.
“Then what?” Rollins asked.
David had told her to tell the whole, complete truth about the rest of the weekend. Leaving out the part about disposing of the car and David's own disappearing act after dark on Saturday night. “We went back to David's place.”
“Can anyone confirm that?” Smith asked.
“You mean besides David?” Gracie could tell they were not wholeheartedly buying h
er story. She thought for a moment and then cringed. David had said it was okay to tell them about Cal, but she still felt uneasy about it.
Smith saw her pause and shot her a look. “Miss Malone, we need you to be completely honest with us and tell us everything.”
“This has nothing to do with Brett,” Gracie said. “The last I saw of Brett, he was speeding off into the night.”
“Miss Malone, you do realize that even if your story is completely true, and that's a big if, we still need to confirm all your details with as many people as possible.” Smith tapped his fingers against her desk.
She sighed and took a deep breath.
“Most people back home don't know about me and David. He's four years older than me. There are quite a few people, my parents included, who wouldn't approve of our relationship if they found out. David's best friend is my ex-boyfriend. He still has feelings for me even though we broke up during my senior year of high school.” She trailed off as more tears spilled down her cheeks. “Cal is a good guy. David and I didn't wanted to tell him about us because he'd be really, really, hurt by our relationship.”
Smith kept waiting, no expression on his face. He gestured for her to keep talking.
Gracie took a deep breath. “Right after David and I got back to the house, Cal showed up. His truck was acting up and he decided to take it to David's house and deal with it in the morning instead of trying to get all the way home.”
The cops waited silently.
“Cal came walking in without knocking. I mean, he never knocks, but normally we know when he's coming over, so it's no big deal. He caught us together, if you know what I mean?”
Rollins frowned. “You mean having sex?”
“We never made it to the sex part,” Gracie felt herself blushing. “He came walking in before we could get to that. He flipped out. He and David got into a fight.”
“Verbal or physical?” Smith asked.
“What?” Gracie blinked at him.
“The fight?”
“Oh, both. Cal broke David's nose.” Gracie wondered if the guilt she felt showed in her face.