Four of a Kind

by Kate Kessler

  On her way up to Kendra’s room, she passed Kyle Granger in the corridor. He shot her a sullen look as he passed. Audrey didn’t really know the kid, and she didn’t think he knew her, but she was predisposed to disliking him for beating up Luke. Could he have a motive for killing Tala? Had she broken it off with him to go back to Luke? She’d already seen what Kyle could do with his fists and feet; stabbing someone wouldn’t be hard for him—and it was often a substitute for sexual penetration.

  When she reached the private room, she found it empty except for Kendra and Lucy, who had crawled onto the bed with her friend. The two of them were watching something on a tablet. They reminded her of when she and Maggie were young.

  Audrey rapped her knuckles against the door frame. When the girls looked up, she smiled. “Can I come in?”

  To say the two of them looked leery would be an understatement. Lucy flipped the cover over the tablet and slid off the bed to stand instead. She stood as stiff and watchful as a guard.

  “Sure,” Kendra said. She looked like hell. Her nose wasn’t as swollen as it had been, but it was still bruised, as well as her eyes. Alisha had done a good job of breaking it. She was pale and drawn-looking, her hair in need of shampooing. Her eyes were heavy and glazed.

  Audrey entered the room. “I won’t stay long. I just wanted to see how you’re feeling.”

  “Tired. Groggy. I don’t remember much.”

  “I think that’s pretty normal.” She moved closer. “Has anyone been in to assess you?”

  “You mean a shrink?” Lucy demanded. When Audrey nodded, she said, “She doesn’t need one of those.”

  “It’s standard,” Audrey explained. “They need to know if an overdose was intentional or accidental.”

  “It was intenshun—intentional,” Kendra replied. “But I didn’t do it.”

  Tilting her head, Audrey considered the implication of her words. “You mean you were drugged?” She glanced at Lucy. The redhead gave an almost imperceptible shake of her head. So Kendra was lying? Or didn’t want to admit to having made a cry for help? An intentional overdose would probably lead to a longer hospital stay than an accidental one. But saying someone had drugged her took all responsibility off Kendra herself.

  “I think it was the same person who killed Tala,” Kendra went on, her voice thickening as her eyelids fluttered. She’d obviously been given something to help her sleep before Audrey arrived. “I’m going to tell Detective Graham.”

  Another tiny head shake.

  Audrey began to understand—or at least she thought she did. Kendra had OD’ed in a desperate attempt to take suspicion off Luke.

  “I’m sure she’ll want to talk to you about what happened.” As she moved closer to the bed, she noticed Lucy also moved closer to Kendra.

  She was protecting her.

  Audrey stopped a few feet away. Whatever had happened, Lucy obviously felt as though her friend needed someone at her back. She used to feel that way about Maggie. And Maggie had felt that way about her. When Everett Graham had shown up at Maggie’s house that night and found Clint lying in a puddle of his own blood, his skull caved in, Maggie had stepped in front of Audrey, looked the cop right in the eye, and said, “I did it.”

  “She’s still kind of out of it,” Lucy said.

  “I know…wha’ happened,” Kendra slurred. “I know the…truth.”

  “The truth about what?” Audrey asked.

  “The night Tala died…Fucking asshole.” Kendra closed her eyes. “I…know wha’…he did.”

  “What who did?” Audrey’s heart picked up the pace. “What who did, Kendra?”

  But the girl was out.

  Lucy glanced at her friend, then at Audrey. “She saw Twitter this morning. There’s a rumor that Luke was with Alisha that night.”

  Audrey nodded. “I heard that.”

  “Is it true?”

  They had agreed not to reveal that Alisha had spoken to Neve, and Audrey really didn’t want to discuss Alisha’s business with this girl, so she hedged. “Alisha and I haven’t had the chance to talk about it, but I know she cares about Luke very much.”

  “Yeah,” came the acerbic reply. “I saw that.”

  Audrey shook her head. “Look, Lucy. I really shouldn’t discuss it with you. I know both you and Kendra have been advised to stay away from Alisha, and I know what Kendra did to her. I’m trying to remain neutral, but to do that, I can’t discuss one of you with the others.”

  She thought she might get attitude for that, but the girl lifted her chin. “I get it. It’s just hard to see my best friend like this, you know?”

  Audrey thought of Maggie and how her mental instability had gotten the best of her. “Yeah, I do.” She managed a sympathetic smile, even though she thought the girl was hiding something. Then again, pretty much all teenage girls were hiding something. “I’ll leave the two of you alone. Please tell Kendra I hope she’s home soon.”

  Lucy nodded. “I will. Thanks.”

  As Audrey crossed the room, Kendra stirred in her sleep, making a sound of distress. She said something incoherent. Lucy’s voice was soft, but it followed Audrey out of the room.

  “Ssh. Don’t worry—I won’t tell.”

  CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

  Being the topic of gossip was not as easy as Alisha thought it would be. She wasn’t used to being watched as she walked down the hall, and she certainly wasn’t used to people laughing and whispering as she passed. It wasn’t fun, but she could handle it. Really, all they were talking about was whether they thought she’d had sex with Luke. Not like it was a big deal.

  But it had been a big deal. Bigger than she let on, and she hated it. She’d always thought virginity was an albatross around her neck—like that awful poem she’d had to read in English class. She never thought she’d be one of those girls who got emotional afterward, but she had. She’d cried. Luke had held her and stroked her back. He wanted to stay even when she told him he had to leave.

  She’d been the one to say they should keep it a secret. That it had been a mistake. He didn’t speak to her for a few days after that. It took her two days to realize that he wasn’t a jerk, but that she had hurt his feelings.

  What a way to start a relationship. She was so fucking backward. She’d slept with the guy, and now she was just starting to get around to dating him. If she could keep him out of prison, maybe they’d get to go on an actual date.

  So, yeah. That was why she could handle the stares and whispers. It was for Luke. For her.

  Lunch was almost over. She only had to make it through a few more hours and then she could go home. She’d checked Twitter just once since Audrey had posted that morning, and it was nuts. More people were debating the validity of the story than anything else. Some of them actually seemed angry that Luke might have an alibi. They didn’t know him, but they wanted him to be guilty.

  How had Audrey done it? she wondered as she opened her locker. Two girls giggled at her as they walked by. How had Audrey come back to this place after killing someone? It must have been fucking hell.

  It only made Alisha love her more. Audrey was who she wanted to be when she got older. Alisha also loved her for the way she made Uncle Jake smile. She wanted a love like that someday. She didn’t know if Luke was that one for her, but she cared about him—a lot.

  Obviously, if she was letting Neve use her as bait.

  Not that she really thought anything would come of it. At least not while both Kendra and Luke were in the hospital. It narrowed the field too much.

  “Nice play, by the way.”

  She glanced around the edge of her locker door. “You really don’t get the whole restraining-order thing, do you?”

  Lucy shrugged. “I’m getting some books for Ken. You gonna call the cops?”

  “I’m going to go to class.”

  “So, are they going to let Luke go now that you’ve got the whole planet talking about how you fucked him?”

  “I honestly doubt the whole
planet cares who I sleep with.”

  “Kendra does. Tala would.”

  That was a low blow. “Tala had already broken up with him—and she was doing Kyle, remember? Kendra had her chance and she blew it.”

  “So you figure you’ll take a ride now, huh?”

  “The question is, Lucy, why do you care so much? You still have a thing for Luke?”

  The other girl blinked. “No. Of course not. Fuck, no.”

  “So, you’re just upset on behalf of Tala and Kendra?”

  Lucy hesitated, like she thought it was a trick question. “Yeah. Anyway, now everyone knows you’re just another one of Luke’s sluts.”

  “Guess that makes four of us,” Alisha retorted. “Now, do I need to explain what staying the fuck away from me means, or should I just break your nose too?”

  For a second, a smirk curved Lucy’s lips, and Alisha thought she might actually take her up on it, but then she backed up. “My bad.”

  Alisha watched her walk away with a narrow gaze. It wasn’t until she went to close her locker that she realized her hands were clenched into fists.

  * * *

  Search warrant in hand, Neve rang the bell at the Granger house, backed up by Vickie and two uniforms. She fully expected Elle to lose her shit when she saw them, and she was glad for the extra backup.

  Only it wasn’t Elle who answered the door, but Kendall, her husband. He had that ruddy, slightly puffy look of a man who drank too much and liked his steaks. He worked in finance, and looked it. A set of golf clubs sat beside the door, and he was dressed as though he planned to hit the course.

  “What’s this about?” he asked when he saw them. “My daughter is still in the hospital and my wife isn’t here. We have nothing to discuss with you people.” He looked at Neve as he spoke.

  It was the “you people” that made her bristle. She’d heard variations on that before, with varying degrees of disdain. It didn’t matter if he meant “cop” or even “nigger,” the intonation was the same.

  She shoved the warrant at him. “We’re here to search the premises, Mr. Granger. Kindly wait outside with Trooper MacKay.” MacKay was a young kid with a brush cut and a sunburned nose, but he was eager to learn the job.

  Granger flushed even darker. “You can’t do this. You have no right.”

  “The judge thought otherwise.” She brushed past him to enter the house. “Please wait outside, sir.”

  “I’m going to call my lawyer!”

  Neve gave him a gentle shove toward the door where MacKay waited to guide him the rest of the way. “You do that. You may need him when we’re done.”

  Once the man was outside, she, Vickie, and the fourth trooper, Balfour, made their way upstairs. Kyle’s bedroom was at the opposite end of the hall from his parents’. It was a large room with a heavy queen-size bed and matching dark wood furniture. The walls were painted a dark blue and there were framed posters of bands on all four. It was strangely neat for a young man his age, but not all college boys were slobs. Maybe the housekeeper cleaned his room as well as the rest of the house.

  Vickie stood in the center as she pulled on her nitrile gloves. “If I were a frat boy, where would I keep my drugs?”

  “Somewhere close but not obvious,” answered Balfour, who wasn’t long out of college himself.

  “Speaking from experience, Jay?” Neve asked with a smile.

  He grinned. “Of course not.”

  They each took a section and started searching. Neve took the closet—it was a huge walk-in with a wall of shelves and drawers.

  “I have closet envy,” she remarked, pulling on her own gloves. It was just as neat in there as it was out in the room. She started at the opposite wall and worked her way back, looking in pockets and shoes and bags and boxes. Behind a couple of boxes of sneakers that looked like they’d never been worn, she found a stack of pornographic magazines that featured transgender and intersex models. There were also a few dedicated to S&M. None of it was very hard-core or particularly disturbing. Everyone was fairly glossy and attractive and most of the acts depicted appeared consensual, if not totally staged. Highbrow fringe porn. She hadn’t known it was a thing.

  She put the transgender magazines in an evidence bag and continued her search. After finding condoms, lube, and an assortment of sex toys she really wished she hadn’t seen, she finally found what she thought she was looking for. In one of the drawers was a small locked chest. She didn’t see a key anywhere—Kyle probably had it on him—so she grabbed a jackknife that was also in the drawer and used the blade to pop the lock on the box.

  “Eur-fucking-eka,” she whispered. Then louder, “I found something!” She took the box out into the main room.

  “Jesus,” Vickie remarked when she peered inside. “The kid planning to open his own pharmacy?”

  There was a bag of weed; some white powder Neve guessed was coke; a couple baggies of pills, one of which looked like antianxiety meds; and a couple small vials of clear liquid. One of them was only half full.

  “That’s got to be the GHB,” she said, picking up the full one and holding it up to the light. The drug didn’t have a smell, and she wasn’t about to taste it. “The lab will be able to tell for sure.” If it was, then her focus would definitely switch to Kyle and his sister. Kendra had gotten her hands on the stuff somehow, so either her brother had given it to her or she’d taken it, and one of them had probably given some to Tala the night she was killed. Kyle had been around that weekend with spring break, and he could have easily killed Tala before going back to school.

  But what was his motive? Jealousy? Heartbreak that she’d tossed him over for Luke? Kyle didn’t seem the kind to waste his time being brokenhearted, but maybe he was a better actor than she thought.

  She put the vials into a baggie and gathered the other drugs as well. GHB was also sometimes available in pill or powder form, so she needed to have everything in the box tested.

  “You guys find anything else?” she asked.

  “He’s got some porn on the computer,” Balfour replied. “A lot of shemale stuff.”

  “Transgender,” Neve corrected. “Or intersex. Shemale’s a shitty term and I don’t want to hear it, got it?” She’d known other cops who used the term, but that didn’t make it right. She also knew cops that liked to drop the N-bomb on occasion and didn’t care if she heard it.

  He flushed. “Yes, ma’am. Sorry.”

  She clapped him on the shoulder. “Anything else on the computer?”

  “I found some e-mails between him and the vic. I forwarded them to you. I didn’t see anything that stood out—mostly sexy stuff.”

  She could tell from the lingering pink in his cheeks that it had embarrassed him to read it. “Good. Send me the photos as well.”

  Neve and Vickie finished going through the room while Balfour continued with the computer. It was almost an hour before they descended downstairs and outside, where MacKay and Kendall Granger waited.

  Granger’s lawyer had shown up. He was just as florid as his client, and twice as puffed up. “I’d like to know what this was all about, Detective.”

  Neve barely looked at him. “It’s about murder. And GHB.”

  Something clanged. She turned in time to see Kyle Granger sprinting across the backyard toward the fence. Stupid, rich white boys.

  They always ran.

  Wednesday morning, Audrey went into the school to find someone unexpected waiting for her. Elle Granger’s makeup and hair were perfect, but it was obvious she had been crying. Audrey couldn’t help but feel some sympathy for her, despite the fact that she wasn’t very likable.

  She stood when Audrey approached her. Her shoes were Prada, which sparked a little envy in Audrey’s gut. Or maybe that was just the baby. A bitter taste rose in the back of her throat, but she swallowed it back down. She was not going to puke on Elle Granger’s exquisite designer shoes.

  “I’m sorry to show up like this,” Elle said. “Do you have a moment?”
/>   Audrey nodded. She didn’t have an appointment until nine thirty. “Come on in.”

  Elle followed her into the small office. Audrey closed the door and gestured to the love seat. “What can I do for you?”

  “I don’t know if you can do anything, to be honest,” Elle admitted as she sat down. “I’m worried for my children, and obviously wondering what I did to make them as they are.”

  As they are. That was a strange turn of phrase, wasn’t it? “What do you mean?”

  Elle gave her a dubious look. “Surely you’ve heard that Detective Graham was at our house yesterday?”

  Audrey shook her head, even though Yancy had mentioned it the night before. “I assume it had to do with Kendra’s overdose?”

  “I suppose it did. They found the drug she took in my son’s closet—along with others.”

  Ah. So Kyle Granger had GHB. Had he given it to Tala, or had Kendra? “You didn’t know that Kyle uses drugs?”

  “Of course I suspected—he’s in college, after all. But not to this extent, no. And to find this out after Kendra . . .” She frowned. “My daughter used to be my little angel. God, she was the perfect little girl.”

  Audrey inclined her head to one side as she leaned against the desk. She wondered how many drugs the other woman had done in college if she assumed all students partook. “Then what happened?”

  Elle laughed, but there was little to no humor in it. “She became a teenager. She became obsessed with her looks and with boys. She became jealous of her friends. I tried telling myself it was normal teenage girl behavior.”

  “But?”

  The woman’s narrow shoulders sagged. It was obvious where Kendra had gotten her obsession with her physical appearance, but Audrey wasn’t going to point it out. “She started abusing diet pills, and she began cutting herself. She also pulled out so much of her own hair that she had a bald patch. We could hide it with a little styling. We could hide the scars too, and some of the weight loss, but that’s like putting a Band-Aid on a gunshot wound, right?”