Pushing Perfect(56)

“Then at least we’ll know one more person who’s involved. We’ll be one step closer.” I hoped that was true, anyway. “Isabel, when are you supposed to drop the pills?”

“Tomorrow,” she said.

“I think we’re getting ahead of ourselves,” Alex said. “I get the impulse to follow people around, but maybe we should do some investigation first. We have an address, so let’s do some research.”

“Do you think the address is actually Blocked Sender’s house?” Raj asked.

“Nope,” she said. “Given how careful he’s been to keep everyone isolated, there’s no way he’s going to make himself that easy to find. But there’s a chance there’s some connection between whoever lives there and Blocked Sender, even if that connection won’t be obvious right away. It would help to know a little something before we stake the place out.”

“And then what?” Justin asked. “We watch the drop-off and confront whoever does the pickup?”

“Who’s ‘we’?” Alex asked. “We’ve got it from here.” She wasn’t even trying to hide her anger at him.

“No way,” he said. “We’re all in this together now.”

“Fine, whatever. We’ll pick you up tomorrow. Isabel, what time’s the drop-off?”

“Nine. Look, I’m fine with you doing this whole following me thing, but do me a favor and make sure you don’t get caught, okay? I don’t want this to get any worse than it already is.”

“None of us do,” I said. “We’ll be careful. I swear.”

“Just tell me what happened after, okay?”

I promised I would.

“That’s everything, right?” Justin asked. “Can we get out of here now?”

“Soon,” I said. “But don’t we need to think about what we’re going to do when we find out who’s picking up the pills?”

“That will depend on who it is, don’t you think?” Raj asked. “It’s not like we’re going to just ambush the person on sight.”

“I know you always like to have a plan, Kara. Sometimes we have to wing it,” Alex said.

“I guess.” I wasn’t so sure, though. But I could tell everyone was ready to be done talking. Alex and Raj had already paid for the pizza, and between them and Justin it was nearly gone. Time to go home. It had been a long day.

I knew Alex was planning to do as much research as she could before I had to pick everyone up, so at school the next day I asked if I could come over and help. We hadn’t had a lot of time to hang out alone, and I wanted to make sure she was okay. She’d gotten so furious with Justin, and I still didn’t understand why. Especially if he hadn’t told Blocked Sender her secret, which I really did believe he hadn’t.

We got to her house and settled in at her desk. Alex started pulling up websites and databases and typing faster than I could keep up with her. “I got a head start last night,” she admitted. “I’m not just doing this off the top of my head. Normally I’d just enter the address and follow it wherever it led, but I thought I’d try to be more like you. You know, methodical. When I got home last night, I researched the best way to find out information from an address, so I bookmarked a whole bunch of stuff to get ready.”

I was flattered that she thought I was methodical. Which I knew would not be something other people might consider a compliment. Pages were still flying by; all the movement was on the main screen, but every so often Alex would move something over to one of the side screens. “What’s happening? What are you finding?”

“I started with the address itself, and everything I could find about the house I’m putting over here on the left. It’s been owned by the same person for years: Nora Sinclair. Everything I learn about her I’m putting on the right.”

“That is very methodical,” I said.

“I do my best. Nora Sinclair’s owned the house for years and years, long enough that the previous owner probably doesn’t matter much. Given how long she’s owned the house, I’m guessing she’s in her seventies or eighties. She has basically no internet presence at all that I can find, which makes sense if she’s that old.”

“What about the house?”

Alex was typing and talking at the same time. How did she do that? “The house is actually more interesting than she is. It’s been on the market for a really long time, which is unusual for Marbella, since houses usually sell quick here. But the house is listed for an enormous amount of money, and from Google maps it looks like it’s just a crappy little place. I’m pulling up property records to see if there’s anything else we can find out.”

“Can I do anything? I brought my laptop, just in case.” I reached into my bag and took it out, moving aside some papers to make room on the desk.

“That would be great. Can you get on social media and do some digging for Nora Sinclair? I don’t think she’ll be on there herself, but maybe someone else might reference her?”

“Sounds good.”

We both sat typing and clicking away, companionable in silence for a while. It was nice to have someone I felt so comfortable with, and all the frenzy of the last few days, and the group activity that accompanied it, had made me miss her.