Investigating Julius Drake

by daisy harris

  “Catfishing?” His forehead creased.

  Clearly, I was going to have to explain things slowly.

  Another man walked up. “Catfishing is an internet hoax where someone pretends to be something they are not.” His voice was deep and commanding. Unlike the police officer, this man wore slacks, a buttoned shirt, and a fleece sweater under a jacket. His outfit was black and navy, though, so it was hard to tell whether it was a uniform or simply conservative clothing. “Usually these accounts are harmless—and they are impossible to prosecute unless they escalate to fraud.” Holding out a hand, he said, “I’m Detective Estrada.”

  Julius eyed the man with suspicion. But I shook his hand. “Henry Walker. This is Julius Drake. He’s my friend. We go to school together. At Clinton Academy.”

  The detective smacked his lips, pulling a small tablet computer in a waterproof case from his pocket. “Clinton Academy.” He pressed a button to activate the screen. “You’ve had some trouble there lately, haven’t you?”

  Julius rushed to speak, but I stopped him with a squeeze of his shoulder. “Yes. Hal Stubenmeyer and Todd Terwillager were both in contact with this account called The Other Woman. She was mostly active on Instagram.” I cleared my throat. “That’s what we heard, at least.”

  Estrada raised his eyebrows. “So you believe the girl we picked up just now was behind this?”

  “Check her phone,” Julius blurted, his eyes bright. “She’s probably deleted messages, but I’m sure they can be recovered.”

  A small quirk of the lips was the only hint that Estrada was amused. “As it turns out, I’ve heard about this account. And I want you to know that even if this is the girl, and what she’s done amounts to emotional abuse . . .” He sighed, rolling his eye. “Sadly catfishing is not a crime.”

  I blinked, the air going out of my lungs. We’d done all this for nothing. Worse, Maude would walk away free to mess with people again.

  “However, holding people at gunpoint and trying to force them to jump from a bridge is, in fact, a crime.” Estrada frowned. “So if you two would like to give statements to that effect—”

  “Yes. Definitely.” I gave the detective a big smile, suddenly not cold anymore.

  The detective turned to Julius. “And you?”

  “I’m happy to.” Julius narrowed his eyes. “But I don’t want my parents involved.”

  Estrada slid his jaw, like he was chewing on that information. “Legally, your parents don’t need to be notified.”

  I breathed a sigh of relief.

  “But if you need to come to the station for further questioning, you might want them to drive you. And I’m sure you’d want them to know—”

  “No,” Julius and I said in unison. “We don’t.”

  “But, generally we do call—”

  Julius stood taller, staring Estrada down. “My parents stay out of it for now, or I’m not telling you anything.”

  “Fine.” Estrada shook his head in frustration. “Why don’t you tell me what happened?”

  “Your friend Bethany will be sorry she missed this.” Mrs. Hundstead set three tubs of ice cream on the kitchen counter and puttered around the Drakes’ kitchen with a huge smile on her face. When she passed me, she rubbed my hair.

  With everything that had happened, I wasn’t sure I could stomach food, but it felt great to be sitting by the kitchen island, rehashing the night’s events with my surrogate family. “Yeah. She’s gonna freak out when I tell her tomorrow.”

  “You’re just lucky the police dropped you off here instead of home, fetus.” Natasha shouldered past to get at the ice cream, knocking me in a good-natured way. “Your mom would have freaked out if the police pulled up in front of your place, right?”

  “Probably.” Seeing Natasha’s spoonful of ice cream made my stomach growl. I reached past her to help myself to some. “Lucky she’s at work, but she’ll be home by morning.” I yawned as I filled a bowl. By the time Estrada had questioned me and Julius and dropped us off, it had been almost midnight, and the high of catching Maude was fading fast.

  I’d borrowed some of Julius’s clothes to change into, but I couldn’t sleep over. Unfortunately, I had to be in bed when Mom got home or there would be hell to pay.

  “Do you need a ride, Henry?” Mrs. Hundstead wiped her hands on her apron.

  “No, thanks.” The mint chocolate chip tasted amazing, and I wolfed down my scoop in a few spoonfuls. I didn’t want to ask Mrs. Hundstead for anything else, given she was taking the time to feed me at one in the morning. “I can walk.”

  “You can borrow my bike.” Julius, who’d been quiet since speaking with the police, set down his bowl of ice cream. It was vanilla, which for some reason I found intriguing. I’d have expected him to like something more exotic. Apparently, I’d picked up on Julius’s habit of noticing little details.

  “Thanks.” I gave him a smile to cover my nerves. I still wasn’t sure how I’d handle being around him now that he knew how much I liked him.

  “I’ll walk you out.” All business, Julius headed past me to the door.

  Mrs. Hundstead gave me a warm hug. “The Drakes are in St. Thomas for another few days. Feel free to come here whenever you like. Anytime there’s no one at your home, okay?”

  Her clothes smelled like chicken soup and muffins. I sighed happily. “Thanks. I’m sure I’ll take you up on it.” I could make spaghetti, but not much else. Without Mrs. Hundstead, I’d be living on frozen pizza.

  “Coming?” Julius’s eyes focused intensely on mine.

  “Yeah. Sure.”

  Cloud cover hid the stars, revealing only a dim, foggy moon. Julius’s bike leaned against the garage door.

  “Maude Ward is an interesting girl,” Julius said to no one in particular as he strode across his driveway. He didn’t seem able to look at me. Instead, he spoke to the air by the side of my head. “I can’t tell if she was so smart or whether she was simply reckless enough to draw people out.”

  “Do you think they’ll be able to dig that website out of her search history?” I asked. Hopefully, the police could do something to shut it down.

  “We can hope so.” Julius nibbled the edge of his lip, eyes darting to me, then the ground, then me again. “At least Liz will know who was behind The Other Woman now.” He grabbed his bike’s handlebars, pulling it away from the wall. “And Zoe will figure out what her sister has been doing to her.” Though he clearly was going to hand the bike to me, he pumped the brakes and shifted it back and forth.

  “Listen . . .” I shored up my courage. “What Maude said . . . about things I’d told her . . .”

  Julius shook his head. “It’s forgotten.”

  I pressed my lips together, wondering if he meant he wouldn’t share my secrets, or whether he didn’t care that I thought he was cute. The latter made me panic, so I blurted, “You know I was never into Thea, right?” I’m not sure why I said that. Maybe because I’d admitted everything to Zoe_2.0. It was time to admit them to the person that mattered. “I get along with her okay, but in terms of the other stuff . . .”

  “You kissed her.” Julius kept his gaze downward, like he was counting the laces on my shoes.

  “I shouldn’t have done that.”

  Julius shrugged.

  Slowly, I took a step forward. Usually when I was close to Julius, all I could see was his shoulders or his jaw. I’d focus on his eyes or his hair or some conglomeration of body parts that put together a package I wanted. But at that moment, all I saw was Julius. He was beautiful.

  Awkwardly, I grabbed his shoulder. And I moved so my lips touched his. For a second that stretched like a rubber band, I kissed him. He tasted like vanilla ice cream. His breath brushed my upper lip.

  I stepped away quickly, my pulse beating loud in my ears. “There. Now you and Thea are even.”

  He regarded me steadily, with eyes the color of the moon.

  “Well, bye.” Kicking over his saddle, I mounted the bike and hoped he didn’t
notice my blush. “See ya in school tomorrow.”

  “Good-bye, Henry.”

  My heart soared. Though I wanted to stay there for hours just looking at him, I began pedaling up the hill. Julius likes me, just as much as I like him. A minute later I streamed down Madison Street, grinning, flying through the night.

  “I’m so glad you’re home.” My mom rushed at me when I came home from school the next day, and planted a kiss on my cheek. “I missed you.”

  I pushed her away, teasingly. “Not drinking are you, Mom?” Usually when she smiled this wide it was because my dad had messaged to say he was back on base.

  “You know I’m not.” She ruffled my hair. “Though now that you mention it, maybe I’ll go out with the girls from work tonight to celebrate.”

  “When did you hear?”

  “I got his message when I was at work.” I went to my bed to put down my backpack as she shuffled into her bedroom and came out with her computer. “He said we could chat as soon as you came home.”

  “Yeah, sure.” I took off my sweatshirt, but paused with it balled in my hands. My belly tensed. All day, I’d been planning how to talk to her about Julius. But now that I was here, I didn’t know how to bring him up. “Can I talk to you about something first?”

  “Of course.” She set her computer on the coffee table “What’s up?”

  Although I wanted to pace, I sat next to her. “So you know Julius? My friend?”

  She nodded. “He seems very nice.”

  “I guess. But . . . he’s gay.”

  “Oh. Well, I can’t say that comes as a huge surprise.” She scratched the back of her neck. “Are you asking my opinion on that?”

  “No.” I stared at the knees of my jeans, my cheeks hot. “But you’re cool with that? Julius being gay?”

  She took a deep breath. “I can’t see why I’d have a problem with it. He is as he is. I wouldn’t expect him to change to make me more comfortable.”

  My eyes were getting moist; I wiped them with the heel of my hand.

  “Henry, is this really about Julius?”

  I shook my head. “No. I mean, yeah—Julius is gay. But so am I.”

  “Ah.” She closed her eyes. For a long second, she didn’t say anything, and my heart fell. But then she reached for my hand and squeezed it. “So that’s what you’ve been so worried about lately?”

  I let a tear fall. Fuck, I’d been worried about so many things—someday I’d tell her about Maude Ward. But being gay? That admission had been a long time coming. “I didn’t want to say anything, but—”

  “It’s fine, Henry.” She took me by the shoulders and looked me in the eyes. “Really. I love you no matter what.”

  Nodding, I choked out a “Yeah.” Then, “Thanks.”

  She patted my shoulder and gave me a hug. Her computer loomed in front of us on the coffee table, reminding me that we weren’t just a two-person family.

  “Are you going to tell your dad?” my mom asked.

  I thought about it, picturing how it would feel to make that kind of statement over Skype. “No,” I said. Then, with more conviction, “I’d rather wait until—”

  “I understand. He’ll be fine with it, you know.”

  I wiped my face. “Yeah.” Still, I wasn’t ready. Not until I saw him in real life. “But can I wait?”

  “Sure.” She smiled and patted my cheek. “As long as you need.”

  “Thanks.” I took a deep breath.

  “Do you want to Skype your dad now?”

  “Yeah.” Who knew when he would be around again? I didn’t want to miss the chance to talk to him.

  “Give me a sec to open it.” My mom logged in and set her computer to connect. Then, leaving me at the coffee table, she ran into the kitchen area and poured herself a glass of wine.

  “Hurry up,” I called. The screen filled with gray snow and then flickered to show barracks and a head of close-cropped hair.

  “Hey there, kid.” My dad smiled from the screen. He was more tanned than the last time I’d seen him, and maybe had a few more wrinkles around his eyes. Otherwise he was the same as always. Same strong jaw and kind eyes. His were blue, the same color as mine. Turquoise instead of Julius’s ice.

  “Hey, Dad.” I swallowed, because now that I saw him, all my worries faded away. He’d still love me when I told him. That was what mattered.

  “How’s school? You settling in?”

  My cheeks were wet, though I didn’t know how they’d gotten that way again. I wiped them with the back of my hand. “It’s great. The people are cool.”

  “Henry’s got a whole bunch of new friends,” Mom called past my shoulder. “But his best friend is—”

  “Julius,” I interrupted. “My best friend is Julius.”

  “A guy friend, huh?” Dad gave me an easygoing smile. “That’s a change. You still in touch with Sophie from Texas?”

  “Yeah.” I knew he thought Sophie and I had been dating, and I didn’t feel the need to correct him. “But I’m not close with her anymore.”

  “Henry’s also good friends with this sweet girl named Bethany,” Mom piped up. “The three of them are always together.”

  “That’s good,” Dad said. “I knew you’d settle in.”

  “Yeah. And I’m friends with Thea too.”

  “Two girls chasing you around, huh? Well, that doesn’t surprise me.” Dad gave me a satisfied grin. “Reminds me of my own high school days.”

  “Oh shush.” Mom gave me a conciliatory eye roll and scooted so she could fit on the camera. “Stop showing off.”

  From the excitement in her eyes, Mom was eager to talk to my dad alone, so I gave him a wave. “Welcome home. I’m going to go study at a coffee shop so you guys can discuss grown-up stuff.”

  “Thanks, son. That would be nice.”

  Mom touched my arm. “Thanks.”

  I was out of the camera’s range now, and she met my gaze with soft, knowing eyes. My chest grew warm.

  “I’ll be back by nine,” I lied for my father’s benefit.

  My mom squeezed my hand, her amused grin showing she knew perfectly well I wouldn’t be back until ten. “That would be great.”

  I leaned my bike against the side of Julius’s garage that Friday. He’d missed school that day and the day before for his psych assessment and as I knocked, I worried about how things had gone.

  “Oh, hello, Henry.” Mrs. Hundstead gave me her usual chipper smile as she let me in.

  “Hey, Mrs. Hundstead. Is Julius home?”

  “Yes. He’s upstairs.”

  The house was empty as I made my way up to the second floor. From Julius’s room came classical music.

  “Hey, Julius.” I knocked. “Can I come in?”

  “Yes. Indeed.”

  Before I could turn the handle, Julius dragged open the door. Smiling, he pulled me inside.

  “Dance, Henry.” He took my hand, and tried to spin me around. “I have good news.”

  I laughed as I held on to his shoulders. Two spins was all I could do before my feet caught under me. Next thing I knew, I’d tripped over the beanbag chair and sprawled onto the bed.

  “Jesus, Henry.” Julius landed next to me, laughing. “You can’t dance at all.”

  “I take it the assessment went well?”

  Julius grinned like a shark. “Swimmingly.” Bolder than usual, he pushed me in the side, then rolled on top of me. “My parents won’t receive the results for a few weeks, but I told him about Maude Ward’s arrest, and I do believe he took me at my word.” His eyes crinkled. “He actually said, ‘I know you’ve had some problems in the past, and that you still struggle sometimes with how to handle your frustrations. But rebelliousness, mood swings, and impulsivity are fairly normal at your age. I’d like to help you work on some healthy coping mechanisms, if you’d allow me. But whether you choose to continue seeing me is up to you.’” Julius cocked his eyebrows. “Can you believe it?”

  What I couldn’t believe was that J
ulius remembered all that. Then again, I’d seen him retain details that I never would have recalled myself. “So, are you going to tell him about Kyle?”

  Julius stared down at me, licking his lips. I thought he might kiss me for real, but he just pecked my cheek and hopped off. “That depends. I do think I’ll keep seeing him, though. If nothing else, it will make my parents happy.” He dug in his drawers and pulled out a shirt. I couldn’t see his expression, but the tops of his ears were pink. “I mean, the man’s not a total nincompoop. I’ll give him that. And if I have to be under the care of someone, it may as well be a person who’s willing to take my side.”

  I rose up onto my elbow, struggling to phrase my question so it wouldn’t offend him. “Did he say anything about medication?”

  Julius pulled off one shirt and hurried into another. “He recommended I stay on my usual antidepressant for now.”

  My mood lifted. Wow. Maybe for once Julius’s parents had sent him to someone who wasn’t a total ass.

  “It doesn’t hurt that the man is gay.” Though he didn’t lift his head, I spotted dots of pink on his cheeks. “Not that my parents know that.”

  “Ahhh. Yeah, that would help.” I climbed off the bed and went closer to where he was standing. “Well, I’m psyched for you.”

  “Silly.” Julius spun, and smacked my arm playfully. “How should we celebrate?”

  “Ice cream, maybe?”

  He slapped his hands together. “Good call. The place in Madison Park is wonderful.”

  “Yeah. Let’s do it.” It occurred to me that this would be our first public date. Did I dare suggest a second one? I bounced on the balls of my feet. “Hey, were you planning to go to that Halloween dance next week? The one at school?”

  Julius picked up his wallet and shoved it in his pocket. “I wasn’t. No.”

  “Bethany and those guys are going.”

  Julius raised his eyebrows. “Are you asking me to come with you?”