by Kai Juniper
"I just wanted to get out of there. I didn't see how staying there would help him. I wanted to get to the pay phone, call for help, and be done with it."
"You tried to help the guy. The cops shouldn't punish you for trying to help."
"They shouldn't, but they might. I'm the one who made the decision to leave. Ella, you shouldn't be worried about this. Out of the four of us, you're the least guilty of doing anything wrong." He sits back and gets his phone out to make a call. "Parker, where are you right now?" He listens. "Is Finn there?" Briggs glances at me. "I'm coming over. And I'm bringing Ella." He listens. "No, and shut the fuck up. She's coming, so deal with it." He ends the call. "I told him we'd be there in a few minutes."
I start up the truck and back out of the parking space. "Do they not want me there?"
"Parker still thinks you're the enemy. He thinks you're going to turn against him if we all get arrested. Finn thinks so too."
"I'd tell the truth," I say as I turn down the road that goes to Parker's house. "Do they think telling the truth is going against them?"
"Depends on what you say. Finn doesn't want the cops knowing he was drinking that night."
"So he wants me to lie."
"You can say whatever you want, but you won't be able to prove it. It'll be your word against his."
"And Parker will lie and say Finn was sober." I pull up to Parker's house. "What are you going to say?"
"I don't know yet. When that cop stopped us I told him I was driving Finn's car because I wanted to, but he could come back and say I lied and that I was doing it because Finn was drunk."
"He can't prove it."
"No, but if he can convince a jury I lied, it's another point against me. Spoiled rich kid lying to protect his spoiled rich friend doesn't usually go over well with a jury. Let's go." He gets out of the truck and goes up to Parker, who's standing at the door.
"Why didn't you drive?" Parker asks Briggs, staring at my truck with disgust. "I don't want people seeing that piece of shit here."
"Just shut up and get inside," Briggs says, going past him into the house.
"Hi." I give Parker a smug grin as I follow Briggs into the house.
Parker sneers at me and mumbles something.
"What now?" Finn asks, swigging whiskey from the bottle as the three of us join him in Parker's game room.
"You're done with that shit," Briggs says, swiping the bottle from Finn.
"What the fuck!" Finn struggles to get up from the game chair he was sitting in. "Give it back!"
"You need to be sober when they arrest you," Briggs says, going over to the bar and dumping what's left of the whiskey down the sink.
"They're arresting us?" Parker says, for once sounding concerned. "Today?"
"Today. Tomorrow. Could be anytime now." Briggs walks back to us, talking to Parker. "That cop lady, the one Ella's dad is dating, was asking me all these questions when I was over at Ella's house today." He looks at Finn. "She was asking about you."
"What about me?"
"She asked if we're friends. She also asked about Parker. I think she's starting to putting the pieces together."
"What pieces?" Parker asks. "What does she know?"
"I'm not sure," Briggs says, "but she wouldn't be asking about you guys without having a reason."
"You're worrying about nothing," Finn says, sitting back in the game chair. "You need to get laid so you can stop being so fucking uptight."
"I'm sure Aubrey would be up for that," Parker says, glancing at me. "Unless you're still with Trailer Girl."
"Don't call her that," Briggs shoots back.
"Why?" He laughs. "You're the one who came up with it."
"Just shut up and listen," Briggs says. "There's a good chance this is going to end any day now and I need both of you to keep your mouths shut when the cops show up." He looks between Finn and Parker. "And since I know you both say shit you shouldn't when you're drunk, both of you need to stop drinking."
"Fuck that," Finn says, getting up from the chair. "If I'm being arrested, I don't want to be sober for it." He stumbles to the bar.
"Finn!" Briggs yells.
Finn ignores him and picks up a bottle of rum.
Briggs races over and grabs it. "You do this and I'll tell the cops you were drunk that night."
Finn shrugs. "Go ahead. Let them try to prove it." He takes the bottle back.
"Give me some," Parker says, walking over to Finn.
"You guys are fucking idiots," Briggs says. "You deserve whatever happens to you." He walks over to me. "We might as well leave."
As we turn to go, the sound of a text notification stops us.
Briggs, Parker, and Finn all look at their phones.
"Shit," Briggs mutters.
Parker sets down the bottle of rum.
"What?" I ask, my eyes bouncing between the three of them. "What's going on?"
"Fuck it," Finn says, taking the bottle of rum and downing what's left of it.
"What it is?" I ask Briggs. "What happened?"
He shows me the text on his phone. It reads, Your time is up. I told the cops. They have the video. I'm sad our little game has ended, but it was fun while it lasted. Don't feel bad, boys. At least you're not dead.
Chapter Twenty-Two
Briggs
This is it. It's over. I knew it was coming and I can deal with it. I've dealt with a lot worse. Going to jail will be nothing compared to the hell I've been living in with my father.
"Did you play it?" Parker asks me.
"Play what?"
"Didn't you see the link?"
I check my phone, scrolling down to the end of the text. "I didn't see it." I click on the link and it takes me to a black screen with a play button.
Ella's next to me, looking at my phone. "Let's all listen to it together."
We walk over to the bar, standing across from Finn and Parker. I set my phone on the bar and press play.
"Police," a man says. "How can I help you?"
"I'd like to report a crime." The voice sounds like a guy, but someone young, maybe even younger than me.
"Is this happening right now?" the man asks.
"No. It happened back in January. I was afraid to come forward. I didn't want them to find out and do something to me."
"Tell me what you saw, and who was involved."
The guy with the young-sounding voice describes what happened that night. He says he went out there to be alone and think, and that he'd done it before and always goes to the same spot, up on the hill that overlooks the curve in the road. He said that night he heard a loud noise and looked down to see what happened. From there he describes what he saw—Ella and I going to help the guy and Parker and Finn wanting to hurry up and leave. He doesn't mention names. He just describes us by how we look, like 'the skinny guy' for Finn and 'the muscular guy' for me. He refers to Ella as 'the girl'.
"Would you be able to identify these people?" the man at the police station asks.
"Yes. Finn Kingsley was driving the Range Rover. Parker Sterling was in the front passenger seat. He was the one agreeing with Finn that they should leave and go to a party."
"What about the other two?"
"Briggs Chadwick. He was the one helping the girl with the victim. They're the ones who moved him to the side of the road."
"And the girl?"
"I don't want her getting in trouble."
"Sir, this isn't about getting people in trouble. It's about finding out who's responsible for a man's death."
"It wasn't her. She was in the back seat. She wasn't driving. And she tried to help. She didn't want to leave. She wanted to stay with him."
"I understand that, but do you have her name?"
"Ella Quinn," he says. "But she's innocent. She didn't do anything. You'll see it on the video. I'm sending it right now."
"You have a video of what happened?"
"Yes, but the sound isn't great. That's why I told you what I heard them saying."
"And what is your name, Sir?"
"I want to remain anonymous."
"We may need you to testify if that video you're sending isn't enough to make an arrest."
"I'm not ready to reveal myself yet."
"Is there anything else you'd like to tell me?"
"No. Not now. The video has been sent to your tip line."
"We'll look it over. Call us back if you have anything else to tell us."
The recording ends.
After hearing it, I'm relieved, but also confused. Whoever recorded that almost made me sound innocent. He said I was the one who said we should leave the scene but only because I wanted to call for help. The cops will ask why I didn't just use my cell phone, but I could lie and say I didn't know I had cell reception out there.
Whoever this was also protected Ella. He did everything possible to convince the man on the phone that Ella shouldn't be punished.
"Who the fuck was that?" Finn says. "It sounded like a kid."
"It's definitely not a teacher," Parker says. "Who do we know at school that sounds like that?"
None of us answer.
"Why was he sticking up for you two?" Finn glares at Ella and me. "You're just as guilty as us."
"I don't know." I look at Ella. "You got any ideas?"
"No," she says, but I think she might be lying. I know Ella well enough by now to know when she's not being truthful.
"When do you think he did this?" Parker asks.
"Probably just now," I say.
"So the cops are on their way over here."
"I'm guessing they'll take some time to look at the video before they show up."
Parker shoves Finn. "Let's get out of here."
"Shit yeah." Finn darts around the bar and runs to the door, Parker right behind him.
"You can't run from them!" I yell after them. "They'll find you!"
"Just let them go," Ella says. "They won't listen to us."
"Fucking idiots."
Ella turns to me. "What should we do?"
"I say we go back to your house and talk to that lady."
"Susan?"
"Yeah. She's the one handling the case. Maybe we can get to her before she sees the video and give her our side of the story."
"She may have already left."
"Let's go find out."
We go out to the truck and drive back to Ella's house. As expected, Susan is gone. She probably got the call from the police station telling her there was new evidence in the case.
"Now what?" Ella asks, breathing fast. "What do we do?"
"We wait." I take her hand. "Come sit down." I bring her to the couch.
"I can't just sit here. I'm freaking out!"
"Ella." I turn to her. "You heard the guy on the phone. He was trying to protect you. He told the cops you're innocent. Nothing's going to happen to you."
"Just because he told them that doesn't mean I won't get charged with anything. The cops will see the video. They'll see that I left, and if the audio's bad and they can't hear me, they could assume I was okay with us leaving the guy there. They could even think it was my idea."
"They're not going to think that."
"They will if Finn and Parker tell them that's what happened. Those guys hate me. You know they'll try to put this on me and make it sound like I'm the one who convinced them to leave the guy on the road."
"I'll tell the cops they're lying."
"So it's us against them. Who are the cops going to believe?"
"We need to figure out who made that call. If we can find him, we can try to convince him to come forward and testify so we have another person on our side."
"I think I might know who it is." Ella gets up and paces back and forth. "I'm not sure, but I swear it sounded just like him."
"Yeah? So who do you think it is?"
"Calvin."
"The tech geek?"
"Yes. I'd have to listen to it again, but I'm telling you, it sounded just like him."
"I didn't think so."
"Because you never talk to him. You don't know his voice." She sits next to me. "Play it again."
I bring it up on my phone. Even hearing it a second time, I still don't think it sounds like Calvin.
"I think it's someone else," I say.
"No, it's definitely him." She gets up. "Let's go."
"Where are we going?"
"To Calvin's house." She grabs her keys from the counter and heads to the door.
"Ella, wait!" I hurry to catch up to her as she goes outside. "It's not Calvin. And if it was, he wouldn't admit it."
"Think about it." She locks the door behind me and heads to the truck. "Calvin's a tech genius and his dad owns companies overseas. He'd know how to send messages from a short code and make it so we can't find out where it's coming from."
"He told you where it's coming from," I say as we get in the truck. "You asked him to find out."
"Which is the perfect cover," she says, taking off down the road. "By playing along and pretending he was helping me, I'd never suspect he was the one sending the texts."
"I still don't think it's him."
"Think about the stuff he made you do. Giving to charity. Standing up for someone. Having lunch with someone you'd normally pick on. He was trying to teach you to be nice to people so you'd stop picking on him and his friends."
"I could see Ms. Higgins doing that too."
"But it wasn't her. She was on a date that night, and the person on that recording is a guy."
"It could've been another teacher."
"Not with a voice like that. Briggs, I'm telling you, it's Calvin. The more I think about it, the more it makes sense. You, Finn, and Parker have tortured Calvin and all the other tech guys for years. That's why they hide in the computer lab. It's their safe place. The one room where they can be themselves and not have to worry about you punching them if they look at you the wrong way."
"I never punched them."
"You've threatened to, and so have Finn and Parker."
"That still doesn't prove Calvin was the one doing this."
"Guess we're about to find out." Ella pulls up to the gate and punches in the code.
"How do you know the code?" I ask as the gate opens.
"Calvin gave it to me when I gave him a ride home." She glances at me. "Hey, why did you help him that day he fell in the hall?"
"I thought he was hurt. He tripped and fell flat on his face."
"But you'd usually just walk by, not help him."
"When he didn't get up, I thought he'd knocked himself unconscious. I was going to get someone to help, but then I saw him move. I think he was afraid I was going to do something if he got up, so he stayed on the floor, hoping I'd leave."
We're standing at the front door now, and I'm noticing how similar Calvin's house looks to mine. It's a cold, industrial design with lots of black metal. Even the door is metal—plain, black metal with no glass cutouts for light.
"Aren't you going to ring the bell?" I ask Ella.
She leans in toward the house. "You hear that?"
"Hear what?"
"The yelling. It sounds like they're fighting."
"Who?"
"Calvin and some guy. Maybe his dad?"
"It's probably a brother. Does he have a brother?"
"No, and he said his dad isn't home much. He travels for work."
A loud thud startles Ella and she steps back. "You had to have heard that."
I did, and it was eerily familiar, like the sound of...
"Shit." I try the door and find it's unlocked.
"What are you doing?" Ella asks, following me inside. "You can't just—"
"What did I tell you?" a man yells.
The voice is coming from down the hall.
"I'm sorry," I hear Calvin whimper.
I hear that familiar thud again, the sound of a body hitting a wall.
"When will you learn?" the man yells.
I run down the hall, follo
wing the sound to a room at the very end. The door is open and I run in and see Calvin huddled against the wall, his body curled in a ball as the man in front of him gets ready to strike him.
Racing up behind him, I grab the guy's arm and whip it back. "Don't you fucking touch him!"
He turns to me, and when I see his face, I immediately see the resemblance. He's Calvin's father.
"Who the hell are you?" he yells.
"I'm a friend of your son's, and if you touch him again, I'll punch you so fucking hard you'll be on the ground."
"This is a private residence! Get out of here or I'll call the police!"
"Go ahead. I'd love to tell them what I just saw."
"You didn't see anything. I was having a disagreement with my son."
He sounds just like my father, acting like this is normal, like it's just a form of discipline. He's dressed like my father too, wearing a very expensive suit. His tie is loosened the same way my father loosens his before he hits me.
"How did you even get in here?" he demands.
"I invited him," Calvin says, his voice quivering. "He goes to my school."
His father looks back at Calvin. "Why didn't you tell me you were expecting company?"
Calvin doesn't answer. He's shaking, like he's afraid any answer he gives will make his father hit him again.
"I didn't tell him when I'd be here," I say.
Calvin's father notices Ella standing in the doorway. "Who are you?"
"I'm friends with Calvin," Ella says.
"You two need to leave," he says. "My son can't have guests right now."
"We're not going anywhere," I say, folding my arms over my chest. I'm a good five inches taller than this guy and have a lot more muscle. Calvin's dad is thin, almost too thin. I could easily overpower him, but Calvin couldn't. He's short and skinny with no muscle tone.
"If you think I won't call the police, you're wrong." Calvin's father gets out his phone. "What's it going to be? Leave, or be arrested for trespassing?"
"Didn't you hear your son?" I say. "He invited us. But go ahead and call the cops. You've got three witnesses that saw what was going on here."
"You think the police will believe three teenagers?" he huffs. "I'm a billionaire. A respected leader in the tech world. I own multiple businesses."
"Yeah, I know who you are," I say. "Doesn't mean you get to beat up your kid. I think the cops will agree with me."