Investigating Julius Drake Read online

  Maureen popped her head inside. “Are you okay, Henry? Do you need more time?”

  She was only trying to be nice, but I wanted to shush her so I could replay everything Julius had said. He’d complimented me. He’d watched me, and looked hard enough to see all the detail. I wondered what else he’d noticed.

  “You agreed to do what?” Bethany paused in the hallway between our second- and third-period classrooms. Her face was crumpled with worry, forehead creased and lips curled down in the corners.

  “It’s not a big deal. Me and Julius are going to ask Hal a few questions.” I couldn’t believe I was playing off our super-spy plan so casually. The plan to hang out with Julius had me bouncing in place. “Julius thinks—”

  “You’re going to get into more trouble.”

  “Come on.” I swiped my bangs across my forehead, attempting to look like a younger James Bond. “Maybe I just want to apologize.”

  “You are a terrible liar. And you definitely shouldn’t be doing this alone with Julius,” she whispered, like all of a sudden we couldn’t mention his name aloud.

  I bristled. “Yesterday you were mooning over him.”

  “Thinking he’s cute is one thing. Trusting him is another.”

  In my mind, checking someone out did involve trust. You’d have to believe they wouldn’t be angry if they caught you, and that they wouldn’t tell anyone. “So what? You think I should change my mind?” Going home with my tail between my legs would be too horrible to bear. Especially now that I knew what the stakes were for Julius.

  “No. Bring me along.” Bethany stuck her chin out.

  “Ew. Why?”

  “Misogynistic much?” She punched my arm, which actually hurt.

  “I mean, why would you want to go? You disappeared at lunch yesterday.”

  “Well I’m sorry about that.”

  “Don’t be.” I hadn’t wanted Bethany defending me anyway. Egalitarian as I might be, I didn’t want a girl coming to my rescue.

  “If I come with you guys, it’ll seem like you’re saying sorry. People will assume I went for moral support.”

  She had a point. “And if Julius and I go alone?”

  “People will think you’re either snooping on him or bullying him more.”

  “We didn’t—”

  “Of course you didn’t bully him, but think about how this looks. He’s in a hospital bed. You’re a new kid no one knows. And Julius doesn’t exactly have the best reputation. He’s known for causing trouble.”

  I chewed my fingernail. Bethany’s comment wasn’t all that shocking. No one in class had batted an eye when Julius was called to the head of school’s office. As much as I wanted to be around Julius, I couldn’t afford to be seen as a problem student. “Fine,” I conceded. “You’re right.”

  “I know I’m right. Now if you’ll excuse me, I want to get to class before I’m late.”

  “Can I ask you something?” I rubbed the back of my neck. It was probably too early to expect her to spill secrets, but I felt like I was out of the loop. “What exactly has Julius done wrong?”

  “There’ve been a few things.” Bethany chewed the inside of her cheek. “In grade school he got sent to the head of school a lot. That was just acting up in class and stuff. But then in sixth grade . . .” She shook her head. “No one really knows what happened, but a teacher was dismissed and Julius left school for a while.”

  “Oh.” That sounded ominous, but if the teacher had been asked to leave the school, that person must have been in the wrong. “And no one knows what the teacher did?”

  “Oh, everyone has theories, but no one in the administration will say for sure.”

  “And what did Julius have to do with it?”

  “As far as anyone could tell, Julius barely knew him. They only had one class together. But based on the timing, everyone assumed Julius had something to do with the guy getting fired.”

  “Huh.” My mind reeled. What could the teacher have been doing?

  “Don’t worry about it.” Bethany backed away. She wore an apologetic smile. “Whatever happened, it’s in the past.”

  The problem with doing something you’re not supposed to be doing is that you question your every move. Did I normally use the restroom following my final class before going home? Before or after getting my stuff out of my locker? Probably, I did things in whatever order came to mind, however, that afternoon, everything I did was deliberate. I couldn’t shake the feeling that someone was watching me as I left class and wandered my usual path through the hallways.

  I’d thought I was just being paranoid—until Roberto appeared by my locker. He hung his arm over the door, posture slouched like he was doing his best impersonation of one of the students. “Walker?”

  My nerves beat in my temple. “Yes, sir?” I hadn’t heard anyone call anyone else “sir” since I came to Seattle, but I fell back on the manners I’d been raised with.

  “I wanted to speak with you about yesterday.” He lowered his voice, but not so much that the other people couldn’t hear. One sophomore snickered as he passed.

  “Sure.” My phone dinged in my pocket, probably Bethany asking when I’d meet her by the pickup zone. I pretended I didn’t notice. “In your office, or . . .?”

  “Here’s fine.”

  Great, he’s going to scold me in public.

  “I wanted to let you know—I had to report what happened yesterday in the lunchroom. We usually give students here opportunities to work out their conflicts on their own, but that doesn’t mean we ignore trouble.”

  “I understand.” I didn’t really, but maybe yesterday had been a slow day discipline-wise. I did my best to meet his pale-green gaze.

  “You and Bethany seem to be getting along.” He pushed away from the locker, crossing his arms.

  I wanted to ask if he was trying to set us up, but thank goodness my mind was on getting out of the building rather than giving a teacher sass. “Yes. She’s been very nice.”

  “Stick with her. And her friends. They’re good kids. Honest kids.”

  Not wanting to argue, I pulled my backpack onto my shoulder and shut my locker. Roberto cleared his throat like he wanted to say more, but I didn’t give him the chance. “I should get home.”

  “Fall activities start in two weeks. I suggest you sign up for at least one. It would be good for you to get involved.”

  “Sounds great.” I backed away from him until I was confident that I could turn without looking guilty. Once I’d made it around the corner, I broke into a run.

  Checking my phone, I had three messages from Bethany. Two from an unknown caller. I didn’t have Julius’s number, but I suspected he’d managed to get mine.

  I’m at the door where are you?

  Did you invite Bethany Morgan? Why?

  Julius doesn’t want me coming.

  She’s not invited. Please tell her.

  Hurry up. I want to kill him.

  When I got outside, the pickup area was empty save for the two of them. Bethany smiled when she saw me. Julius’s arms were crossed, and he was staring into the distance as if Bethany were beneath him.

  “Hey, y’all.” I caught my breath. “So, Bethany made a really good argument for why she should come along.” I figured the logical angle would work best with Julius. Truth be told, I wasn’t ready to spend time alone with him. Just being close to him made my nerves jangle and my throat dry. Until I understood the reason for that, I needed a buffer.

  He narrowed his eyes. “Let me guess. She told you that being seen with only me was a bad idea.”

  “Of course not.” I did my best at mock outrage, and was surprised at how easily the lie rolled off my lips. “She said I would seem more upset if I brought along a friend.”

  Julius gave her a sharp glare.

  “People have seen Bethany and me around school,” I said. “They probably think she’s my girlfriend now.”

  Bethany nodded emphatically.

  Julius wrinkled
his nose.

  “Come on.” Bethany stepped forward so the three of us formed a triangle instead of a line. “You know it’ll be less suspicious if we all go.” Bethany seemed to be avoiding eye contact with Julius, not that he was pushing for it. “The last thing either of you guys need is more bad press. In fact . . . I could post to Instagram, show pictures of you guys talking to Hal at the hospital. It would take all the dark-and-dangerous out of this and make it look like a reconciliation.”

  Julius sighed, but whether it was because he’d spotted his ride or he was upset about the prospect of a social media spectacle, I couldn’t tell. “Fine. You can come. But if you take any pictures, make sure they’re of Henry. No one notices me, and that’s exactly how I like it.”

  I could have laughed out loud. Julius, of all people, should have realized that he was completely infamous. For a guy who could read so much about strangers, he was surprisingly clueless about himself.

  “That’s me.” Julius pointed at an ugly gold minivan that clashed completely with my image of Julius and his sister’s home life.

  An older woman rolled down the window to smile at us. “Did you invite some friends over, Julius?”

  There was no way she was one of Julius’s blood relations. First off, she wore a big, friendly smile and a motherly expression like she lived to bake chocolate chip cookies. Second, she dressed in a frayed, floral-pattern sweater and had hair that’d been allowed to gray at the temples. I had never seen Julius’s mom, but I imagined she’d have the same jet-black hair as her kids, even if it took weekly trips to the salon to maintain.

  “We’re going to Swedish Hospital.” Julius climbed into the backseat like he was getting into a taxi.

  “Hello.” The woman craned her neck. “Julius is horrible about making introductions. I’m Mrs. Hundstead, Julius’s nanny.”

  Julius’s nostrils flared.

  “I’m Bethany.” Bethany took the third-row seat behind Julius. “Thanks for the ride.”

  That left the other second-row seat open, and rather than be weird and sit in back with Bethany, I took the seat beside Julius. “Yeah. Thanks, Mrs. Hundstead. I’m Henry.”

  The van’s cup holders were dirty, and I suspected that if I looked too closely in the seats’ creases, I’d find spare Cheerios. I felt like a preschooler rather than a high school student, and I bet that sense was double for Julius.

  “Mrs. Hundstead, when are you going to buy that new car we’ve been talking about?” Julius sounded bored and impatient. “I told you I’d come with you to the dealership.”

  “Oh, you know this old girl holds too many memories.” Mrs. Hundstead pulled out of the parking lot, but stopped at the street to look for oncoming traffic. She shot Julius a smile. “Remember when we were driving home from Natasha’s ballet recital, and she had to piddle in a used coffee cup because we were caught in traffic? I have a chuckle every time I think about it.”

  A slight widening of his eyes was the only outward sign, but clearly Julius was mortified. Funny, but I was pretty sure Mrs. Hundstead had told the story to put him in his place. “So, what do you children have planned for this afternoon?”

  “We’re visiting a boy who tried to kill himself,” Julius said in a stony tone.

  “That’s nice,” said the unflappable Mrs. Hundstead.

  As soon as the car was underway and I didn’t think Mrs. Hundstead would hear, I leaned across the seat to whisper to Julius. “You have a nanny? Really?”

  I understood people having babysitters, even at my age. If parents worked late, maybe a babysitter made sense. Sometimes people needed rides to activities or whatever.

  But a nanny? At fourteen?

  “Mrs. Hundstead has been with my family since my sister was born,” Julius said by way of explanation.

  From the snickering coming from the backseat, it was clear that Bethany thought the nanny thing was funny too.

  I wouldn’t tease Julius about it, though, so I just watched out the window, hiding my grin.

  “We’re here to see Hal Stubenmeyer. He’s a friend of ours from school.” Julius smiled at the woman at the hospital’s check-in station. The entryway of Swedish Hospital was a broad semicircle with a coffee shop in the back and an information station plopped in the middle.

  “Ah, yes. He’s in a private suite on the top floor.”

  Julius must have used a Jedi mind trick because she went ahead and gave us passes without asking for our school IDs.

  Unfortunately, my mom wasn’t as much of a pushover. By the time we boarded the elevators, I’d gotten three texts from her.

  Where are you? the latest one read.

  I typed in the best excuse I could think of. I had to stay a bit longer to plan a group assignment with some kids. Be home by five. Hoping I’d given myself enough time, I shoved my phone to the lowest reaches of my backpack.

  “Are we ready?” Julius stared imperiously at Bethany, who was also texting.

  “I had to tell my dad why I missed carpool.” Bethany finished her message. “Is there any chance Mrs. Hundstead could drop me off at the bus stop when we’re done? My dad’s going to be busy with the twins’ soccer practice.”

  “Mrs. Hundstead is not your slave.” Julius stepped onto the elevator.

  I leaned in to Bethany’s side to murmur, “I’m sure my mom will take you home if you come to my place.”

  “Mrs. Hundstead will do it,” Julius snapped. “But don’t get used to the treatment. It’s not fair to take advantage of her good nature.” His protectiveness of his nanny was surprising, considering he had no problem treating her as coldly as he did everyone else.

  The elevator shot up quickly and opened onto a top floor with the type of antiseptic charm normally found in computer stores. High windows lined one side and identical doors were spaced at even intervals on the other. Clipboards with sheets of paper hung outside each room.

  “Where do you think he is?” Bethany went up to one door, then the next, reading the scrawled writing. “Should we ask?”

  “Best not to. Plausible deniability and all that . . .” Julius read the forms with perfunctory ease. The way he leafed through pages, Julius could have passed for a doctor if he were a few years older. “This is it.” Julius held up a finger for us to wait. He pulled out his phone and clicked pictures of Hal’s paperwork.

  I stepped forward and hissed, “Do you have any idea how illegal that is?”

  Julius gave me a sharp look. “I doubt his preference for lime Jell-O over cherry counts as part of his medical file.”

  “We need to know his preference for lime Jell-O because . . .?”

  “It might be important, Henry.” Julius’s lips quirked into a half smile as he rapped on the door. “It’s almost like you’ve never done this before.”

  I was tempted to grab his arm and pull him away. Then, from inside the room we heard a confused, “Yeah?”

  It was Hal, and he sounded alone. I wished his parents were in there, or some friends. Facing him one-on-one in a hospital seemed a lot scarier than going to the top of a hill the night before had.

  Julius didn’t hesitate. “Yes. Hello.” He opened the door and strode in first. “How are you doing, Hal?”

  “What the hell? Who let you guys in here?” Hal pushed up in his bed. In a hospital gown, he appeared a lot thinner than he had in his letterman’s jacket. He seemed small in comparison to the giant flower arrangements on either side of his bed, and though his face was pale, a red mark on his neck showed where the rope had scraped his skin.

  Sympathy tightened my throat. “We came to apologize about the thing in the lunchroom. I feel really bad.”

  Bethany stepped forward, wringing her hands. “I’m sorry if you were in pain and no one noticed. That must have been so hard for you.”

  Hal ran his thumb over the buzzer that would call the nurse. He looked at Bethany, then at me, then at Bethany again. He craned his neck, trying to make eye contact with Julius. “And you? What are you, their chauff
eur?”

  “No. I came because I’m sorry too. So very sorry.” For a guy who’d lied so effortlessly to Liz and the receptionist downstairs, Julius sounded surprisingly insincere.

  I glanced over my shoulder and saw that Julius had found Hal’s cell phone. Julius maneuvered so his back was to us. While he pretended to look at a diagram on the wall, there was a soft clicking noise that meant he was taking pictures.

  “You know, there’s a hotline run by Seattle Central College,” Bethany said. “You could call it anytime.” Bethany had somehow gotten Hal to take her hand.

  “I wasn’t really depressed. It was just this one stupid thing . . .” Hal squished his big face up in remorse. “It—it won’t happen again.” He lowered his voice. “I feel bad for scaring my mom and dad.”

  “I’m sure they only care that you’re okay.” Bethany’s voice dripped sympathy. “And if you ever need to talk to someone—”

  “Yeah, I know. There’s that doc at the school . . .” Hal pulled his hand away from Bethany, apparently deciding he’d rather tough it out alone than take solace in a freshman. “Hey, Drake, you’ve been to that Cochow guy a hundred times. He any good?”

  “Hmm?”

  I poked Julius in the side. “Dr. Cochow. What do you think of him?”

  Julius kept his back to us. “His degree isn’t worth the paper it’s written on and if he were any good he’d be in private practice, not talking to high school kids about their boyfriends and SAT scores.”

  Bethany broke into a fit of nervous laughter. “Oh, Julius! You’re a hoot.” She fixed a wide smile on her face and patted Hal’s arm. “Not everyone gets Julius’s sense of humor.”

  “Yeah. Well, if that doc were any good, Drake wouldn’t still be such a freak after all these years.” Hal pushed himself higher in the bed. Though he was frowning, he seemed to gather energy from insulting Julius.

  Who must have found something useful on Hal’s cell phone because he spun to give Hal a huge grin. “How right you are.” Julius came to Hal’s bedside. “Suicide is never the answer,” he announced.