She makes an, oh face and smiles gently, blushing.
Darla digs a tall blue bottle out of her oversize purse and sets it on the table.
“What’s that?” I ask.
She passes it to me, “It’s Genius Water. Full of brain boosting vitamins and stuff.”
I look at the label, then glance up.
“Really? You paid $5 for Genius Water?”
“Yeah why?”
“Sorry to break it to you but I don’t think it’s working.”
She frowns. “Of course it’s expensive. It’s from Paris.”
“Really? Because according to the fine print it’s bottled in Newark.”
Beside me Bruno erupts in a fit of laughter as Darla snatches the bottle back from me.
Logan spends the whole hour sitting in an empty booth close by, staring out the window. He doesn’t even glance at me once. I try not to let it bother me, but something about his posture, the fierceness in his expression has the little hairs on the back of my neck standing up. I’m sure his mystery stalker is out there, watching. Waiting.
But for what?
The rest of school is a blur. I kiss Bruno goodbye and he heads off for lacrosse practice. I know he wants me to stick around and watch, but I want to get somewhere private so I can talk to Logan.
I don’t see him anywhere after school, and he’s not at my car. I swallow, hoping he’s not off chasing shadows. It’s a long, quiet drive home and I keep hearing what Cassidy said echoing like an accusation in my ears.
The perfect couple.
Maybe we could be. Maybe we could be that blissfully happy couple everyone else looks up to. Lord knows Bruno would be an easy guy to fall for. But all I can think about right now is Kaylee and how to get her to open up to me. I can’t even think of my life beyond today. I have to figure out what happened to Logan. He deserves to be at rest, at peace. Every day he spends here is like hell for him. Still a little, desperate, insane part of me doesn’t want him to go. Because as long as he’s here…
I don’t even know how to finish that thought.
I turn the corner onto my block and see a long white unmarked police car parked in my driveway. I pull up to the curb. Logan is standing on the porch next to my mother and the two plain clothed detectives talking to her. She points in my direction.
I get out of the car and walk over to them.
Normally, I’d be panicked, but I’m calm as something is setting off alarms in my head. My fight or flight instinct must be broken, because every time those alarms go off inside me, I go straight to fight. Fleeing isn’t even an option.
“Mom? What’s going on?”
She pulls me close and puts her arms around me.
“It’s your friend, Kaylee. Sweetie she’s dead.”
I pat her back, confusion fading into shock. Pulling back I look at the cops.
“What? How?”
The short black woman and her thick burly male partner exchange looks.
“We’d like you to come down to the station and answer some questions.”
“Me? Why?”
Another exchange of looks.
“You don’t have to go, baby,” mom offers protectively.
I shake my head. “No, Mom. It’s fine.”
She folds her arms, “Fine, but I’m coming too. And I’m calling our lawyer.”
“You can ride with us,” the man says, grabbing my arm.
I pull it away. “I’ll ride with my mom. You can follow us in your car if you’d like. But first I’m going to put my backpack in my room and pee, if that’s okay with you?”
The woman nods, following us into the house. She watches from the hallway as I drop my bag and enter the bathroom, closing the door.
“Logan!” I whisper as loud as I dare.
He appears beside me. I move to throw my arms around him, and he’s solid. Just for a few seconds. But it’s getting longer and longer each time. I can’t help but wonder, if he stays long enough, maybe he could be real again? I shake away the thought.
You can’t be alive without a body, my brain reminds me.
“What’s going on?” I demand.
He shakes his head. “All I know is that police found her body this morning. Her parents called the police when she didn’t come home last night.”
“Where did they find her? What else do you know?”
He shakes his head, “Okay, don’t take this the wrong way, but I’m not going to tell you. That way when the police tell you, you’ll be genuinely surprised.”
I frown. “Why do I need to be surprised?”
“I don’t know, but I know that they think…” he lowers his face, brings us nose to nose. “They think you were involved or that you know something. This is really important, Zoe. You have to be completely honest, or at least as honest as you can be.”
I nod. “This just sucks. My only alibi is a dead guy no one else can see.”
He smirks. “Sorry.”
I flush the toilet and turn on the sink.
“Zoe, I’ll be there every second, ok? Just try to relax.”
I frown. Sure relax.
Says the dead guy.
Thirteen
The inside of the police station is nothing like what you see on TV. It actually looks like the freaking DMV, only a little more cheerful. The detectives lead mom and I into a big conference room looking area with a full glass wall and no windows. It’s generic and sterile and reeks of burnt coffee and old spice. I take a seat at one side of the table. Starsky and Hutch stare at me across the table. I eyeball them coldly, trying to decide which one is going to play bad cop.
“Miss Reed. As your mother told you, Kaylee Greely was found dead early this morning. How well did you know Miss Greely?”
Logan stands behind the detectives, watching me.
“Just be honest,” he encourages.
“Not well. I knew of her. We’d spoken a few times.”
“So you weren’t close?”
“No, why?” I ask, irritation growing in chest like a thorny vine.
“Just answer the questions please.”
“Um, I am.”
Mom reaches over and pats my shoulder.
“Did you see her yesterday?”
I take a deep breath. “Yeah. At school. She was in the bathroom, crying.”
I pucker, trying to decide whether to leave it there or press forward. Logan nods for me to continue.
“She was sick. Throwing up. I gave her a cool towel. And, uh, she asked me to hand her purse to her. It spilled and there was a pregnancy test inside.”
They exchange another mysterious look and scribble on a big yellow pad of paper.
“I asked her about it, and she admitted she was pregnant.”
“Is that all?”
I shrug. “I felt bad for her, offered to drive her home, she told me no and left on her own.”
“Is that the last time you saw her.”
I nod.
The chunky guy opens a file on the counter.
“Have you ever been to the Apple Mountain Radio Tower?”
I nod again.
“How long ago was that?”
“I went a few months ago with a cleanup crew, and then again about a week ago.”
“For what purpose did you go all the way up there, Miss Reed?”
I clench my jaw.
“I went because…I wanted to try to understand what happened to Logan.”
“Were you and Logan close?”
I nod. “Best friends when we were little. And we had recently re-connected.”
“What did you do at the tower?”
I stop, glaring at them both. “What are you accusing me of?”
“They think you might have had something to do with it, just be honest, Zoe. Tell them everything. If you lie about anything, it will only make it worse.”
“We just need you to answer the question, please.”
I shrug. “I walked around. Climbed up the tower. I was just looking for…I dunno, anything that might give me some clue to who did this.”