Locust Lane(64)

Hannah, who hadn’t noticed what Alice had seen, was giving her a look that indicated she’d prefer to be alone. Alice lingered outside the door, trying to listen, but—surprise, surprise—Jack was doing all the talking. And so upstairs she went.

Jack was guilty. He’d raped Eden while his girlfriend dreamed of new colors and then, facing ruin, he’d gone back and killed her. And now he was bullying poor lost weak Hannah into defending him. That bruise was fresh; there were undoubtedly more, inside and out. And, for reasons Alice now understood, Geoff was helping the kid as well. The fix was in.

She started to pace the room. She had to convince Hannah to tell the police about Eden’s accusations. Christopher had undoubtedly told them, but they’d thought he was lying to save his ass. If Hannah told them, they’d have to start looking at Jack for this. Once they did that, anything could happen. But getting her to tell the truth wouldn’t be easy. The girl had it bad. She was a true believer.

Alice had no idea how many times she’d traversed her room before the Indian Chief’s motor rattled the windows. She went to the top of the steps. Geoff was downstairs, speaking to Hannah in urgent tones. Alice walked down to them, feeling, for only the millionth time, like an interloper in her own house. By the time she reached the kitchen Hannah had retreated to her room. Geoff stood by the refrigerator, guzzling an energy drink.

“So Hannah’s spending the weekend at Jack’s grandmother’s,” he said after unplugging the bottle from his mouth.

“Really? Why?”

“You saw this Twitter thing, right?”

“I know. Crazy.”

“Yeah, well, we thought it was best that they lie low for a while.”

“Who’s we?”

She saw something pulse through his eyes.

“What?”

“No, you said we, I was just wondering…”

“We,” he said, as if speaking to a child. “Me and Hannah.”

“Oh, okay. Sorry. Yeah, of course.”

But he hadn’t meant him and Hannah. He meant him and Oliver Parrish. His new best buddy. His lord and master. After Geoff disappeared into his office, she hung around the kitchen, hoping to connect with Hannah before she left. But the girl wouldn’t even make eye contact when she came out of her room. Instead, she made a beeline for the front door. As it opened, Alice could see Jack’s GTI idling at the curb. And behind the wheel sat the kid who had killed Eden Perry and believed he could get away with it. As if, Alice thought. As fucking if.





CELIA


Celia hadn’t seen the thread until an hour after it appeared. She’d decided to take the day off social media. She’d had her fill of news flashes and insinuations. But then Milly Williams called, a little too eager to be sharing the news that Jack was being slandered. And so she was once again lowered into the cesspit, forced to read about her son attacking a girl and the ensuing cover-up.

She dreaded telling Oliver. This was precisely what he’d been so worried about when they did the deal last year. The stink of insinuation. But it was better that he hear about this from her than from a colleague or client. He was at the office; he’d left before dawn to deal with the increasingly disgruntled Germans. His assistant said he was on a conference call but promised he’d get back to her the moment he was free.

As she paced the kitchen, Celia inevitably found herself thinking about Lexi Liriano. She was a bright Dominican girl from Dorchester who’d come to the school as part of the METCO program, which brought a dozen disadvantaged students from the city to Waldo every year. They were highly motivated and impeccably behaved, but they also kept to themselves. You almost never saw them at social functions or hanging out on Centre. It was a long ride back to where they lived.

So for Jack Parrish to go out with a METCO girl was surprising, to say the least. Celia never did know what to make of Lexi. She was certainly beautiful, with big brown eyes, lovely skin the color of Earl Grey tea, and waves of thick black hair. She was obviously intelligent. She wanted to become a lawyer, much to the delight of Oliver, who was completely enamored of the girl. After their first conversation, he more or less offered her a job upon graduation from Harvard Law, where he would put in a good word for her.

And yet it was impossible for her to relax around the Parrishes. Celia understood how overwhelming her household could be. She’d done everything in her power to set the girl’s mind at ease. But Lexi remained guarded and suspicious, treating questions like traps, biopsying compliments for mockery. She was like a lookout perched in a crow’s nest, scouring the horizon for bigotry. Once or twice Celia had seen indignation flash in her eyes when they spoke but could not for the life of her figure out why. And then there was the time Celia overheard Lexi speaking hushed Spanish with the Guatemalan housekeeper, Estrella. When she entered the kitchen both fell silent and avoided eye contact. Another brick in the wall between Celia and her son’s first girlfriend.

The incident in question happened about a month into their relationship. Jack and Lexi were in his room after school. Celia was in the kitchen, trying to sort out dinner. Oliver would be working late in the city, so it would just be the three of them. She was halfway through an inventory of the fridge’s contents when she heard footsteps coming quickly downstairs. The front door opened and closed. Which meant they must be getting something on Centre before Celia took Lexi home—Jack, who’d just got his license, could drive around town, but not into Boston.