by Rebel Hart
“That’s the difference between me and the Elites,” he explains. “They may let their personal grievances get in the way of who they help and who they don’t. But at the end of the day, a person is missing and could be in danger. If I have some assistance to offer, I will.”
I smile at him and look away with flushed cheeks. This is the kind of thing that makes Malcolm so attractive, and I don’t know why I can’t make myself fall for him.
“It seems you’re a better guy than me,” I admit regretfully. “Sometimes I feel like the only reason why I want to find Bernadette is so I will have Emmett back all to myself.”
“Don’t beat yourself up too much,” he offers, lightly placing his hand over mine across the table. “She’s not exactly…a pleasant person.”
I think back to when my father shot Thomas Jameson. The sounds of Bernadette’s screams. She was mortified and devastated. Emmett was the one standing there with a calm, cool stare. But his determination to find his sister is somewhat redeeming. He can be loyal to his family. And protective. Just not towards his father.
I feel a renewed sense of hope as we drive to Malcolm’s. Maybe I can finally get a lead on this thing and prove to Emmett that I do care about what he’s going through. Originally, I’d wanted to find Bernadette so I could push Emmett out of my life again. But things changed quickly. Now I want us to find her so I can have more of him.
Chapter Fourteen
BOOK 2
Malcolm’s mansion is nothing like Lily’s or Emmett’s. It’s clean and sleek. Nothing like the old-fashioned classical architecture I’ve seen everywhere else around here. And the inside is the same, with carpets and marble flooring so white I’m scared to walk on it, and bright white walls broken up by modern, abstract art pieces in bright colors that pop against the starkness.
“This place is exactly how I imagined it would be,” I marvel as I take in the clean, minimalist vibe, the big, open, almost too-empty rooms. He shoots me a discerning look. “I just mean…I envisioned it being really modern. With you and your dad being tech guys and all.”
“My place is actually around back,” he tells me as we walk through to the back doors. “I just wanted you to have a glance at the main house. My parents have great decorating taste.”
“You have your own place?”
“My dad already has me doing a lot of work for our company,” he explains. “Coding and developing. Things like that. So, they let me have the pool house so I’d have a quiet place to focus.”
“You’re really lucky,” I gape, wondering if the Hendersons are even wealthier than the Jamesons. It’s not too hard to imagine it by the looks of this place.
“I’m really busy,” he shrugs. “They know I stay focused on work and school and am getting ready to take over the company one day. I don’t fuck around. That’s why they trust me to have my own place like this.”
“Don’t you ever make any time for at least a little fun?” I tease as we walk out into the backyard of sprawling greens decorated with elaborate landscaping and lustrous fountains.
“I just took you to Ritzville tonight, didn’t I?”
“Oh, I’m so sorry. You did and I ruined it.” I shrink in embarrassment. “I was a complete bummer and now I’m just dragging you into doing more work.”
“No, I love this kind of stuff,” he assures me. “It’s way more fun than my real work. I want to do work with investigations and the criminal justice system one day. This is right up my alley.”
“Oh…well, I guess I don’t feel so bad then.” He leads me past their glowing swimming pool to the house nestled behind it. The inside is a lot like his parents’ house, but darker and with a more eclectic vibe. “This place is almost more amazing than the main house. It’s so clean. Let me guess…maids? Everyone around here seems to have those.”
“No, actually,” he corrects me. “I clean it myself. It’s part of my routine. Helps me keep my head together.”
“Wow…new money really is different from old money,” I accidentally blurt out.
“How so?”
“Your work ethic and sense of responsibility,” I clarify, wishing I didn’t have such a big mouth.
“You mean old Emmett doesn’t have those kinds of things?” he chuckles back, making me feel terrible.
“No, he does. I’m sorry,” I wince, squeezing the bridge of my nose. “I don’t know why I said that. You seem to have that effect on me. I keep blurting out all sorts of things around you.”
“Well, here it is.” He waves his hands across the biggest desk I’ve ever seen, neatly organized with various screens and controls. “This is where I do all of my work.”
“It’s a lot more elaborate than my old laptop, that’s for sure.” I admire the setup, wondering what all of the different gadgets could possibly be for.
Malcolm sits down at his desk and goes to work. He babbles off a string of technical jargon that goes way beyond my understanding of computers. I try to keep up, but I mostly just try and stay out of his way. But I’m relieved he seems so knowledgeable and has so many tools at his disposal. Maybe I’ll leave here with something that’s actually useful for Emmett.
“Is this legal?” I ask hesitantly, as he outlines the process of hacking someone’s cell phone data.
“Not at all,” he answers smugly.
It makes me a little nervous, but if you can’t trust the cops around here…what else can you do?
“Okay, I’ve got all of her cell phone data from the past six months,” he tells me after a long string of typing and clicking and speaking to me in what might as well be a whole other language.
“Wow, just like that, huh?” I gasp. “Anything recent?”
“No, it looks like all activity stopped about two weeks ago,” he says as he clicks through pages of encrypted data.
“Sounds about right. Emmett said she had already been missing for a few days before he came to me. What about the last location?”
“It looks like the last traceable on the phone was the Jameson Mall,” he replies, still scrolling through. “But that doesn’t necessarily mean that’s the last place she was. The phone could have died there and never been recharged. Or it could have been dropped.”
“The mall? Huh.” Not a surprising spot, but knowing it’s the last place her phone was used feels important. “Well, that’s more than we knew before. Anything else useful?”
“I can pull up her calls and messages,” he trails off into more typing. “Looks like these were the last numbers she exchanged texts and calls with. The texts seem to indicate meeting up at the mall, which makes sense.”
“What are the numbers?” I ask impatiently. He angles the screen so I can see. He flips through the contacts in his phone, letting me look over his shoulder as he compares them to the ones on the screen. It doesn’t take us long to find a match. “Those are Lily and Vivian’s phone numbers. You don’t think…Do you think this means they have something to do with her disappearance?”
“Based on that alone, I’d be inclined to say no,” he speaks candidly, pursing his lips. “Though you shouldn’t rule it out. Whatever happened to Bernadette could have happened right after meeting up with them. But what’s strange is…if I pull up the records from their numbers…Look at the timestamps here.” He angles the screen in my direction again and points to a transcript between two phone numbers.
“That’s Lily and Vivian talking to each other, right?”
“Yeah…all the way past the meet up with Bernadette. The three of them were exchanging messages up until their locations were traced to the mall,” he explains. “Then Bernadette’s texts drop off. But Lily and Vivian’s continue.”
“So, Lily and Vivian kept using their phones to communicate with each other…” I try to follow along with him. “Even though the three of them were, in theory, all hanging out together in person?”
“It would appear so.”
“Well, what do the messages say?” I ask eagerly. Not only could th
is be a crack in the case, but, out of wild curiosity. I would love to know what those three talk about when no one else is around. “Vivian and Bernadette still had some tension between them after the investigation and everything. Could Lily and Vivian just have been talking shit about Bernadette through texts while they were hanging out with her?”
“The texts don’t look like anything out of the ordinary. But it’s still strange.” He makes a clicking sound against his teeth. “Makes it look like they were coordinating around something Bernadette didn’t know about. Something they didn’t want her to know about. Or maybe just one of them was hanging out with her while the other one kept tabs on them.”
“Like to plan an attack or something?” My eyes dart across the screens, wishing I could keep up with it all.
“Possibly. With this being Bernadette’s last known location and them being the last people she talked to…” he trails off, shaking his head. “It definitely doesn’t look good on their part. The police would definitely consider them their best suspects based on this information. Have you or Emmett confronted them about her disappearance yet?”
“No. Emmett’s been too convinced of their innocence this entire time,” I scoff. “Now he finally has decided to ask them about it…but I don’t know if that’s actually happened yet, or if anything has come of it.”
“Well, you should definitely tell Emmett about this,” he announces as he spins around from his desk to face me.
“Definitely.” I nod with my eyes still glued to the screens. “I want to tell him right away. Would you come with me to talk to him? He’s so paranoid that I’m just accusing them out of jealousy. If you’re there to explain the technical side of it, he might actually take it seriously.”
“I don’t know.” He frowns. “I’d be happy to…but you remember Emmett doesn’t exactly like me anymore.”
“You said the Elites had a lot to do with that,” I uphold optimistically. “I know things appear to be a little weird with him and Vivian right now…but hopefully that’s nothing. And if so, Emmett has changed a lot now that his father’s out of the picture. I know it’s hard to believe, but he’s really nothing like he used to be. Maybe he’s let go of whatever he had against you back then.”
Of course, I can’t bring up just how bad Emmett’s jealousy over Malcolm is. He’d never come if he knew how bad that was. I can only hope he’ll set that aside in light of the news. After all, Emmett asked me to try and set aside my jealousy towards Vivian, considering everything that’s happening. He should be able to do the same.
“If you say so.” He finally nods hesitantly. “I’m willing to try.”
Malcolm prints off large stacks of all of the data before we jump into his car and drive out to Emmett’s motel. I’m relieved his car is outside. If it hadn’t been, I’d have gone into a paranoid fit thinking he was still with Vivian.
“Stay here for a minute,” I tell Malcolm as I unbuckle my seatbelt. “Let me catch him up to speed a little before he sees you.”
“Sure.” He nods with an understanding smile.
I take a deep breath as I walk to his door. I’m still angry with him, but I try to push all of that away in the hope that this will change things.
“Ophelia!” he shouts as he flings open the door, yanking me into his arms. “Where have you been? I waited by your car after practice and never saw you. I’ve been worried sick. I went by your house and everything!”
“Why didn’t you just call me?” I cut my eyes into him, still wondering if he was really with Vivian all afternoon.
“I did!” he shoots back. “Like a hundred times.”
I pull my bag around my shoulder and fish out my phone. The screen is black and not turning on. “Oh, I’m sorry…it’s dead. I didn’t realize.”
But Emmett’s eyes have already settled on the car behind me—on Malcolm waiting inside. “What the fuck,” he growls. “What is he doing here?”
“That’s what I came to talk to you about.” I wave for him to get out of the car and come to the door. “Can we come in?” I push past Emmett before he even has a chance to answer. “Malcolm may have found out something that could help with your sister.”
“You told him about Bernadette?” he thunders, not taking his rageful eyes off of Malcolm.
“I know I shouldn’t have, but we can talk about that later,” I insist hurriedly. “But right now, you really need to hear about what we found.”
“What the fuck are you doing hanging out with her, Malcolm?” Emmett fumes as he marches up to him. “You know she’s mine. You need to back off.”
“Listen, man…I don’t mean any harm.” Malcolm’s hands fly up in surrender, but his tone is even and cool. “I don’t want to cause any trouble between you two. I just want to help.”
“Emmett, please…” I go over and place a hand to his chest, hoping to calm him down. “Just listen to him. It could help us find your sister.”
“Alright, let’s hear it, old buddy,” he says condescendingly, crossing his arms. “Just what is it you think you know about my sister?”
“I traced her phone and went through her messages and calls. Here, I printed it all out for you so you could see for yourself.” Malcolm holds out the stack of papers, but Emmett doesn’t budge to take them. Malcolm tosses them onto the bed next to him instead. “Her last location before her phone dropped off was at Jameson Mall. And she was there with Vivian and Lily.”
“Oh, wow…” he coos cynically “So you mean my sister went to the mall with her friends? Shocking.”
“There’s more,” I insist, holding my hand up to get him to keep listening.
“There was some suspicious communication between Lily and Vivian,” Malcolm continues. “Makes it look like they were planning something against Bernadette.”
“Yeah…those girls are all malicious bitches to each other, you know that.” He shrugs. “They were probably just planning a revenge prank or something like that. This doesn’t prove they’re behind her disappearance.”
“Did you ask Vivian about it yet?” I ask him, growing frustrated.
“She says she doesn’t know anything,” he answers plainly, looking away from me.
“I guess it took her all day to tell you that,” I mutter.
“What?” he bellows.
“Nothing.”
“I want to know what the fuck you two were doing together in the first place,” he demands, bucking his chest up. “Why did you tell him about all of this?”
“We’re just friends, man,” Malcolm offers lightly.
I put myself in Emmett’s path, trying to redirect his attention back to me. “He came back to the track to say hi and saw that I was upset.”
“I bet he did,” he smirks with disgust.
“Stop it! That’s enough!” I snap. “He was just trying to cheer me up, and that’s when I let everything slip about Bernadette. I was upset for you and didn’t know how to help.”
“So, you help by hanging around with this dick?” He glares at Malcolm with hatred in his eyes.
“Malcolm was the only one around when you were off somewhere with Vivian!” I shout back.
“I told you I didn’t want you hanging out with him!” he roars at me before turning back to Malcolm and charging towards him with alarming force. “But since that didn’t sink in, let me try telling you! Stay the fuck away from her!”
“I better go,” Malcolm announces, stepping back toward the door.
“No! You stay!” I command. “Emmett, you’re being ridiculous! Are you not hearing what we’re saying? Vivian and Lily were the last ones to see Bernadette! They can’t just slip their way out of this one. They need to be seriously interrogated.”
“I talked to them at lunch today. They don’t know anything,” he insists. “They’re just as worried as we are.”
“Did they say anything about the mall?” I ask in annoyance. “Or when they last saw her?”
“They mentioned something about the movies, but n
ot the mall,” he replies.
“See!” I shriek, flailing my arms. “Why would they lie about that? Unless they’re not telling you everything!”
“Because they’re airheads?” he sneers. “I don’t know. They probably just forgot.”
“Fucking insane.” I shake my head, wrinkling my chin. “You’re still defending them. This is the first real lead we’ve found on anything and it points straight to them. And you’re still standing here insisting they’re innocent!”
“She’s right, man,” Malcolm backs me up. “I don’t think you should write them off so quickly.”
“You get the fuck out of here!” Emmett charges again, taking him by the shirt collar with clenched fists as he screams in his face. “I don’t want you having anything to do with this! And if you come near Ophelia again, I’ll fucking kill you!”
“Emmett! Stop!” I scream, rushing over to try and pull him off.
“I’m gonna go.” Malcolm tries for the door again. “Sorry for bothering you like this. I hope it still ends up helping somehow.”
“Fuck you!” Emmett pumps his fist. “I don’t trust anything you say or anything that comes from you.”
Malcolm ignores him and turns to me, making it worse. “Do you want a ride?”
I feel pathetic. I know how this must look to him. I should just leave with him now while Emmett is behaving this way. Threatening to kill people in a jealous rage, all because he’s too hung up on his ex to admit to himself that she obviously had something to do with this.
But I still fall back on blaming myself. I shouldn’t have brought him here. I feel like an idiot for not listening to him and realizing how badly it would go. I knew Emmett didn’t want us hanging out, I was just so desperate to turn things around for the sake of his well-being…and our relationship.
“No,” I answer finally with a heavy sigh. “I’ll walk you out.”
“The hell you will!” Emmett lurches forward and grabs my arm.
“Let go of me!” I jerk away from him. “I’ll be right there, Emmett…Jesus! What do you think I’m going to do? Hang all over him with you just a few feet away? Oh, wait…that is what you do with Vivian. So, I guess it’s not that far-fetched.”