by Piper Dow
“I know,” she said, wanting to keep the conversation going. “This is more than Rick switching majors, though. A lot of the professors are really cracking down because of the party. Rick said the school has started an investigation and the student center has been closed until further notice.”
“I guess that doesn’t surprise me, either,” Mom said. “For the school, there’s bound to be liability involved. If any of the under-aged students got hurt, there could be some serious consequences for the school.”
Kelly didn’t care about the liability any more than she cared about Rick switching majors – less, actually, since Rick really did need to figure out what he was going to do before he graduated. She was slowly reeling the conversation closer to her real objective.
“Well, I want to get to school early tomorrow. If the professors are trying to make sure everyone is walking the line, I want to make sure I’ve got my assignments done, and I’m ready for class. I know I’ve got the syllabus, but some of the readings are from texts that I’ve been borrowing from the library. I didn’t think it was worth spending the money for the textbook if we were only going to read a few chapters of the book – even used, the social studies text was over $100.”
Dad had picked his head up when Kelly mentioned heading to school. Now he cleared his throat to speak, but Kelly headed him off.
“If Sam is starting to come out of this, which that nurse said is probably what is happening, then it’s not really necessary to stay here, is it?” Kelly included both parents in her gaze, imploring them to agree. “It’s not that I don’t care – I do, but we’ve already missed one day of school. How far behind do we have to get? I have to work on the weekend, so it’s not like I have time to play catch-up.”
Kelly could see Mom squeeze Dad’s hand laying on the bed. “No, you’re right. I don’t want you missing any more than you have to.”
“Are you forgetting the state we found the house in today? Or the fact that someone cut the brake lines in your car?” Dad sounded tired, but also angry. “The fact remains that someone has targeted this family. I don’t think I’m comfortable resuming life as usual just yet.”
Kelly’s mouth went dry. As ridiculous as it was, she actually had forgotten for a few minutes about the house and her car. As her mind began tossing around for something to say, Wayne spoke up.
“Dad, have the police gotten back to you yet? I know it all seems like it’s related, but what if it was a coincidence that someone trashed the yard the same night Sam was attacked? I mean, Sam’s attack wasn’t related to the party at the college, but that all happened the same time and caused the hospital to have more than they would think normal all on the same night, right?” Wayne threw himself backward in the chair and ran his hands through his hair. “I’m going to be seriously ticked if someone from school did this.”
Dad looked at Wayne. His head tipped to one side as he considered Wayne’s suggestion. Slowly, he shook his head. “I just don’t know. I think it might be a good idea to see what Officer Martin has been able to find out before we make any decisions.” He pulled out his phone, took the business card the police officer had given him from his wallet and dialed.
Kelly listened to Dad’s side of the conversation breathing a little easier, yet also growing more concerned at the same time. It sounded like the officer agreed with Wayne that it was a coincidence - which would make it easier to convince her parents to let them go to school tomorrow. But it also meant that if the police thought it a coincidence, they wouldn’t be looking for more answers - and Kelly knew it couldn’t be just coincidence. Someone needed to find out the truth.
She consciously relaxed the muscles in her face, unclenching her jaw and taking a couple of the cleansing breaths her instructor used to urge when Kelly had taken yoga last year. She concentrated on relaxing her shoulders and forearms, releasing the tension so that she could appear calm.
“Well, maybe you’re right,” Dad said as he flipped his phone shut. “Officer Martin said they still have a few more things to follow up on, but there was another house hit on the other side of town last night. He thinks it more likely that the same group of kids did this than that it was tied to Sam’s attack. One of the officers looked at the brake lines of your car, Kelly, and it looks like it was rubbing somehow – it wasn’t cut, though there’s a definite hole in it. He thought maybe it’s been wearing for some time now. You’ve got triple A, so I guess the smartest thing to do would be to have a tow truck come to take the car to the mechanic and see if any other hoses or lines are going.” Dad looked at the phone still in his hand. “I still want you all on your toes. I’m not wholly convinced this is just a prank.”
Sam turned her head on the pillow and moved her arm under the covers. Everyone turned to look at her again.
“Officer Martin said he thought it was safe for us to go home,” Dad said into the quiet room. “Why don’t you two take your mom’s car home and make arrangements for your car to be towed, Kelly. You’ll have to take the bus to school tomorrow.”
Kelly nodded. She stood and walked around the bed to hug her mom. She looked down again at Sam’s smooth face as Mom dug through her purse to find the car keys. Sam’s eyelashes were long and dark against her pale cheeks. Kelly looked up to see Wayne watching her. As their eyes met, he gave a small nod. Kelly tipped her head almost imperceptibly. They needed to do this for Sam.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Kelly found Mom’s car in the parking lot by hitting the alarm button on the key fob. She and Wayne wound their way through the maze of other vehicles without speaking. After starting the car, Kelly swung the seat belt across her belly and clicked it in. Wayne was already reaching for the radio buttons. Neither of them wanted to listen to Mom’s easy listening station.
“Wonder what other house got TP’d last night,” Kelly said, glancing at Wayne as she turned her head to look through the rear window so she could back out of the parking spot. She caught just a hint of a smile cross Wayne’s face and stopped the car halfway out of the spot. “What was that? You know something!”
Wayne shrugged his shoulders and tried to look nonchalant, but couldn’t stop a grin from splitting his face. “You think you’re the only one who knows how to pull something over on their parents?” When Kelly continued to stare at him without moving the car, he continued. “Okay, okay. I called some of the guys from the team. They kind of owe me, don’t you think? Only a few of us had to do that street clean-up for the last house - there were a lot more involved than got caught, but none of us ratted. One of them has neighbors who have been working funny shifts, sometimes days, sometimes nights. Turns out that last night they were gone all day and most of the night. The guys did the TP’ing today, but the people hadn’t woken up yet or something, so they don’t know what time it happened. They called it in to the police saying it happened last night.”
Kelly nodded, continuing her turn to look out the window and backing out of the spot. She drove out of the parking lot before speaking.
“So the reality is that someone really is targeting our family like Dad said, but now the police aren’t going to be following up on it because they think it was whoever did this other one,” she said slowly. When Wayne opened his mouth to interrupt, she shook her head. “But, the other part of this reality is that the police were probably going to say that Sam was using drugs and not follow up on the rest of this because there are drugs involved. If anyone is going to get to the bottom of this, it’s going to have to be us. I wish that didn’t mean misleading the police, but I don’t see where we had a choice.”
She glanced at Wayne again. “That was really, really smooth. Scary smooth, how you set that all in play.”
Wayne grinned again and settled back into his seat. “Yeah, well, that’s how I roll.”
At the house, Kelly called the garage to make arrangements for them to fix the brake lines on her car and then called triple A to get a tow truck out to bring it to the garage. Knowing it would take a
while before the tow truck got to the house she pulled up the school website and began to look up the syllabus from each class to make sure she had what she needed for each class. She had missed her sociology class today, and public speaking. She knew she had a speech due next week but wasn’t sure if there was reading she was supposed to have gotten done for today. Tomorrow she had one of her two art classes and a theatrical makeup class. Kelly was sorry she would be missing that one - they were learning about facial reproduction, and she would love to have more opportunity to work with the plasticene she had made the zombie wounds with. She was wondering if she could ask one of her classmates to video any demonstrations for her so she wouldn’t miss out completely when the tow truck driver showed up.
Wayne and Kelly both watched as the driver hooked the cable to the back of Kelly’s car. Kelly explained where the vehicle was to be taken, and why she couldn’t drive it there. The driver asked her to pop the hood and disappeared under it for a minute. Poking his head around the hood, he motioned for her to join him looking at the engine.
“Something funny about this, to me. I just wanted you to see it before it goes to the shop and any evidence you might need goes away,” he said. He pointed to the left side of the engine, where some of the wires had their insulated covering stripped, exposing wires, and the cap to the coolant was missing. Kelly nodded, dampening the growing sense of dread in her stomach. Wayne was looking in the engine with his hands on the fender. He moved a few of the other lines.
“Look, these have rubbed spots too, and there’s nothing that could possibly have rubbed against them to cause them. And over there,” Wayne pointed to a larger hose toward the middle of the engine, “that one’s been rubbed, too. Kelly, you’re going to have to have the mechanic go through every line and hose to see whether they’re good or need replacing. This is going to take a while, too - and cost some serious cash.”
“So who did you guys manage to tick off?” the driver asked, stowing the metal prop and closing the hood of the car while he looked at Wayne’s car parked next to Kelly’s. The shaving cream had dried on both vehicles to a white film, but Wayne’s seats were slashed and ripped apart, and the huge hole where the radio had been was apparent even with the doors closed.
Kelly put her hands up to her temples.
“Just take it, please,” she told the driver. “Thank you for showing me. Please take it to the garage, and I’ll call to let him know it’s more than just the brake lines. I can’t - this is just making me sick.”
They watched as the driver loaded the car onto his flatbed and headed down the street. Looking at the toilet paper and silly string still strewn about the yard, Kelly sighed.
“C’mon. They’ll expect this stuff cleaned up before they get home,” she said. She walked to the shrubs in front of the kitchen and started stripping the paper from its leaves.
Wayne headed out to the trees near the street and jumped for a low-hanging piece of paper hanging like a streamer. He managed to pull down quite a bit before the strip broke off, caught by a twig.
“I’m going in to get a trash bag. We’re going to need it,” he said.
He walked into the house and returned with two bags. Handing one to Kelly, he walked over to the pile of paper he had left and jumped for another low-hanging strip. Kelly moved quickly around the shrubs near the house, restoring them to their un-besmirched state. Reaching past the shrubbery to the windows to peel away the string looped all over them, she realized that she could see directly into her basement studio room.
“Hey, Wayne, do you think that whoever did this followed Sam, or do you think they knew where she was going and were here before her?” She called.
Wayne was working on clearing the mailbox of the silly string. He walked over to where Kelly stood, bag half full of paper and string in his hand.
“Do you think they followed Sam? Or do you think they knew she was coming home and they were here before her,” she asked again. She pointed into the window to the room they had been getting ready for the party in when Mom and Dad left the house to get Sam from the bus station. “Because that’s really creepy if they were standing here, watching us as we were getting dressed and everything.” She shuddered.
Wayne looked through the window, then down at the ground. The mulch had grass growing through it, and silly string had dropped onto the ground under the window. It was impossible to see any footprints.
“I don’t know. It doesn’t really change anything, does it? Someone has targeted us. They trashed our cars. They assaulted Sam. They trashed the house. Sam’s somehow involved with drugs, and we’re not going to get to the bottom of anything until we get into her apartment. Whether they were watching us before they hurt Sam or whether they hurt her first and then came to destroy the house, does it make it less creepy?”
No, Kelly thought, it probably didn’t make it any less creepy, but somehow it felt it. Thinking that someone had actually stood there in the shadows while she was applying her makeup, fixing her ripped clothes to make sure the wounds showed through, and joking with Wayne about whether to put the spike through his brain or his jaw gave her a chill in the pit of her stomach. Knowing whoever it was had come to the house when they weren’t there was one thing, but somehow standing in the bushes made them so much more like a stalker.
“I guess not,” she said.
They finished cleaning up the shrubs and lawn quickly, not worrying about the little bits of string left on the grass here and there. Kelly went in to call the garage and explain about the hoses. Listening to the mechanic trying to make space in his calendar intensified the sick sensation in the pit of her stomach. She wouldn’t get her car back for at least a week or two, and that was counting on the damage not being too severe. He had agreed to fit the brake line job in tomorrow, but it was going to take a lot more time than he had available tomorrow to go through all of the lines in the car. Kelly agreed to leave the car with him so that he could take a look at it in between other jobs.
“You were right,” she told Wayne as he came through the door. “It’s going to take a long time for them to go through my car.”
Wayne nodded. He threw himself into a chair at the kitchen table and threw his head back to stare toward the ceiling.
“I was trying to figure out how much money it took me to restore that car,” he said. “I can’t even come close. I mean, I’m not even counting the hours and hours Dad and I put into it, just the money for the seats and parts. The stereo alone was over $500, not including the speakers. I really hope they can figure out who did all this because I want them to pay for the repairs. This just sucks.” He was looking at his hands now, picking at a corner of his fingernail.
Kelly sighed. “Then let's hope we can find something at Sam’s tomorrow,” she said. “Because otherwise, they’re not even looking for anyone, remember? They think it was just a prank.”
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
“Thanks for dropping me, Dad,” Kelly said, opening the car door and stepping out onto the curb. She reached into the back seat to grab her school bag. “Tell Mom to make sure she eats something today.”
The bus stop at the corner of the grocery store lot was only a couple of blocks out of Dad’s way on the way to the hospital, but Kelly still felt like she was on tenterhooks. She needed Dad to drive away without waiting for the bus to show up. Wayne had already left for school, getting the school bus on the corner of their street. He planned to ride to school and cut across the parking lot instead of going into the building. He was probably already inside the store, waiting for Dad to drive away before coming out to meet her.
“You’re sure you’re okay with taking the bus home after class?” Dad asked.
“Yeah, I’ll either catch the bus or get a ride with someone. I’ll be fine,” she said. They’d been over this already last night and again this morning, and Kelly had to remind herself to breathe slowly to keep her irritation from showing. “Send a text - I mean, have Mom text, if Sam wakes up. I’ll co
me here instead of home after class, okay?”
She straightened up and stepped away from the car, silently willing him to take the hint and move on. She waved as he lifted his hand and then turned to pull into traffic. She stepped into the bus shelter and watched as he turned the corner a few blocks away and then turned to look toward the store to see if Wayne was coming. Two more minutes ticked by as she waited, growing increasingly frantic as she saw the bus lumbering down the road. She looked up and down the street, back into the store parking lot, and back at the bus. Wayne was nowhere in sight. Kelly took out her phone to text him as the bus pulled up in front of the stop. She flipped her phone case open just as it buzzed to signal an incoming text.
“Already on the bus - got on at the earlier stop.”
It was from Wayne. Kelly pushed her phone back into her bag as she mounted the steps to the bus and moved back to sit in the seat next to him at the back of the bus.
“Seriously? You almost gave me a heart attack!” she scolded him.
“I had the time, and we couldn’t be sure Dad wouldn’t hang around to make sure you got on safely,” Wayne said, grinning. “Have you got the money for the tickets? I brought some stuff for lunch in my bag, but I only have $10 on me. We could stop at the bank if we need more to get home with, but my ATM card doesn’t work as a debit.”
Kelly assured him she had enough money. They needed to change buses at the station, and she did have a debit card. “We’re only going to have about six minutes to change buses, though, so we’ll have to be quick.”
They rode in silence for the rest of the trip to the station. Kelly felt the nervous thrill of anticipation, tinged with something she couldn’t quite put a name on. It had something to do with sneaking what they were doing behind her parents' backs, though, and felt a little like shame.
