Best Laid Plans(155)

“Jess.”

The girl barely looked at her. “Go away.”

“I can prove they killed Scott.”

Jess stopped, and looked at Max. Tears filled her dark eyes. “Wh-what?”

“They left him on the mountain. I don’t know if it was supposed to be a joke, or if they intended to kill him, but it was malicious and they need to be held accountable.”

“How do you know?”

“I have a photo uploaded to Facebook Saturday morning from a hotel, not from the campground. And Carlos Ibarra signed for a bucket of beer Friday night. I think you know why they didn’t like Scott, why they would pull such a cruel joke that ended up getting him killed. Tell me, Jess. Scott deserves for the truth to be told.”

Jess stood there shivering, but made no move to go inside. “I—I didn’t know.”

“I was with search and rescue when they found Scott’s body yesterday.”

Her eyes widened. “You found him?”

“Huddled in a sleeping bag under a tree. He died there, cold and alone, while Art, Carlos, and Tom were partying it up in a hotel.”

Her lip quivered.

“Why did you stop talking to Art after Scott disappeared?” When Jess didn’t say anything, Max pushed. “You dated him last year.”

“Not for long. He’s an *.” Jess took a deep breath; then everything poured out. “His pranks are mean. He told me he found a kitten behind his dorm, then held up this paper bag and threw it in the pond at the quad. I jumped in and it wasn’t a kitten in the bag, it was a rock, and he stood there and laughed at me. Tried to convince me that it was just a joke, that he would never hurt an animal, but I didn’t believe him. I broke up with him and he spread nasty rumors about me. He doesn’t have many friends, except Carlos. I don’t know why people believed him, but you know how people are.”

“Were you and Scott involved?”

“No—maybe we could have been. But we were just friends. I told him not to go camping with Art, that he and Carlos couldn’t be trusted. Once, when Art and I were making out in his dorm room, Carlos jumped out of the closet and they laughed at me. Art had my shirt off, it was so humiliating. I should have broken up with him then, but I believed him when he said he didn’t know. It was only later—” She looked away.

Max reached out and squeezed her arm. “Jess, this isn’t your fault. Art is a bully and enjoys hurting people.”

Max added, “Did Art think that you and Scott were involved?”

She shrugged. “But he’s never hurt anyone. His pranks are just mean.”

“Hurting people doesn’t mean physically hurting them. But this time, with Scott, he went too far. Help me prove it.”

“He’ll never admit it.”

“He doesn’t have to. I need you to get Tom Keller to meet you in your room.”

“Tom’s just like them—maybe not mean, but he tries so hard to get people to like him.”

Max could work with that. “Please, Jess.” Max was out of options. If Jess didn’t agree to help, Max would have to turn over what she had to Detective Horn, and she didn’t think it was enough. Max could think of a half dozen ways the boys could explain away why they were in the hotel, and without proof that they maliciously left Scott Sheldon to die, they’d get away with it.

Just like Karen’s killer got away with murder, because her body had never been found and he had a damn good lawyer.

“You really think they left him up there? By himself?”

“I do.”

Jess looked at her feet. “All right. I’ll call Tom.”





CHAPTER NINE



Max sat with Jess in her dorm room, an awkward silence between them. “Jess, is there anything else you want to tell me?”

She’d been biting her nails ever since she got off the phone with Tom. “I shouldn’t get involved.”

“Someone has to stand up for what’s right.” In all the investigations Max had covered, too often people had turned their back on someone who needed help. Or, were blinded by the evil in another. And just as often, Max had met people who did help, who went out of their way to care for those who couldn’t care for themselves. People who recognized evil for what it was and did something to stop it. “Do you really think Art will stop being cruel? Do you think he’ll learn any lesson from this, other than he got away with it?”

“It had to be an accident.”

“That’s what you want to believe,” Max said. And maybe it was. Maybe Art didn’t want Scott dead, but that didn’t mean he wasn’t culpable in his death.

Something Tom had said when she first talked to him came back to her.

It’s not our fault he left.

The comment could be taken in two ways. Either he left because he was mad, or left the campground before they returned for him. What if Scott didn’t think they would return? What if they gave him the impression that they wouldn’t? And when the weather turned, he might have thought he had no other choice but to try to find his way out on foot.

Jess jumped when there was a knock on the door. Max got up to answer it.

It was Tom. He saw her and turned to leave.

Max grabbed his arm and pulled him into the room. “You’re not going until you tell me the truth.”