Jill’s eyes went back to Karmela. She had been so certain Karmela would be the princess this year. She had hacked into the school’s computers to make sure the Regents chose her. She had put the ring on Karmela’s finger.
Oh, how she wished the GPS tracking ring were on Nicky’s finger instead.
Sitting one table away from Karmela was Kim Renwick, whose face was beaming with delight at the night’s turn of events.
“So there you have it my friends,” Renata said. “A princess wearing black, and a prince with a fat wallet. I don’t need to remind you what happens to these two if nobody finds them by semester’s end.”
“The great beyond,” somebody said.
“Precisely,” Renata said. “It has been many years since our princess went unfound, but still we must always remember the rules. The Rose Ransom was a payment to bring a soul back from the great beyond. If no one finds these two by the end of semester, the great beyond gets to collect them both. Now, prepare yourselves. Here is your first clue.”
Chapter 25
When fifty summers have thickened your skin
And left gnarled weeds where flowers once bloomed
It is here that you shall find comfort
Having found none in the mirror
That was the clue Renata gave them at the end of the Rose Ransom ceremony.
Kim loved it.
When fifty summers have thickened your skin
An obvious reference to the passage of time, this first line of the clue had been the most perplexing for the students trying to figure it out. A week had passed since Renata presented the clue, and during that week, Kim watched as her classmates went on wild goose chases to retirement homes, hospitals, senior centers, and other places where old folks gathered. None of them had found the rose or the second clue.
And left gnarled weeds where flowers once bloomed
Kim was certain this second line of the clue was about how old age made everyone ugly. But most students didn’t get it. Her classmates took a more literal interpretation, hitting up all the flower shops in the area, looking for another clue. Terry Reese led a group to the botanical gardens. And another group of students, led by Brian Kingsbury, had gone searching through the giant weed patches off Highway 82. One of Kim’s spies reported that Brian had come back from that adventure with ticks all over his legs. What an idiot.
It is here that you shall find comfort
If there was an answer to the clue, it was in this line. Where did one find comfort from the ravages of aging? Kim didn’t know, and didn’t care to find out. She was perfectly content for the Ransom to come and go with no winners. If no one solved the Ransom, Nicky would get killed and Kim would win the contest.
Things were looking good, but Kim had no intention of resting on her laurels. She had underestimated Nicky before and lost the Date Auction because of it. She wouldn’t make that mistake again. Now was the time to put a stake in the heart of Nicky’s Coronation campaign.
Or rather, to have Annika Fleming do it.
Kim and Galen Renwick arrived at the Fleming residence at eight-thirty on a Thursday night. Annika answered the door.
“Well holy hell, look what the mother fucking cat dragged in,” Annika said.
“Come now, Annika. There’s no reason to be rude,” Kim said. “We’re just here to have a little chat.”
*****
The week following the Rose Ransom ceremony was an absolute disaster for Jill.
First came that horrible clue. When fifty summers have thickened your skin...
Neither Jill nor anyone else had any idea what that cryptic poem was about, and after a week of trying and failing to solve it, most of the school had given up. It was like they were all waiting on somebody else to figure it out. They were tired of thinking about gnarled weeds where flowers once bloomed, and places where old people find comfort. They just wanted somebody to solve it so they all could move on to the second clue.
Jill knew that she was the somebody who needed to solve the clue, and she sent an urgent message to the Network for help.
Nicky and Ryan were abducted for this year’s Rose Ransom ceremony. The first clue is out. Can someone research it and get back to me? None of us can figure it out.
No one replied.
So she sent another message, this one about a subject that might be more interesting to the strategists at the Network.
I made contact with Tarin last week. Together we cracked Renata’s phone. I’d be happy to discuss it if someone would get in touch with me.
No response. The next day she sent another note.
Nicky and Ryan might still be alive. Is anyone working on the Rose Ransom clue I sent? We really should be trying to figure it out.
A day came and went and she got nothing from the Network. She tried again.
Could I at least have my access to the servers reinstated? There isn’t much I can do for anyone so long as you’re locking me out. Why has my password been changed?
No response.
Why is no one talking to me?
No response.
Why did Tarin come find me only to completely disappear after I completed the mission he asked me to do? Is he okay? Is there anyone out there listening?
It was like the Network was locking her out on purpose. Like she was some outcast unworthy of their attention.
Like they had abandoned her in Washington to die.
Trapped and alone—that’s how she felt when she got the all-caps text message from Annika on Saturday night.
MUST SEE YOU RIGHT AWAY. ARE YOU HOME?
I’m here, Jill wrote back.
Barely ten minutes later, Annika was standing at her front door, wide-eyed and pale.
“What’s going on?” Jill said.
“The Renwicks. They know everything.”
Ugh. The Renwicks. Jill had been so busy with more important work she had been blissfully unaware of what Kim was doing all week.
“Come inside,” she said. “Let’s go to my room and talk.”
Annika’s story was the perfect ending to a perfectly horrid week. Listening to it, Jill grew angry at herself. She had been careless at the Rose Ransom ceremony, allowing Annika to speak Shannon’s name aloud when they thought no one was listening.
“We should have known better,” Jill said.
“It’s my fault,” Annika said. “I was so proud of myself. I went to Rio all alone, found my way to Shannon, and got her someplace safe. I felt like such a badass, and I couldn’t wait to tell you I’d done it. Now Kim knows and is going to ruin everything.”
Everything’s ruined already, Jill thought, but didn’t say.
“It’s not as big a deal as Kim wants us to think it is,” Jill said. “So she overheard you saying Shannon’s name? You could have been talking about anyone.”
“That’s what I said to Kim. I told her she had nothing and needed to get the hell out of my house. But then she gave me this.”
Annika reached into her purse and pulled out a piece of paper that was folded into a square. Jill took it, opened it up, and looked at what seemed like financial data.
“What am I looking at?” she said.
“Wire transfers,” Annika said. “From my bank account to the front desk at the Praia de Sol hotel.”
“Oh, Annika, you didn’t.”
“I did. I sent two wires to Shannon in the past two weeks. Somehow Kim got her hands on them.”
Jill shook her head. “And I suppose they used this info to find Shannon,” she said.
Annika reached into her purse again, and pulled out a black and white photo. Jill looked at it, and felt a little like she was seeing a ghost.
There she was. Shannon Evans. Her hair was shorter. She had no makeup on. She had piercings in her nose and eyebrow that she never had at Thorndike, but it was undeniably Shannon. A girl everyone thought was dead was alive and well in Rio de Janeiro, and Kim Renwick had proof of it.
“The big problem here is the wire t
ransfers,” Jill said. “They connect Shannon to you.”
“I know,” said Annika. Her voice was starting to crack. “You told me to do everything in cash. I should have listened to you. I should have asked you before I wired her any money. I couldn’t bear the thought of her out there with so little money to spend. When her friends left her, they took everything. All she had left were the clothes on her back! She’d been living that way for days. It broke my heart. I just wanted to help her get back to a normal life. She’s been through so much.”
Two four-figure wire transfers in two weeks. Jill wanted to tell Annika that this was more than most people needed to “get back to a normal life,” but she bit her tongue. It didn’t do any good to scold Annika now. The damage had already been done.
“So what do we do?” Annika asked. “Kim said I have until next Friday to renounce my support for Nicky and tell all my friends I was wrong. She wants me to write another text and run it by her. She says it has to be the exact opposite of the one I wrote after the Masquerade, something good enough to persuade all of Nicky’s backers to jump ship.”
Annika was crying now. Jill felt bad for her. Annika Fleming was a spoiled brat just like the rest of them, but she had a good heart. Her love for Shannon was the real deal, so real that it was her only true weakness. Kim had found it and was using it against her.
“The first thing you need to do is take a deep breath,” Jill said. “This might not be as bad as it looks.”
“It seems pretty bad to me. If Kim tells the immortals about Shannon, we’re all dead.”
“You’re focusing only on the cards Kim has to play against you. You need to think about the cards in your hand. What do we have to play against her?”
“Oh, Jill. I don’t like this game. People’s lives are at stake here.”
You don’t even know the half of it, Jill thought.
“Give me your phone,” Jill said.
Annika pulled out her phone, but hesitated to give it to Jill. Jill snatched it from her hands.
“Why do you need--”
“Because Kim’s more likely to take a call from you than she is from me,” Jill said.
“We’re gonna call her?”
Jill was already dialing.
“Are you sure this is a good idea?” Annika said.
“Don’t be scared,” said Jill. “Kim has this reputation of destroying people who mess with her, but I’ve been getting the best of her all semester.”
“What are you going to say? Maybe we should talk about this first.”
A click on the other end of the line. Kim’s voice, speaking quietly: “Hello Annika. Do you have a draft of your message for me yet?”
“What’s up Kim? It’s Jill.”
Silence. Kim was probably thinking about hanging up. It’s what Jill would do. She needed to keep her on the line.
“What do you think of all this?” Jill said. “We go to the Rose Ransom expecting a girl to get called up from the audience, and instead Renata shows us a picture of Nicky and Ryan. Pretty crazy, huh?”
More silence.
“Have you figured out the clue yet?” Jill said. “Because I haven’t.”
She could hear Kim breathing, but she wasn’t saying anything. Jill could sense Kim’s conflict burning across the airwaves. On the one hand, Kim had to know that the best thing she could do was hang up, that Jill wouldn’t have made this call unless it was to her benefit.
On the other hand, Kim loved to gloat. Jill could only imagine how badly Kim wanted to put her in her place after all that had gone down in the past few weeks. Kim wasn’t saying anything because her mind told her not to, but she wasn’t hanging up because her cold, black heart was keeping her on the line.
“Do you think they just want to kill Nicky, and that’s why the clue is so hard?”
That got a chuckle out of Kim, ever so slight, and then a few words. “I don’t know, Jill. Is that what you think?”
“Here’s what I think, Kim. Either you’re the gutsiest girl walking the earth, or the stupidest.”
“I suppose you’re going to tell me why you think that,” Kim said.
“Only if you want to hear it.”
A second of silence passed, then Kim said, “Please, enlighten me.”
“You had the gall to threaten Annika,” Jill said. “You had the nerve to go there when you knew full well that it would anger me, and that I’m the last person you want to make angry.”
Kim let out a big, phony laugh at that line. It reminded Jill of Kim’s first encounter with Nicky at the Masquerade. A hearty, look-how-cocky-I-am laugh that actually betrayed her insecurity.
“It’s cute when you act tough, Jill. But we all know that you’re nothing but a lapdog, just like that panting, decrepit bitch you call mother.”
Jill shook her head. A week ago, Kim might have gotten a rise out of her with that one, but now, having faced off with Bernadette Paiz in her own house, Jill saw Kim as a little kid in the schoolyard spewing little kid insults.
As if to confirm what Jill was thinking, Kim kept on going, turning her insult into an angry juvenile tirade.
“You are the bastard child of the most fucked up family I’ve ever met,” Kim said, “and believe me, I’ve met some fucked up families. When your mother stood on the altar and promised to honor, cherish, and obey, she really meant it. She’s a mindless robot who obeys everything your prick of a father tells her to do, and your entire family fortune is built on that obedience. You’re a fraud, Jill Wentworth. You go to Thorndike and play the role of a girl who belongs in high society, but your family is nothing more than glorified trailer trash, and I can’t wait for the day when I get to hunt you down and drink you dry.”
“Are you finished?” Jill said.
“Oh, I could go on all night.”
“Before you do, let me remind you what the score is. You know secrets about me. I know secrets about you. We talked about this after the Date Auction.”
“I remember our little chat that night,” Kim said, “and the conversation I had with Annika is an entirely separate matter. Whatever things you think you know about my family have nothing to do with it.”
“Oh, they have everything to do with it,” Jill said. “I don’t think you fully understood me last time, so I’ll spell it out for you. You don’t get to blackmail me or my friends, ever. Your daddy bought slaves from Melissa Mayhew for years and I have a chain of emails to prove it. When we go down, we all go down together.”
“You’re bluffing, Jill. You know it, I know it, and Annika knows it.”
“Really? Annika knows it? You think you know what’s in Annika’s head? Maybe we should just ask her.”
Jill pulled the phone away from her ear and put it on speaker. “Say hi, Annika.”
“Hello, Kim,” Annika said in a flat voice.
“So Kim, Annika heard what I just said to you, but for the benefit of both of you, I’ll repeat it. Galen Renwick has filled his muckraking business with slaves who were born on the Farm and illegally sold to him. The immortals would love to know the truth about Renwick Consulting, and I have emails in my possession I could turn over to them at any time.”
“Annika, those emails implicate Jill’s parents in the same scheme,” said Kim. “She will never turn them over to the clan.”
“Maybe I would, maybe I wouldn’t,” said Jill. “Doesn’t matter. Annika’s just heard the truth from both our mouths. She can’t unhear it. If you tell the clan about Shannon, they will come to Annika and look in her mind, and when they do, they’ll learn the truth about all of us.”
“It doesn’t have to be this way, Annika,” Kim said. “Jill would see all of us go down. I’m offering you a lifeline.”
“She doesn’t need a lifeline, Kim. You’re not breathing a word about Shannon to anyone.”
“Don’t act like you know what I’m going to do. Don’t act like what’s happening at school doesn’t have you scared shitless, Jill. Renata abducted a girl wearing b
lack for the first time in the 70-year history of the Rose Ransom, and the first clue she gave us is impossible to solve. You said it yourself, Jill. The clan wants her dead. The Rose Ransom is the most convenient way to kill her. The clues are impossible, no one finds her, and then we all watch her die at the year-end party.”
“I think we’re done here, Kim.”
“Annika! Nicky is finished! Support me now and all is forgiven! Turn your back on me and I’ll crush you. You hear me? I will crush you!”
Jill ended the call.
“Wow,” Annika said. “What the hell just happened?”
“We sprung you loose from the secret Kim was holding over your head, that’s what happened.”
“That was really something. The way you talked to Kim. I had no idea you had that in you.”
“I didn’t either, not until recently, anyway. That’s not the first time Kim and I have shared words.”
“I can tell. What were you guys saying about a chat after the Date Auction?”
“It’s nothing you need to worry about,” said Jill. “Other than what we already told you. My dad and Kim’s dad have done some rotten things. We’re holding secrets over each other’s heads. Kind of a mutually assured destruction thing. Sorry you have to be a part of it.”
“No apologies necessary. But….what do we do now?”
It was a good question. Even before Annika arrived with news that Kim was trying to blackmail her, Jill didn’t know what they did next. She had solved the problem of Kim, but hadn’t solved the many other problems that were locking her in place.
Fortunately, she had a convenient rule to tell her what to do when she didn’t know how to proceed.
I choose to do what’s right.
She didn’t know how to make the right choice regarding the Rose Ransom clue, or the silence from the Network, or her mother, who, as Kim so eloquently reminded her, was stuck in a horrible situation and needed help.
The Rose Ransom (Girls Wearing Black: Book Three) Page 22
