Runaways (2 page)

“Go on.”

“What else can I say about it? He wasn’t a jock.”

“Go on about the fight.”

“At this point, everybody knew something was up with the two of them. Kaylee had missed a few days of school, and when she came back, she was always getting to class late or leaving early. Totally not like her. Word on the street was she was doing that so Mason never had a chance to be alone with her and to talk to her. Apparently, he was getting tired of trying to track her down, so here he was, sitting and waiting like a stalkarazzi for her to walk by. When Kaylee came out of the building and saw him waiting, she was all ready to turn around, but for whatever reason, she didn’t. She walked down the steps, right by him, and he called out to her. He asked why she hadn’t answered any of his calls or texts. Kaylee had to hear him, but she pretended she didn’t. Then he chased after her. He said he wanted to show her something.” Glinda paused. “That really got my interest.”

Kaylee had been avoiding Mason after the incident between him and her father. The last thing she’d heard was Mason taking the money to break up with her. She was furious and heartbroken. She almost turned around when she saw him waiting for her outside of school, but she wanted to have the fight and just get it over with.

Still, she didn’t approach him and made him chase after her. “Why are you avoiding me?”

“Why would I want to meet with you when I know it’s so you can break up with me?” It seemed like a good question to her, but Mason seemed genuinely confused.

“What are you talking about? I’m not breaking up with you. Ever.”

Kaylee finally stopped to face him. “I really thought we had something. Something more than all this.” She gestured to the school and the few students nearby.

“We do. You know I’d do anything for you. Anything.” His eyes pleaded with hers.

“You’re lying. I know about the money. I saw you with my father. I know you cut a deal.” Mason finally understood why she’d been avoiding him. What a mess.

“Please, let me explain.”

“There’s no explaining what you did. I thought I meant
something more to you. I thought you knew that money couldn’t buy what we had.”

“Money can’t buy what we have. Nothing can. People could spend their whole lives searching and never have what we have.”

The more Mason protested, the more upset Kaylee got. She never believed he could be such a hypocrite. “I trusted you.”

“I deserve your trust! I would do anything for you. I know I’m lucky to have you.”

“You’re lying.”

“I’m not. I won’t. I will never do anything to hurt you.”

Kaylee couldn’t even look at him. She knew if she did she’d burst into tears. She tried to escape before she lost it, looking down so he wouldn’t see her eyes, but Mason grabbed her. “Look at me. Yes. I took the money.” Kaylee yanked away, but Mason wasn’t letting go. “But I’m not breaking up with you.”

“You took my father’s money,”
Kaylee spat out the words.

“I did. I took his money. He offered me money to break up with you, and I took it. But I’m not breaking up with you. I never planned to break up with you. Ever. If you’ll have me, you’ll be stuck with me forever.”

Now it was Kaylee’s turn to be confused. Mason shook his head. “I can’t be bought. Not by him or anybody else.”

“But he paid you.”

“He did. But he’s a fool who thinks he can fix problems by throwing cash at them. He offered money and I took it.” When Mason recounted this part, he seemed pleased with himself, like he’d outsmarted someone who was trying to trick him. But Kaylee knew her father better than Mason did. He wouldn’t give up that easily. She didn’t like what her father did trying to buy Mason out, and she was secretly relieved that Mason wasn’t breaking up with her, but his double crossing her father worried her.

“My father isn’t going to just walk away. You took his money. He’ll make things hard on you. Maybe on your father. You need to think about what you’re doing.”

“He won’t do anything.”

“You don’t know him the way I do.”

“I know something. Something he doesn’t want anybody else to know.” Mason held her gaze. He thought she would be pleased he had bested her father. He expected her to ask what the information was, but instead Kaylee looked concerned.

“This thing you know. Does it have something to do with me?”

Mason smiled. “You don’t have any secrets this big.”

Kaylee wished he was right.

“I need to show you something.”

Mason took Kaylee’s hand and guided her around the corner
of the building to where a dark gray Mustang was parked. It was a muscle car, all waxed and sexy.

“What’s this?”

“It’s the car your father bought us. You don’t have to ride around in my old piece of shit anymore.”

“What are you talking about?”

“Your father gave me the money. I bought a car. It’s simple.”

“My father must be furious,” Kaylee said. Mason hugged her. “Let him be furious,” he said. “He can’t hurt us.”

Kaylee looked doubtful. If she’d looked up toward the balcony, she would’ve seen that Glinda looked doubtful as well. Mason was screwing with some powerful people.

“Mr. Abernathy offered Mason money to break up with Kaylee. Mason took the money and bought that white-trash hot rod of his. That’s how little he thinks of Kaylee. Everybody thinks he loved her so much. But he was willing to be bought off.”

Jared was getting impatient. He didn’t see why the police needed to rehash all this information when they should be out looking for Mason and Kaylee.

“And then he didn’t break up with her,” Jared pointed out. “He made a deal and didn’t honor it. That was Mason, no sense
of decency.”

“Why didn’t Abernathy report the incident? Mason had essentially stolen money from him.”

“Rumor had it that Mason knew something about the man and was blackmailing him. What he knew, I have no idea.” Jared realized he needed to find out. There was a lot going on with Mason that he didn’t know about. First, he managed to avoid getting punished for throwing Jared into the lockers. Then, he took a large amount of money from William Abernathy without honoring the agreement they had, and Abernathy had let him go unscathed. Mason clearly knew something, something that the people who ordinarily would be able to punish him wanted kept secret. Jared couldn’t tolerate the thought of Mason being better at the information game than he was.

He left the interrogation and immediately pulled up his computer with recordings from the various camera feeds he had around the campus. He settled into a comfortable chair in the student lounge. There was a lot of footage to sort through and Jared wasn’t sure where to start. He knew it had something to do with William Abernathy, so he pulled footage from the day he received his community service award. Most of his cameras and bugs were in places people had private conversations: locker rooms, restrooms, the dean’s office. Jared was surprised at how
many people popped pills, or worse, in public restrooms. They seemed so dirty for something so personal. Maybe Mr. Abernathy had a drug problem. That seemed the most likely.

Jared thought of his sizable trove of information. He knew things about numerous students and he was waiting until he needed to use them. He’d known about Keesha’s pill habit a full six months before he thought it necessary to call her attention to it. And he knew about Olivia Abernathy and Dean Van de Sant. He had considered telling the police about their affair in case it could help their investigation, but thought he might need to pull favor with the dean at some point so he changed his mind.

That was part of the game, knowing when to use information. It was like playing the stock market. Sell too soon and you lose. Sell too late and you lose. The best investments are monitored carefully for optimum profit. He had something on Lily Mars too. She’d had an embarrassing issue and made the mistake of taking a call about it in the restroom. He had no idea when he would need to curry a favor from her, but he was sure he would at some point.

He continued fast-forwarding through what amounted to hours of footage. Jared was somewhat heartened by how little dirt he actually did gather on people. Sure, he had his share of nose pickers and cheerleaders passing gas, but he had a standard and would only use evidence of people doing things he thought
were actually wrong. Not just human.

William Abernathy appeared on the screen. Jared let the recording slow to real time. Abernathy wasn’t alone. And when Jared saw who he was with, everything that had happened in the previous night made total sense to him.

Jared not only understood why Mason killed William Abernathy. He approved.

21. MURDER WEAPON

Van de Sant walked down the hallway near his office, talking to the detectives. He was very pleased with himself.

“I was making my usual rounds this afternoon when I noticed something was askew. Something had not been cleaned properly. Ordinarily, I’d consider this a reason to have a little chat with our cleaning staff. But in this case, I believe their shoddy work can benefit your investigation.”

They passed numerous trophy cases jammed with the spoils of a century of the school’s successful athletic teams. Gold cups, ribbons, and bronze statues of athletes filled the shelves. Photos dating back to the days when the football team wore what looked like pillows to protect themselves hung on every open surface.

“Danbury has always been one of the better preparatory schools for athletics,” Van de Sant explained. “We believe firmly in nurturing our students’ minds and bodies equally.”

He smiled at the detectives. It was the same spiel he gave to all new families on prospective student tours, though most would apply no matter what he said. Danbury was prestigious and they all wanted prestige. If their athletic program was made
up of just synchronized swimming and square dancing, they’d still apply.

The dean and the detectives reached the destination. Another trophy case, but this one was filled with more contemporary awards. Van de Sant pointed out a conspicuously empty section. The shelf was dusty, save for one perfectly clean square spot. Someone had removed a trophy since the last time the cleaning crew had dusted.

“I don’t know how long it’s been missing.”

The detectives seemed unimpressed until Van de Sant threw down his trump card.

“I wouldn’t have said anything if it hadn’t been his. William’s. It seems significant. It was the award William won earlier this year. He wanted to share it with the Danbury community so he asked it be kept here.”

He wanted to show it off, Van de Sant thought. The insecure prick wanted everybody to see he’d been honored. He probably was worried Olivia would throw it away if he left it at home. She had impeccable taste, and it was a particularly garish trophy—a crystal column with William Abernathy’s name etched in it.
FOR EXCELLENCE IN THE COMMUNITY
.

“How long ago did he get it?” the younger detective asked, peering at the case.

“About two months, maybe. I can have my assistant get the specific date for you if you’d like. The ceremony was here at Danbury.”

“Was it open to the public or by invitation only?”

“We don’t ever open anything to the general public.” The dean tried to smile kindly at the clueless detective. “This was no exception. It was attended by the usual representatives of the Danbury community. Olivia and both their daughters were there, of course.” Van de Sant thought back to the ceremony and party. Alcohol flowed, but only those with addiction issues overindulged. The speeches were witty and warm. Abernathy was surprised, delighted, and humbled, blah, blah, blah. The man had annoyingly straight, white teeth. He must have spent a fortune on dental treatments.