B00B9FX0F2 EBOK (18 page)

W
hen the video started up again, the music had gotten louder, and the camera was less steady. A meaty guy in a Brighton lacrosse jacket was badly impersonating a math teacher, pushing imaginary glasses up his nose, pulling at a necktie that wasn’t there, and spouting nonsense about equations. They could hear Sully laughing loudly, but the comedian was looking next to him at someone they couldn’t see.

“I hate that guy,” the invisible man said; Jason could tell he wasn’t smiling as he spoke.

“That’s Luke?”

“Yep,” Troy said. “We were all trying to make him feel better about Jericho. Though I doubt Springer’s method actually worked.”

The camera turned toward Luke, who nodded at Sully and quietly asked him to turn it off. An instant later, the screen went black.

“One more,” Troy said.

Jason’s pulse began to race, and something in him twisted up. What if the third video was just Sully taping the activity in his coat pocket? Jenna and Luke. They killed Lacey, and then they stalked him, manipulated him, used him as a puppet. But the
why
lingered, a thorny knot he could barely get a hand around, much less untangle. Jenna had a crush on Troy and was angry at her friend for going behind her back. Luke was crazy
overprotective and felt betrayed. But these were motives for writing an all-caps screed on someone’s Facebook wall, not for murder. And they didn’t explain what Jason was doing here, in John Sullivan IV’s playroom, waiting to watch a grainy iPhone video of kids he’d barely met.

Jason still hadn’t listened to Jenna’s messages. Worse than seeing nothing on the tape, he suddenly realized, would be seeing proof that Jenna hurt Lacey. She was dishonest and probably sick, but he didn’t want to believe she was a killer. He
couldn’t
believe it. He wanted to tell them to pause; he wished he could put everything on hold, just for a second, just until his head was straight, but the movie was rolling.

“Can you fast-forward through this part?” Troy’s impatience hummed through his entire body, you could see it in his tapping foot, his pursed lips. He had none of Jason’s reluctance to find out what had happened, only a thirst for the truth.

Sully rolled his eyes, but did as he was told. This video was longer than the others, almost twenty minutes according to the scrollbar at the bottom of the screen. They were nearly halfway through when they got to a figure they recognized. “There, stop,” Troy and Jason said in unison.

It was Lacey, standing in the dimly lit hallway. The picture was out of focus, most of the shot was blackness, but Lacey’s chin being filmed from below was unmistakable. “Now I remember,” Sully said, his brow furrowed with concentration. “I couldn’t find my phone when we were leaving. I thought someone stole it again, and I was freaking out. Spencer found it in the hallway before we left.”

“Shhh!” Jason silenced him. Lacey was talking. Troy leaned down and turned the volume as high as it would go.

“Go back,” he commanded. Sully rewound until the phone dropped from his hand. They watched him scamper down the stairs and saw the feet of Arla Summers and whatever guy she was with pass through the frame. Then Lacey’s blurry face filled the screen.

Jason held his breath. “… don’t care who you tell,” she was saying. “I’m tired of keeping these secrets. They’ll get over it. They love me. Which is more than I can say for you. I thought you were my friend, but everyone else was right, you’re disgusting.”

“Watch what you say to me.” The disembodied male voice was familiar, but Jason couldn’t place it. From the look on Troy’s face, he couldn’t, either.

“I’m not afraid of you,” Lacey said, but a second later, you could see fear register in her eyes. “Max, don’t …”

“Luke,” Rakesh said.

Jason saw spots. Maybe he had heard wrong. Troy confirmed he hadn’t: “Are you deaf? She just said
Max
.”

“No, Luke is
here
.” He pointed, and sure enough, Luke stood in Sully’s doorway, white as a sheet, the darkness of the hallway at his back. His eyes flitted uneasily between his friends and the two kids he’d attacked the day before.

Troy addressed him gently. “How long have you —”

“I’m going to kill you,” Luke wailed, barreling toward them.

Before Jason could be sure which “you” he was referring to, Troy stepped in front of the group and locked arms with his cocaptain.

“You think you can lie to me? I know all about you!” Luke swung wildly, and Troy absorbed the blows to his shoulders and chest, only lifting his hand protectively when Luke’s fists approached his face.

“Dude, calm down,” Troy managed in between punches. “Let me explain.”

“Don’t bother explaining. I knew about you and Lacey. Why didn’t you protect her? She needed you. And now you’re here, with this guy….” He gestured to Jason and then finally relented, dropping his hands to his sides, panting. Sully stood next to him and pulled him gently backward, out of arm’s reach of Troy, who was rubbing his biceps where Luke had been hitting him.

“Let me explain,” Troy repeated finally. “Jason just wants to help Lacey. That video. Did you see it?”

Jason came to his aid. “She didn’t fall, Luke.”

“I know,” he said mournfully. Jason realized he thought she jumped. Because of Troy. That was why he’d been so aggressive at the grave site; he was protecting his friend. It was the only thing left he could do.

“She didn’t do it to herself, either,” Jason added. Luke looked up at him, and for the first time Jason saw something other than fury in his eyes. There was all the sadness, all the loss pooled up and trapped there. Now he understood Jenna had been right: Luke really was torn up over the death of his sister.

Luke looked uneasily at Troy. “What’s he talking about?”

It took him a minute to answer. Like Jason, he was still wrapping his mind around it, parsing through what they’d just seen. “It was Max.” He started to explain the video.

Jason’s head was spinning. He went back to the beginning as well. So much had happened since he’d first begun talking to Lacey, so much suspicion and doubt and so many revelations. He had all the puzzle pieces now, or almost all of them, and
they were assembled right in front of him, but the picture they formed was still obstructed from his view.

“We need to finish the video,” he said definitively, thinking of Jenna. Where did she fit into all of this? Where did
he
fit into all of this? He needed to know what had happened that night.

“We’ll start at the beginning, so Luke can see.”

“No,” Jason said. He sounded colder — stronger — than he ever had before. “There’s no time.”
We needed your help. There was no other way.
Max was still out there and so was Jenna. “Max knows I’m close.”

Troy protested, and Rakesh backed Jason up.

“I’m not a moron,” Luke finally said. Rakesh opened his mouth, but Jason kicked him before he could form the insult. “I want to see what happened.” He crossed his arms across his chest, and so Sully pressed play.

“Max, don’t,” Lacey said, and a thin arm reached for her. She pushed him back.

“I’ll put the video on Facebook. What do you think Luke will do when he sees what you did with his best bro? Do you think Jenna will understand why you went behind her back? Everyone will know what a liar you are. I’m giving you a chance. I’ll keep your secret. I’m not even asking that much in return.”

They were watching something awful: the murder of an innocent girl, yet Jason’s heart leapt. Jenna didn’t know about Lacey and Troy. Jenna wasn’t involved in Lacey’s death.

Faintly, they heard a door creaking and the clamor of voices.

“Oh, hey, Lacey, what are you doing up here?” It was a girl’s voice, friendly.

“Just, uh, looking for a bathroom,” Lacey answered, her eyes nervously creeping to the side. Max must have ducked out of sight.

Luke was rapt, his expression pained. Jason tried to put himself in his shoes, observing his sister minutes before she died, powerless to warn her how dangerous the person she was protecting was.

“Rox told me no one was supposed to be up here. But you can use the one in her parents’ room over there. The line downstairs is so annoying.”

“Thanks, Laura.”

A minute went by. “This is over, Max,” Lacey hissed. “I’m not gonna go out with you. Tell the entire school about Troy for all I care. The worst part is I defended you to him. I actually
liked
you.”

“I thought you were special. But you’re just like every other conformist at this stupid school.” A hand reached to her chest and yanked at the necklace hanging there, tearing the chain. “You think this means something?”

“Hey! Give that back!”

She disappeared from the frame, and as the five boys stared at a blurry wall, they heard the sounds of a struggle, and a girl’s muffled shriek, and then nothing. A few minutes later, they could see someone’s legs passing by the camera, and then nothing, until the picture went dead.

No one spoke. They sat staring at the screen, shell-shocked, the sounds of ragged breath filling the room, and then suddenly they were all talking — then shouting — at once.

“You had this video the whole time!”

“Why didn’t you just tell me …”

“You let her hang out with that guy!”

“… should never have trusted him.”

“What are you even doing here?”

“I never
let
her do anything.”

“My sister …”

“When I get my hands on him …”

“I loved her, too.”

It was Rakesh who put a stop to it. “Shut up!” he screamed. “You’re all giving me a head ache. Jason, what do we do now?”

To Jason’s surprise, they all looked at him expectantly. He wanted to tell them he couldn’t help. He was tired and sore, spent. There had been too much risk already, too many twists, and for what? Lacey was still gone. And then he remembered. Jenna. Max was out there, and Jenna didn’t know how dangerous he was. They could protect her.
He
could.

“We have to call the police,” Jason said.

“I can handle Max Anderson,” Luke replied, balling up his fists.

Jason already had his phone out of his pocket. It was a few minutes past one in the morning. Jenna’s voice mails now seemed urgent, just like she’d been trying to tell him.

Troy and Sully reasoned with Luke as Jason checked his messages. The blood drained from his face when he heard Jenna’s whispered plea.

“I should never have lied to you. I think there’s something wrong with Max.
Please
call me back when you get this.”

She had gone to Max. When Jason had not listened to her, she had gone to him, and now whatever happened to her would be his fault.

“I’m calling 911. Now. Someone find me Max’s address.” It was as if he’d been given superpowers; everyone listened to him. Luke stopped arguing, and Rakesh planted himself in front of the computer.

When the operator answered, he cleared his throat. “I’d like to report a murder,” he said. If he hadn’t been so focused on protecting Jenna, he would have savored the dramatic effect. As it was, Rakesh snorted.

“Sir, are you in any immediate danger?”

“Yeah. No. I mean, my friend is.”

“What is your location?”

“My location? No, I’m fine. It’s my friend. She’s in danger.”

“Sir, can you give me the address?”

He squinted over Rakesh’s shoulder and recited Max’s address.

There was a long pause. “You think this is real funny, huh?”

“What? What are you talking about? My friend is in danger!”

“Young man, do you know it’s a crime to call in false reports?”

“No! This isn’t a false report.” He was growing more high-pitched and childlike with everything he said. He cupped a hand over the mouthpiece and asked Rakesh if he was sure it was the right address.

“Yeah, that’s definitely his house,” Troy answered. “I dropped Lacey off there a bunch of times.”

“Have you ever heard of the boy who cried wolf?” the operator was asking sternly.

“I’m not crying wolf! Why don’t you believe me?”

“But you were the first seven times you called in a threat to that address? Mr. Anderson has informed us he will be pressing charges if the harassment continues.”

Max. He’d gotten to them first. Jason lowered the phone and ended the call. The group stood there staring at him quizzically. They were waiting for an explanation, for guidance. What was he going to tell them? That he’d been outplayed? That Max was smarter — and crazier — than any of them had realized?

“Well,” he said, as authoritatively as he could muster, “I guess we’re going with Plan B.”

P
lan B involved arguing about who was going to drive (they settled on Luke because his car was the biggest), and then, briefly, about who was riding shotgun (Jason forced Rakesh to let Troy have it even though he conceded that, by the rules of shotgun, Rakesh had won the seat).

Jason was loath to admit it, but one thing Plan B did not involve was an actual plan, or rather, it was lacking a unified
plan
. They were agreed on the first step: Go to Max’s. It was after this that their ideas diverged. Jason was planning to rescue Jenna. Luke was planning to rip Max’s head off when they got there. Troy was planning to stop Luke from committing a felony. Rakesh was planning to not miss any action. Sully was planning to record whatever went down and post the video to YouTube, but Troy stared him down when he tried to squeeze his stocky frame into the Jeep, and they left him behind on the curb.

Jason attempted to concentrate on Jenna’s voice mails as Luke whipped around the curves of Brighton’s narrow streets.

“I never meant to lie to you. We didn’t know what to do. I’ll explain everything, but you have to talk to me.
Please
call me back.”

“Ugh, turn on your phone! Call me back!”

“Okay, last message, but you should see how people look at Max at school. We needed someone else if anyone was going to
believe what Troy did to Lacey. I loved her, but I didn’t know how much I would like or care about you, and I never wanted you to get hurt.”

“Sorry, I lied about not leaving any more messages. Look, I’m going over to Max’s. He got a new lead on Troy and he thinks we have enough to go to the police. I really want you on our side for this, so please, please, please call me back.”

And then, the final hushed warning: “There’s something wrong with Max.”

Jenna had left that one just half an hour before. Through pursed lips, he asked how far away they were. “Halfway there,” Troy answered. She had to be okay.

He dialed her number, but it rang through to voice mail. He tried again, and this time someone picked up on the third ring.

“Hello, Jason.” It was Max, the soothing beats of the XX playing in the background.

“Max, uh, hi. Is Jenna with you?”

“Oh, she’s right here, but she can’t come to the phone right now, on account of I don’t think it’s a very good idea for you two to be talking. You never know what crazy theories you might come up with.” The flat, emotionless delivery gave the words a sharp edge, and Jason tried to keep panic from setting in.

“Max, is Jenna alright?”

“I’m gonna take good care of Jenna. You don’t need to worry about a thing.”

And then there was a click as the line went dead.

“Any way we could drive a little faster?” Jason asked Luke through clenched teeth. The speedometer read fifty-two mph. Rakesh, rarely one for physical contact with other guys, gave his shoulder a comforting squeeze.

Max’s house was dark when they pulled up outside. Luke jumped out first, followed closely by Troy, who restrained him by the back of his shirt.

“Dude, what are you gonna do?”

“I’m going to kill that guy.”

“Buddy, I know you don’t want to hear this, but that gets us nowhere good. Jason, what’s our angle?”

He swallowed. “I heard music when we talked. Max said he uses his garage as a studio. That’s probably where he has Jenna. If we can get in there, we can try to reason with him.” He didn’t add that the studio was probably soundproof, and so if Jenna was screaming no one would be able to hear, or that the cold-hearted, calculating person he’d just spoken to on the phone didn’t seem much inclined to reason with anyone. They had to start somewhere.

Be okay, be okay, please be okay
, Jason soundlessly repeated the mantra to himself as they filed up the driveway. How could he have let this happen? Why hadn’t he seen the truth? They could see the tiniest sliver of light below the closed entrance to the garage, but it was otherwise unyielding. Troy led them along the side, into the narrow space between the freestanding wall and a hedge. Still without speaking, Rakesh gestured to the window set above all of their heads. The next thing Jason knew, Troy was hoisting his entire body up to look through it.

When he saw Jenna, he wanted to cheer. She was alive! But it only took a minute to realize alive and safe were not the same thing. Her wrists were bound and she was crying. He followed her line of vision to where Max was standing, leaning toward her. Jason surveyed the rest of the room. On the table
next to him was a chain saw — he wouldn’t even have to move to pick it up. He gestured down to Troy, who lowered him to the ground.

“Okay,” he whispered. “Jenna’s in there. I don’t think he’s hurt her yet, but he’s got her tied up. And he’s got a chain saw, so there’s that.”

“How do we get in?” Luke asked.

“There’s a door against the back wall, just around that corner. But we can’t let him lay a hand on Jenna.”

Before any of them could stop him, Luke had rushed around the corner. They heard him yank the door open. Troy followed in his path, but Jason and Rakesh pulled him backward before he could reach the entrance.

“Did you not hear me? It’s like
The Texas Chainsaw Massacre
in there, and we know what he’s capable of.”

“I ride with Luke.”

“Then he’ll kill both of you. If you want to help him, we can’t be stupid.”

Rakesh silenced them both with a finger to his lips. Luke had entered the garage, leaving the door slightly ajar, and now they could faintly hear what was going on inside.

“Hello, Luke.” That deadly calm again. Jason held his breath, sweating.

Luke’s roar was animal and raw, but midway through it was interrupted by a buzzing crackle, transforming from anger to pain, and mixing with the sounds of Jenna shrieking. Troy bolted for the door too quickly for them to stop him, but to Jason’s relief he stopped at the corner, merely peeking through the cracked door. Jason rubbed his hands together nervously, desperate to know what was happening inside.

“Feeling limber?” he asked Rakesh, raising an eyebrow toward the window.

Rakesh grunted as he lifted Jason up. “One of these days I’m going to stop carrying you on my shoulders. Then where will you be?”

Jason’s retort was left unspoken when he saw Luke curled on the ground, groaning. A few steps away, Max was duct taping Jenna’s mouth shut. She was whimpering, and her eyes were trained on something Jason didn’t recognize in Max’s left hand.

He looked over at Troy. “Is that a …”

“Yeah, Taser.”

Rakesh, whose arms had begun to shake, lowered Jason down to the ground. “Why am I not surprised that guy has a Taser?”

“They only hold a couple charges.” Troy had come back to huddle with them.

“And why am I not surprised this guy knows all about them?”

Jason ignored him, addressed himself directly to Troy. “What are you saying?”

Weakly, Rakesh joked, “Yo, I am not getting tased, bro.”

None of them cracked a smile.

“Look, I don’t think any of us have to get tased, but if two or more of us go in there at once, we can overpower him.”

“Except for the chain saw.”

“So we have to make sure one of us gets to the chain saw first.”

From inside, they could hear Max’s hollow, maniacal laugh. “What’s the matter, Gray? Not so tough now, are we?” It was followed by the rip of duct tape being torn. Luke was going to be of no use to them if they got inside. “I guess you’ve figured it out by now? How your
boy
was dating your sister right under
your nose? It was so obvious! But I guess that’s where I came in. Lacey thought I’d be so happy to cover for her. Like pretending to hang out with her was the best thing that could ever happen to me. Your sister was kind of a brat, did you know that?” Luke grunted, and they heard the thud of Max kicking him.

Jason kept one ear on what Max was saying as he tried to focus on Troy’s plot to get into the garage. “Jason, you’ll go first. You have to distract him.”

He nodded, but Rakesh must have seen his doubt, because he cut in. “I’ll go first.”

“No, Rock, you don’t have to.”

“You got the crap beaten out of you yesterday….”

“So did you!”

“Well, for one thing, I’m tougher, and for another, Luke didn’t repeatedly punch me in the face. If the psychopath in there tries to tase you, you’re screwed. I, however, am quick like a cat, or a fox, or a panther….”

Jason felt a rush of gratitude for his friend, but Troy was less amused. “We get it. Fine, you’ll go first. Get him to turn his back to the door, and then, Jason, you grab the chain saw; I’ll tackle Max.”

“And then Jason can rescue Jenna,” Rakesh said suggestively.

Jason felt himself blush in the darkness, and he was glad Troy ignored him. “We’ll go on my count. Okay?”

Inside, Max had turned his attention to Jenna. “You couldn’t just leave it alone. You think your BFF cared about you?” His calm was beginning to fray around the edges, and now he was practically spitting the words. “I knew more about her than you did. I knew more about her than
anyone
. You’re just like her, you know that?”

Through her taped mouth, Jason couldn’t hear a response, but he knew they couldn’t wait much longer. He felt a resigned sense of dread, like Hamlet at the beginning of the fifth act. The instant the play popped into his head, Jason saw the parallels. Everyone undone by mistrust and treachery, minor conflicts blossoming into full-blown blood feuds, a pile of bodies on the floor. Was that how this was going to end? It occurred to him that that was what Max wanted, and he felt a surge of anger. He had killed Lacey, torn a huge gaping hole in everyone’s world, just because he was unhappy. Jason wasn’t going to give him the chance to do the same to Luke and Jenna.

“Yeah,” Jason said finally. “Rakesh, don’t get tased, okay? Troy, tackle him before he gets near Rock. Ready?”

As stealthily as they could, they crept to the corner of the garage, ducking back behind the wall when they were bathed in light from the open door. Rakesh stood at the front, and Troy held up his hand, silently mouthing, “One … two … three.” As soon as the third finger went up, Rakesh shot off, piercing the night with a battle cry so loud and surprising it startled even Jason. But a moment later he was following at his friend’s heels and crouching at the door so Troy could see in over his head. The garage was smaller than Jason had realized from the window — there wasn’t really anywhere for Rakesh to go. But Max was caught off guard all the same, spinning away from Jenna to see where the noise was coming from. Rakesh was a flurry of motion, jumping over the recovering Luke and from corner to corner. Confusion washed over Max when he realized who the second intruder was. “What the —” he muttered, and then looked down at the Taser in his hand and grinned, as if realizing for the first time that he had a weapon.

“What you gonna do, freak?” Rakesh taunted as he bounced into the corner farthest from the door. “Trust me, you could play me your latest acoustic song, and it would hurt me worse than that toy in your hand.”

Jason darted in once Max’s back was fully turned, heading directly for the chain saw. Maybe his feet fell as heavily as they felt, or maybe something in Rakesh’s behavior gave him away, but Max whipped around again and charged right for him. Jason was at the chain saw first, tugging inexpertly at the starter cord. He was expecting the motor to roar, but there was nothing. He pulled again, harder this time, and Max threw back his head and laughed. He was three steps away, Taser arm outstretched. There was nowhere for Jason to go. He wanted to shut his eyes. Instead he forced himself to look at Jenna. He’d seen how scared she was before. She had to know he wasn’t going to let anything happen to her. But Jenna was gone from her chair. Just before the Taser made contact, Max crumpled to the ground, and the garage filled with an awful, mechanical wail. Jenna stood before Jason, where Max had been a second before. In her duct-taped hands was the electric guitar she had used to crack Max over the head.