by Harper Shaw
“Um, well.” His answer was even more clipped than Rebecca had expected.
“You look good.”
“Thanks.” If anything, Bruce had filled out some more since high school, but he was still slender, possibly a little more muscular. He wore thick-rimmed glasses, but they didn’t diminish him at all. His brown hair cut short right above his ears. “You, too.”
“I took a look around your store before your worker came and got you. It’s a nice place you have here, Bruce.”
“Yeah, I guess it is.” He was still shy it seemed. They stood in silence.
“How long have you been in business?”
“Started after college.”
“Oh, cool.”
“Yeah.” Another bout of silence came. Then, Bruce said, “What’ve you been up to?”
“Nothing much. I work at the police department over in El Paso. I’m on leave right now, though.”
“Why?”
“Monica’s parents are suing me.”
“That’s not good.” Bruce’s eyes went to his feet. “I hope it gets resolved soon.”
“Yeah, me, too. Brings all those memories back. Doesn’t it?”
“Are you staying with your parents?” Bruce asked.
“Oh, yeah. My mom is driving me crazy!” Rebecca chuckled. “What else are you up to?”
“I don’t know. Just the store, I guess.”
“You know who I saw yesterday?” She didn’t know how else to segue.
“Who?”
“Jennifer! Has she come to talk to you, too?”
“No, really? I didn’t even know… She’s in town?” His eyes widened some at that. In high school as a Dungeons and Dragon nerd, Bruce had somehow wound up dating Jennifer. Things didn’t go well, though. He’d turned out to be less the sweet-and-doting-nerd type and more the possessive-paranoid-nerd type. Something about how he reacted when Rebecca mentioned Jennifer made her wonder if he was still hooked on her. He’d been obsessed back then.
“Yeah, we went out for lunch yesterday.”
“That’s nice.”
“Have you been following her much? It seems like she’s doing well just like you.”
“I mean, I see stuff sometimes, but nothing regular, you know? It’s been a long time since high school and all of that.”
“Hasn’t it?”
The girl from earlier came up behind Bruce and tapped him on the shoulder. “Bruce, there’s someone looking for the Star Girl Tetralogy, but I couldn’t find book three.”
“Um, it should be in the back by the S’s.”
“I know, but I still couldn’t find it. Can you come help?”
“Sure, sure.” Bruce turned back to Rebecca. “It’s been nice catching up, Rebecca, but I think I have to go. Sorry.”
“No, I understand. Um, is it possible to point me to the bathroom?”
“If you go to the far-left hallway all the way down, it’s the second door on your right.”
“Cool, thanks, Bruce.” Waving, Rebecca proceeded through the store and down the hallway to the back area. Instead of stopping at the second door, she kept on through until she got to a door labeled AUTHORIZED PERSONNEL ONLY.
Smirking at the sign, she checked the doorknob. Unlocked.
As she entered the room, Rebecca saw a break area in the front. It was small, consisting of a table, a couple of chairs, a microwave, and a fridge. She noticed an office and entered through that door. When she clicked the light on, she couldn’t believe what she found.
“Wow, Bruce, and you haven’t seen her?” The walls were plastered with photos of Jennifer in all forms. Most of them were bikini ones from her tour, but it seemed he even had a few that came from paparazzi shots, too. “If he had all this, he had to have known she was in town,” Rebecca said to herself, snapping a few pictures in case she wanted to come back to it (not that she planned on it).
Back when Monica died, Jennifer had convinced Bruce to go with the story. He’d only done it because she said so. That meant it wouldn’t be a far fetch for him to ruin her now on Jennifer’s beck and call.
Mentally crossing Bruce off her list of potential allies, she snuck out and went back to the hallway. She was right in front of the bathroom door when she saw Bruce again.
“Bye, Bruce!” Rebecca waved. “Nice seeing you.”
“Yeah,” Bruce muttered, a tight smile on his face as he walked back to his office, to those photos. Rebecca inwardly shuddered.
Taking off, she hoped those posters hadn’t burned themselves too deeply into her brain. As much as she hated Jennifer, that was just plain creepy.
Chapter Nine
“I think it’s burned into my retinas,” Rebecca muttered, taking a few moments to collect herself outside Bruce’s comic book shop. He was definitely a bust and probably couldn’t be trusted, though she still wasn’t sure whether he had actually spoken to Jennifer. From those photos, it seemed like those two were more prone to distance than the proximity a phone call would require, so she may have been safe for now.
Getting into her car, she stabbed the key into the ignition and started on the road back home to her parents’ house.
“Who should I look up next?” she asked herself, tapping the steering wheel. So far, the reunion with the Beach Heads was going less than swimmingly. Old tensions die hard, she guessed.
There was one obvious choice of who to contact next, but she was thinking of avoiding him. That was, until she passed a large Calvin Klein billboard. The man on it Dennis Lopez. He’d look as handsome and fit as he did when they’d gotten close that one summer and had their fling. Maybe it was his turn.
“Dennis, it’s been too long. You look good, though. I saw you on one of those Calvin Klein underwear billboards,” she practiced. “Yeah, he’ll like that…” If Dennis was anything like he had been in high school, he would still be full of himself. After all, only vain guys would be fine with being plastered nationwide in their underwear.
The rest of the ride wasn’t long and soon, pulling into her parents’ driveway, Rebecca resolved to go straight to the phone book and look Dennis up. When she walked into the house, though, she could smell the bleach.
“Laundry day,” she sighed.
Her mother soon appeared.
“Hey, Mom.”
“Rebecca, you’re back!” Her mother smiled, her arms around a large hamper of towels. “It’s laundry day.”
“I can tell.”
“I’ve started in your room, but I haven’t finished yet. The towels are done.” She lifted the hamper up higher on her hip. “I’ll be there in a moment, though, okay?”
“I can get it, Mom,” Rebecca said, remembering how her mother usually snooped in other ways when it came to picking out clothes for laundry. She needed to check to see if her chip was safe. She was over if her mom found it.
“Oh, okay. Good then. I already got half. You can bring the rest of it into the laundry room. Make sure to check under the bed…”
“Yeah, yeah, Mom. I got it.” Rebecca tried not to seem too eager as she treaded through the hallway, into her bedroom, and straight to her suitcase. She breathed out a long sigh of relief when she saw her thirty-day chip still in its place. Crisis averted.
After stuffing the chip into the bag she was carrying with her, she went into her father’s study and began flipping through the phone book. Once she got to the right page, she slid her finger down the slightly sticky pages until she landed on the name she wanted—Dennis Lopez. The only other person with that name was a doctor, so she was able to distinguish them pretty quickly.
Picking the phone up from her father’s desk, she dialed the number and waited with the speaker to her ear. It rang for a while, and she was beginning to worry Dennis wasn’t going to answer when she heard him pick up.
“Hello?”
“Hi, Dennis Lopez?”
“Who is this?”
“It’s Rebecca Morgan from high school.”
“Rebecca?” His voice lighte
ned, seeming delighted to hear her. Rebecca had a good feeling about this call.
“Yeah, it’s Rebecca. I’m in town.”
“Oh, really? You’re in town? That’s nice. We’ll have to get together sometime before you head back out. When will that be?”
“Um, honestly I’m not sure. You see, the reason I’m in town is Monica.”
Dennis grew quiet.
“Her parents, the Griswalds, they’re suing me right now. That’s actually why I called you. I think you could be of some help.”
“Help? I’d love to be. What can I do, though?”
“Has Jennifer McMahon called you? She is back, too. And recently we talked some. She said she’d already talked with some of the other kids in our crew, and I was wondering if you’d gotten in contact with her.”
“Jen? Yeah, I have. We just talked the other day, maybe Monday last week, I think.” The week before she spoke to Rebecca, of course. Was she too late?
“What did she say to you, Dennis?”
“Um… Listen, I don’t know if we should do this over the phone. How about you come over to my house, and we discuss it here? I live in one of the new houses off West Park now. 5427 Benedict Street.”
“Oh, okay. Yeah, that’d be great. Is today fine?”
“Sure. Come right on over. I’ll be waiting for you.”
“Great, thanks, Dennis.”
“Of course, Becca.” The line clicked.
By how nice he was being to her even after talking to Jennifer, she had hoped maybe Dennis could be convinced to see things her way and not turn on her the way Jennifer was trying to. After returning the phonebook to its proper place, Rebecca was off to Dennis’s house.
She hadn’t been in Hilton Head in a while, but it seemed navigating her hometown still came naturally to her. Things had changed since she graduated, but much of it was still the same. As she drove down Benedict Street, she noticed the nice trees and houses.
It seemed Dennis had been doing well for himself. He and Jennifer had definitely made the most of the time after high school. Rebecca liked to think she had, too, that her position at the police department meant something, but she always felt as if what happened here with Monica was holding her back in some way. It was yet another thing she wanted to be rid of at the end of this case.
She got out of her car and walked up the concrete steps to Dennis’s door. When she rang the doorbell, it didn’t take Dennis even a second to answer.
“Rebecca!” he said, “You’re here!”
“Hey, Dennis.” She leaned in for a hug.
“How are you? You look so good!” He took her hand as he led her into the luxurious house. They stood below a massive chandelier and catwalk. The house was suffused in cinnamon and had a warm atmosphere.
“Dennis, it’s been too long. You look good, though. I saw you on one of those Calvin Klein underwear billboards,” she said.
“Really? You saw that?” He puffed his chest out some. “It’s all pretty cool. Isn’t it?”
“Yeah.”
“Here, follow me into the living room.” He led her through the foyer and plucked two bottles of wine from a tableau. “I know this one is your favorite. We used to sneak these from my dad’s wine cellar all the time. Remember?”
“I do…” Rebecca politely took the glass, but she decided she’d set it back down whenever she got a chance, not ready to give her sobriety away so easily. She sat down next to Dennis on a sofa. “So, Dennis, you said you spoke to Jennifer last week. What did she say?”
“Oh, nothing really. She was just catching up, you know?”
“She didn’t say anything about me or the case?”
“Your eyes look really beautiful in this light.”
“Thanks, I guess.” She didn’t know what to say. “Yours do, too.” Was Dennis trying to do something else this afternoon? She hated to tell him it wasn’t happening, but she thought they’d decided they didn’t work in high school.
“I swear you’re hotter now than you were ten years ago. Looks like you’ve filled out some more, too.” Bringing himself closer to her, he lowered his hand to be right next to her ass.
“Um, Dennis… I’m not here for that.” Rebecca scooted away. “Listen, I’m flattered and all, but there’s a reason we broke up after graduation.”
“After you left.”
“Yeah, and I think it’s better if we just stay friends. Why bother things now, you know?” She took the opportunity to set the wine glass down now. “I’d love to catch up and all, but I also want to know about what Jennifer said.”
“What do you mean?” Sighing, Dennis took a sip of his drink. It all became clear.
“Oh, you didn’t speak to her. Did you?”
No answer.
“You lied to me, Dennis.” Rebecca stood.
“I thought it would be nice for us to hang out, rekindle the flame. You wouldn’t have come.”
“No, I wouldn’t have.” Turning, Rebecca began to walk out.
“Rebecca, wait. We can still talk.”
No, we can’t. Did Jennifer even call anyone? She didn’t have time for this—for the games, the obsessions, the lying. She didn’t know who to trust any longer or if she could trust any of them in the first place.
What a clusterfuck.
Chapter Ten
“And I told you,” his dad said, “I don’t know where Chad is.”
“You said that he should be at the oil change shop,” Rebecca countered, “so what changed between now and five minutes ago?”
“You started pissing me off.”
Rebecca took a breath. She needed to get Chad’s information, not piss his father off. Sometimes she had a way about her that other people didn’t appreciate. The Chief of El Paso police was always calling her a bulldog for the way she grabbed onto a case and didn’t let go.
“I’m sorry. Really, I am. I just really need to find Chad. I’m an old friend, and I saw him dumpster diving the other day. I just want to make sure he’s alright.”
The old man sighed and scratched his chest through his stained white tank top.
“Why now?” he asked. “Where were you when he got in all that trouble? If you and him are such good friends, why have I never seen you before?”
Rebecca didn’t know how to answer. The old man had a point, and it wasn’t like Rebecca felt good about how Chad’s life had turned out.
“There’s really no excuse,” she answered honestly. “I’ve made a lot of mistakes in my life, and I’m just trying to make up for one of them.”
The old man sighed again and looked like he was considering something.
“I let him run my little shop since my health hasn’t been so good, and I think it helps him. You can probably find him there.”
Rebecca nodded and turned away from the old trailer. She heard the door shut behind her, but she had nothing more to say to Chad’s dad. It’s not like he was wrong. Rebecca had left and never turned back. She hadn’t thought about what Monica’s death would’ve done to Chad.
He’d been a football star once with his whole life before him. Then one stupid fucking night, and everyone’s future had turned to shit.
At that moment, Rebecca realized Monica wasn’t the only one who’d died that night. They’d all lost something. All their futures had died with her.
Rebecca was going to make it right. Or she had to try. Because the alternative was drinking herself to death, and even though that sounded like a pretty decent plan, she was realizing she had something else to live for.
She just wasn’t sure what yet.
She hopped into her car, fired it up, and drove away from the trailer park.
It was time to make things right. At least with one person.
She wouldn’t fix this entire mess in one day, but maybe she could help an old friend. And maybe she could alleviate some of this guilt that plagued her every moment of every waking hour.
The autobody shop was at the edge of town, so Rebecca had some time
to think as she drove.
Chad had gotten into a lot of trouble after Monica’s death, but he wasn’t the only one. It’s not like Rebecca’s life was something to write home about. In fact, she avoided home like a plague. She stopped even coming home for Christmas.
No wonder her parents were addicted to valium. She would be, too.
The lights weren’t on in the autobody shop, but Chad’s car was still out front, and Rebecca allowed herself a small smile. Maybe this time would be different. Maybe she could make shit right with Chad. Even if it meant just giving him a couple thousand dollars to try and get on his feet.
Now that Rebecca had quit drinking, she had money to spare. At least she could help somebody else, for once.
Rebecca pulled in beside Chad’s car. It was a beater, and she found herself feeling badly for him. She kept the keys in the ignition and got out of her car.
“Chad?” she called. She didn’t want to surprise him. People in Hilton Head liked their guns. And they liked to use them on trespassers.
“Chad?” she called again. No answer. The lights were off, so she went to the front door and jiggled it. It was locked, so she walked around to the side door where the overhead carport was open a few feet.
“Chad?”
Nothing.
Rebecca crouched down and looked into the shop. The lights were off, but with his car out front she assumed he was still there. She decided she could go in.
“Chad, I’m coming in,” she called. “If you’ve got a gun don’t shoot me.” She said it like a joke, except she was a little bit serious.
Getting shot in Hilton Head because of a miscommunication wasn’t high on her to-do list.
There was nothing else for it. Looking around to make sure she was alone, Rebecca did a barrel roll underneath the overhead door. She knew she looked ridiculous, but shit happened sometimes.
As long as Chad didn’t have cameras at the shop, no one would know.
Knowing her luck, she’d be a YouTube star in a couple days.
Everybody liked a cop who looked like an idiot.
“Chad,” Rebecca called again. “Chad, I’m in the garage. Come on, talk to me please.”
