All Unquiet Things

by Anna Jarzab

  “That’s its street name—the medical term is ketamine. Adam gets it over the counter from a vet in Tijuana.”

  “A vet?”

  “Yeah. They use it to put down big animals. Anyway, Special K in powder form looks like cocaine, but it’s a pretty powerful hallucinogen, sort of like PCP. It can do some pretty horrible shit to you when you mix it with as much coke as Laura had in her system that day.”

  “What did it do to her?”

  “Put her in a coma. She was lucky. Most of the time, people who OD on ketamine and coke end up brain damaged or dead. Anyway, at first she pretended not to remember who sold her the junk, but once she found out about the ketamine she got really angry. She started talking about turning Adam in, about going to the police and providing testimony that would get him locked up.”

  “He probably could’ve wriggled his way out of it,” I said bitterly. “Daddy’s money would’ve gotten him off the hook.”

  “Maybe, if he was some small-time dope dealer, but Adam’s into some pretty big shit. He’s partners with this guy named Barton; you’d never believe how big.”

  “So?”

  “So I wasn’t the only person Laura mouthed off to about this. I told her not to say anything, that I’d ask Adam about the Special K, but she wouldn’t listen. She was going into rehab, and she kept saying that when she got back she was going to blow the lid off Adam’s entire operation. She was crazy. She wouldn’t listen to reason.”

  “Who else did she tell?”

  Oz said nothing, but from the look in his eyes I could guess.

  “Carly?”

  “Yeah. For whatever reason, she trusted Carly. I told Laura not to, that it was a mistake, but she kept saying that Carly was planning on leaving Adam and was going to help her bring him down.”

  “You think Carly tipped Adam off that Laura was going to talk to the police?”

  “She must’ve, because he definitely found out.”

  “If Carly was going to break up with Adam, why would she warn him about Laura’s plans?”

  “Maybe,” Oz said, “she lied.”

  “How did Adam react?” I asked.

  “He lost it, started threatening her. He got the Bean to run her off the road one day when she was driving up the freeway—she almost rolled her car into a ditch.”

  “The Bean?”

  “Yeah. Anyway, she was shaken up, but right before she went to rehab she swore to me she was still going to do it. She begged me to get out before she did, and I was going to, but then—”

  “Then?”

  “She was in rehab for three weeks in Arizona, then she checked herself out and never came back.”

  “She just vanished?”

  Oz shrugged. “She committed herself voluntarily, so she could leave whenever she felt like it, but she was really serious about getting clean. I can’t believe she would just disappear, unless somebody talked her into it.”

  “Like who?”

  “I don’t know. The Bean, maybe.”

  “Why would she listen to the Bean if he ran her off the road?”

  “She didn’t know who did it, and I didn’t even find out until a couple of months ago. She liked the Bean; she thought they were friends. The people she trusted the most in the group were me, Carly, and the Bean, and I didn’t do it. I thought Carly might have, but she was in town that whole week.”

  “What do you think happened to Laura?”

  “At first I thought that maybe they offered her money to disappear. She was eighteen, so it wasn’t like she would be considered a runaway. And she was hard up for cash, which Adam knew. If he couldn’t intimidate her, I thought maybe he’d bribe her to shut up and go away.”

  “What changed?”

  “Nothing really, except the night before Carly died, she and Adam had a fight at Lucy Miller’s End of Summer party. Everyone heard them yelling at each other, and I’m pretty sure I heard Laura’s name come up. Carly said something about Adam turning her into a monster, and she screamed, ‘What happened to Laura?’”

  “Man.”

  “Yeah.” Oz stared at the ground.

  “Why don’t you go to the police?”

  “I don’t have any proof. And if I betray Adam, I might disappear too.”

  “So why are you telling me all this?”

  “I don’t know. I just thought that maybe, if Carly found out what happened to Laura and got pissed enough to do something about it, that might be the reason she’s dead.”

  “You don’t believe Enzo Ribelli killed her?”

  He shook his head. “This makes more sense to me, with what I heard and what I know.”

  “What else did you hear that night?”

  “Not much. The music drowned out most of what they were saying, and Adam took Carly into a bedroom once she started to get really upset. I didn’t see either of them after that.”

  Remembering Audrey’s theory about the Bean, I asked, “Was the Bean at the party?”

  Oz paused, then said, “Yeah. He left sometime around two o’clock. He was so drunk, he hit a mailbox backing out of the driveway.”

  I got the phone message from Carly around two-thirty. I was fairly certain that she had left the party by then. “Did he leave with Carly?”

  Oz shrugged. “I don’t know. She did leave, though, because I stayed the night and when I woke up she was gone.”

  “Who was there with you in the morning?”

  “Just Lucy, Adam, and Cass. Cass went to brunch with Audrey, and I went over to Cass’s house later. When I left at five, they were on the couch playing video games.”

  Adam’s alibi was that they had stayed on that couch, playing video games, for the rest of the night, and it hinged on Cass’s testimony, which he had given eagerly, if not truthfully. Enzo’s lawyer told Audrey that the whole time the DA was arraigning Enzo and building up the case against him, the police were running a concurrent investigation into Adam, but if that was true it must’ve been a pretty cursory affair—they hadn’t dug up anything about Adam’s drug dealing, or so I assumed since the papers hadn’t gotten wind of it and he wasn’t behind bars. That made sense to me; nobody with an ounce of self-preservation would’ve rolled over on Adam. It all came down to his alibi—they could neither prove that Cass was lying about being with Adam that evening nor prove that Adam had been anywhere else during the hours surrounding the murder. Eventually, under pressure from the district attorney’s office, which already had its criminal behind bars, they dropped it. I was not so easily put off.

  It was my belief that Cass was lying to cover for his friend. I couldn’t quite figure out why, unless it was under duress—maybe Adam had threatened him, or Audrey, if Cass didn’t keep his mouth shut about where Adam really was that evening. Somehow Cass must’ve been compromised, and taking into account their most recent rift and his lingering feelings for Audrey, she was now in a prime position to drag it all out of him—if I could convince her to see things my way.

  “I’ll look into it,” I told Oz. “I just have one more question.”

  “Sure.”

  “You said Special K was a powder?”

  “Yeah, but you can also get it as a liquid. Lots of people pour a dose into a drink, but that’s not really smart. Special K mixed with alcohol can knock you right out.”

  “Sean Ozrick?” Audrey raised an eyebrow. We met at the diner after school. This was, obviously, not a conversation I wanted to have at Brighton. “Somehow he doesn’t strike me as the cloak-and-dagger type.”

  “I think he’s totally freaked.”

  “I would be, too, if I were him.” She stared at her hands. “Do you really think Carly told Adam about Laura Brandt’s plan to rat him out?”

  I thought for a moment. “Yeah, I do.”

  Audrey shook her head slowly. “I can’t believe she would do that.”

  “But look at it from her perspective. She had feelings for Adam. Laura started talking about how she was going to turn him in, and an opera
tion of that size could get him tried as an adult, even if he was a lackey for somebody else.”

  “Do we know who that could be?”

  I shook my head. “Oz said it was some guy named Barton. I’m guessing he’s not in high school.”

  “Could you find out?”

  “Maybe. But do you really think it’s a good idea to be attracting that kind of attention?”

  “No. But we need all the facts. Try to meet with Oz again—maybe he’ll spill, if he thinks you’ll help him figure out who vanished Laura.”

  “I wonder what really happened to her.”

  “Let’s hope that whatever it is, it’s better than what happened to Carly.”

  I told her what I had found out earlier that day from Allison Kessler, then said, “I think we should probably go find the Bean tonight—see what he has to say about Allison and Laura.”

  “Sounds like a plan.”

  “Hey, are you sure you’ve never heard of Laura Brandt? I mean, if she was a friend of Carly and Adam’s, wouldn’t you have met her, or at least heard of her?”

  Audrey shook her head. “I think you overestimate how much a part of that group I was. Carly and Adam were friends with a lot of people, people like Laura Brandt, but I wasn’t involved in all their activities. I didn’t do drugs and I didn’t take an interest in that side of their lives. Cass and I tried to stay away from that as much as we could, and Carly was apparently careful about keeping certain things secret from me.”

  “I think you’re giving Cass too much credit,” I insisted, growing frustrated with her. “His brother used to be the biggest drug dealer in Empire Valley. At the very least, he must know something about Adam’s operation.”

  “Look,” Audrey said, “Cass and I were together for two years. He’s always been busy with basketball. Not drugs.”

  “So you say.”

  Audrey’s phone rang. “Oh, hi, Grandma,” she said, holding up a finger. “Well, I have this school project—uh-huh.” A sigh. “Okay. Seven-thirty. I know, I promise.”

  “Late for cocktail hour?” I smirked.

  “Sort of. Grandma Louise wants me home for dinner tonight—apparently, my absence has been noticed. I should go,” Audrey said reluctantly. “I’ve been trying so hard to be a good daughter lately, I’ve been a shitty granddaughter.”

  “Go. I can handle the Bean.”

  Around five o’clock I headed to Keptow Auto Body and parked across the street, waiting for the Bean to get off. When I saw him leave around eight o’clock, I left my car and jogged toward him.

  “Bean!”

  He looked up and rolled his eyes. “Can I help you?”

  “Yeah. I’ve got a couple of questions.”

  “Well, hurry up, because I’ve got somewhere to be.”

  “Meeting the girlfriend?”

  “Yeah.”

  “It won’t take too long. Do you remember a girl named Allison Kessler?”

  The Bean’s eyes widened and he looked down at the ground. “No.”

  “Come on, I know that’s not true.”

  “Then why did you ask?”

  “I wanted to see what you’d say.”

  “That stuff with Allison was a long time ago.”

  “You stalked her, Bean. Why?”

  He threw up his hands. “I don’t know. Because I liked her and I wanted to get her attention.”

  “Oh, you got her attention. I think she’s scarred for life.”

  “Look, I never wanted to scare her. It was a misunderstanding. I followed the restraining order. I haven’t gone near her or spoken to her in three years.”

  “I believe you.”

  “Then can I go now?”

  “Just one more thing. I want to know what you know about Laura Brandt.”

  The Bean struggled to keep his face blank, but I could see the panic rise in his eyes. “Never heard of her.”

  I leaned against the door of his car and he backed up a little. “See, you lied about knowing Allison Kessler, which makes it really hard to believe that you’re telling the truth now.”

  “I am. I didn’t know her.”

  “I know you knew her. More than that, I know that Adam got you to run her off the road.”

  “No way, man. I wouldn’t do that.”

  “Don’t try to fuck with me, Bean. You know I don’t believe you.”

  “Dude, who do you think you are?”

  “I’m not here to bust you. You were always somebody’s tool—you didn’t do it for your own reasons. I just need to know the truth. What happened to Laura Brandt?”

  “I told you, I don’t know her. Now get off my car. That’s an expensive paint job.”

  “Did Adam send you to Arizona to lure her out of rehab and pay her off? Did you abandon her someplace? Did you kill her?”

  “I didn’t have anything to do with Laura!” he nearly shouted.

  “So you did know her?”

  He hesitated. “Fine, yeah, I knew her. Barely. I met her a couple of times, but I never even talked to her.”

  “I heard that you were friends.”

  He narrowed his eyes. “From who?”

  “I think something really bad happened to her. I think somebody killed her, and if what happened to Laura had something to do with what happened to Carly, I need to know about it. So did you do it, Bean? Did you kill Laura Brandt?”

  “I told you I didn’t. Don’t you listen?”

  “I’m not convinced.”

  “That’s not my fucking problem. You’re not the police—you can’t do anything to me.”

  “Well, if you didn’t do it, you must know who did. Was it Adam?”

  “I don’t hang with Adam anymore. If he had something to do with Laura’s disappearance, I don’t know about it. Now get off my car. And don’t come back here, or I’ll call the cops.” He was gripping his car keys so hard his knuckles were turning white. I shook my head.

  “I wouldn’t do that, Bean,” I said, getting up and walking off. “I really wouldn’t.”

  CHAPTER TWENTY

  After first period the next day, Harvey and I swung past the vending machines outside the cafeteria. We were heading back to class when I caught sight of a freshman I barely recognized pushing a piece of paper into my locker.

  “Hey!” I called, about ten feet away, and when the kid started to run I gave chase, dropping my bag and books at Harvey’s feet. I grabbed the kid by the collar and spun him around. He panted in my face.

  “What the fuck, you little weasel?” I yanked him over to my locker and opened it up. “What’s that, huh?” I pointed to a piece of paper at the bottom. When he didn’t answer, I picked the paper up and unfolded it.

  Harvey caught up to us. “Jesus, Neily, let him go.”

  It was another article, which read along the same lines as the first, except this one mentioned Audrey’s father as Carly’s alleged killer. “Who gave you this?” I asked the kid, who was squirming to get out of my grip.

  “A-Adam Mu-Murray,” he stammered, and I let go. He scurried down into the quad and out of sight.

  I leaned against the lockers and crumpled the article into a ball. Harvey took it from me and read it. He raised his eyebrows.

  “Adam Murray?”

  “It’s not the first one,” I told him. “He’s trying to fuck with my head.”

  “Why?”

  “To scare me?”

  “Sounds more like he’s scared of you. This is a sign of a desperate man.”

  “A desperate, guilty man.”

  “Yeah, maybe. What are you going to do?”

  “I’ll think of something.”

  As it turned out, it didn’t require much thinking. I tracked Adam down right outside his first-period classroom and slammed him against a row of lockers. I wasn’t as big as Adam, but I was strong and angry and full of adrenaline. Shoving Adam felt like pushing over a trash can.

  “What the fuck is this?” I shouted, thrusting the article into his face.

&n
bsp; He shoved me off. “What’s your problem?”

  I shoved back hard. “You had a freshman put articles about Carly in my locker? What the fuck is that, some kind of scare tactic? You just trying to shake me up?”

  “Don’t touch me again, Monroe, or it’ll be the last thing you do.”

  “I’m not scared of you. You’ve got everybody else fooled into thinking you’re some big tough, but the truth is that you’re just a little boy with a gun. And now you don’t even have that, so what’s there for me to be afraid of?”

  “Neily!” Harvey grabbed me. “Don’t be crazy. You want to get expelled?”

  I ignored him. Adam tried to leave, but I was too quick. I punched him. He punched me back, landing a nice right hook on my cheek. I stumbled and fell against a pole, clutching my face. Adam shook out his hand and glared at me.

  In a moment, two rough hands were pinning my arms at the small of my back. I glanced behind me and saw Finch, enraged, glowering down at me.

  “Come with me, Neily,” he said in his coldest, most you’re-so-fucked voice. Adam was shaking his head; he had put on a shocked expression just for Finch.

  As Finch hauled me off, I glared at Adam and said, “I know what you did. And I swear to God, if it is the last thing I do, I will make sure that you pay for it.”

  “What the hell were you thinking?” Finch yelled.

  “Jesus, Finch, my ears?”

  “Don’t you dare,” he said. “Fighting? What has happened to you, Neily?”

  “I guess I’m sick of taking everybody’s shit.”

  “Oh yeah? And what shit did Adam Murray give you today that justified slamming your fist into his face?”

  I struggled to keep calm. “Ask him yourself.”

  “I will, rest assured. But until then, I’m suspending you for a week. I don’t want to see your face within a mile of this campus. Am I understood?”

  “Yes, sir,” I said.

  “If I were you, Neily, I’d wipe that look right off your face, because I called your father. He should be here any minute.” Finch smiled. “That’s better.”

  “A fight? You got in a fight?” my father screamed. He had been silent all the way to my mother’s house, but now that we were home he was letting loose. “Are you a lunatic? Do you know how a fight is going to look on your permanent record?”