Locust Lane(52)

“In that case, come on in. Coffee?”

“I’d love one.”

They went to the kitchen. Celia looked around as Alice started to work the big Italian caffeine machine.

“Are Geoff and Hannah here?”

“They just got summoned back to the station.”

“Yes, Oliver and Jack were there as well.”

Was there something not quite right about Celia’s voice? It seemed a little too shallow and breathy.

“Do you know why? Nobody tells me anything.”

“This is obviously just between us, but it turns out Christopher’s now telling some cockamamie tale about Jack assaulting this Eden girl.”

“Really?” Alice asked after a brief pause, during which she jettisoned her temptation to tell Celia about seeing their husbands together earlier.

“It’s desperation speaking. I mean, he says nothing at first and then his father hires a hotshot attorney and suddenly this story miraculously materializes out of thin air.”

Alice handed Celia a steaming cup and started to make her own.

“Did you talk to Jack about it?”

“He says it’s nonsense, of course.” She tried to take a sip but it was too hot. “What does Hannah say?”

“They left at midnight; everything was copacetic. That’s it.”

“So, Alice. There’s something else. I’m only saying this because I love Hannah. But it appears she was doing some pretty heavy drugs.”

Celia might love Hannah, but that wasn’t why she was here. There was definitely something not right going on.

“Really?” Alice asked, playing along.

“Something called Molly? You’ve heard of it?”

If by heard of it you mean did I do it more or less daily in the summer of 2013, Alice thought, then the answer would be yes.

“Yeah,” she said. “It’s like speed, only not so … speedy.”

“It turns out this Eden girl had some.”

This Eden girl. She kept calling her that.

“Okay. Not good.”

“According to Jack, it really threw all of them for a loop.”

“Did he take it, too?”

“No, but that doesn’t excuse his behavior. Anyway, I imagine that’s why Hannah was acting so strange when you saw her. And I guess it also explains why Christopher … did what he did.”

Alice’s phone vibrated on the table. It was a call from an unknown number. She ignored it.

“Wow,” she said, still trying to figure out what was happening.

“I thought you should know.” She sighed. “I just wish Oliver had been home. Jack would’ve never pulled a stunt like this unless his father was away.”

“Well, thank you for telling me,” Alice said.

Celia must have caught something in her tone, because she tilted her head slightly, her pretty eyes crinkling in concern.

“Is everything all right?”

And then it hit her. The vague suspicion turned into an absolute certainty. Celia was lying. Geoff was lying. Even Hannah—she was lying as well. They all were. Oliver’s predawn presence and Jack’s texts and the security footage and now Celia turning up to assure her that everything was hunky-dory. This wasn’t about recreational drugs. Her son had done something horrible to Eden, just like he had to Lexi Liriano. You tell them what E was saying I’m fucked. He’d done something and now they were covering it up, just like they had before.

“Just tired,” she said with a tired little smile.

“I’ll leave you be. I just thought you should know.”

“I appreciate it, Celia. I really do.”

“This will all be over soon and we can have a proper lunch. Only not at Papillon.”

You cunt, Alice thought as they hugged. You complete, total, and absolute cunt.

“That’d be good.”

“And you let me know if you find something out,” Celia said.

As if, Alice thought. The moment she was alone, she checked her phone. That unknown caller had left a voice mail. It was probably spam. She played it, anyway. She’d be checking everything from here on out.

It wasn’t spam. It was Michel.

“This is me now…”





MICHEL


He almost didn’t see her message. He’d come upon it just before he finally switched off his cell phone for good. Someone had posted his number online last night, setting off the avalanche of hate. Hundreds of strangers telling him, some calmly and grammatically, others in enraged gibberish, that they wished pain and death upon him and his son. He had to dig through this sewage to find the messages from people he knew. Sofia had texted twice and left a voice message—she needed to know what to do about the restaurant, but mostly she was sick with worry over Christopher. Friends back in Paris, who were only now getting the news. And, finally, Alice. Something weird’s going on.

That much I know, he thought. The story Christopher told Cantor last night was very different from the one he’d given in front of Michel. The lawyer arrived at the house just after Alice left. She went out the back door once again, although this time Michel opened the vine-encrusted gate in the fence for her. He watched her sprint across his neighbor’s backyard, keeping one step ahead of security lights. It was a beautiful sight. For a moment, he could forget everything. This woman, he thought.