Investigating Julius Drake Read online

  The policeman squared off in front of the door, arms folded. “Where’d you leave it?”

  “I don’t know for sure.” Natasha tipped up her chin. “Could I check his room? It would only take a second.”

  The police officer glanced Natasha over, then Julius and me. His eyes were narrowed and he leaned back on his heels. “I’m going to have to ask Mr. and Mrs. Terwillager about that.” He palmed his notepad. “In the meantime, I’d like to ask you a few questions, miss. You’re friends with Todd, correct?”

  “Yes?” Natasha tilted her head to the side. “I’ll help however I can.”

  “Come on.” Gently, Julius touched my arm. We made our way to the far edge of the lawn where rubbernecking neighbors were trying to act casual while they peeked at the house. In the mass of people, Julius and I slipped unnoticed.

  Like the rest of the onlookers, he focused his gaze on the police officer and Natasha. Julius spoke to me out of the corner of his mouth. “We should sneak in. You want to keep watch or head inside?”

  I swallowed. For two weeks I’d let Julius drag me into this, but I’d never done something that could so clearly get me in trouble. The problem was that under my shaking hands and racing pulse, there was a thread of feeling that was new and amazing. I’d had my first sips of real excitement when I snuck out to meet Julius the first time. Now I was an addict. “You should do lookout.”

  “Are you sure?” Julius’s eyes were softer than usual. In that instant I could imagine he cared about me.

  Unfortunately, in his all black, Julius stood out. Heck, even in the hallways at school, Julius’s sharp dressing made him hard to ignore. In comparison, my faded gray sweatshirt and blue jeans, even my sandy hair, were entirely unremarkable. “Yeah. I’m sure.”

  I eased my way along the side of the house to where there were three steps leading up to a back door. No one paid attention as I climbed them. Keeping eye contact with Julius, I opened the door and slipped into the kitchen.

  I’m invisible. I’m invisible. Repeating the mantra in my mind, I walked through the empty dining room. Todd’s parents were speaking with the police in the entryway, but they didn’t notice me. So I hurried down a hallway that looked like it might go to bedrooms.

  Doors lined the sides, and I determined Todd’s easily from the Supreme sticker on the door. As quietly as I could, I ducked through the threshold. Inside, it was the kind of mess my room used to be in Texas. Dirty clothes were lying on an unmade bed. A computer sat on his desk, and the red dot at the bottom of the screen suggested it was in sleep mode.

  “Jackpot,” I whispered.

  On tiptoe, I crossed the room to the computer. Was it okay to touch the keys? I didn’t know if fingerprints would cause problems, so I got a receipt out of my pocket and wrapped it around a pencil. Then I used the eraser to hit the Return button.

  Todd’s computer wasn’t password protected, and the home screen popped up right away. I opened the browser in the menu bar. Options appeared for Facebook, Twitter, and Tumblr and I opened them all, then waited for them to load.

  “Find anything?”

  I jumped “Fuck.” I turned to see Julius in the doorway. “You scared the shit out of me.”

  Julius smirked. “I’ll watch to make sure no one’s coming. But hurry. Natasha can’t keep that guy talking forever.”

  Todd was still logged on to his social networks. I scrolled Facebook first, but didn’t see Zoe Ward in his friends list. But after a Twitter search, The Other Woman appeared immediately, with Zoe Ward’s face as her avatar. Though most of her posts were of dogs or flowers, she’d messaged Todd a few pictures of her cleavage.

  “Yep. He was talking to her.” I closed the browser windows and put the computer back to sleep. “Too bad we don’t have more time.”

  “Well, we found something.” Suddenly, Julius went very still. Then he threw me a sharp glare. Someone was coming!

  I threw Natasha’s phone on Todd’s bed.

  Soundlessly, Julius pointed to a closet. I nodded, stumbling over clothes to get inside. Julius pushed after me, pulling the door closed. We bent, asses tucked into clothing and necks torqued as we tried to keep our heads under the hangers. As uncomfortable as it was, and as much as my side still ached from my fall, Julius’s arm was pressed against me, and that was wonderful. He smelled like fancy soap.

  With his head bowed, I could see the pale skin of his neck. The fine hairs fluttered every time I dared let out a breath. I struggled not to close the space between his neck and my lips.

  “You can look, but don’t touch anything.” The officer’s voice boomed through the bedroom outside.

  “Oh,” Natasha said. “Here it is. Thank you so much. I should go find my brother and his friend and head home.”

  Footsteps let us know that Natasha and the police officer had left.

  “Thank God.” Julius pushed open the door. He left quickly, shaking out his shoulders. “Let’s get out of here.”

  “Haven’t seen you all day. Where’ve you been?” I dropped my tray next to Julius in the cafeteria the next day.

  “I skipped morning classes.” Julius was buried in his phone. Blue half-moons hung under his eyes and his hair was greasy. “I was up late working on the case. The Other Woman is really fascinating.”

  “Seriously?” I watched Julius’s phone like it might explode. Given how obsessive he was acting, I wanted to ask him about what had happened with Kyle, and if his experience with the teacher had anything to do with why he was so interested in The Other Woman. Unfortunately, the weirder Julius acted, the more nervous I got about bringing Kyle up. “Are you texting her right now? In school?” My chest tightened. It was like The Other Women was luring Julius in. Grooming him, maybe. “Tell the police about The Other Woman’s account, or at the very least, tell Liz.”

  Julius flicked his hand at me. “That’s ridiculous. Adults don’t understand social media. They’ll botch everything I’ve worked for.”

  “Julius . . .” I held my hands up. “She’s dangerous.”

  “I’m not going to fall for her cleavage pics, Henry. You of all people should know that.” The edge of his lip turned up sardonically. “Unless The Other Woman is secretly Dylan O’Brien. And wouldn’t that be a twist?”

  My guts twisted, and I slunk back deeper in my seat. Julius had never said something that clearly gay around other people before, and the fact that he was casually discussing his interest in boys in the lunchroom made me worry someone might be listening.

  “Fine.” I settled my shaking hands on the table. “Is she saying anything interesting? Anything that would help us figure out who she is?”

  Across the room, Bethany, Thea, and Kevin settled at our regular table. Bethany threw me a quizzical stare. I’d have to fill her in later.

  “The Other Woman’s speech patterns seem to be consistent with the Pacific Northwest, though it’s harder to tell remotely than in person.”

  “Probably someone who lives around here?”

  Julius clicked something on his phone, then smiled. Usually he loved showing off, so I was surprised when he didn’t relay what The Other Woman had said.

  “Anything else?” I prodded.

  “She’s very charming.” He laughed. “I can see why all the boys fell for her.”

  I chewed on my nails. “Where do we go from here? Have you found out where she goes to school? Is it even a kid? Maybe it’s an adult.” I squirmed at the thought of a grown person flirting with people my age. Especially now that I knew about Julius’s history with Kyle.

  “From the way she texts, I’d say she is indeed a girl, somewhere between the ages of thirteen and twenty-one.” Julius’s thumbs flew over his phone’s screen. “But as I said, it’s hard to tell from internet posts and text messages. Whoever is running this account may simply be a good mimic.”

  Roberto was manning the lunchroom again today, and I spotted his sudden movement out the corner of my eye.

  “You should put your p
hone away,” I muttered.

  “Oh.” Julius blinked. “Yes. Good call.” He put his phone in his backpack.

  Across the room, Roberto was heading for Finn Riordan. Finn had made the swim team, though he wasn’t one of the in crowd who was friends with Hal, Roy, and Todd. Finn was totally engrossed in his phone. So much so that he didn’t notice Roberto coming.

  “Hey.” I jutted my chin in that direction. “Do you think we should start watching Finn as well?”

  “Oh. Yes. Sure.”

  Roberto took away Finn’s phone.

  “We need to go to Nathan Hale during the school day,” Julius said. “Now that The Other Woman is texting me regularly, I might be able to guess her location if we were on the same campus.”

  “True, but we have no reason to miss school.”

  “We’d have to cut class.”

  “Are you kidding?”

  “You don’t have to come if you don’t want to, Henry. But I’m going. You can either help me or not.”

  I bristled, because fuck him. This was our thing. We worked on this together. Julius didn’t get to steal the case away from me just because suddenly he’d gotten all close and cuddly with a fake internet account. Fuck if I was going to let him push me out. “I’m coming.”

  The next day, Julius and I hurried down the halls of Nathan Hale.

  “You keep lookout,” Julius snapped. With everyone in class, Julius and I were the only living souls in the long, gray, public-school hallway. My pulse raced. We were trespassing. If we got caught, I shuddered to think what Mom would do.

  “You ready?” Julius didn’t let me answer. He stepped up to the fire alarm. “Zoe and her friends should exit by the east wing. I say we start there.”

  “Yeah.” I bounced on the balls of my feet. The time for bailing on Julius’s cockeyed plan had passed. Even if my sore ribs protested at the thought of sprinting.

  “Okay.” Julius pulled the small hammer out of its holder. “Three, two, one.” He slapped the glass until it cracked. Then he grabbed the lever and yanked down the alarm.

  Wailing blared overhead.

  “Let’s go!” I shouted, then ran, clutching my ribs. Julius had no trouble staying a couple of paces ahead.

  Teachers and students filed into the hallway, their expressions grumpy but not terribly scared. From every direction, feet stomped and classrooms emptied. Julius and I slowed to a walk, blending in with the river of people.

  We headed toward the doorway and out into the rainy afternoon to where Bethany was huddled under a Douglas fir tree. Her perch was uphill from most of the student body. She’d pretended to be sick to get out of school for the day, but the way she shuffled from foot to foot suggested that she regretted coming.

  “Is she texting you?” she asked Julius.

  “Yes.” Julius held his phone in front of his face. “She says she’s at school, though I can’t be sure she’s telling the truth. Nothing about a fire alarm. Start with Zoe Ward’s clique and work your way out from there.”

  Bethany jerked her head. “Henry?”

  “Yeah,” I muttered. “’M’coming.”

  She took the wide path around the crowd of students, and I stuck to the inside, closer to the school. Seemingly half the student body had a phone on them. I’d walk up behind one student to casually peek over their shoulder, then notice they were only checking their texts, not responding.

  From her location up the hill, Bethany nodded at a group of senior girls who passed a cell phone between them. None of them were friends of Zoe’s as far as I knew. Bethany must have found some reason to think they weren’t texting Julius, because she gave me a shrug and shook her head.

  By the doors near the gym, we spotted Zoe and her cheerleader friends. All held cell phones loosely in their fists, texting on and off. Unfortunately, I couldn’t walk up to any of them since they might recognize me from the dance.

  “Hey.” A voice from behind me made me jerk. “What are you doing here?”

  I spun to see one of the girls Bethany had met on the bleachers the day we watched cheerleading practice. Caroline, I thought her name was. She was alone with her backpack over her shoulders and her hand in her pocket.

  “Oh, uh . . . We’re off school today, and I thought it would be a good idea to tour local high schools. You know . . . in case I decide to leave Clinton.” I tossed my hair out of my eyes, trying to flirt.

  She narrowed her eyes behind her glasses. “Well, make sure you check in with the office when we go back inside. Outsiders aren’t supposed to be on school grounds.”

  In her hand, her phone buzzed. Caroline checked it. “Ugh. My parents. They should know I can’t use my phone at school.” Hastily, she typed a reply.

  “Hey, do you know of anyone who might have something against that girl over there? You know her, right? Zoe Ward?”

  Caroline rolled her eyes. “She’s like the queen of the in crowd. Of course people are jealous of her.” Her phone buzzed at her again, and she yanked it out of her pocket and angrily stabbed at the keypad. “Sorry.” She groaned. “My parents feel the need to ask me every damn thing. Why can’t they text my brother?”

  I shrugged, wishing she’d stay on topic. “You were telling me about Zoe’s enemies?”

  “Oh. Yeah.” Caroline blinked. “Well, there’s her ex from last year, Josh. And Mary who used to be her best friend in middle school . . .” She rattled off a few more names, pointing out and naming the girls in Zoe’s inner circle. Silently, I repeated them in my head.

  “Why do you want to know all this anyway?” Caroline crossed her arms. “What are you, stalking her or something?”

  “No.” I held my hands up. “I’d just . . . I’d heard some rumors at my school. People claiming to know her. I sort of thought they were made up, though.”

  Caroline frowned. “People like to talk about Zoe. She’s one of those girls you notice.”

  “Yeah.” I almost wanted to apologize. Truth was, if Caroline hadn’t come up and spoken with me, I wouldn’t have noticed her standing there. “Well, I should get going . . .”

  One of the girls in Zoe’s group took out her phone. I turned, watching her over my shoulder. The girl broke away from the group and was texting like crazy. I remembered her from the dance, though I couldn’t recall her name. From her perch on the hill, Bethany nodded at me. Yeah, Bethany was suspicious too.

  “Hey. What did you say that girl’s name was again?” I pointed out Zoe’s friend.

  “Oh, that’s Stacey Merkel. She’s a real bitch.”

  “Ah. Yeah.” I widened my eyes at Bethany to let her know we had a lead. “Thanks.”

  Caroline had already pulled out her phone and was sending text messages to her parents again. I felt bad for her. Why wouldn’t they leave her alone?

  A shout came from inside the building; someone called on a bullhorn that it was safe to return to school. I headed back to where we’d left Julius.

  Bethany caught up with me. “Did you see that one girl? I wish we knew her name.”

  “Stacey Merkel.” I smiled.

  “Ooh, cool. How did you find out? Did you meet her at the dance the other night?”

  “Yeah.” I picked up my pace. “But I didn’t remember her name.”

  The crowd outside Nathan Hale had been easy to hide in earlier, but now everyone was heading inside while Bethany and I were going the other direction. We dipped behind trees, trying not to draw attention. “I spoke to one of Zoe’s sister’s friends, though. She reminded me of the girl’s name.”

  “Oh.” Bethany’s forehead creased. “Was that who you were talking to? I didn’t recognize her.”

  “She was really helpful. She gave me a list of all Zoe’s friends and enemies.” I pulled out my phone.

  “Well, that was nice of her, then.”

  “Yeah.” There was a bounce in my step as we marched uphill. “It was.”

  “Pffft.” Julius snorted. “Stacey Merkel? She’s not The Other Woman. She was pr
obably just texting her boyfriend.” He was messing with his phone as we waited for Mrs. Hundstead to pick us up on the sidewalk near the school. “One of Zoe’s other friends, maybe. But Stacey doesn’t fit the profile. She’s a follower, and not even Zoe’s second-in-command on the cheerleading squad.”

  “She was using her phone the whole time we were outside.”

  “Stacey was on the phone,” Bethany said reasonably. “But so were lots of other people.”

  I threw my hands up. “She’s the closest person to Zoe who was on the phone nonstop. What other leads do we have?”

  “What about that girl Caroline?” I asked. Julius was still studying his screen, and I hated to think he was talking to The Other Woman at the same time as he was speaking to us. Worse, that she could be tricking him into drawing the wrong conclusions. “If she spends any time at the Ward house, she’s got access, and—”

  “It’s not her. I’m sure of it.” Julius raised his eyebrows. “Did you see anyone else? Any boys looking Zoe’s way?”

  “No.” I let out an annoyed huff. “What, because you’re all in love with this account? Now you’re convinced it must be someone you’d like in real life?”

  “In love with who?” Julius’s shoulders rose.

  “The Other Woman. You said yourself: she’s charming and funny. It could be a guy. Maybe you’re hoping it is.” The notion of some boy from Nathan Hale sweet-talking Julius got under my skin. I wanted to take Julius’s phone away from him so this miserable excuse for a human being wouldn’t have access to Julius’s thoughts.

  “Henry.” Julius scoffed. “You’re letting your emotions get involved.”

  I caught my forehead between my thumb and forefinger and rubbed my temples. “I’m getting emotional? I’m not the one texting an imaginary best friend.”

  Bethany’s eyes went wide, and she wandered closer to the curb, leaving Julius and me alone.

  Julius stepped closer to me, lowering his voice to a growl. “You know perfectly well that if we’re going to find this person, I need to be in contact with her.”