Paradise Falls (Paradise Falls #1-5)(34)
This was insane.
She couldn’t go back to the house now after Grayson trashed her bedroom. Whether she liked it or not, her days of living in the duplex and pretending everything was normal were over.
Moving in with Katie suddenly sounded like a good idea, especially if she wouldn’t have to worry about money. Not that she could accept generosity like that, though. The two of them would be fine on their own. Jennifer took a deep breath, then flipped open her phone to call Katie and try to explain what the hell was going on.
She had a missed call. Jennifer expected to see Katie’s name but saw Howard Unger instead. Why was the vice principal calling her on a Sunday? The first call was made at just after four in the morning.
“Howard?”
“Jennifer! You haven’t been answering. Nevermind, it doesn’t matter. Where are you? Your home phone says it’s been disconnected.”
“What’s wrong?”
He took a ragged breath. “I need you to brace yourself. I have bad news.”
Not now. “What? What is it?”
“I don’t know how to… look, I just have to say it. Two of our kids died last night.”
Her stomach froze and tightened up into a ball.
“Who?”
Howard took another ragged breath. “A transfer student named Cole Hauser, and Krystal Summers.”
It took Jennifer a moment to realize that Howard’s voice was so small and tinny because her hand went slack, the phone slid out of her grip and landed on the bed.
“Jennifer? Jennifer?”
She gingerly brought the phone to her ear. “What do you mean?”
Silence, and then, “They’re dead, Jenn. I’m sorry.”
“How did you-“
“Calvin called me this morning after they were found.” He meant the chief of police. “Shot. They don’t know who might’ve done it yet. I don’t know what else to say. We’re closed indefinitely. They’re going to hold a news conference in a few hours.”
“Oh,” she said, and hung up.
She tossed the phone on the bed. The pressure built up in her chest, creeping up her neck to pound behind her eyes as she clenched her hands into fists. When she couldn’t hold it back anymore, she wailed and thrashed on the bed, pounding her fists on the mattress.
Jacob stormed into the room. He reached out for her and pulled back, fumbling with his big hands as he tried to figure out what to do with them. Jennifer rocked on the bed and sobbed.
“What happened? Is your sister—“
“Not her,” Jennifer scrubbed her eyes. “Howard was trying to call me. Two of the kids got killed last night.”
“What? Who?”
“Krystal. From my advanced placement class. She—“
“I know who she is. I have her in the morning for calculus. You were close to her.”
“She was close to me. I always pushed her back. She just wanted to be my friend.”
“It’s not your fault.”
“Don’t start,” Jennifer snapped. A moment later she muttered, “Sorry, I—“
“Who was the other one?”
“Cole, the transfer student. The one from the fight the other day.”
Jacob froze. “What?”
“The first day. The fight. I guess he worked up the courage to ask her out—“
“What happened to them? Tell me everything he told you.”
Jennifer forced down her breakfast with a hard swallow. “He just said they were shot.”
“Where?”
“I don’t know.”
“I need to find out.”
“Why?”
“I need to know.”
“Why? Tell me why.”
“Think about that morning. What started the fight?”
She leaned on her hand and scrubbed her fingers through her hair, tugging at the bandage. What did he mean?
Then it hit her. When they had the bigger boy restrained against the lockers, Cole yelled at them to open his bag. The backpack full of drugs. The impact swirled in her mind. She swayed a little until she leaned back.
“It was the boy they wanted,” she said. “They killed him. Krystal just happened to be there. Jesus Christ, Jacob. I pushed her to go out with him. This is my fault.”
“It’s not,” he said. He sat next to her on the bed. “It is not your fault. There’s no way you could possibly know that would happen.”
She swallowed the lump in her throat. “What about your chaos theory? If I’d done something different, she wouldn’t have been there.”
He jerked back as if he’d been hit. Jennifer sniffed and rubbed at her nose with her wrist.
“I shouldn’t have said that.”
“It’s alright. You’re upset.” He stood up. “Elliot came to your house about what, four or five in the afternoon?”
“I guess. Why?”
“I followed him after he left, and—“
“What?” Jennifer said. “Wait, how did you know he was there?”
“I… I put a protection detail on you. Just watching the house to see if anything… what?”
Her jaw dropped. “A protection detail? Are you serious? You were watching me?”