“I meant the verdict . . .” I pointed at the medical paraphernalia adorning her.
“Oh. One busted arm, a concussion, and assorted cuts, scrapes, and bruises. Fortunately for my quick reflexes, I jumped out of the way before any major damage was done. When it comes to reflexes, I’m like a cat. I’m Catwoman. I’m invulnerable. The only reason he got a piece of me is because of the rain. Cats don’t like water. It impairs us. It’s our kryptonite.”
“I’m so sorry,” I told Vee sincerely. “I should be the one in the hospital bed.”
“And get all the drugs? Uh-uh. No way.”
“Have the police found any leads?” I asked.
“Nada, zilch, zero.”
“No eyewitnesses?”
“We were at a cemetery in the middle of a rainstorm,” Vee pointed out. “Most normal people were indoors.”
She was right. Most normal people had been indoors. Of course, Vee and I had been out . . . along with the mysterious girl who followed Vee out of Victoria’s Secret.
“How did it happen?” I asked.
“I was walking to the cemetery like we planned, when all of a sudden I heard footsteps closing in behind me,” Vee explained. “That’s when I looked back, and everything came together really fast. There was the flash of a gun, and him lunging for me. Like I told the cops, my brain wasn’t exactly transmitting, ‘Get a visual ID.’ It was more like, ‘Holy freak show, I’m about to go splat!’ He growled, whacked me three or four times with the gun, grabbed my handbag, and ran.”
I was more confused than ever. “Wait. It was a guy? You saw his face?”
“Of course it was a guy. He had dark eyes . . . charcoal eyes. But that’s all I saw. He was wearing a ski mask.”
At the mention of the ski mask, my heart skittered through several beats. It was the same guy who’d jumped in front of the Neon, I was sure of it. I hadn’t imagined him—Vee was proof. I remembered the way all evidence of the crash had disappeared. Maybe I hadn’t imagined that part either. This guy, whoever he was, was real. And he was out there. But if I hadn’t imagined the damage to the Neon, what really happened that night? Was my vision, or my memory, somehow . . . being altered?
After a moment, a slew of secondary questions raced to mind. What did he want this time? Was he connected to the girl outside Victoria’s Secret? Had he known I’d be shopping at the pier? Wearing a ski mask constituted advance planning, so he must have known beforehand where I’d be. And he didn’t want me to recognize his face.
“Who did you tell we were going shopping?” I asked Vee suddenly.
She rammed a pillow behind her neck, trying to get comfortable. “My mom.”
“That’s it? Nobody else?”
“I might have brought it up to Elliot.”
My blood seemed to suddenly stop flowing. “You told Elliot?”
“What’s the big deal?”
“There’s something I need to tell you,” I said soberly. “Remember the night I drove the Neon home and hit a deer?”
“Yeah?” she said, frowning.
“It wasn’t a deer. It was a guy. A guy in a ski mask.”
“Shut up,” she whispered. “You’re telling me my attack wasn’t random? You’re telling me this guy wants something from me? No, wait. He wants something from you. I was wearing your jacket. He thought I was you.”
My whole body felt leaden.
After a count of silence, she said, “Are you sure you didn’t tell Patch about shopping? Because on further reflection, I’m thinking the guy had Patch’s build. Tallish. Leanish. Strongish. Sexyish, aside from the attacking part.”
“Patch’s eyes aren’t charcoal, they’re black,” I pointed out, but I was uncomfortably aware that I had told Patch we were going shopping at the pier.
Vee raised an indecisive shoulder. “Maybe his eyes were black. I can’t remember. It happened really fast. I can be specific about the gun,” she said helpfully. “It was aimed at me. Like, right at me.”
I pushed a few puzzle pieces around my mind. If Patch had attacked Vee, he must have seen her leave the store wearing my jacket and thought it was me. When he figured out he was following the wrong girl, he hit Vee with the gun out of anger and vanished. The only problem was, I couldn’t imagine Patch brutalizing Vee. It felt off. Besides, he was supposedly at a party on the coast all night.
“Did your attacker look at all like Elliot?” I asked.
I watched Vee absorb the question. Whatever drug she’d been given, it seemed to slow her thought process, and I could practically hear each gear in her brain grind into action.
“He was about twenty pounds too light and four inches too tall to be Elliot.”
“This is all my fault,” I said. “I never should have let you leave the store wearing my jacket.”
“I know you don’t want to hear this,” said Vee, looking like she was fighting a drug-induced yawn. “But the more I think on it, the more similarities I see between Patch and my attacker. Same build. Same long-legged stride. Too bad his school file was empty. We need an address. We need to canvass his neighborhood. We need to find a gullible little granny neighbor who could be coaxed into mounting a webcam in her window and aiming it at his house. Because something about Patch just isn’t right.”
“You honestly think Patch could have done this to you?” I asked, still unconvinced.
Vee chewed at her lip. “I think he’s hiding something. Something big.”
I wasn’t going to argue that.
Vee sank deeper in her bed. “My body’s tingling. I feel good all over.”
“We don’t have an address,” I said, “but we do know where he works.”
“Are you thinking what I’m thinking?” Vee asked, eyes brightening briefly through the haze of chemical sedation.
“Based on past experience, I hope not.”
“The truth is, we need to brush up on our sleuthing skills,” said Vee. “Use them or lose them, that’s what Coach said. We need to find out more about Patch’s past. Hey, I bet if we document, Coach will even give us extra credit.”
Highly doubtful, given that if Vee was involved, the sleuthing would likely take an illegal turn. Not to mention, this particular sleuthing job had nothing to do with biology. Even remotely.
The slight smile Vee had dragged out of me faded. Fun as it was to be lighthearted about the situation, I was frightened. The guy in the ski mask was out there, planning his next attack. It kind of made sense that Patch might know what was going on. The guy in the ski mask jumped in front of the Neon the day after Patch became my biology partner. Maybe it wasn’t a coincidence.
Just then the nurse popped her head inside the door. “It’s eight o’clock,” she told me, tapping her watch. “Visiting hours are over.”
“I’ll be right out,” I said.
As soon as her footsteps faded down the hall, I shut the door to Vee’s room. I wanted privacy before I told her about the murder investigation surrounding Elliot. However, when I got back to Vee’s bed, it was apparent that her medication had kicked in.
“Here it comes,” she said with an expression of pure bliss. “Drug rush . . . any moment now . . . the surge of warmth . . . byebye, Mr. Pain . . .”
“Vee—”
“Knock, knock.”
“This is really important—”
“Knock, knock.”
“It’s about Elliot—”
“Knock, knoooock,” she said in a singsong voice.
I sighed. “Who’s there?”
“Boo.”
“Boo who?”
“Boo-hoo, somebody’s crying, and it’s not me!” She broke into hysterical laughter.
Realizing it was pointless to push the issue, I said, “Call me tomorrow after you’re discharged.” I unzipped my backpack. “Before I forget, I brought your homework. Where do you want me to put it?”
She pointed at the trash can. “Right there will be fine.”
I pulled the Fiat into the garage and pocke
ted the keys. The sky lacked stars on the drive home, and sure enough, a light rain started to fall. I tugged on the garage door, lowering it to the ground and locking it. I let myself into the kitchen. A light was on somewhere upstairs, and a moment later my mom came running down the stairs and threw her arms around me.
My mom has dark wavy hair and green eyes. She’s an inch shorter than I am, but we share the same bone structure. She always smells like Love by Ralph Lauren.
“I’m so glad you’re safe,” she said, squeezing me tight.
Safe-ish, I thought.
CHAPTER
13
THE FOLLOWING NIGHT AT SEVEN, THE BORDERLINE’S parking lot was packed. After nearly an hour of begging, Vee and I had convinced her parents that we needed to celebrate her first night out of the hospital over chiles rellenos and virgin strawberry daiquiris. At least, that’s what we were claiming. But we had an ulterior motive.
I tucked the Neon into a tight parking space and turned off the engine.
“Ew,” said Vee when I passed the keys back and my fingers brushed hers. “Think you could sweat a little more?”
“I’m nervous.”
“Gee, I had no clue.”
I inadvertently looked at the door.
“I know what you’re thinking,” Vee said, tightening her lips. “And the answer is no. No as in no way.”
“You don’t know what I’m thinking,” I said.
Vee vised my arm. “The heck I don’t.”
“I wasn’t going to run,” I said. “Not me.”
“Liar.”
Tuesday was Patch’s night off, and Vee had put it into my head that it would be the perfect time to interrogate his coworkers. I envisioned myself sashaying up to the bar, giving the bartender a coy Marcie Millar look, then segueing to the topic of Patch. I needed his home address. I needed any prior arrests. I needed to know if he had a connection to the guy in the ski mask, no matter how tenuous. And I needed to figure out why the guy in the ski mask and the mysterious girl were in my life.
I peeked inside my handbag, double-checking to make sure the list of interrogation questions I’d prepared were still with me. One side of the list dealt with questions about Patch’s personal life. The flip side had flirting prompts. Just in case.
“Whoa, whoa, whoa,” Vee said. “What is that?”
“Nothing,” I said, folding the list.
Vee tried to grab the list, but I was faster and had it crammed deep in my handbag before she could get to it.
“Rule number one,” Vee said. “There is no such thing as notes in flirting.”
“There’s an exception to every rule.”
“And you’re not it!” She grabbed two plastic 7-Eleven sacks from the backseat and swiveled out of the car. As soon as I stepped out, she used her good arm to hurl the sacks over the top of the Neon at me.
“What’s this?” I asked, catching the sacks. The handles were tied and I couldn’t see inside, but the unmistakable shaft of a stiletto heel threatened to poke through the plastic.
“Size eight and a half,” Vee said. “Sharkskin. It’s easier to play the part when you look the part.”
“I can’t walk in high heels.”
“Good thing they’re not high, then.”
“They look high,” I said, eying the protruding stiletto.
“Almost five inches. They left ‘high’ behind at four.”
Lovely. If I didn’t break my neck, I just might get to humiliate myself while seducing secrets out of Patch’s coworkers.
“Here’s the deal,” said Vee as we strode down the sidewalk to the front doors. “I sort of invited a couple of people. The more the merrier, right?”
“Who?” I asked, feeling the dark stirrings of foreboding in the pit of my stomach.
“Jules and Elliot.”
Before I had time to tell Vee exactly how bad I thought this idea was, she said, “Moment of truth: I’ve sort of been seeing Jules. On the sly.”
“What?”
“You should see his house. Bruce Wayne can’t compete. His parents are either South American drug lords or come from serious old money. Since I haven’t met them yet, I can’t say which.”
I was at a loss for words. My mouth opened and shut, but nothing came out. “When did this happen?” I finally managed to ask.
“Pretty much right after that fateful morning at Enzo’s.”
“Fateful? Vee, you have no idea—”
“I hope they got here first and reserved a table,” Vee said, stretching her neck while eying the crowd accumulating around the doors. “I don’t want to wait. I am seriously two thin minutes away from death by starvation.”
I grabbed Vee by her good elbow, pulling her aside. “There’s something I need to tell you—”
“I know, I know,” she said. “You think there’s a slim chance Elliot attacked me Sunday night. Well, I think you’ve got Elliot confused with Patch. And after you do some sleuthing tonight, the facts will back me up. Believe me, I want to know who attacked me just as much as you. Probably even more. It’s personal now. And while we’re handing each other advice, here’s mine. Stay away from Patch. Just to be safe.”
“I’m glad you’ve thought this through,” I said tersely, “but here’s the thing. I found an article—”
The doors to the Borderline opened. A fresh wave of heat, carrying the smell of limes and cilantro, swirled out at us, along with the sound of a mariachi band playing through the speakers.
“Welcome to the Borderline,” a hostess greeted us. “Just the two of you tonight?”
Elliot was standing behind her inside the dimmed foyer. We saw each other at the same moment. His mouth smiled but his eyes did not.
“Ladies,” he said, sanding his hands together as he walked over. “Looking magnificent, as always.”
My skin prickled.
“Where’s your partner in crime?” Vee asked, glancing around the foyer. Paper lanterns hung from the ceiling, and a mural of a Mexican pueblo spanned two walls. The waiting benches were filled to capacity. There was no sign of Jules.
“Bad news,” said Elliot. “The man is sick. You’re going to have to settle for me.”
“Sick?” Vee demanded. “How sick? What kind of excuse is sick?”
“Sick as in it’s coming out both ends.”
Vee scrunched her nose. “Too much information.”
I was still having a difficult time grasping the idea that something was going on between Vee and Jules. Jules came across sullen, brooding, and completely disinterested in Vee’s company or anyone else’s. Not one part of me felt comfortable with the idea of Vee spending time alone with Jules. Not necessarily because of how unpleasant he was or how little I knew about him, but because of the one thing I did know: He was close friends with Elliot.
The hostess plucked three menus out of a slotted cubbyhole and led us to a booth so close to the kitchen I could feel the fire of the ovens coming through the walls. To our left was the salsa bar. To our right glass doors moist with condensation led out to a patio. My poplin blouse was already clinging to my back. My sweat might have had more to do with the news about Vee and Jules than with the heat, however.
“Is this good?” the hostess asked, gesturing at the booth.
“It’s great,” Elliot said, shrugging out of his bomber jacket. “I love this place. If the room doesn’t make you sweat, the food will.”
The hostess’s smile lit up. “You’ve been here before. Can I start you with chips and our newest jalapeño salsa? It’s our hottest yet.”
“I like things hot,” said Elliot.
I was pretty sure he was being slimy. I’d been way too generous in thinking he wasn’t as low as Marcie. I’d been way too generous about his character, period. Especially now that I knew he had a murder investigation hiding along with who knew how many other skeletons in his closet.
The hostess swept him an appraising once-over. “I’ll be right back with chips and salsa. Your waitress will
be here shortly to take your orders.”
Vee plopped into the booth first. I slid in beside her, and Elliot took the seat across from me. Our eyes connected, and there was a fleck of something dark in his. Very likely resentment. Maybe even hostility. I wondered if he knew I’d seen the article.
“Purple is your color, Nora,” he said, nodding at my scarf as I loosened it from my neck and tied it around the handle of my handbag. “Brightens your eyes.”
Vee nudged my foot. She actually thought he meant it as a compliment.
“So,” I said to Elliot with an artificial smile, “why don’t you tell us about Kinghorn Prep?”
“Yeah,” Vee chimed in. “Are there secret societies there? Like in the movies?”
“What’s to tell?” Elliot said. “Great school. End of story.” He picked up his menu and scanned it. “Anyone interested in an appetizer? My treat.”
“If it’s so great, why did you transfer?” I met his eyes and held them. Ever so slightly, I arched my eyebrows, challenging.
A muscle in Elliot’s jaw jumped just before he cracked a smile. “The girls. I heard they were a lot finer around these parts. The rumor proved true.” He winked at me, and an ice-cold feeling shot from my head to my toes.
“Why didn’t Jules transfer too?” asked Vee. “We could have been the fabulous four, only with a lot more punch. The phenomenal four.”
“Jules’s parents are obsessed with his education. Intense doesn’t begin to cover it. I swear on my life, he’s going all the way to the top. The guy can’t be stopped. I mean, I confess, I do okay in school. Better than most. But nobody tops Jules. He’s an academic god.”
The dreamy look returned to Vee’s eyes. “I’ve never met his parents,” she said. “Both times I’ve gone over, they’re either out of town or working.”
“They work a lot,” Elliot agreed, returning his eyes to the menu, making it hard for me to read anything in them.
“Where do they work?” I asked.
Elliot took a long drink of his water. It seemed to me like he was buying time while he devised an answer. “Diamonds. They spend a lot of time in Africa and Australia.”
The Complete Hush, Hush Saga Page 12
