The Good Girls
Page 27
Since he began working for the Jefferson-Lorne school district, Ken Garson has received seventeen complaints about his behavior from female students or their parents. Most of these complaints concern an unwanted touch or remark. They are mentioned in passing in his teacher file; the complaints themselves are locked in a file cabinet inaccessible to student workers. One former student, Melody Lankhe, alleged that he kissed her. Evidence suggests that no action was taken against Garson regarding the incident; Melody transferred to Empire High School.
But is it all a lie? Are the allegations a result of overactive imaginations, of girls who like drama and trouble? Is it simply because Ken Garson is the best-looking single teacher at school?
Lizzy was seen going in and out of Garson’s office regularly in the last six months of her life. This surprised no one—she was a troubled teen, a falling star, and Garson was the school counselor. His counseling sessions had little effect, however. Lizzy descended, fighting with her parents, her sister, anyone who used to know her. Until the night she died.
At eleven p.m. on the twenty-fifth of March, Lizzy went to the Circle K gas station at the edge of town. Videos of her interaction with the attendant show a sober girl buying a quart of milk and a bag of Doritos. She left from there and hit up the ATM—several ATMs, in fact. She went to every cash machine in town, withdrawing $200 from each until her savings account was dry. At each one her PIN was correctly entered on the first try. It’s easy to speculate that she was preparing to run away; it’s not so easy to know whether she intended to take Garson with her, or whether he called and convinced her to see him one last time.
There is no record of her stopping at a liquor store that night.
At midnight, she rang her sister’s phone. Gwen Sayer did not pick up. Around one a.m., Mrs. Sayer’s phone rang. It was the police.
“Suicide,” they told the Sayer family, without showing them pictures of the body and the boot prints. They pointed to the bottles and pill bags in the car. They never ran a check on the boots. They never found out that the prints come from a Pine Nation Overland in a size eight and a half. They never considered the teaching body, all of whom had Overland hiking boots courtesy of a parent donation. They never looked at Garson’s feet, which are often clad in Pine Nations and in a surprisingly small size for a man. Perhaps it wouldn’t have been enough evidence to charge him. But they didn’t even try.
Lizzy’s story fits a classic cautionary tale: girls can be one thing or the other. We are good, or we are bad. We are smart, or we are stupid. We are the Madonna, or we are the whore.
You call me many things: A slut. A nerd. A liar. You have the power to call me everything and nothing. You told the world all the things I did wrong, and all the things I didn’t do right enough. You told my story . . . but it wasn’t really mine. It was the story we all shared—the liars, the bad girls, the good. The nerds and the cheerleaders. The tragic, heartbreaking, conveniently dead girls. The silenced.
The silenced. So many of us are. You don’t see it, because we talk, but we make sure to talk only about the things that make you comfortable. The things that won’t make you uncomfortable. We wouldn’t want that.
Only, I do want that. I want to talk not just for me, but for all of us. For all of us who were told to keep our mouths shut, or else. My name is Emma Baines, and I wanted to tell Lizzy’s story.
This is the end of Adams West. I hope you enjoyed the ride. . . . Well, that’s not entirely true. I hope you learned something, but I kind of think you didn’t. Please, Lorne. Prove me wrong. Please.
And Lizzy, I know it’s too late for you. I don’t know if you can see this, but we did it all for you. More than anyone else, maybe.
I hope our truths bring you justice.
Acknowledgments
It is always exciting to reach into new territory with a book, and my first foray into the thriller genre would not be possible without the support and guidance of many wonderful people.
First, thank you to my agent, Kurestin Armada, who helps me dream big and plan practically, and who nudges me into new genres and experiences. I look forward to many more journeys into the unknown with you.
The Glasstown team has been incredible every step of the way. Lexa Hillyer, Alexa Wejko, Deeba Zargarpur, and Brandie Coonis: thank you for this project, for your enthusiasm, your invaluable insight, and your knowledge of craft. Working with you has been a wonderful process.
Elizabeth Lynch, my fabulous editor, sharpened all the edges of The Good Girls and had great insight into the project from the very first phone call. Thank you for believing in us.
Thank you so much to Diana Sousa, who designed the cover of The Good Girls, and to Kaethe Butcher for the cover art. It’s stunning, thrilling, chilling, and everything I want the book to be.
This writer works best when she can bounce ideas off other authors, bemoan bouts of writer’s block, pick through problems, and be a part of a writerly cheerleading team. Much love for the Armada, who make great work-from-home colleagues, and to my team in the greater Copenhagen area: Kitty, Crystal, Helene, Anja, Skjalm, and Marie.
And shamelessly saving the best for last: my beautiful family. Thank you for a literal lifetime of support, love, enthusiasm, and hope for my writing. To Mom, Dad, Liz, Elias, and Baby—I couldn’t ask for better.
It’s time to acknowledge something unpleasant: According to RAINN, one in six women in the United States has been a victim of rape or attempted rape. Every seventy-three seconds, someone in the country is sexually assaulted—and every nine minutes, that victim is under the age of eighteen. Both high-profile cases and statistics support the same conclusion: The vast majority of abusers are not punished. Cases that do end up in the public eye place the victim under close scrutiny, pick apart their lives, accuse them of being too drunk, too loose, too confused or confusing. It’s easier to say nothing than get destroyed, discredited, and denied justice. Many great people are working to change that, and things have improved, but we still have a long way to go.
If you or someone you know needs help, please get in touch with RAINN, the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network, at www.rainn.org, or by telephone at 800-656-4673.
About the Author
Photo by Rikke Svendsen
CLAIRE ELIZA BARTLETT is a writer and tour guide in Copenhagen, Denmark. She was born in the US but left when she was eighteen to travel through Europe, where she found a home with a husband and too few cats. She is also the author of two feminist fantasies, We Rule the Night and The Winter Duke. She can be found on social media as @bartlebett or at www.authorclaire.com.
Discover great authors, exclusive offers, and more at hc.com.
Praise for The Good Girls
“This clever thriller lures you in, then hits you where it hurts—with shocking power.”
—Dylan Farrow, #MeToo activist and author of Hush
“Brimming with suspense, along with a compelling cast of suspects, Bartlett’s latest offers up a gripping, page-turning mystery about small-town secrets and the reasons girls keep them.”
—Stephanie Kuehn, Morris Award–winning author of Charm & Strange
“Beautiful and powerful, The Good Girls is a revelation. I couldn’t stop until the breathless end, and it’s been haunting me in the days since I finished. Full of dark secrets and twists you won’t see coming, this one will keep you in its grip long after the last page.”
—Sarah Lyu, author of The Best Lies
Books by Claire Eliza Bartlett
The Good Girls
Back Ad
DISCOVER
your next favorite read
MEET
new authors to love
WIN
free books
SHARE
infographics, playlists, quizzes, and more
WATCH
the latest videos
www.epicreads.com
Copyright
HarperTeen is an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers.
&
nbsp; THE GOOD GIRLS. Copyright © 2020 by Glasstown Entertainment. Emojis by Carboxylase / Shutterstock. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
www.epicreads.com
Cover art © 2020 by KAETHE BUTCHER
Cover design by DIANA SOUSA
Digital Edition DECEMBER 2020 ISBN: 978-0-06-294312-5
Print ISBN: 978-0-06-294310-1
2021222324PC/LSCH10987654321
FIRST EDITION
About the Publisher
Australia
HarperCollins Publishers Australia Pty. Ltd.
Level 13, 201 Elizabeth Street
Sydney, NSW 2000, Australia
www.harpercollins.com.au
Canada
HarperCollins Publishers Ltd
Bay Adelaide Centre, East Tower
22 Adelaide Street West, 41st Floor
Toronto, Ontario, M5H 4E3
www.harpercollins.ca
India
HarperCollins India
A 75, Sector 57
Noida
Uttar Pradesh 201 301
www.harpercollins.co.in
New Zealand
HarperCollins Publishers New Zealand
Unit D1, 63 Apollo Drive
Rosedale 0632
Auckland, New Zealand
www.harpercollins.co.nz
United Kingdom
HarperCollins Publishers Ltd.
1 London Bridge Street
London SE1 9GF, UK
www.harpercollins.co.uk
United States
HarperCollins Publishers Inc.
195 Broadway
New York, NY 10007
www.harpercollins.com