Two Truths and a Lie(86)

“Let me see.” Hannah chewed her gum thoughtfully, right in Alexa’s ear. Alexa held the phone a little bit away and rolled her eyes. “What specifically are golf clothes?”

“Khakis,” said Alexa. “Golf shirt. Visor?”

“No, he wasn’t wearing golf clothes. And he wasn’t wearing spirit wear.” There was an irritating pause while Hannah thought some more. “He definitely wasn’t smiling. He was pretty serious.” Alexa’s mouth was dry now. Bad men would be serious. She headed for the tiny water cups that were lined up on a shelf running along the side of the shop. Murderers would be serious. Mob guys would be serious. She tucked the phone under her ear while she picked up the water pitcher to fill a cup. “How old is Cam?” asked Hannah.

“Nineteen,” said Alexa. “No, wait, twenty.” Her hands were shaking so that when she put the pitcher back down, some of the water sloshed out. She knocked back the water, threw away the tiny cup, and resumed her place in line, her heart hammering all the while.

“Oh, this guy was way older. Forty? Forty-five? I don’t know, it’s hard to tell, anyone between forty and sixty looks the same to me.”

“Yeah, I know what you mean.” Alexa was trying to downplay her concern, but she was getting really nervous. How old were gangsters, typically?

The person ahead of her had a credit card out, ready to slip into the machine.

“Anyway, he was older,” continued Hannah. “I saw him get into a black SUV.”

“A black SUV?” Panic began to drip into Alexa’s bloodstream—a slow, ominous panic. “What kind of black SUV?”

“Oh, I don’t know,” said Hannah. “I’m not really a car person. Have you seen what I drive?”

“No,” Alexa said irritably.

“It’s really old. I bet you couldn’t even guess what it is if you tried.”

Alexa was absolutely definitely not going to try. “You didn’t mention my last name, did you?”

“I didn’t have to.”

Alexa’s heart was in her throat. No, higher: in her mouth. “Why not?” The drip of panic had become a flood.

“He already knew it.”

“He knew my last name?”

“How would he be looking for you if he didn’t know your name? I kinda have to go, Alexa, we’re getting a line and I’m like totally hiding around the back and Lori is looking for me—”

Alexa pressed her knees together to keep her legs from trembling. “Just tell me one more thing. You said he was serious. But was he scary?”

“I don’t know. He didn’t seem scary. He was just a guy.”

“You didn’t tell him my address, did you?”

Hannah chortled. “I don’t even know your address, Amazon. How would I tell him? I just told him to look for your Jeep if he wanted to find you.”

“Next person in line!” said the girl behind the counter.

“You told him to look for my Jeep?”

“Yeah. Don’t you live on High Street?” asked Hannah.

“Yeah,” said Alexa. It was the only syllable she could muster.

“I don’t know what number though.”

“Near the high school. It doesn’t matter. You told him to look for my Jeep?”

“Well, yeah. If he wants to find you. Anyway. Not to freak you out, but like I said, he knew your name, and you know, there is this thing called the Internet, and if you know someone’s name and town it’s not that hard to find out their address.” Alexa sighed. Of course she knew there was this thing called the Internet. “Seriously,” said Hannah. “I have to go now. Lori is freaking out.”

“Yup,” said Alexa. “You already said that. Thanks for calling, I guess.” She wanted to throttle Hannah.

“No worries!”

“Next person!” said the counter girl again, staring directly at Alexa.

“Just a second,” hissed Alexa hypocritically (she hated when people were on their phones when she was serving ice cream). She studied the menu, having completely forgotten what she was about to order.

But she couldn’t concentrate on the crepes. Why had she read Katie’s diary? After that, why had she told Cam what was in the diary? What if Cam wasn’t the former Boy Scout he pretended to be? What if he told someone, and that someone told someone, and so on, and now an evil person from the Griffins’ past was coming for her?

“Are you going to order or not?” said the girl.

“Yes,” snarled Alexa. She thought she could trust Cam, but what if she couldn’t trust anyone? Alexa placed her order and stood off to the side to wait.

She saw a black SUV rolling down Pleasant Street. The car stopped. Her breath caught. She looked more closely and recognized the blond head of Esther, Mom Squad member and mother of Morgan’s friend Audrey. Alexa needed to relax. Everybody drives a black SUV, she told herself. Everybody. The SUV started moving again—now she could see that it had been letting the car in front of it pull into a parallel parking space. Merrily, the traffic rolled along, and Alexa felt her pulse quiet.

Once she had her crepe Alexa settled onto one of the couches and read her texts. The first was Cam, wondering if she wanted to hang out later. The second was Sherri, asking if Alexa could stay for a while that night with Katie while Sherri stopped by Brooke’s party. That’s right, tonight was Brooke’s end-of-summer party, at her over-the-top house on the river. Brooke’s party was legendary. Brooke’s party meant a lot of drunk grown-ups dressed up and posting inappropriate and embarrassing photos on social media. And of course somebody would jump into the pool. Inwardly, in advance, Alexa rolled her eyes. Was there anything more depressing than middle-aged drunk people?