Big Summer(68)

And then I had it.

“What?” Darshi asked as I jolted forward. “What is it? Are you okay?”

“Holy shit,” I said. “Darshi, we have to go back.”

“Why?”

“I know where he is!”

“Where?” Darshi gaped at me. I leaned across the gearshift and pounded on the horn, earning a dirty look from the last two shirtless fellows carrying boogie boards across the street.

“Back at the house! Come on!”

“What? How do you know?”

“Just, can you please go any faster?”

“Um, not really,” Darshi said, gesturing at the red light we’d reached. “Calm down. Tell me what you remembered.”

I shook my head, worried that I’d jinx it or that it would sound silly once I’d said it out loud, so I sat in silence as Darshi drove, fingers crossed, praying I was right.



* * *




Back at the Weinbergs’ house, there weren’t any cops waiting for us in the driveway, and the first floor was empty. The salon bedroom was unoccupied, and the bedroom Minerva had been assigned was empty except for a pair of hard-sided silver suitcases.

I pointed at the door between the bedrooms and nodded. Darshi reached into her purse and pulled out a Swiss army knife. I put my finger to my lips and put my hand on the doorknob. Locked. No surprise. I beckoned Darshi forward… but before she could start to work on the lock, the door opened. A hand shot out of the darkness and gripped my wrist, hard, yanking me into the darkness.

“Hey!” I squealed as the door slammed shut behind me. I had the impression of a hard chest against my back, warm breath on my neck.

“Shh,” said the man who’d called himself Nick Andros, with his lips against my ear. “Shhh! Don’t scream. I’m not going to hurt you. I just want to explain.”

Darshi, meanwhile, had pulled the door open. “Let her go!” she said, brandishing her knife… which, I saw with a sinking feeling, she’d opened to the manicure scissors instead of the blade. Nick released me immediately. Darshi looked him over, still aiming her scissors in his direction. “Is that him?” she asked.

“That’s him.”

“Shh!” Nick said. “Please. Both of you. Close the door. I’ll explain everything.”

“You can explain out here,” said Darshi. She crossed her arms over her chest and smirked at him. “Luckily, one of us is immune to your hotness.”

“Please,” Nick repeated. His eyes were locked on my face. “I didn’t mean to run out on you. Just give me five minutes. I swear, I’ll explain everything.”

I looked past Nick, inspecting the small room. There was a refrigerator, piles of cardboard boxes, a pet carrier, a few suitcases, a lamp with no shade. The air was cool and smelled faintly of mildew and dust. A single lightbulb screwed into the ceiling cast a weak glow over the walls filled with tufted pink insulation and the concrete floor. A sleeping bag was spread out on an inflatable mattress; a reading lamp was plugged into an outlet near the baseboard. Nick’s phone was plugged in, too, and he’d provisioned himself with a bottle of seltzer. He also had a book, an old paperback of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, which made me feel a little more relaxed. Probably there were some crazed killers who enjoyed spending time in Narnia, but I doubted there were many.

“You made yourself right at home, I see,” I said.

His face seemed to contort. With an effort, he smoothed it out. “I used to live in this house,” he said. “When I was little.”

I felt my eyebrows ascend. “What?”

“When I was a little boy, I lived here with my mom.” He swallowed hard. “That’s why I crashed the party. I wanted to see it.”

“And knocking at the front door and asking permission was too much trouble?” Darshi asked.

Nick, or whoever he was, rocked from his heels to his toes and back again. Head hanging, eyes on the concrete floor, he said, “Honestly, I didn’t plan any of it. I was at a party yesterday afternoon, down on Corn Hill Beach. I took a walk, and I saw the caterers and the tent people doing the setup, and I figured I’d find someone to ask and see if there was any way they’d let me take a look inside.”

I breathed in the cool, musty air, remembering one of the first things Nick had asked: Are you staying in the big house? My cheeks got hot. “So I was your way in,” I said. Of course, I thought. Of course I was a means to an end. Of course this cute guy with his wind-burned cheeks wasn’t into me. Of course he’d only wanted a way into the house. “Why didn’t you just ask me? I would have given you a tour.”

Looking shamefaced, Nick said, “I probably should have. And I’m sorry I didn’t.” He reached for my hand. Darshi gave him a hard look. He let his arm drop. “I swear. I wasn’t planning on, um, you know.” The tips of his ears looked pink as he cleared his throat and rocked again. “Things just happened. I was walking on the beach, and I saw you and Drue coming down the stairs, and at first I thought she’d recognize me, but she didn’t—”

“So you did know Drue,” I said.

He nodded. “We went to sailing camp together, like I said.” He looked at Darshini. “Are you Daphne’s roommate?” I’d told him about Darshi the night before, about how she’d been at Lathrop with Drue and me, and how we shared an apartment.