Justin could, though. He started yelling as soon as the person closed the mailbox, bottle of pills in hand. “That’s Mark!” he shouted. “That’s my boyfriend!”
Before we could stop him, Justin jumped out of the car and started sprinting toward Mark. “So much for trying to follow him,” Alex muttered.
“So much for no ambush,” I said. “What do we do?”
“Give him a minute,” Raj said. “Clearly he wasn’t expecting this.”
With everything that had been happening, I had trouble believing Justin was somehow surprised, but whatever. We watched as Justin caught up to Mark and grabbed his arm. We weren’t close enough to see the expression on his face when Mark realized who’d found him, but we saw him put his finger to his lips. Did that mean he was worried that whoever was in the house would hear them? They whispered together for a while, Justin’s arms flailing; Mark eventually reached out to hold them down, trying to calm him. I supposed Justin was starting to understand how the rest of us felt; it almost made me feel bad for him. But not quite.
Finally, Justin headed back for the car. Mark turned around and walked in the opposite direction, back to where I assumed he’d parked. Justin slammed the door behind him as he returned to the backseat. “Don’t even say it, Alex,” he hissed. “I get it now, okay?”
None of us asked him what he got. We knew.
“Did you learn anything?” Raj asked. “What does he know?”
“More than we do,” Justin said. “He wouldn’t tell me anything other than that his life would be over if he gave up who was behind this, but he did say we could follow him. He’s doing the drop-off now. He said he can’t have anything to do with what we decide, but if we follow him, we’ll get all the information we need. He says he didn’t know what was happening to me, to all of us, but I’m not sure I believe him.”
I looked in my rearview mirror and saw a tear run down his cheek. I hoped Alex would stay quiet; now wasn’t the time for her to say what I knew she was thinking. I started the car.
“He’s around the corner, in a blue Civic,” Justin said. He’d wiped his face and was trying to sound like his usual snarky self. “He said we can just follow him. Get your camera phones ready, people. He told me he’d make sure we have a good shot.”
This was it. This was really it. My head felt like it was full of buzzing mosquitos. I could barely focus on the road as I drove down the street and turned the corner. Mark had waited for us, his car idling by the sidewalk. When he pulled out, I followed, trying to stay close but not too close.
“I don’t think you need to worry about distance,” Justin said. “It’s not like whoever it is will be expecting us.”
“Did Mark tell you anything at all? Even a hint about who we’re going to see?” Raj asked.
“Nothing. Just that he was sorry. Apparently he thinks this is all his fault.”
“It is, isn’t it?” Alex said. I knew she wouldn’t be able to stay silent forever. “He’s the reason you’re being blackmailed, and you’re the reason the rest of us are. Maybe he’s behind this, or in league with whoever is.”
“No way,” Justin said. “He wouldn’t have told us to follow him, and I know he wasn’t lying. Not about that.”
“We were going to follow him anyway,” Alex pointed out.
“Enough! I know you’re mad at me, but you have to trust me on this one. It’s not him. He’s just as stuck as the rest of us. I’m sure of it.”
“You’re still defending him?”
“Guys. Let Kara drive,” Raj said.
They actually listened to him. I wondered whether he’d taken the middle role on their seesaw. He was good at it, that was for sure.
Mark had gotten on the freeway. I’d have to follow more closely to make sure we didn’t lose him, though he seemed to be keeping track of us as well. We left Marbella and headed north, getting off the freeway in Redwood City, a route that was all too familiar to me.
And to Justin. “We’re not seriously going to Walmart, are we?” he groaned. “Bad enough I’ve been forced into that stupid job, but being here late at night when I’m not working is just too, too sordid.”
It was actually smart, though. I pulled into the parking lot and realized Walmart was open later than I’d thought it would be. There were a fair number of cars in the lot, but it wasn’t crowded at night, so there was an empty back corner that was perfect. Mark parked in one of the spaces; we parked a couple of rows behind him, not sure what the best angle was for taking pictures.
Justin’s phone beeped. “Mark just texted,” he said. “Someone’s meeting him here but they’re not here yet. We should wait.” Another beep. “Person usually parks to his right.”
“That means you and Alex will have the best shots,” I said. “You guys ready?”
“Got the zoom all set up,” Alex said. “Do we know how long we’re going to be waiting, though?”
Justin started typing, then we waited for his phone to beep. “Could be a while,” he said. “Mark says there’s a window.”
“How much of a window?” I asked. “It’s already almost ten.” I hadn’t left my parents a note that I’d be out; I’d thought I’d be back before they got in from work. But they were always home by midnight. I got out my phone and shut off the ringer so I’d have an excuse for why I didn’t answer if they called.
“He didn’t say.”
“Well, we might have some time then,” Raj said. “Anyone have any predictions about who we’re about to see?”
We all sat silently. At this point I really had no idea. Pretty much the only person I’d never suspected was Alex, and I’d spent so long thinking it was Justin that I’d lost track of my list. Becca seemed so unlikely, as did the Brain Trust. It had to be someone I didn’t know. That would be better, anyway.
“Not sure why we’re trusting Mark at this point,” Alex said, finally. “This could all be a trick.”
“Stop it,” Justin said.
“I haven’t been able to think of anyone specific,” Raj said. “But I heard rumors that some of the kids who sold pot weren’t thrilled when I started selling pills. Maybe it was one of them, trying to get in on the pill action.”
“That would be better than finding out it was someone we knew,” I said. “Though I don’t know how much getting a picture is going to help us there.”
“We don’t know whether a picture will help with anyone,” Justin said. “But it’s all we’ve got right now.”
“I guess. You have a theory?” I asked.
“Not really,” Justin admitted. “I’ve tried not to think about it too much, to be honest. It’s not like knowing who it is will make me feel any better about what I’ve had to do.”
I wondered whether knowing that Justin felt guilty would make Alex any more sympathetic toward him. Probably not.
“How about you, Kara?” he asked. “Got any thoughts?”
I was saved from having to answer by the sound of a car coming up behind us. It was a beat-up silver SUV that had probably been nice a few years ago. The car parked two spots down from Mark.
“Here we go,” Justin said. “Lights, camera . . .”
“Don’t be an asshole,” Alex said, but she got her phone ready. We all took ours out, just in case.
The driver’s side door opened, and we saw a leg emerge. A cowboy boot, covered partly by a flowing flowered dress.
“Oh, no way,” I said. “I know who that is.”
It was like a thousand alarms started blaring at once, deafening me and making my head pound. But there were no alarms; everyone in the car had fallen silent. We all knew who it was. We finally had our answer.
Except now, of course, we had a million more questions.
23.
Ms. Davenport was clearly visible in the parking lot lighting. Our collective moment of silence didn’t last long; after that first moment of recognition, everyone started yelling at once.
“I had her for trig,” Raj shouted, while Justin and
Alex started spewing curse words nearly in sync.
I felt like I was going to throw up. Mark hadn’t actually said Ms. Davenport was Blocked Sender, but it sure seemed like it. Still, maybe she was one of us. Maybe there was someone behind her. I imagined those Russian nesting dolls, layers and layers between the outer doll shell and the secret tiny doll heart. I didn’t want that heart to be Ms. Davenport. Especially since she knew even more secrets of mine than Blocked Sender had threatened to reveal. So far, at least.
“Pictures, people,” Justin said. “Let’s not forget the mission.”
Justin started snapping pictures furiously, while Alex took video. Raj and I didn’t have a clear shot, so we just watched as Mark got out of his car and walked over to Ms. Davenport. Thank goodness he knew we were there; he made sure the bottle itself was visible as he handed it to her, rather than palming it like I imagined he’d have done if he’d been alone. She didn’t seem to catch on, though; she just took it, nodded, and got back in her car.
“Did you guys get that?” I asked, hoping they couldn’t hear how shaky my voice was.
Justin scanned through his shots as Alex watched the video. “I’ve got a good one,” Justin said.
“The video’s a little grainy,” Alex said. “But it might be enough.”
“We’ve only got her getting the pills,” Raj said. “If someone watches this, they might just think she’s buying. It could get Mark in more trouble than Ms. Davenport.”
“It’s still illegal,” I said. “It’s a start.” I didn’t want to state the obvious, which was that going to the police would be terrible for Mark at this point, but Justin didn’t say anything. He must have been really mad. It wasn’t my main worry, though; I was still trying to wrap my head around the reality of what we’d just learned. How was this even possible? Ms. Davenport was a teacher. And not just any teacher. She was the one teacher I actually confided in. She knew more about me than anyone at school, including my friends.
And if she really was Blocked Sender, she’d used that knowledge against me.
I wanted so badly to believe it wasn’t her, but the more I thought about it, the clearer it seemed that it had to be. I started getting angry. Rageful, even. I’d never felt anything like it before—not when I got mad at my parents for their absurdly high expectations, not when Becca and Isabel cut me out of their lives, not even at the doctors who couldn’t do anything about my skin except to keep giving me drugs that did nothing.
I hated her. I wanted her to pay for what she’d done.
“I think we should go to the police,” I said.
“You’ve got to be kidding,” Justin said.
Alex knew how close Ms. Davenport and I were, though. “I get how upset you are—”
“Upset?” I yelled. “Upset does not begin to cover it. Upset is the coffee shop being out of croissants. Upset is not acing a test you studied for. I’m not upset. I’m fucking furious.”
“I think that’s the first time I’ve ever heard you swear,” Alex said.
I was so sick of people thinking I wasn’t capable of being anything but logical. I could get pissed off and irrational just like everyone else. “Maybe you just don’t know me that well,” I said.
“So not the issue right now,” Justin said. “Look, Kara, I’m just as mad as you are. But I’m not seeing how all of us getting arrested is going to fix things.”
“It’ll take her down,” I said. “I don’t care about anything else.”
“Right now you don’t,” Raj said, gently. “And we understand, really we do. But you have so many good things to look forward to. If you try to get her this way, you’ll take yourself down with her.”
“And the rest of us,” Justin said. “Don’t forget about that.”
“We’ll find another way,” Alex said. “I promise.”
“I’m all for a strategy session, but I’ve got some things I need to know now,” Justin said. “Like whether my boyfriend was also being blackmailed, or whether he’s just a lying, blackmailing scumbag who is most definitely not my boyfriend.” He started typing on his phone, though Mark was just sitting in his car.
“You really want to have that fight now?” I asked. “Are we supposed to drop you off somewhere?”
“Oh, I have no problem having that fight in front of all of you. And I’m sure he’s got things to tell us that we’d all like to know. It’s just a question of where it should happen.”
“My house is out,” Alex said. “Parents are home, and I don’t think they’ll leave us alone if there’s going to be a lot of screaming.”
“How about that place we met up last time?” I asked. “After Walmart? It’s not too far from here.”
Justin texted Mark to meet us at the Bayview Diner and got a beep back quickly. He read it and laughed. Well, it was more of a sardonic chuckle. “He’d rather be alone. As if. Come on, let’s go.”
“What if he doesn’t come?” I asked.
“Then we’ll eat eggs, talk about what an asshole he is, and decide what to do about Ms. Davenport. All this anger is making me really hungry.”
“Works for me,” Raj said.
I was surprised to find that I was hungry too. And I knew Alex still wanted to kill Justin, though I wasn’t sure what that would do to her appetite. I started the car back up and headed for the diner. It looked exactly the same as we’d left it; we even had the same waitress.
Mark walked in as we were looking at the menus. “Justin, what am I doing here with these people?” he asked, as if we weren’t even there.
“Nice to meet you, too,” Alex said.
“Just sit,” Justin said, and Mark did.
We were off to a great start. I put down my menu and looked over at him. Now that he was sitting here, I had a vague memory of seeing him around school, though I’d thought he was a student. He had messy dark hair but was clean-shaven and wearing a button-down shirt with a T-shirt underneath. The T-shirt had a cartoon on it. The whole outfit didn’t really add up, but he didn’t look like a teacher, that was for sure.
“The way I see it, you’ve got some things to say that all of us want to hear,” Justin said.
“This is between you and me,” Mark said.
“Not even close,” Alex said.
“Look, I helped you guys,” Mark said. “You got a picture, right? You guys basically own me now. Isn’t that enough? Can I please just go talk to Justin alone?”
“You’re right that we own you.” Even just hearing the words come out of my mouth made me feel powerful. It was an unfamiliar feeling, and I liked it. “Feels pretty terrible, doesn’t it? Now you know what we’ve been going through.”
“As if I didn’t already? You think I was doing this on my own?”
“It’s possible,” Justin said. “And we don’t even know the extent of ‘this’ yet.” He made little air quotes with his fingers.
“Don’t you know me better than that by now?” He was looking only at Justin, his tone and his eyes both pleading.
“I thought I did. Now I’m not so sure.”
Mark sat up straight in his chair and looked off to the side. He seemed to be working something out in his head. “If you’re not sure, then I guess I have to convince you.”
“Exactly,” Justin said. “Start talking. Don’t leave anything out.”
“How much do these guys know already?”
“Enough.”
The waitress picked that perfectly inopportune second to come back and take our orders. We ordered pancakes and omelets and coffee, so much food I think we even impressed the waitress. “Late-night snack, huh? You kids and your metabolisms.”
“Nothing for me, thanks,” Mark said.
“He’ll have a water,” Justin said. “Wouldn’t want you to get a dry throat, from all that talking.”
“Message received,” Mark said, as the waitress walked away.
We waited for him to start, but he was looking off to the side again. Thoughtfully, though, not like he was av
oiding us. I didn’t know Justin that well, but Mark didn’t seem like his type at all—he was much quieter, lower key. But maybe that was it; maybe Justin needed someone like that, to balance him out.
“First, I just want to say that I never meant for any of this to happen. Especially not to you”—he looked over at Justin, whose expression didn’t soften at all—“but not to any of you. I didn’t mean to get in a relationship with a student, though I’m not sorry about that at all—”
“Maybe you should be,” Justin said.
“Come on,” Mark said. “Just let me apologize. Yes, I get that getting together with Justin opened the door to Samantha’s blackmail—”
“Samantha?” Raj asked.
“Ms. Davenport,” I said. So we had it. Confirmation that she was Blocked Sender. I started to feel sick. Ordering food had been a mistake.
“But I never meant for any of this to happen. You have to believe me.”
“Enough with the excuses,” Justin said. “Just tell us the story.”
“Okay,” Mark said. “Here goes.”
24.
The waitress came back with our drinks and told us the food would be ready in a minute. Given that we were the only people in the diner, I wasn’t surprised; what else did they have to do? I hoped she’d take her time, though—it sounded like Mark had a lot to say, the way he was gearing up to talk, so we might be there a while.
“Like I said, I hadn’t meant to get involved with a student, especially not during an externship. It’s against college rules, and it’s also a distraction for someone who’s serious about teaching, like I was. Am. But I couldn’t help myself.” He reached out for Justin’s hand, but Justin pulled it away.
“The heart wants what it wants,” Alex said, practically singing.
“Seriously, Alex, cut it out,” Justin said. “I get it. You’re mad at me. You’re welcome to have at me later, but now’s not the time.”
Mark ignored them, which I thought was a smart move. “Samantha was assigned to be my mentor for the externship, which at the time seemed like the best thing that had ever happened to me.” His reserve fell away a bit there; he gave a sniff that I suspected was to keep him from saying something sarcastic. “She’s a great teacher herself, as I get the sense some of you already know, and she seemed completely committed to her students, like I wanted to be. She’d come observe my classes and give me really helpful feedback; she’d meet with me in the teachers’ lounge and go over lesson plans with me. She was dedicated and committed and perfect.”
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