Investigating Julius Drake Read online

  “Are you serious?” From the look of the potted plants, the neighbor was a grandma who knitted blankets for her cats. “We’re trespassing,” I hissed.

  “Shush.” Julius swatted me.

  We met a wooden fence between properties. From there I spied Roy’s neighbors in the living room with the TV still on. One call to the police and we’d be busted. “This is crazy. We’re going to get caught.”

  “Will you please work on solutions instead of pointing out problems?” Julius whispered. “If I’d wanted to be scolded, I would have asked Bethany.”

  I frowned, hurt that he’d consider it.

  Julius crouched, hiding while he scanned the backyard. “There’s a chain-link section over there. That should be scalable. Think you can climb it?”

  “Yeah. Of course.” I hurried to the back of the yard and grabbed the bar at the top. After hooking a toe into the chain-link it was easy enough to hoist myself over.

  Julius followed after me. He landed like a cat, low to the ground and almost silent.

  “What, did you go to spy school?” I asked.

  “No. But I did five years of ballet.” He took off, jogging through the wooded section that separated the park from the house, hiding behind trees as he went.

  I followed, and eventually we slipped alongside the house to where boxes and gardening supplies were stacked against the siding.

  “Okay, genius.” I gulped air. “What now?”

  “We peep through windows.” Julius grabbed a bucket and turned it upside down. Then he climbed to the windowsill. “What did you think we were going to do? Plant military-grade surveillance equipment?”

  Annoyed, I found a couple of crates and climbed to the windowsill. I glanced inside, then dropped below the sill like a sniper.

  “Okay.” Julius checked the window next to mine, looking into the broad living room. “What do you see?”

  I didn’t know most of these people, and the only one I’d recognized in the room was Todd. Like always, his hair was coiffed to perfection. And he wore a tank top to show off his arms. “I dunno. I guess Todd and some of his friends. I don’t see Roy.”

  “I thought I told you to follow all these people online?”

  “Hey,” I snapped. “I’m not getting paid here. I followed the ones I knew.” Each of them had friends lists in the hundreds and followers on Instagram nearing a thousand. Learning the names of everyone seemed hopeless.

  “Fine. Tell me what people are wearing. I’ll make the connections.”

  “And you can’t do this yourself because . . .?”

  “I want another set of eyes.” Julius ground his teeth, his gaze darting everywhere.

  “Fine. Red T-shirt is flirting with purple tank top, but it doesn’t seem like she’s into it.”

  “Good. I concur.” Julius glanced inside. “That’s Tim Carney, by the way. And she’s Tracey Weeks.”

  How Julius knew all the names of people in his school when he wasn’t even on social networking was a mystery to me. Clinton wasn’t huge, but the high school contained eight hundred people, six hundred of whom weren’t in Julius’s grade.

  Julius shook out his hand like he had a cramp. Then he cracked his knuckles. “Saul Goldstein is alone. I’ve never seen him date anyone.”

  “And have you watched?” I had to ask, since Julius always seemed supremely uninterested in other people.

  “I don’t watch. I pay attention.”

  I rolled my eyes. That seemed like a pretty stupid distinction.

  “What else do you see?”

  “I dunno.” Maybe I wasn’t taking this seriously enough for Julius’s tastes? “Wifebeater guy, I guess. But he’s just on his phone. And those girls in the corner. They’re talking.”

  “Gossiping,” Julius corrected.

  “Same thing.”

  “Gossiping is a subset of talking, but an important one. What are they gossiping about?”

  “I don’t know.” I shrugged.

  “They’re gossiping about Peter and how he is supposed to have cheated on his girlfriend Chloe while he was a counselor at a sailing camp this summer.”

  “That’s ridiculous.” I almost fell off my milk crate as I took another look through the window. Same three girls. Heads tipped together like they were whispering. I could buy that they were gossiping, but I called bullshit on Julius for thinking he knew what it was about.

  “Is it? Brittany had had a crush on Peter for years, but she’s cooled on him lately. Why? She must have learned something unsavory, because he’s getting better looking every year.”

  I twisted uncomfortably. “Yeah, but why would you think he cheated?”

  “Summertime is when people make bad decisions. Even if he didn’t cheat, Chloe would be suspicious. Especially since it was clear from the way she hung off his arm the first week of school that she herself had cheated.”

  “And I suppose you knew he’d been a counselor at sailing camp because you noticed him talking about it at school?” I asked sarcastically.

  “No, of course not.” Julius blinked a few times. “He was wearing a camp sweatshirt last Thursday, and it said Counselor across the back.”

  I refused to give him the satisfaction of knowing I was impressed. “Well, there’s Roy,” I said uselessly, because Julius would have seen for himself that Roy had walked into the room. He was shorter than Todd and wore his hair close-cropped except for a hipster ridge in the front. Without muscles, he wouldn’t have been attractive, but his body more than compensated for what he lacked in other features. “He’s texting. You’d think at his own party he’d actually want to talk to people, but I guess—”

  “You’re right.” Julius glanced into the room. “Why is he on his phone?”

  “I don’t know. Maybe he’s giving someone directions?” There were any number of reasons people would have their faces in their devices at a party, and after all, Roy wasn’t the only one.

  “He’s smiling. No one smiles when they’re typing a street address.”

  Julius had a point. Roy wore the kind of goofy grin I saw on couples who’d just started dating. “Maybe he’s texting his girlfriend?” I had a hard time imagining Roy Frank having tender feelings toward anyone, but maybe love made people different.

  “His girlfriend is here already. She was on the front porch.”

  “Huh.” A few other people were on phones too. But most of them glanced at their devices for a second, in between talking to friends. Only Roy acted like he wished he could dive through the screen and get to the other side. “Cheating?”

  “I’d say so. But with whom? Most of the girls in his social circle are at the party.”

  “You think it’s with Zoe Ward?” That seemed far-fetched. After all, the world was full of girls. A fair number of them seemed attracted to the built, popular, confident type.

  “There’s no way of knowing. But this is important.” He stepped off his bucket and pulled a notebook out of his pocket.

  “You want to check some other windows?” Someone might notice us skulking.

  “Yes. Let’s try one or two more.” Our eyes met, and his were blue and sharp. A flush of pink spread from the notch of his throat up his neck.

  I stood rooted in place, unable to stop staring at him. Julius licked his lips.

  As usual, his shoulders drew my eye. Then his jaw and his cheeks. I wanted something from him—so much that my muscles tightened and my chest ached. I wanted more than just to kiss him; I wanted to be inside his skin.

  So this was how longing felt? It was so strong it hurt.

  “Yes?” His voice was breathless.

  “Uh, nothing.” I turned quickly, rubbing my face. Even if I’d known what to do, I doubted I’d have had the guts.

  “Other side of the house?” Julius didn’t wait for my answer. He hoisted two crates, one on top of another, and made his way between the trees.

  “Why didn’t you tell me?” Bethany accidentally bumped me with her lunch tray as we made
our way to our table.

  “It was late. Anyway, you would have said we shouldn’t go.” I dropped into a seat. Our Spanish class had been let out five minutes early because Roberto had a meeting, so the cafeteria was still mostly empty.

  “I would not have,” Bethany said in a prissy way that made it evident that she would have.

  “It doesn’t matter. Three people would have had a harder time hiding.”

  “Yeah. And you wouldn’t have gotten to spend time with Julius on your own.”

  My cheeks burned. I’d been unwrapping my sandwich, so I arranged my lunch on the table, giving myself time to think. “I don’t know why you care,” I said as breezily as I could.

  “Because I hate losing friends. You and Julius live in the same area. I know you’re going to get together sometimes, but I don’t want to be left out. I care what happened to Hal too.”

  “Well, you can come with us tomorrow,” I offered. “We’re going to Zoe Ward’s cheerleading practice at Nathan Hale.”

  Bethany scrunched up her face. “How do you know she has cheerleading practice?”

  “Zoe Ward’s activities listed cheerleading. We’re going under the assumption that she’s still doing it this year.”

  “Ah.” Bethany nodded. “I’ll come. Oh, hey. Did you sign up for activities yet?”

  I’d been trying not to think about it, since every activity that looked cool had a fee. “I’m still waiting to see what the homework is like.” I rubbed my nose to cover the lie. “How about you?”

  “Debate team and knitting club.” Bethany picked up a forkful of brown rice. “Listen, the other thing—what about Thea?”

  “What do you mean?” It was only Monday, and we’d gone out as a group on Friday. As far as I knew, there wasn’t anything I was supposed to have done.

  “Have you texted her?”

  “To say what?” I held up my sandwich in front of my chest.

  “To say hi? To say you had fun at the movie? I don’t know.”

  She was clearly worried about her best friend, but that didn’t change the fact that I had no idea how to act. “I dunno. That would have been weird. It’s not like we’re a couple or something. It was a group date. You said it yourself.”

  Right then, Thea came through the cafeteria line, wearing my sweatshirt and a huge grin.

  “Oh, damn.”

  Thea grinned and waved at me. Worse, everyone in line around her looked in my direction. By afternoon, the whole freshman class would think Thea was my girlfriend.

  “See what I mean?” Bethany hissed in my ear. “If you and Julius have a thing going, maybe you should—”

  “We don’t have a thing.” For God’s sake, I hadn’t told Bethany about my feelings for Julius. I was still mulling them around in my head. I didn’t know what I wanted to do about them, but I sure as hell didn’t want Bethany examining my love life before I could.

  “Hey. Hi.” Thea came to stand in front of us at the table, with Kevin following close behind. “Can we sit here?” she asked.

  “Sure,” I said, but only because Bethany had raised her eyebrows meaningfully. My backpack was on the seat next to me, so I pulled it out of the way.

  Immediately, Thea took the vacated chair. “How was your weekend?” Her cheeks were deep pink. Somehow I knew what that meant now. I hadn’t before. Not really. But the flush on her cheeks had nowhere near the same effect on me as when I saw the same reaction from Julius.

  “It was good.” I coughed. “Boring, mostly.” I spotted Julius making his way across the lunchroom.

  He didn’t pause or make eye contact. Instead, he strode directly to the back of the room and sat at the swim team’s extra table.

  I wanted to think he was spying on Hal, Todd, and Roy, and that was why he was ignoring me. But all the while he sat there, Julius didn’t take any notes on his ever-present notepad.

  “Did you get signed up for rock climbing?” Thea jolted me back into the conversation at the table.

  “I don’t know yet.” My sandwich was mostly finished, but I didn’t remember eating it. “I’m on the wait list.”

  “Oh. Well, I hope you get in.”

  “I should go. I need to talk to Steve about that Shakespeare essay.” If Julius wasn’t going to acknowledge me, I wouldn’t watch him either.

  “See ya.” Thea gave me a tight, obviously fake smile.

  “Yeah,” I mumbled. “See ya later.”

  “You know, if you wanted this to be a party, you could have invited your girlfriend.” Julius crossed his arms, staring at the field behind Nathan Hale. Emerald grass spread to a distant chain-link fence, the field crisscrossed by white dividing lines. “And maybe that mopey guy who follows her around. Your mom . . . maybe a teacher . . . I don’t see why everyone wasn’t invited on this outing. We’re only trying to catch an attempted murderer.”

  I sighed. “Bethany wanted to come.” I looked over my shoulder to see if she was out of the school’s bathrooms yet. But the doors were still closed. “She’s always helpful. I don’t see what your problem is.”

  “And your girlfriend? Are you going to get her involved too?”

  Slowly, it dawned on me what Julius was getting at. “No. This is none of her business. And, honestly, I don’t know if we’re really dating.”

  “Your initials on her binder tell a different story.”

  Late-afternoon sunlight broke through the cloud cover, right as the various sports groups started filing onto the field. “The cheerleading squad is setting up over there,” I said, trying to change the subject.

  “Hmf.” Julius checked his phone. “Can we just head that way already? I don’t know what your friend is doing in there, but it’s taking forever. I’m sure she’ll be able to find us.”

  I glanced at the school, then at the field again. Julius was correct—if we walked toward the cheerleading practice, Bethany would still be able to see us. Especially if I texted to let her know we’d left our spot outside the doors. “Fine.” I pulled out my phone and thumbed in a message.

  Julius started walking first, but I followed right behind him. In the grassy section by the bleachers, Zoe Ward stood in front of a line of girls. She called and waved her arms, giving directions.

  “Bit out of Hal’s league, isn’t she?” Julius observed as we neared. “Looks like she’s captain.”

  “Didn’t your sister date Hal? I’d think that would give him some points.” I’d never understood how serious Julius had been about Hal and Natasha dating. She hadn’t seemed terribly sad about Hal’s getting hurt. Then again, Natasha was hard to read.

  “She’s used him when it was convenient, but I don’t get the feeling she was all that fond of him.” Julius and I climbed the bleachers.

  A trio of girls sat halfway up. Whether they were watching the cheerleading practice or the football practice in the next field over, I couldn’t tell.

  “If Natasha didn’t like Hal, why let people believe it?”

  “Why does anyone let people believe anything?” Julius watched the cheerleaders like he could learn something about Hal’s suicide attempt from their routine. “She liked the appearance of having a boyfriend, and none of the other popular boys were available.”

  With two hundred people in her grade, half of those male, I would have thought Natasha could find someone she actually liked to date.

  “Speaking of girls . . .” Julius darted a glance to the edge of the field where Bethany wandered.

  She looked in every direction, like she didn’t see us. At first I wondered if she needed a new prescription in her glasses. Then I realized she was scoping the scene.

  “What do you have against Bethany, anyway?” I asked.

  “She attracts attention.”

  Bethany crossed the field to where we were sitting. Then, as if on cue, she tripped on her way up the bleachers.

  “Hey,” she huffed as she climbed to the top. “What’s up. Learned anything so far?”

  “Just that Nathan Hale
’s football team is horrible.”

  I’d been watching the cheerleading squad and hadn’t noticed the football players. Now that Julius had pointed it out, I could see they were stupendously bad. Missed catches, guys struggling to run in their gear.

  “Huh.” Bethany stared at the players. “I didn’t notice.”

  “Why does that not surprise me?” Julius returned his gaze to the cheerleading squad, which had stopped practice to drink from their water bottles. “We should talk to her now, while the squad is on break.” And with that, Julius marched down the bleachers, bouncing each bench as he stepped.

  I hesitated. “Should I let him do it alone?”

  “No. You go. I’ll stay,” Bethany muttered, eyeing the girls sitting near us. “Maybe they have some information.”

  “Okay.” I carefully headed down the steps. By the time I reached Julius on the field, he’d already started his interrogation.

  “So you don’t remember this boy?” Julius showed Zoe Ward his phone’s screen.

  “No. I met him, like, once at a party.” Zoe Ward had a tiny nose that had been cute in her yearbook photo but right now was scrunched up in disgust. “And why do you care? Who are you? Do you even go to school here?”

  I jumped in. “We’re planning a surprise party for him. And, uh . . . we thought it would be funny if we invited a bunch of his ex-girlfriends.”

  Zoe’s nose wrinkled even more. “Girlfriend? No. Like I said, I don’t know him. Anyway, what are you? Freshmen?”

  “Hal’s my older sister’s friend,” Julius said smoothly. “I’m helping her organize the party.”

  Zoe put her hands on her hips. “Well, it doesn’t matter because I met him once. That’s all.”

  “And you haven’t been in touch since then?” Julius asked.

  “No way.” She waved her hand. “What, has he been telling people we dated?”

  “No.” I held my hands up in surrender because Zoe looked ready to clock someone. “We just saw some pictures from this summer, and thought—”

  “Stalker, much? Why does he still have that? It was months ago.”

  Her fellow cheerleaders had gathered into their formation again, and one of them plugged an MP3 player into speakers. Zoe glanced over her shoulder hurriedly. “Listen. I barely know the guy. You think I should report him or something? I mean, if he’s telling people—”