by Kate Kessler
Yes, she could only imagine the bragging her mother had done. Anne Harte was a sweet woman with a steel backbone and a pride in her children that bordered on ridiculous. “It’s going great, thanks for asking. Listen, I’m at the high school right now with Alisha and Luke.”
“The Tripp girl? She’s been such a good friend to him lately.”
“Linda, I want your permission to take Luke out of school today. I want to take the kids for lunch, and then maybe see if he wants to talk about things. I think he’s being bullied. He’s got a black eye.”
“Those fucking little bastards.” A sigh filled Audrey’s ear. “Jesus Christ, who cares what Tala had in her pants. I’m just trying to raise my boy to be decent and modern, and some stupid redneck moron decides to make his life hell because of it.”
That about summed it up. “So, can I take him?”
“You bet your ass you can. Let me talk to whoever’s at the desk.”
And that was how Audrey ended up taking both Alisha and Luke to lunch at Fat Frank’s. And how she ended up with a teenage boy on her sofa at two in the afternoon, watching Netflix while he ate a bowl of ice cream as big as his head. Alisha hadn’t been happy when Audrey sent her home, but she didn’t want Luke censoring himself.
“You like this stuff?” he asked her. They were watching the latest Marvel offering.
“Yeah, I do,” she replied with a smile. “You look surprised.”
He shrugged. “You just don’t look like the type of person who’d be into superheroes.”
“I used to read more comics than my brother when we were kids. Guess whose powers I wanted.”
He thought about it for a second. “Phoenix?”
“Nope.”
“Storm?”
“Nuh-uh.”
Another shrug. So easily defeated. “I give up. Who?”
“Wolverine.”
He laughed, and her reaction to it could only be described as delighted relief. He hadn’t been broken. Not yet.
“Thanks for letting me hang out here,” he said. “School’s a little crazy right now.”
She dipped her chin. “Crazy? Luke, you’re being bullied. That’s not crazy, it’s mean.”
“Did you get bullied when you were in high school?”
“Not really. I had one friend who could be…difficult. My situation was different than yours, though.”
A small, much-too-cynical-for-his-age smile curved his lips. “Because of what you did?”
“Yes.”
“You weren’t prey.”
“I suppose not. I wasn’t a predator, either, if that was your next question.”
He set his bowl—now empty—on the coffee table on top of a magazine. “Is that okay?” At her nod, he continued. “Maybe I deserve to be bullied.”
“Why would you think that?”
He stared at her, holding her gaze long enough that she began to feel as though he were peeling back layers and exposing all her dark corners. She didn’t flinch. “Has Lish told you anything about me and Tala?”
Audrey shook her head. “Only that the two of you broke up just before she was killed.”
The kid flinched. “She dumped me. She said I couldn’t handle her being who she was.”
“Could you?”
“No. I wanted to, but I couldn’t.” He told her what had happened when they actually tried to take their relationship to the next physical level. He blushed like crazy but maintained eye contact. “So, maybe I deserve being bullied. I was a coward too.”
“It was a shock, and something that the two of you might have worked out if Tala hadn’t been killed.”
“She didn’t want anything to do with me.”
“She was hurt.”
“She was pissed. She said I shouldn’t have dated her if I was disgusted by her.”
“Were you disgusted?”
“No. It was just…weird, y’know? She said I should get back together with Kendra and lose her number. She said she hated herself enough, she didn’t need a boyfriend to hate her too.”
“Luke, this all sounds pretty intense. Did anything else happen to make Tala react this way?” Hurt and defensive she could understand, but what he told her sounded like the girl had gone on the offensive.
He hesitated. “She told Kendra and Lucy what happened.”
“Lucy Villeneuve?”
“Yeah. I don’t know what they said to her, but they both told me that it was good that I knew ‘where I stood’ with Tala, and that maybe it was for the best that we broke up. I think they told her that I didn’t want to be with her. I think they lied to her about me.”
“Why would you think that?”
“Because they hated her.” A pause. “And because Kendra hoped she and I could get back together.”
Audrey frowned. She was getting a better picture of the situation now. “Sometimes girls act like that when they’re hurt or jealous.”
“No, they really hated her.”
“So, you think they conspired to make sure the two of you didn’t get back together?”
Luke hunched, pressing his elbows into his knees as he leaned closer. His face was pale and earnest. “I overheard them planning to kill her.”
CHAPTER EIGHT
Audrey called Neve. She had to. Luke was okay with it, though a little reluctant because he didn’t want to cause trouble.
He didn’t want to cause trouble. She fought the urge to physically shake her head in disbelief. Not causing trouble was one thing, but how about saving his own ass? Not to mention the moral aspect of it.
“Luke, you need to tell Detective Graham about this. In fact, I’m surprised you haven’t already.”
“Why?”
She wanted to smack him upside the head, she really did. “Do you honestly think the girls might have hurt Tala?”
He blinked, and then his expression went from youthful blankness to a more adult tension. “I think they wanted to, yeah. You don’t think they killed her, do you?”
He’d just told her that he’d overheard them discussing it. She remembered doing the same thing with Maggie—and then they’d done it. “I don’t know, but you have to tell the police what you know—for Tala.”
That put a little steel in his spine. “Right. Okay.”
Audrey left him in the living room when she made the call. Fortunately, Neve was in the area, so she was there within fifteen minutes.
She came up the front steps in jeans, a henley, and hiking boots. She looked a little sweaty in the afternoon sun.
“Not on duty?” Audrey asked as she opened the door.
“I am, but we were digging around back the Falls today, so I left the heels and blazer at home.” Neve turned toward her. “Hey, if you were a transgender girl, why would you have a tampon in your purse?”
“To make me feel and appear more feminine. Did Tala have one?”
“Mm. I wondered if it was what you just said, or if maybe she was carrying it for someone.”
“Do you think it’s important?”
“It is if that friend was with her the night she died.” She stepped inside. The old floorboards creaked as if in greeting. “Where is he?”
Audrey closed the door and led the way to the living room, even though Neve knew where it was. “Luke, Detective Graham is here.”
The kid actually stood up and offered his hand, though he looked a little nervous and his cheeks were pale. Neve accepted the handshake without any mockery and then offered him something. It was a cell phone. There was a crack in the upper left corner of the screen, and the case was purple with black polka dots. “Tala’s cell?” He looked at her in wonder. “Where’d you get it?”
“Found it in her bag. Do you happen to know the password for it? I’m surprised it even powered on.”
He nodded and tapped the screen a few times with his thumbs before handing it back to her. “It’s zero-six-twenty-three—the day she began living as a girl.” There was a smudge of black on his fingers.
> “Thanks,” Neve said. “Sorry, that’s from when we fingerprinted it.”
And now Luke’s prints were on it, should Neve decide to pull them as well, Audrey realized. Had the trooper done it on purpose?
He wiped his hand on the napkins Audrey had given him earlier. “Finding her phone. That’s good, right?”
“It depends on what we find on it,” Neve replied, putting the phone in a plastic bag and then into her purse. She pulled out a small voice recorder. “Do you mind if I record our chat?”
Luke swallowed and shook his head.
“Do you want me to stay?” Audrey asked.
Neve let Luke answer. “If you want.” Which was teen speak for “Yes, please.” Audrey hid her relief, because there was no way she would have left him alone with Neve. It wasn’t that she didn’t trust Neve as a person, but she was a cop, and her priority was solving a murder, while Audrey’s was to protect vulnerable kids.
They all sat down. Audrey found herself taking a seat beside Luke this time. She didn’t know if he was lying or not, but if he was lying, she bought it. Sometimes she was better at spotting bullshit than others, and sometimes she got played along with everyone else. Her profession didn’t make her immune to human error. She’d learned that lesson the hard way over the last year.
“Just tell her what you told me about that day in class,” she prompted.
Neve shot her a dark look, but Audrey just made a face at her. It wasn’t like she was the kid’s lawyer, or as though he was being questioned. He was giving a statement, and she’d remind Neve of that if necessary.
Luke nodded, oblivious to the exchange. He told Neve what he’d told Audrey about hearing Kendra and Lucy talking one day in law class about famous murder cases and how Kendra had been asking people how they’d kill someone. The teacher had been talking about a particular case from a few years ago.
“I’d use poison,” Lucy had said. “It’s less mess and harder to trace. Oh, wait! No, I’d use a food allergy, if they had one.”
“Death by peanut,” Stacey Hicks, Kendra’s cousin, had quipped, and they all laughed.
Mason Stokes had said he’d probably use drugs—which surprised no one because he was the school drug dealer.
Neve’s eyebrow twitched at that little tidbit. Obviously she hadn’t been aware of Mason’s extracurricular activities. “What happened next?”
Luke took a drink of the soda Audrey had gotten him before Neve’s arrival. “They asked me how I would do it and I said I wouldn’t, but Lucy called bullshit and said that if I hated someone enough or felt threatened enough, I could kill, so how would I do it? Finally, I told them I’d probably use a gun because it would be quick.”
“Not if you’re shot in the gut,” Neve corrected. “It takes a long time to die from that.” That was the only reason her father had survived when he’d been shot. Audrey knew this because Neve had told her.
“Okay, so you said you’d use a gun, then what?”
He drew a breath. “That’s when Kendra said she’d like to stab somebody because she’d want them to know that she meant to kill them.”
Audrey and Neve exchanged glances. Audrey sighed inwardly. And the kid had wondered if this was important information. Jesus, it was a good thing he was cute, because he sure as hell wasn’t the brightest bulb in the fixture. Or maybe he just didn’t want to think the girls capable of murder. Regardless, his naiveté would probably come back to bite him on the ass someday.
“And Mason said that was harsh, and asked who would she want to stab. She looked right at me and said, ‘Tala.’ I asked her why, and she just shrugged. Lucy looked at me and said, ‘You know why, asshole.’” Luke looked from Neve to Audrey and back again.
Neve rubbed the back of her neck. “Do you know why?”
“Because Kendra wanted me back.” His eyebrows knitted together. “Isn’t that fucked up?”
“People have killed for less,” Audrey said. “There were girls in Virginia who killed another because they said they didn’t like her anymore.”
“There was more to that one,” Neve chimed in. “Okay, so Kendra said this in front of your classmates?”
Luke nodded. “Mr. Boudreau asked her if she had anything to contribute to the class discussion since she was so busy having her own, and she asked him why the killer hadn’t just taken his wife’s body out into the woods and let the animals have her rather than put her through a wood chipper that could have DNA on it. She said it would be better to let nature dispose of the corpse.”
“Did she.” It wasn’t a question. “What did Mr. Boudreau say to that?”
“He said it was too bad she hadn’t been there to consult the killer and asked if she had any objection to him continuing with his teaching.”
Neve glanced at Audrey. “He hasn’t changed much.” They’d both had a class with him when they’d gone to the high school. “Was that the end of the conversation?”
“Yeah. Later, Kendra came up to me and said she’d only been joking about wanting to kill Tala. And that she was sorry for saying it.”
“Is that why you never said anything about this before now?”
“I didn’t think Tala was dead before you found her. I thought she’d run away.” His shoulders slumped. “I’d hoped she had.”
“You thought she’d run off to New York to become a model or something?”
Luke nodded. “I guess a part of me knew she wouldn’t just take off, but I didn’t want to think something bad had happened to her, y’know? I just kept hoping she’d come back so I could tell her I was sorry.”
There were actual tears in the poor kid’s eyes. Either he was being completely honest or he was a lot smarter than she gave him credit for being. “Do you have any other questions?” she asked Neve.
Neve lifted her chin. “How’d you get that black eye?”
“Kid at school. He called me a cocksucker and said that Tala was a freak that deserved to die. I hit him. He and his friends decided to hit back.”
Neve’s expression soured as she rose to her feet. “Bet you wanted to use one of those fast bullets of yours on him.”
Luke shook his head and lifted his gaze to meet hers. The tears had completely dried up. “No, ma’am. People like him deserve to go slow.”
Luke had dinner at Alisha’s. Audrey had been reluctant to leave them alone, but Alisha hadn’t given her much choice. Since her mother was still at work, Alisha made them hamburgers and French fries. Afterward, she drove Luke home even though she would’ve gladly spent the rest of the evening with him. They both had homework to do, and Luke needed to talk to his parents about the situation at school.
“Thanks for letting me hang out,” Luke said from the passenger seat. “Sorry I’m not more fun to be around.”
“I’ve been meaning to talk to you about that,” Alisha replied dryly. “I really resent how you’re allowing being bullied to drag you down.”
He chuckled, and Alisha smiled in relief. She was worried about him, but she would never let on to him just how much.
“Well, still . . .” He shot a quick glance in her direction. “I’m lucky to have you as a friend.”
Her cheeks warmed, even though the word “friend” made her stomach hurt. “You’re welcome. I don’t mean to pry, but did it help talking to Audrey?”
“Yeah. It did. She’s pretty cool.”
“She is. I’m really glad she’s marrying my uncle.”
“Oh, hey, do you mind if I turn this up?” he asked when a new song started to play on the radio. It was something from the eighties that Alisha didn’t know the name of but had heard before many times. The two of them sang along as they drove. For three minutes it was as though nothing horrible had happened and life was normal.
The happy interlude came to an abrupt halt as they approached Luke’s house.
“What the fuck is she doing here?” His tone was sharp, one that Alisha hadn’t heard him use before.
She looked at the silver J
eep parked in his driveway. “Is that Kendra’s car?”
“Yeah.” He turned his head toward her. “Think we could just keep driving?”
“Sure.” Alisha was happy to do just that. She liked having him all to herself, and she didn’t feel like explaining to Kendra why she was with him.
But just as they were about to keep on going, both Kendra and Lucy appeared on the front step.
“Jesus, do they go everywhere together?” Luke asked. His dark brows pulled together. “I wish they’d just leave me alone.”
“You want me to keep going?” Alisha asked. The girls would recognize her car and probably give her a hard time for it later, but she wasn’t going to deliver Luke into the hands of people he didn’t want to see.
“No. I don’t want to make trouble for you. Just drop me off, thanks.”
Alisha pulled into the driveway behind Kendra’s Jeep. The girls had come down the steps and were walking toward them. Kendra intercepted Luke as soon as he opened the door and stepped out of the car. Lucy came around to the driver’s-side window. Alisha didn’t want to talk to her, but she also knew it would be rude to just drive away.
She pressed the button to lower the glass. “Hey,” she said as Lucy leaned down. “What’s up?”
“I was just about to ask you the same thing. We heard Luke left school with you at lunch.”
It wasn’t a question, so Alisha didn’t feel like she had to respond. Still, it wasn’t in her to let someone talk to her like she had done something wrong when she hadn’t. She lifted an eyebrow. “And?”
Lucy actually looked surprised. “You know how Kendra feels about him.”
“I do. I also have a pretty good idea of how he feels about her.” The second it was out she knew she shouldn’t have said it.
Lucy’s eyes narrowed. “What the fuck’s that supposed to mean?”
“Nothing. I have to go.”
“Yeah. That’s a good idea. Maybe think about staying away. Why stick around when you’re not wanted?”
Alisha lifted her chin and looked Lucy dead in the eye. “You tell me.” Again, she probably shouldn’t have said it, but it felt good when she saw the look on Lucy’s face. She put the car in reverse and started backing out of the drive, forcing the other girl to step away. The last thing she saw was Kendra following Luke into the house and Lucy trailing along after them.