B00B9FX0F2 EBOK Page 11

  He’d gone around his house with an empty backpack to gather supplies, but after he tossed a flashlight and extra batteries in, he couldn’t think of anything he’d need. Breaking into cars wasn’t his strong suit, Jason supposed. He’d grabbed a ski mask from his closet, and a crowbar — just in case — and waited for his mom and Mark to go to sleep.

  On the drive to Brighton, he tried to picture what he might find in Luke’s glove compartment. Alone in his car, he had to keep himself from getting carried away with the gory visions — a severed hand or loose eyeballs like props from a child’s birthday party. A gun seemed more likely, though no less alarming.

  The house was dark when Jason arrived, and he parked at the end of their street, cutting the engine and calculating his next move. Unlike in the photo he’d seen on Google, there was a silver Mercedes parked in the driveway. Something told Jason that was Mr. or Mrs. Gray’s car, not Luke’s. Which meant the car he was looking for was out of sight and closer to the house. The lone streetlight was out — a small mercy — and Jason felt like a criminal as he crept up the block, the hood of his sweatshirt pulled up around his face, hands shoved into black jeans. He was about to become a criminal, he supposed, what with the breaking and entering. Or just entering. If he got caught, it probably wouldn’t make a difference that he’d had a key. One more reason not to get caught. As if he needed another.

  When he reached the Mercedes, he felt under the bumper just in case, but there was nothing there. He made his way up the driveway as stealthily as he could, keeping close to the hedge that ran along the far side. Though the spring air had a wintery bite, nervous sweat beaded on Jason’s brow as he approached the back of the house. If any one of the Grays happened to look out a window, they’d surely see him; the only question was how long it would take them to call 911 — or decide to take matters into their own hands.

  Behind the house there was a small lot with three cars. One small, the type of practical affair that got good gas mileage, another covered by a tan tarp, and the last a hulking cherry red Jeep. Bingo. He made a beeline and reached under the bumper, glancing behind him to make sure he was alone. There was no one there, but a huge window allowed him to see into the Grays’ empty kitchen. He shivered involuntarily. He was about to give up and check the hybrid when his fingers struck something metallic. He tugged at it, and came away with a magnetized case, inside of which was a key. Luke had upgraded his security system since Lacey had last been here. Jason hoped he hadn’t added an alarm.

  A bass drum seemed to have replaced his heart in his chest, and it pounded away furiously as he slid the key into the passenger-side lock. Part of him hoped it wouldn’t turn. He could slink back down the driveway, take himself straight home, and hide under the covers.

  He coaxed the door open, the creaking hinges banging like thunder in Jason’s ears. The overhead lights popped to life as soon as he did, temporarily exposing him. He winced, and switched the lamp off manually. He was glad he’d had the foresight to bring the flashlight in his backpack, but when its powerful beam nearly blinded him, he cursed himself for losing his pocket-size one in the woods.

  Jason didn’t know whether to be relieved or disappointed that the glove compartment contained no bloody body parts or weapons. He riffled through the paperwork, wondering if perhaps there was a letter, but it was exactly what you’d expect: insurance, a leather-bound manual, and a few straight receipts. He examined them with the flashlight, but they were from gas stations. Had Lacey sent him on a wild-goose chase? It had been so urgent that he come tonight — maybe Luke had moved whatever Jason wasn’t supposed to find. Whoever had texted him seemed to be watching Jason’s every move; perhaps they’d gotten here first. Flipping through the pages of the manual, Jason searched for some sort of clue, and when the computer flash drive fell out, he knew he’d found what he’d come for.

  “Jackpot,” he breathed, feeling for a moment as if he really had won the lottery.

  Quickly, he returned everything to its rightful position and locked the car, and he was about to hurry back to the street when he found himself bathed in light. Over his shoulder he saw a man — Mr. Gray, he presumed — clad in a bathrobe and slippers standing in his kitchen with a bewildered expression. At first Jason froze, and then his reflexes sprang into action. He dropped to the ground. If Lacey’s dad was coming outside, he’d never get to the bottom of the driveway unseen. He looked around wildly, and decided his best hope for concealing himself was the tarp covering the third car. He army-crawled toward it, and had just ducked underneath when he heard the door open and a man’s voice asking, “Is somebody out here?”

  Jason was almost certain he’d left everything exactly as he’d found it, but it felt like an eternity before Ed Gray was satisfied enough to return indoors. The door slammed shut, and though the muscles in his thighs were on fire, Jason continued squatting until he was sure the light had gone off as well. He exhaled deeply and straightened his legs. Only then did he become aware of his surroundings.

  Under the tarp next to Jason was a boxy black Volkswagen. I call her Vinnie cause she’s vintage. He flicked on the flashlight to be sure, this time holding his hand over the front to dim it. His breath caught in his throat. It wasn’t the physical proximity to something that belonged to Lacey that shook him. It wasn’t even the realization that this was definitely the vehicle that nearly ran him down when he was leaving the bridge.

  It was the sight of his cowboy-boot flashlight strewn on the backseat that made his blood run cold.

  His hands were still trembling when he plugged the USB into his laptop. He’d been so numb on the ride home he hadn’t even realized he was shivering. He’d wanted to believe it was Lacey in the car at the bridge, just like he’d wanted to believe it was Lacey in his room the other night. But the threatening messages and the appearance of his flashlight in the car parked at her parents’ house, a place she couldn’t possibly risk being seen, were making it seem less and less plausible. And if it was Lacey, maybe her intentions weren’t as pure as Jason had hoped.

  He rubbed his palms together and waited for the drive to appear on his desktop. A video file called “Summer” popped up, and Jason clicked play, terrified of what might appear on-screen. He was sweating again, the cold perspiration coating his body like ice.

  The picture was blurry — it looked like nighttime. He turned up the audio as high as it would go as some figures sharpened into focus. The dark sky was illuminated by lanterns and tiki torches. He was looking at a backyard. People were laughing and talking, and Jason could only hear male voices, but at the center of the frame was a girl, her neck down so that her blonde hair covered her face. Her narrow shoulders were shaking and Jason thought she might be crying until she tossed her glossy mane back to reveal a big smile. A familiar smile. Lacey’s smile. Jason gasped, feeling foolish as he heard himself. There was something about seeing her in motion that unsettled him, as if a cartoon ghost had come in through the window and taken the seat next to him. But he was alone in the room and the on-screen Lacey was still making a big show of cracking up. The frame grew wider so that Jason could see Lacey facing someone much taller, stooped over her. He squinted. It was Max. It must have been the party at her house he’d mentioned at Michael’s.

  “Is that Max Anderson?” The male voice was off camera and Jason didn’t recognize it.

  “Yup.” Another guy. He sounded like he was holding back laughter, and Jason got the sense this was the cameraman.

  “What’s he doing here?”

  “Dunno, but he’s been talking to Lacey alllllll night.”

  “Has Luke seen this guy?”

  “My guess would be no. Oh man, I hope I can be there when he does.”

  Lacey was bubbly, swatting at Max playfully. The camera captured her as she raised her thin wrists to his chest and pushed him gently. He was more awkward, unaccustomed to the attention. The happy expression on his face didn’t look like it got much regular use.

  The stran
ge out-of-body feeling Jason had experienced at Michael’s came over him again. He was seeing Lacey — his Lacey — for what felt like the first time. How she moved, the way the skin around her eyes crinkled. She was exactly like he’d pictured her. He wanted to protect her, to reach into the screen and into the past and warn her that something terrible was waiting for her on Roxy Choi’s balcony. It was agonizing to observe her like this, but he had no choice but to continue watching helplessly.

  The Lacey on the screen beamed up at Max, and Jason felt that same knot of jealousy tighten in his stomach. The first boy, the one who sounded angry, muttered something Jason couldn’t quite make out as the camera swung around to show a group of athletic guys draped on a cluster of Adirondack chairs on the other side of the yard. Lacrosse players. They look the same at every school, he marveled. He could hear strains of Kanye West in the background — their parties were the same, too. As the camera moved, he realized he’d seen this landscape earlier in the night out of the corner of his eye. It was definitely the Grays’ house. After a minute, the picture went blank, but there were still seven more minutes left according to the progress bar at the bottom of the player.

  When the video resumed, it was quieter, and the lights were much brighter. They were inside, walking down a hallway. There was no one in sight until the camera paused in front of an open door. Through it, he could see Lacey from the side. Freckles dotted her bare arms and the rich cobalt of her top seemed even more saturated against the bright white of her jeans. She was gesturing wildly, and Jason could only pick out snippets of what she was saying. “I can’t … secrets … Luke … just a friend.” The camera angle shifted slightly and now Jason could see all the way into the room. Troy was standing opposite Lacey with his fists clenched, seething. When he opened his mouth, Jason realized he was the angry spectator from the backyard. “Did you bring him here to make me jealous?”

  “Oh, please, as if you’re even paying attention.” They were both getting louder as they grew angrier, and there was something ugly and hard in Lacey’s manner that turned Jason’s stomach.

  “Shh, do you want people to hear you?”

  “I’m starting to think I might. I don’t know if I can do this anymore.”

  “Lacey, think about your brother.”

  “We could make him understand. Besides, why do you care more about what he thinks than me?” She turned toward the door, and the camera swerved wildly around as Jason realized the cameraman was trying to conceal himself. Whoever was shooting the video sped back down the hallway, taking Jason’s view of the unhappy couple along with them. At his computer, Jason threw up his hands in frustration. The scene went black.

  When the picture started back up, they were outside once again. The music had gotten louder and the boys were rowdier. There were two circles. In one, Jason recognized Luke, and watched his eyes lock on Max, who was shifting his weight from leg to leg at the edge of the other circle. Luke charged over. He and Max were the same height, but Luke was wider and bulkier by half. He shoved his chest against Max’s, and Max stumbled backward but stayed on his feet.

  “What are you doing here?” Luke growled.

  Max had seemed uncomfortable before, but now he looked utterly panicked. A confrontation with a lacrosse player was more than he’d bargained for. He stepped back and stuttered an apology. Everyone had stopped what they were doing and turned their attention to the budding conflict.

  “Seriously, you’re not welcome here,” Luke spat. At that moment, Troy stepped into the frame, backing Luke up. Luke was obviously enraged, but the fury Jason had seen in Troy’s face just a few moments before had disappeared everywhere but his eyes, which flashed with anger. In calm, measured tones he told Max to leave.

  Max flushed and started to walk away when Lacey, fists flying, sped across the yard to her brother. Max looked on as they started shouting at each other.

  “I invited him. He’s my friend!”

  “He’s not your friend.”

  Plenty of people were overprotective of their sisters, but Luke’s obsession with Lacey’s social circle seemed like a whole other ball game. Seriously, he will KILL you if he catches you. Could Luke’s lacrosse-fueled rage at the world have crossed over into violence? Was he the reason Lacey had disappeared?

  “I’m so sick of you telling me what to do!” Lacey was shouting on-screen.

  “You can go,” Troy said coldly to Max. “This is a family matter.”

  “Forget it,” Max said quietly, and turned to leave. Instead of stopping him, Lacey swiveled toward Troy and really lost her temper.

  “And you! You’re not my father, you’re not my brother, and you’re not my boyfriend!”

  “Oh snap,” came the cameraman’s giggle from off screen.

  Troy’s voice was choked with quiet fury when he answered. “Good. You’re a mess, Lacey. I wouldn’t date you if you paid me. You deserve to be with someone like Josh Groban over there.” He cocked his head and sneered at Max, who paused on his way out of the yard.

  Jason wished he could see his face, but all the camera captured was the slightest tensing of his shoulders as he registered the insult. In the background, he could see one of the onlookers’ eyes widen. Luke blinked but he didn’t avert his gaze from Max as he shook off the Josh Groban comment and then stalked out of the yard. Troy realized he was being filmed and the expression on his face changed from disgust to obvious frustration. “Come on, Sully, turn that off.” The picture went dark again, and then ended.

  So Troy was the secret boyfriend, and his romance with Lacey wasn’t exactly the stuff of fairy tales. But was that enough to make Lacey disappear? Jason dug around his bag for the photo of Troy he’d found on his desk and examined it again. The way they were avoiding eye contact, the secretive meeting, it made more sense now. Troy would have lost his best friend if the news of his and Lacey’s relationship had gotten out. Maybe Lacey was right when she’d accused him of caring more about her brother’s feelings than her own. Even so, Jason had recovered the video from Luke’s possession, so Troy and Lacey’s relationship couldn’t be a secret to him anymore — and Jason wasn’t sure it ever had been.

  There were still so many questions. Lacey had said they needed this video, but Jason still didn’t understand for what. I hope when this is all over you’ll forgive me. For having another boyfriend? For following him and threatening him? His patience was beginning to wear thin. He logged in to Facebook, on the off chance she was online, but of course she wasn’t.

  Instead he reread Lacey’s last message to him, and then, before he could change his mind, he opened a new e-mail to Jenna. Lacey had said he couldn’t tell Jenna he was going, but now that it was done, he needed help. And after almost getting caught at her house tonight, he wasn’t so keen on blindly following Lacey’s instructions anymore anyway.

  I have something to show you. Can I come over tomorrow?

  Before he pressed SEND he changed “tomorrow” to “today.” It was past three thirty in the morning, and it would be getting light soon. Maybe things would be clearer then.

  Jason would have preferred to go alone. Rakesh had a tendency to steal the spotlight — Jason didn’t want the attention for himself, but he had been hoping he and Jenna could focus on Lacey and piecing together what had happened to her. When Rakesh had heard about the video — and everything Jason had gone through to get it — he insisted on tagging along to Brighton. “Maybe I wasn’t clear about this,” he’d said at lunch, “but when I told you I wanted in on the action, I meant the part where you snuck out of your house and broke into the Brighton lacrosse captain’s car.” Jason had tried to explain that Lacey had insisted on secrecy, but Rakesh took that as license to question Lacey and her motives further, and the next thing Jason knew, he was inviting Rakesh to join him on the excursion to Brighton that afternoon. “You said Jenna’s cute, right?” he asked as they were climbing into the Subaru, and Jason almost kicked him out of the car. But now, as they were sitting in traf
fic, he wasn’t unhappy to have company, even if his company was bouncing along to pop hits on the radio and describing in graphic terms how he’d convince Katy Perry to run away with him if he ever got the chance to meet her.

  “She’d never go for it,” Jason said when Rakesh had finished.

  “Why, because I’m Indian?”

  “Yes, Rock,” he deadpanned. “Your race is definitely the only reason you could not get a girl.”

  “Says the white man.”

  Jason checked his phone. It was fifteen minutes later than he’d told Jenna he’d get to her house, and they were still ten minutes away. He tossed it into Rakesh’s lap.

  “Can you text Jenna and tell her we’re running late. Say ‘I’m running late,’ though; she doesn’t know you’re coming.”

  “Then she has no idea how happy she’ll be when she sees me.”

  “Seriously, I could make you get out of the car right now and walk all the way home.”

  “Great, let me just text Jenna that you’re in love with her and that you made up a bunch of stuff about Lacey to get close to her before I go.” Jason swiped for the phone, but Rakesh pulled it out of reach. “Dude, calm down, I’m telling her we’ll be there soon. Why are you getting so worked up about it anyway? You don’t like her, do you?”

  “No, it’s just that I’m thinking about Lacey.”

  “Ha!”

  “Shut up. I know what you’re going to say.”

  “That you should forget about her? That a girl that has a meathead boyfriend already is not worth your time? That she’s been totally shady with you? That it’s weird that she won’t tell you where she is?”