Covert

by Natasha Preston

  I smiled at the memory and wished we could go back there. Things were simple and easy then. I was shocked at how much could change in just one little year. My circle of friends had been cut in half, and I had a not-really-a-boyfriend guy friend who I could possibly lose before anything had really happened. I was so tired of losing people.

  "This is all so fucked up, but at least they have the person who did it. We're all okay now," Aaron said, raising his glass to me.

  My hand tightened around the bottle, but I said nothing. Perhaps if they all got drunk one of them might slip up? I didn't have much hope, but it was the only piece of hope I had.

  "Thank God," Megan added. "I knew we would all get through this. We just had to stick together."

  Out of the corner of my eye I saw Aaron raise his eyebrows, and I knew the gesture was for me. I had pretty much accused him of being the murderer when I asked if he planted those drugs on Blake.

  "I'll just be a minute," I said and left the room. They were like strangers to me now. I walked into the bathroom and locked the door so I could make the phone call in private.

  Wright was on the other end of the line almost as soon as he was informed of my call. "Hello, Miss Keaton, what a lovely surprise."

  "Is Blake okay?"

  "Blake is fine," he replied.

  "What's happening? You know it wasn't his, don't you?"

  "Unfortunately, I can't speak about--"

  "Cut the shit," I snapped. "We all know you do nothing by the book, so don't pretend to start now."

  The line was silent for a second and then I heard a quiet chuckle. "I admire your spunk, Mackenzie." Spunk! Who still used the word spunk? "Blake is being questioned."

  "I figured that. You're still looking at who it really is, aren't you?"

  "If you're asking me if you're still a person of interest, yes."

  I sighed in relief. That meant he wasn't jumping on the Blake-did-it train like everyone else. "Good."

  "I find it quite remarkable that you would prefer to still be a suspect."

  "I don't want an innocent man going to prison."

  "Neither do I," he replied. "The evidence we found in Blake's room has been sent for tests."

  "You mean finger printing?"

  "Nothing gets past you, does it?"

  I looked towards where Aaron's room was even though all I could see was the mirrored cabinet on the wall. "A couple things do. You're slightly more transparent than my friends though." Lie.

  "I wish I could say the same about you. Good day, Mackenzie," he said and hung up.

  I walked back to Aaron's room, and they hadn't moved an inch. Taking my seat between Megan and Kyle, I picked up my drink and then thought better of it. They had been alone with it. I didn't trust them.

  Aaron barely looked at me. I couldn't make out if it was because he felt betrayed or was pretending so he would seem innocent. I used to know my friends. I could tell just by an expression what they were thinking. Now I had no clue. All of us being accused had flipped over everything I thought I knew. I was left completely in the dark.

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  I arrived home shortly after they started on the shots. Celebrating Blake's arrest made me feel sick, and if Aaron made one more toast I was going to punch him. Those people were strangers.

  Both of my parents' cars were in the drive which was unusual on a weekday. "Hello?" I called, and closed the front door behind me.

  "Kitchen," Mum replied, and I took a left, under the arched doorway.

  The last time we had a kitchen talk was three and a half years ago and they were giving me the talk after I got together with Danny. I could still clearly remember the horror I felt at having them explain about contraception. Not to mention when Mum slid a condom over a banana. I wanted the ground to swallow me whole. The day I found out I was pregnant I remembered burning the remaining condoms Danny and I had. What was the point of using them if they just split?

  "Sit down, Mackenzie," Dad said. He and Mum were around the kitchen table with a teapot filled with steaming hot tea and three mugs. I sat down and bit my lip, nervous.

  "Blake has been arrested," Mum said, pouring tea into the mugs.

  "Yes, but he didn't do it. I know he didn't."

  "Mackenzie--" Dad started, but I cut him off by holding my hand up.

  "Please, Dad. I know what you're going to say, but I trust him. We've spent a lot of time together, and I just know that he could never do that."

  "How well do you really know him though?"

  I shrugged. "Well. You're the one that always says your gut instinct is never wrong and you should always follow it."

  "And don't I regret that now," he muttered behind his mug and took a sip. "We just want you safe, sweetheart, that's why we think you should stay in until this whole thing blows over." Blows over? He made it sound as if it was snowing outside and I should wait in until it stopped.

  "Dad, I'm fine."

  He pursed his lips and put his drink down. "Mackenzie, I made it sound like a suggestion, and I shouldn't have. You will stay in until the person responsible is in police custody. Do you understand?"

  "I'm almost twenty."

  "I don't care how old you are. You're our child and we will do whatever is necessary to make sure you're safe. Hate us if you want."

  I frowned. "I don't hate you. I understand why you're grounding, sort of grounding, your adult daughter, but it's stupid."

  "Honey, you're our baby and we don't want to upset you, but if anything happened we would never forgive ourselves. Now, if you trust Blake then I do too. You've got a good head on your shoulders, but if you're going to see him when he gets out it will be here when one of us is home."

  Oh, wow, that won't be embarrassing at all! If that's what had to happen for them to be able to sleep at night then I could deal. "Thank you for trusting me about Blake."

  "Is it serious between you two?" Mum asked.

  My eyes widened. "No," I said cautiously. We had slept together and kissed a couple of times. That didn't exactly equal a serious, committed relationship. I knew him as well as you could know a virtual stranger, a bit more because of what we had been through and the amount of talking we had done, but that still wasn't a huge amount.

  "You're not doing that casual thing, are you?" Dad shook his head. "Mackenzie, you deserve better than that."

  "Oh my God, Dad!" My face felt on fire. "That's not what we're doing. We're not doing anything!"

  Mum frowned. "But you are together?"

  "No, Mum."

  "I don't get you kids nowadays," she said. "Why you have to complicate everything I will never know. If two people like each other they should just come out and say so. Such a waste of time going around in circles when you could be happy."

  My parents admitted they liked each other within days of meeting and about a week later they were a couple. It didn't quite work like that these days. Now if a girl admitted she liked a guy straight away she was a bunny boiler and if a guy did it he was a pussy. There were modern day politics you had to consider. Rules you had to adhere to in order to be happy. The young people that jumped into relationships nowadays were desperate and no one wanted a latcher.

  "Can we not talk about this, please!"

  Mum put her mug down to raise her hands. "Alright. You'll let us know when you two sort it out though?"

  "Yeah, will do, Mum." I took a sip of my drink, wishing it were hotter and could scold my throat to save me from the annoying aww-our-daughter-likes-a-boy looks they were giving me. "Dad, do you think you could call the police station and try to find out what's going on? Wright won't tell me much."

  "You're worried about your not quite boyfriend," he said and smirked.

  "If you're not going to do it--"

  "No, no, I'll do it."

  "You guys are being really cool about this? You don't know Blake."

  "We know you. And if you trust him over three people you've known practically your whole life then he can't be
bad," Dad said, standing up. "I'll make that call now." Did I trust him over them? Well, yes. I had proved that many times.

  Mum smiled at me when Dad left the room. A full, toothy smile that I knew was holding something she was bursting to say. No doubt it would be about Blake. I sighed. "Go on, just say it, Mum."

  "Have you kissed?" she asked.

  "Yes," I replied.

  "Oh, I think he's the one!" My mum was an old romantic; she and dad had been together since they were teenagers so she wanted the same for me.

  "Okay, we're really done now." Why did enough mean nothing to your family? I stood up. "I'll see you at dinner."

  "You're hiding out until dinner? You shouldn't be embarrassed to talk about boys with me."

  "Bye, Mum!"

  My mum was also what my friends referred to as a 'cool mum'. She allowed me to stay out late and drink - responsibly and carefully - when I was underage. I never had any big fights with her growing up. I was her only child, so she put a lot of time and effort into me, much more than she would have been able to if she had to split her attention. As a result, we were close, but not as close as she seemed to think we were.

  I left the kitchen and my laughing mother to hover around Dad by the sofa. "No, I know... Well, is there anything you can tell me?" he said into the phone. I knew that meant he was getting nothing as well. I hated waiting around and not knowing. Blake was innocent. How long would it take to prove that?

  He hung up and shook his head. "Sorry, kiddo."

  I shrugged. "Thanks for trying. I'm gonna go watch a couple films."

  My room wasn't like bedrooms in movies where you could sneak out down the drainpipe. Outside my window was a flat brick wall and a long drop onto stones - things that would create noise if something, a person, was dropped onto them. I wouldn't be able to sneak out. Even if I could sneak out I didn't know where I would go. There probably wasn't anything I could do to help Blake anyway.

  I could go back to the cabin? Would that do anything though? There was nothing there. It had been searched, a lot. The police found nothing to tie any of us to the murders. Where else did they search? The woods? They must have. Wright hadn't said anything to us, but that was no surprise.

  I curled up on my bed and tried to think of something, but, of course, there was crap all I could do. I felt like a joke, running around trying everything I could - which wasn't much - to catch a killer when I didn't have the first clue how to do any of it. I was one of those people in films that was so obviously doing everything wrong. So I decided that for once I would do nothing and leave it to the police. Whatever I tried backfired, so I wasn't going to interfere in case I made it worse. Blake didn't need that right now.

  It wasn't fair that he was in the police station being questioned endlessly when the real killer was drinking and celebrating, but until Wright saw that whatever I did would only get in the way. Burying my head in my pillow, I shut my eyes and fell into a restless but much welcomed sleep.

  Something woke me hours later, someone shaking my arm. I groaned and looked at my phone beside me. It showed 9:55PM. Groaning again, I turned to grumble at Mum or Dad for waking me up when Blake's gorgeous blue eyes stared back at me, gleaming with amusement.

  I threw myself at him, unashamed. It took a second for him to hug me back, but when he did, he almost crushed my bones. "You're okay," I said, closing my eyes and clinging to him. "What happened?"

  "My fingerprints weren't on the drugs," he said and chuckled. "And Wright knew it was a set up. It was all too perfect."

  "They know that already?"

  He shrugged. "Wright had it fast-tracked. They already have my prints on file, so it didn't take long to figure out that shit wasn't mine."

  "Whose prints were on them?"

  "Apparently they lifted some, but none are any of ours. Sloppy work planting something that was going to be found clear of my prints. Especially from someone so calculated."

  "They're getting desperate," I whispered.

  "Yeah." He pulled back and looked at me with a stern gaze. "That means they're even more dangerous. I don't want you hanging out with any of them alone anymore. I know I sound like a dad now, but we have no idea what they could do next."

  I rolled my eyes. "I've already been banned from leaving this house."

  "Good." He sat on my bed, pulling me by the hand. "My mum came to the station."

  My eyebrows rose in surprise. I honestly didn't think she would. "She did?"

  "Yeah. She was a proper mum, too, doing the shouting stuff I imagined she would do if Josh was in my situation."

  "That's good."

  He nodded. "It was weird."

  "Good weird?"

  "Good weird," he confirmed.

  "Where's your dad?"

  "Home with Mum at the minute. He wanted to make sure she's okay until I get back. They seem to be getting on. Well, they've not screamed at each other, so it's going better than it has been for the last fifteen years."

  I was so happy for him. He deserved a mum and for his parents to get along so it wouldn't be awkward for him. "What happens now?"

  "With?"

  "The investigation and you."

  "The first one is still on-going, which seemed to piss Wright off, so that's a bonus. And I have to pack up my room at home and move all my shit to my mum's."

  "Really?" I said, trying not to sound as excited as I felt.

  He chuckled. "Yeah. My dad's away more and more, so it makes sense for me to be around family. And you."

  I licked my dry lips. "You want to be around me?"

  He leant forwards, grazing his lips against mine. "That shouldn't surprise you. Apparently it's painfully obvious to everyone else that I like you. I want to be with you."

  What do I say to that! Blake's lips pressed hard to mine and he kissed me fiercely, knotting his hand in my hair. It was a big deal for him to admit that. I pushed myself onto his lap and gripped his back, pulling him closer. Perhaps Mum had something with her just say it attitude after all.

  Blake left mine at half past ten. It was when my parents were going to bed and dropped their not so subtle hint about us not being left alone together. The house was too quiet with Blake at his and my parents sleeping. I had time to think, too much time. All I wanted was to know who it was. The other four of us deserved to live our lives without being watched, judged, and questioned.

  Closing my eyes, I took myself back to that day, yet again. I was determined to figure it out. Blake once told me that I already knew because I knew my friends better than anyone. Recently, I'd thought that was completely untrue after all the secrets that had come out, but maybe that meant I now did know each of them better than anyone else.

  I pictured myself the night before at Josh's house as we all dropped off some of the food and alcohol to be packed in his designated food and drink suitcases. Control freak. Josh had demanded that all the beer, bottles of vodka and fizzy drinks were be delivered to his, so we didn't have to worry about getting it all the following day. Any other drink we wanted to bring was to be brought in our own bags.

  Megan and I were standing in the corner of the living room rolling our eyes at him. Aaron and Kyle were helping him stuff the bottles of booze between packets and boxes of food so they wouldn't get broken.

  Most of the conversation was lost to me, but I vaguely remembered most of it just being about packing and getting 'rat-arsed' all weekend. Besides the obvious of everyone sticking their finger up at Josh behind his back, no one acted any differently.

  I pictured the guys carrying the heavy suitcase out to Kyle's car that was going to stay there the night and us girls following them. I gasped as I remembered Josh making a joke about there being enough alcohol to kill us. The next thing to break its way through my memory was a bottle of Absolut Vodka being slipped through the zip last minute and the crystal clear words 'If you drink that one you will be.' It was said as a joke, and I hadn't even considered that there could be a double meaning to it before n
ow.

  My blood ran cold. In front of me, my mobile started ringing. "Hello," I said numbly into the phone without looking at the caller ID.

  "Hello." I recognised my friend's voice immediately. The next four words that were spoken made my blood run cold, "Mackenzie, it was me."

  I know.

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  I put the phone down with trembling hands. I had to go there now. I had to know why. Creeping out of my room, I made my way downstairs and out of the house. Walking wouldn't take long. I contemplated calling Blake, but for some reason I didn't feel I needed to.

  Even after what he had done I still didn't believe that he would hurt me. I needed to hear it, to understand before I made a decision. There might be something that could be done, some help for a friend that had obviously snapped before he was thrown in prison and forgotten.

  I walked quickly with my heart firmly in the pit of my stomach. Surreal; that was the only word I could think to describe the situation. I was on my way to see my murderous friend, and I was walking eagerly as if I were going to a concert.

  Taking a deep breath, I opened the front door. It was unlocked, as I'd thought. After our phone conversation, there was no way the door would have been locked. Eyes that looked up at me were the same baby blue ones that I loved so much, but they were somehow older now. They had lost their innocence.

  "Aaron," I said, not sure of how to go on. What could I possibly say to him?

  He sat on the sofa, turning his head away as I entered the house and shut the door behind me. Gulping, I walked over to the seating area and sat on the sofa next to his. "Why?" I whispered.

  "They're all on their way," he said, staring at the wall and not me anymore.

  I could smell the harsh scent of brandy on his breath. "How much have you had to drink?" Was that why he was confessing?

  He shrugged. "Not enough."

  Sitting near him felt normal, like we were just going to flick on the TV and watch a film. He killed two of our friends, and I was just having a chat with him! "You called Kyle and Megan, too?"

  "And Blake. I only want to explain this once." Not Blake! I didn't want him near here. He was the odd one out to Aaron. I trusted him with mine, Kyle and Megan's life a hell of a lot more than I did with Blake's.