“You were joking?” I asked, stating the obvious.
“Yeah. You made it quite clear this wasn’t a date date.” He grinned wickedly and added, “But if you change your mind, this can turn into a real date any moment you want.”
I felt my neck blushing, which made him smile more as he backed out of the driveway.
“So where are we going?” I kept my eyes on the houses passing by as we drove down my street.
“First, I thought I’d give you a drive-by tour of the important places in town. Then we’d go for the best Boston cream pie in the world. Then we’d go to the clearing.”
“The clearing?”
“Where kids from school hang out.”
“Sounds great.” I started to get excited for a night of fun, then remembered it was more than that. I had a purpose. Someway, somehow, I had to find out who pushed Kayla Sloane. Colby’s life depended on it.
The tour of town ended up being more of a tour of Kane’s life. He pointed out his elementary school, the field where he hit his first home run, the street that always gave the best Halloween candy, the bench where he got his first kiss (in fourth grade, the little player). But some of his favorites were good to know. A bookstore I foresaw myself spending a lot of time in. The place he called “the best pizza joint in town” that I would suggest to my dad for dinner.
Before long, we stopped at a diner that was the size of a trailer. But Kane insisted the food made up for the lack of atmosphere. We slid into the last available booth and Kane ordered us each a Coke and a slice of Boston cream pie.
“I hope this lives up to my high expectations,” I said.
“Oh it will.” He beamed and tugged on his Woodbridge Lacrosse windbreaker. I didn’t think I’d ever seen him not wearing it.
“Do you sleep in that thing?” I teased, motioning at the jacket.
He blushed a bit. “It’s tough when you don’t have the money to shell out for designer duds. I don’t have a polo in every color of the rainbow or a limitless amount of authentic team jerseys.”
I hadn’t even thought of that. He couldn’t afford a lot of clothes, so he probably wore plain T-shirts every day and tossed the windbreaker over them. Great job making him feel like a total loser, Jade. I tried to shrug it off. “I think it’s cool. Team pride.”
“Yeah right,” he said, calling my bluff.
“School’s not a fashion show, anyway,” I insisted.
“Tell that to everyone else.”
He was right, but thankfully the pie gods chose that moment to bestow upon us our order. I do not exaggerate and neither did Kane. With the first bite, I let out an embarrassing moan.
Kane said proudly, “I didn’t do you wrong.”
“Not at all. This is wonderful.”
We ate in silence. Part of me wanted to scarf the whole thing down as quickly as possible and the other part wanted to savor each bite as long as I could. I compromised with a medium pace.
“I’m sorry I bailed on your party last night.” Kane wiped his mouth with a napkin. “I just thought the Ouija board was in poor taste.”
“I understand.” And I did. The whole thing was obviously the worst idea ever. It opened some sort of door that allowed Kayla to possess Colby at will. If I had listened to Kane instead of going forward with it, things wouldn’t have gotten as bad as they did. “I don’t even know who brought the thing.”
“How did it go?” Kane smirked. “Did you all communicate with the dead? Did Kayla give everyone the answers on the next Calc test?” He wiggled his fingers in the air and laughed.
“Actually,” I said, while fiddling nervously with my fork, “something did happen.”
He stopped laughing. “Are you serious?”
“Kayla came through,” I said. “Faye and I asked questions … about that night.”
Kane paled. “What did she say?”
“She said she was pushed.”
His eyes widened. “By who?”
I scraped at the last bit of pie. “She didn’t know.”
Suspicion clouded his face. “Did she give you any indication that it was really her? And not just someone moving the pointer thing?”
“Yeah. She got really angry when someone suggested it was Donovan who had pushed her. The lightbulbs burst, the house shook.” Despite the warmth in the diner, I shivered at the memory.
He shook his head. “Someone was messing with you.”
“No, Kane. It was real.”
“It was Faye.” He dropped his fork, and it clanged loudly on the table. “She’s mad that we’re going out tonight. I bet she brought the board and orchestrated the whole thing somehow to get back at you.”
“No, Faye was terrified.”
“Faye’s an actress. Lying comes second nature to her. It was faked.”
He seemed unyielding on the topic, so I didn’t press. After an awkward silence, I said, “I’m sorry about your sister, by the way.”
“What about her?”
They seemed so close, I’d just assumed she would have told him. “I invited her to the party,” I explained. “But Faye had this hissy fit right in front of her. Clinging to some idea that it was seniors only. I told Ellie to ignore Faye and come, but I think the damage was done.”
He waved his hand. “Don’t worry about it. Ellie wouldn’t have come, anyway.”
“Why not?”
“I don’t think she’d want to be in the house. Kayla’s death really affected her.”
“They were friends?” I asked, surprised.
“No, Kayla wouldn’t publicly hang with underclassmen,” he laughed. “But Kayla and I had been friends since kindergarten and she’d been over at my house hundreds of times. Ellie used to follow us around and try to play with us. I never let her. But Kayla was always nice to her. I think part of it was an ego trip, because Ellie worshipped her. But Kayla genuinely liked her. Ellie looked up to her as this sort of model of perfection. So Kayla would give her advice now and then, toss her a bone, you know. When Kayla died, Ellie was brokenhearted.”
Well, there’s one person who was. What I’d learned at my party, however, was that there were dozens of others who weren’t so sad about Kayla’s turn of events.
And I had to find out which one of them was the cause of it.
Kane pushed his empty plate to the side of the table. “Ready to go to the clearing?”
I brightened. “Absolutely.”
Ten minutes later, Kane stopped in a gravel parking lot beside a playground. A few other cars were there, but the park was empty.
“What are we doing here?” I asked, feeling a little anxious.
“This is how we get to the clearing.” He killed the engine and pointed out the windshield toward the woods beyond the playground. “There’s a path in there that leads to it.” The corner of his mouth lifted up a little. “You’re not scared, are you?”
I was a bit unsettled. I fingered my red agate pendant and remembered that the Romans had used the stone to protect against bug bites.
I rolled my eyes playfully and said, “Only of mosquitoes.”
He laughed and we got out of the car. The playground was surprisingly creepy at night. The slides were empty. The swings still. No playful shouts of children rang out as they ran, their little feet kicking up mulch.
“Hey,” Kane said, lightly grabbing my arm. “Let’s sit for a minute before we go in.” He gestured at the swing set.
“Sure.” I settled onto a swing, wondering if this would be when his flirty banter would turn serious. I gripped the swing’s chains tightly and steeled myself for a bad moment. He was cute and all, and I liked his attention, but I didn’t want him to make a move. This wasn’t romantic for me. This was about saving Colby.
Don’t lean in for a kiss, I prayed.
“I want to talk to you about Donovan O’Mara.”
Well, that was unexpected. “What about him?”
Kane stretched his long legs out in front of him and planted his feet so the
swing wouldn’t move. “I don’t want to fight with you again, but I’m also not going to ignore the alarm bells going off in my head. So I just want to say my piece and then that will be it, okay?”
I lifted my feet under the swing and kicked them out forward, pumping lightly, enjoying the breeze across my face. “Sounds fair.”
“I know that you and Donovan are … friends. And no one can tell you who to be friends with. But be careful, Jade.”
Jeez, first Mr. Tucker and now Kane. Two warnings in one day. Way to make a girl feel safe.
Kane continued, “Some people, myself included, really and truly think he had something to do with Kayla’s death. And I know he’s trying to convince you otherwise, but please keep a clear head on this and consider both sides.”
“But even Kayla herself said it wasn’t him last night.”
He gave me a look that said oh please.
“If there was any evidence, the police would have done something,” I said.
“There was a witness.”
I dragged my feet on the ground to stop the swing. “Someone saw him push her?”
“No, some neighbor saw him go into the house with her and walk out alone. Around the time the fall would have happened.”
“Mr. Tucker?”
“If you mean the creepy guy that likes to watch young girls out his window, then yeah.”
“So your credible witness is the neighborhood perv?” I kicked at an empty juice box on the ground.
“Hey, he’s always watching out that window. If anyone else walked in the house, he would have seen it. Even if they used the side door, that’s facing his property.”
And maybe that’s why reclusive Mr. Tucker crossed the yard boundary today to talk to me. Because he’d seen Donovan at my house last night. I dropped my hands from the swing’s chains to my lap.
“I’m not going to turn against him like the rest of the school,” I said, jutting my chin out. “Innocent until proven guilty.”
“But?” Kane said hopefully.
“But I’ll be careful and keep my mind open.”
He nodded solemnly. “That’s all I ask. I never want something like that to happen again.”
There was grief in his eyes. Not fresh, but deep. “You and Kayla were close, weren’t you?”
“Yeah, we’d been friends since we were five.”
“Did you ever date?”
He averted his eyes. “No.” Then looked back up at me. “But not for my lack of trying.”
So he’d liked Kayla, maybe even loved her, and she’d only thought of him as a friend. No wonder he and Donovan shot fireballs from their eyes whenever they saw each other.
A crunch of gravel caught my attention, and I looked over Kane’s shoulder.
A shadow approached from the parking lot.
Hung out at 7’s today, like old times. He got all mad at 8 for following us around (seriously — just like the old days), but I didn’t mind. In some ways, 8 reminds me of a younger me. When I leave WHS, maybe I’ll pass my crown to her. I already gave her some tips on handling boys and friends. Told her to trust no one. Keep her secrets to herself and her diary.
But then 8 took off to hang with her friends and 7 and I were alone and it was … different. That 7 wants me is a constant fact … like the sun rising, like 11 being a robotic nerd, like 1 spending 2’s money, like 9 being creepy. You get the point.
But 7 was in a sad mood. Kind of mopey. I know it’s about 28. I’ve dated guys before, so I don’t know why 7 is so bitter about this latest one.
I said, “You’re no fun today,” and left. But then there was something else in his eyes, something new.
Something like anger.
The shadow grew in size as it approached, and then separated in two.
“What are you lovebirds doing?” a voice called out.
Kane stood up, laughing, then greeted the guy with some overcomplicated handshake. He was one of the jocks Kane hung with. The second shadow, probably the guy’s date, turned out to be one of Faye’s friends. I didn’t know either of their names, just recognized their faces. The girl hung back a bit. Her eyes went from Kane to me and back again, then she whipped out her phone and started texting.
Great. Within sixty seconds, the entire school would know we were here together in the dark. This might incite jealously in a few girls, Faye included, and it wasn’t the best time for me to be making enemies. I wanted to ingratiate myself into Kayla’s crew, not make them mad.
“We’re heading in now, man.” Kane pointed at the woods. “You comin’ with?”
“Nah, we’ll keep those swings warm for a few more minutes,” he replied, with a glint in his eye. That probably meant they were going to slobber all over each other for a little while before joining the group.
“Later, then.” Kane put a hand on my lower back, leading me toward the edge of the woods. He lowered his voice. “I’ll go first. You can hold on to the back of my jacket if you want. It gets pretty dark in there for a while.”
“That’s fine,” I said with forced bravado.
The path was narrow. We’d have to walk single file unless I wanted to be swept by brush and branches. I followed him onto the trail and after a few steps it was like the woods swallowed us whole. It was darker in there. The thick tree cover blocked the moon and stars.
I stayed close to Kane, my eyes glued to his blond hair, the only thing I could clearly make out. With his black windbreaker and dark jeans, he looked almost like a head with no body floating down the path. I reached out and grabbed the back of his jacket.
“Changed your mind, huh?” I could practically hear the smile on his face.
“Shut up.”
The trail seemed to be getting narrower, and a claustrophobic panic started to flutter in my chest. But then voices drifted out of the darkness. And, a moment later, music. Deep bass as rhythmic as a heartbeat. The path opened, and suddenly, we were out in the open. The woods released us and moonlight returned.
The clearing was a perfect square, but the ground was covered in moss. Flames glowed from a small fire pit in the center, ringed by rocks. Over a dozen kids from school, mostly seniors, stood around. A couple girls danced and giggled.
“So this is it.” Kane opened his arms wide. “Our hidden spot.”
“Very cool,” I said, my eyes sweeping the crowd. First I looked for Donovan, but he wasn’t there. Of course. Then I scanned the faces, wondering who I should talk to and how I would even go about this. I was no detective. But then I remembered how people had talked about Kayla at my party with little to no prompting. It was like they’d wanted to talk about her to me. Maybe because I lived in her house. Took her place.
“Want a drink?” Kane asked.
“No, I’m good. Thanks.”
He nodded. “You can go sit down or come with me …”
A few of his friends were standing in a circle, talking, and I knew he probably wanted to join them for a while. “Don’t worry about me. I’ll finagle my way into a conversation somewhere. I don’t need a babysitter.”
He smiled. “I know you don’t.”
Kane darted off to his friends and I inched toward a small group of girls who were sitting on a couple boulders. They might have all been at my party, though I couldn’t be sure. One in particular was the girl who’d basically admitted she’d been crazy about Donovan. What was her name? Laura? Lauren? Ugh. I was terrible at this.
“Hey, Jade!” She waved me over.
I put on a perky smile. “What’s up?”
“Jade, this is Madison and Jessica,” she said.
We exchanged a round of “heys,” though I still didn’t remember the third girl’s name. Madison and Jessica seemed nice enough. After a few minutes of small talk, I found that they were all on the soccer team. Which meant they’d probably played with Kayla.
Score.
“This place is so cool,” I said.
“Isn’t it?” Laura/Lauren said. “It can get kind of insane her
e some nights. Though not as crazy as your party.” She waggled her eyebrows, which were already pretty high on her forehead due to her tight ponytail.
“Yeah, that was nuts,” I agreed.
“I still don’t know what really happened and what my terrified imagination exaggerated.”
Madison piped up. “Fill us in, Jade. Laurie won’t tell us anything.”
Laurie! That was her name. I stopped myself from snapping my fingers.
“Yeah,” Jessica said, a greedy look in her eyes. “We know something freaky went on, but only like ten people were still at the party and they’re not talking. It’s like they’re traumatized. Faye wouldn’t even come out tonight.”
“Well,” I leaned in and lowered my voice to a whisper. If they felt like I was letting them in on a big secret, maybe they’d unload some secrets on me in return. “Don’t spread this around, but we sort of … contacted Kayla using a Ouija board.”
They were bending so far forward, I thought they’d fall off the rock.
“What did she say?” Madison whispered.
“She was murdered,” Laurie snapped. “I told you guys.”
“But,” I said, remembering Laurie’s bias, “Kayla said Donovan didn’t do it. It was someone else.”
“Who?” Jessica yelled.
“Kayla doesn’t know. Whoever it was came up behind her right after Donovan left.”
“What else did she say?” Madison dug her fingers into the boulder.
“Nothing.” I shrugged. “That was it.”
Jessica crossed her arms and shook her head. “I always knew she was pushed.”
Laurie started mumbling about how Donovan did it. Again. Clearly she didn’t like getting rejected. Jessica disagreed with her and they bickered back and forth, using almost the exact same points Kane and I had in our argument.
Madison’s voice carried over both of them. “I have a theory …”
We all stopped talking and gave her our full attention.
She smiled slowly. “And it’s a good one.”
I shot a glance at Kane, who was still chatting with his teammates on the other side of the fire. He caught me looking and I turned away quickly. He might think I was miserable and needed saving from a bad conversation. But I didn’t want him to come over now, not while things were getting good.
The Dead and Buried Page 11