TEGAN
My name is Tegan Tyrell. I was in the car with Clark Carson and Martin Genovese when they were shot dead. People have been saying that I must have seen whoever shot my friends.
Close-up on KELLY’s face. KELLY stares at the screen.
TEGAN’S VOICE
(off camera)
People have been saying that the reason I haven’t told the police what I know about who did it is because I’m afraid that if I do, the killer will come after me. They say I’m afraid.
Close-up on computer screen and TEGAN’s face.
TEGAN
I’ve given a lot of thought to what people have been saying and why they’ve been saying it. I know it’s because they loved Clark and Martin. I understand that. I respect that. I want everyone to know that I’m not afraid. Maybe I was—I can’t begin to tell you what it’s like to see what I saw that night. I couldn’t sleep for days. I kept seeing…
TEGAN’s voice breaks off and, for once, her gaze wavers. She looks down for a second before staring into the camera again.
TEGAN (CONT’D)
I’m not afraid. This video is for the person who shot Clark and Martin. I’m going to assume that you’re a human being. I’m going to assume that on some level, in some small way, you regret what you did. So I’m going to give you until sunrise tomorrow morning to do the right thing—surrender to the police. If I don’t hear from the police that you’ve given yourself up, then I am going to go to the police myself and tell them who you are. I’m not afraid anymore. I’m going to do the right thing.
KELLY stares at the screen. She stands up slowly. She grabs her cell phone.
CUT TO:
INT.—TYRELL UPSTAIRS HALLWAY—DAY
KELLY bursts out of her room and dashes down to Tegan’s room. She peers inside again as if hoping her sister has miraculously materialized, but she hasn’t. She stares at the clock on Tegan’s bedside table. Then she runs downstairs, shoves her feet into a pair of slip-on sneakers, grabs a jacket and runs outside.
CUT TO:
EXT.—STREET IN FRONT OF TYRELL HOUSE—DAY
KELLY is on the street, looking frantically first one way and then the other. She sees no one. She runs in one direction.
CUT TO:
EXT.—STREET CORNER—DAY
KELLY is panting as she reaches the corner of her street. She pauses for a moment to look both ways again.
KELLY
(shouting)
Tegan!
KELLY pulls her cell phone out of her pocket and punches in 9-1-1. She runs while she talks into the phone. She reaches another corner.
CUT TO:
EXT.—S ECOND STREET CORNER—DAY
KELLY grinds to a stop and lets the phone drop from her ear. Up ahead, two full blocks away, is TEGAN. She is walking at an even pace. KELLY breathes a sigh of relief.
KELLY
(into the phone)
Never mind. False alarm.
KELLY pockets her phone and picks up the pace, going after her sister. As she does, a black van pulls around a corner up ahead. It moves slowly and almost silently down the deserted street. As KELLY watches, the driver’s-side window descends. Something glints in the rising sun.
CUT TO:
EXT.—STREET—DAY
TEGAN turns toward the van. Her eyes widen and her mouth forms a large O. She spins around and starts to run away from the van. There is a muffled sound. TEGAN crumples onto the sidewalk.
CUT TO:
EXT.—STREET—DAY
Close-up on KELLY. She screams.
CUT TO:
EXT.—STREET—DAY
The van roars down the street, rounds a corner and vanishes from sight.
CUT TO:
INT.—HOSPITAL WAITING ROOM—DAY
KELLY and MRS. TYRELL are seated in the waiting room. Both look exhausted. MRS. TYRELL drinks coffee from a paper cup. KELLY is on her cell phone. DET. ZORBAS arrives. KELLY watches him speak to a nurse.
KELLY
(into the phone)
Anna, I gotta go. I’ll talk to you later.
DET. ZORBAS approaches Kelly and Mrs. Tyrell.
DET. ZORBAS
Mrs. Tyrell? They tell me Tegan should be out of surgery soon.
MRS. TYRELL looks up at him with weary reddened eyes. DET. ZORBAS squeezes her shoulder. He looks at Kelly.
DET. ZORBAS (CONT’D)
I understand you saw the whole thing.
KELLY nods.
DET. ZORBAS (CONT’D)
We need to talk, Kelly.
(glancing around)
Come on.
KELLY stands. She follows him to a distant, unoccupied corner of the waiting room and takes the chair he indicates. He pulls up a chair opposite her.
DET. ZORBAS (CONT’D)
I need you to tell me exactly what happened.
KELLY
I told the cops who showed up. I told them everything I remembered about the van and the driver. Did they find him?
DET. ZORBAS
They’re looking. You’ve been a big help, Kelly, with the description of the car and the partial plate. (pause) Kelly, I need you to tell me everything you told them. I need you to tell me everything you remember.
KELLY
She came into my room last night. She said she wanted to use my webcam. She wanted me to show her how. She made a video. She posted it. She said she wasn’t afraid to tell the police who shot Martin and Clark. She said she was going to go to the police if the guy didn’t turn himself in.
KELLY looks at Det. Zorbas, a weary expression on her face.
KELLY (CONT’D)
He never would have given himself up. Why did she think he would?
DET. ZORBAS
(frowning)
What do you mean, he never would have given himself up? Do you know this person?
KELLY nods.
KELLY
I saw him at the dentist that time. Clark stole his parking space and the guy threatened Clark. He had these two pit bulls with him. He was really mean-looking.
DET. ZORBAS
And this is the guy who shot Tegan?
KELLY
It was his car. I recognized it. It’s a black Lexus van. I didn’t get the whole license plate, but I got some of it. And I saw one of the dogs.
DET. ZORBAS
Did you see the driver? Did you see him when he shot Tegan?
KELLY shakes her head.
KELLY
But it was his car. And his dog. It was him. I just talked to Anna Genovese. She was with Clark one time—with Clark and Martin. She told me they were walking down the street and Clark saw this van, and he keyed it. She said it was an expensive van— a black Lexus. It was the same guy. And there were two pit bulls in the car.
A cell phone trills. DET. ZORBAS pulls a phone out of his pocket and looks at the display.
DET. ZORBAS
(standing)
Excuse me. I have to take this.
DET. ZORBAS steps away from Kelly and turns his back to get as much privacy as possible for his call. He is grim-faced when he returns.
DET. ZORBAS (CONT’D)
They found the van—and the driver. They took him in for questioning. I need you to tell me again, Kelly. Tell me everything you remember about this guy.
CUT TO:
INT.—HOSPITAL ROOM—NIGHT
KELLY and mrs. TYRELL are sitting close to Tegan’s bed, watching and waiting. Neither speaks. Both are one-hundred-percent focused on TEGAN, who stirs. MRS. TYRELL sits forward and touches her daughter’s hand. TEGAN opens her eyes. MRS. TYRELL squeezes her hand as tears run down her cheeks.
MRS. TYRELL
The doctor says you’re going to be okay. He says you were very lucky.
TEGAN attempts a smile. She closes her eyes for a moment and then opens them again.
KELLY
They got the guy, Teeg. The guy who shot Martin and Clark and you. They got him.
TEGAN nods, but the movement is
almost imperceptible. She closes her eyes.
TWENTY-FOUR
Tegan
Detective Zorbas came to see me the day after I was shot. He had pictures for me to look at, a couple of pages of them, six to a page.
“I know you probably don’t feel like it right now, Tegan,” he said, “but I need you to look at these and tell me if you recognize anyone.”
My mouth was dry. My throat was sore. The nurse told me this was because they had put a respirator in me. But I didn’t feel much pain, mainly because they had me on super-strength painkillers. I nodded.
Detective Zorbas stood close to the bed and showed me the first six photographs. I looked carefully at each one and shook my head. He showed me another six photographs. Right away I zeroed in on one of the faces.
“That one,” I said. I tried to lift my arm to point, but I couldn’t. I was too stiff, and my arm was too heavy. “The one at the bottom in the middle,” I said. The one with the thin face and the long black hair. The one with the thin lips like a line across the bottom of his face, and the scar, and the small piercing eyes, looking out at the camera like he didn’t give a damn that he was under arrest. The one whose face I had seen when I heard the van beside me and turned to see who it was. The last face I saw before I woke up in the hospital to see my mother in tears.
“You’re sure?” Detective Zorbas said.
I nodded. “He’s the one who shot me.”
“That’s good, Tegan.” He took out a pen and helped me hold it so that I could put my initials next to the photograph I had picked out. He slipped all of the photographs back into a brown envelope. “Is he also the one who shot Clark and Martin?”
“I guess so.”
“You guess? You’re not sure?”
“He must be,” I said. “He shot me.”
“You didn’t recognize him from the night Clark and Martin were killed?”
I shook my head. Bad idea. Right away the whole room started to spin. I felt like I was going to throw up.
“I didn’t see who shot them. I didn’t see anything.”
“But your video…”
“You said whoever did it had probably seen that website. You said…” My mouth was so dry. My throat was so sore. I tried to reach for the glass of water with the straw in it that was sitting on my bedside table. Detective Zorbas saw what I was trying to do. He picked up the glass and slipped the end of the straw into my mouth. He put the glass back onto the table when I had finished.
“The gun we found at his place is the same gun that was used to shoot Clark and Martin. You took a big chance, Tegan. If your sister hadn’t followed you…”
“Everybody thought I saw. You thought I saw.”
He looked at me for a long time before he finally spoke.
“I was wrong,” he said. “I’m sorry.”
A lot of people were sorry.
Gina came to see me. She cried and said she couldn’t believe she had doubted me. She practically begged me to stay friends with her.
Mr. Genovese came to see me. He said he was sorry. He said what I did was very brave and that it meant a lot to Mrs. Genovese and to the rest of the family that the person who had shot Martin was going to be brought to justice. He said he wanted to give me the reward he had offered. I told him I didn’t want it, but then my mom talked to him. She said she would put it in a special fund to pay for my education.
Anna Genovese came the day after her father. She said she was sorry too, but I could tell she still blamed me.
I never heard from the Carsons.
TWENTY-FIVE
Kelly
INT.—HOSPITAL HALLWAY—DAY
KELLY is standing in the hall as hospital staff bustle by and patients shuffle up and down the hall in their hospital gowns and robes.
KELLY
(to the camera)
They’re discharging Tegan. She’s going to have to go to rehab for a while because of the muscle damage to her left shoulder. But the doctor says she can expect a full recovery. Well, a full physical recovery. She’s been really quiet since it happened, and she hasn’t once said “I told you so.” I still can’t believe she took a chance like that.
(shaking her head)
It’s crazy. She had no idea who the guy was. She’d never seen him before, and Clark never mentioned him. And the guy—he said he didn’t realize that there was anyone else in the car, you know, on account of the tinted windows. But nobody believed her. I didn’t even believe her for a while. Everybody said she must have seen the guy, and if she said she didn’t, it was because she was scared. They called her a coward. They treated her like garbage because of it.
The door opens to a room directly across from where KELLY is standing.
MRS. TYRELL’S VOICE
(from inside the room)
Kelly, come and help me with your sister’s things.
KELLY
Coming.
(to the camera)
They said she was a coward. They said that of course she’d seen. And because of that, the killer started to get nervous. That’s when he knew—or thought— that there was a witness. That’s what Detective Zorbas said. And when Tegan put that video up…
(shakes her head again)
That’s the thing, what they call the irony of it. If everyone had believed Tegan when she said she didn’t see anything, the guy probably would have got away with it. I mean, I didn’t know about Clark keying his van. Anna didn’t know about the guy threatening Clark. No one did, because Clark was too embarrassed to say anything about it. But the whole time, he was taking revenge on the guy. According to the guy, his van was keyed three times—and one time, just before the shooting, he saw Clark and yelled at him, and Clark ran. But Clark didn’t tell anyone about that either. So the guy would have got away with it. No one would ever have figured out he did it. The cops were way off base on the motive. It would have been an unsolved case—except that everyone had their stupid opinion about what must have happened, even though they weren’t there. They called Tegan a coward and turned her into an outcast, and she did the only thing she could think of to fight back. That’s what solved the case, not crackerjack police work.
MRS. TYRELL’S VOICE
(impatient now)
Kelly!
KELLY sighs as she pushes herself away from the wall she has been leaning on.
KELLY
(to the camera)
Life, huh?
(to her mother)
I’m coming!
She disappears into the hospital room.
THE END
Norah McClintock’s fascinating mysteries are hard to put down. She is a five-time winner of the Crime Writers of Canada’s Arthur Ellis Award for Best Juvenile Crime Novel. Although Norah is a freelance editor, she still manages to write at least one novel a year. Norah grew up in Montreal, Quebec, and now lives with her family in Toronto, Ontario. This is her eleventh book with Orca. More information about Norah is available at www.web.net/~nmbooks.
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