Chapter 23
It was all over the news the next day: Yearbook Killer Strikes Again and Key Evidence on Scene—Killer Caught Red-Handed!
There were a few headlines less salacious than those, going for a somber tone.
Remembering that someone was dead, one more person on the killer’s tally board.
Not only had the suspect’s name not been released, but neither had the victim’s, so Rick was woken up by the near-constant vibration of his phone as the chat exploded.
Nika: Everyone ok?
Zara: Still here
Alexis: I’m OK, so is Landon
Camryn: Present and accounted for
Martina replied with a GIF of two medieval peasants with a cart of bodies that said I’m not dead yet. Followed by Anyone know who it was?
Rick groggily chimed in. Wasn’t me.
Landon: I heard it was Kylie Mason
Alexis: Shit, are we sure it’s not Allison? She was pretty mad when Bryce dumped her for Kylie
Nika: I still don’t think she was murder mad
Zara: News said suspect in custody. Didn’t say who…
Martina: Suspect doesn’t = guilty
Landon: I wonder what the “key evidence” was?
Nika: I want it to be over
Rick: Me too! But I’ve seen too many horror movies…don’t let your guard down
Martina: Agreed
—
They might have still been on their guard, but apparently a suspect was enough to get school back in session. Monday morning found them all in the halls, with the name of the suspected culprit on everyone’s lips.
Rick listened to the buzz of the conversation around him as he walked with Martina to class.
“Can you believe Mr. Cooper—”
“I don’t believe it—he’s just the janitor. Why would he—”
“They’re saying Brendan is, like, mental now—”
“The cops found Mr. Cooper with a knife in his hand—”
“No, they found him at home with a sacrificial altar with pictures of the dead.”
“I heard he painted the walls in their blood—”
Martina’s lip curled in a sneer. “People are ghouls.”
“They are,” Rick said. “But it’s nice to have less people staring at us.” It was almost eerie—like everything was back to normal. Like it had never happened. Except there weren’t as many people in the halls.
The more Rick thought about it, the more it freaked him out. Martina was equally uneasy, staying glued to his side when not in class.
They weren’t the only ones. When Rick and Martina went out to the Beast for lunch—they didn’t want to eat in the cafeteria, but felt they could safely park the van close to the school again—he was surprised to find the whole group was there waiting for them.
Rick unlocked the van, letting them all pile in. “Did I miss some sort of meeting?”
Landon shrugged. “None of us want to be in there right now.”
Zara nudged her glasses back into place before climbing in. “School’s too…loud.”
Camryn and Nika went next, followed by Alexis and Landon, which was when Rick realized why this was weird. “Do you even have this lunch?”
Landon and Alexis shook their heads. “We both have study period right now, but Mrs. Porter gave us a hall pass.” She made a face. “Turns out finding a dead body and being questioned by the cops gets you a little sympathy with some of the teachers.”
“Shit,” Martina said. “Why didn’t I think of that?”
“We just told her we needed to go talk to the counselor.” Landon put his arm around Alexis, giving her a small smile. “They brought in someone extra.”
“Do you need to go talk to the counselor?” Camryn asked.
“Probably.” Alexis shrugged. “But I don’t want to.”
They were all quiet as a few of them got their food and began eating. Alexis mostly fiddled with her water bottle.
“Do you think he did it?” Landon asked. “Mr. Cooper, I mean.”
“He was really nice,” Nika said. “Not at first, he was kind of salty at times, but he always helped me when my locker got stuck.”
“The paper said there was evidence he was at Kylie’s house,” Alexis said. “His faculty ID was found at the scene. Which is pretty bad, because how else could it show up there?” Alexis’s mouth bent down into a frown. “But I can’t think of anything I did to make him want me dead.”
“Maybe we were included to throw people off the scent?” Landon offered. He looked around, searching the faces of the group.
No one answered at first, then finally Zara said, “I’m not so sure.” She stared at her half-eaten sandwich for a minute and then put it away. “Remember the grade-tampering article? His keys were used, but I was never able to prove if he knew about it or if he was taken advantage of.”
“Why didn’t you say something earlier?” Martina asked.
“I didn’t think it was relevant,” Zara said sharply, “and he could lose his job over something like that. Since the school board didn’t fire him, I kept my mouth shut.”
“Okay.” Alexis fished out her water bottle. “If he knew about your association, then fine, but still no reason to murder the rest of us.” She squinted suspiciously at the group. “Or is there?”
Rick glanced at Martina, who shook her head. He shrugged one shoulder. “We’ve never had beef.”
When no one else said anything, Martina barreled forward. “Okay, so he might want to off you, Zara. Very—” She lifted her arm like she had a butcher knife and mimicked a stabbing motion. “But the rest of us?”
Zara paled. “Is this all my fault? Did I get Bryce and Paxton murdered?”
“No,” Rick said, his voice sharp. “None of us got anyone killed.”
Martina patted Zara’s hand. “He’s right. The only person responsible for this is the person who actually killed everybody. If that’s Mr. Cooper, so be it. But this is not on us.”
Camryn dragged the sneaker of her toe against the floor of the van. “Kind of feels like it, though.”
The rest of the day felt weird and surreal to Rick. Nika walked with him and Martina to shop, not leaving until they’d stepped inside the classroom. They sat by each other, working quietly on their projects, and it felt normal, but also like a hush had fallen over everything.
Like they were still waiting for something, but going through the daily steps. Go to class. Leave school. Pick up Dani from school. Get her fed. Rick went to work, even.
The days ticked on.
Things went back to normal.
The fear, the horror of it all, started to ebb away.
No one can stay on alert forever.
—
Even though everyone else seemed to accept that the killer was safely behind bars, Rick’s uncle wasn’t quite ready to drop his guard and leave Rick alone in the shop, which was why he was in the shop’s office doing paperwork.
Rick was vacuuming the front seat of a Nissan Sentra when Martina knocked on the open door. “Knock, knock, sucker.”
“Hey,” he said, wiping his forehead with the back of his arm. “What are you doing here?”
“Thought we’d come by for a visit,” Martina said, grinning.
Rick looked behind her as Nika and Camryn followed her into the shop.
“Funny seeing you here,” Camryn said.
Nika just waved a little shyly. “Hey.”
“Can you take a break?” Martina asked.
“A short one.” Rick waved a hand at the Sentra. “Let me replace the wiper blades on this real quick.”
“Okay. I’m just going to check out the vending machine. See if your uncle got new snacks in there.” Martina grabbed Camryn’s sleeve. “Come help, Camryn.”
“You had me at snacks.” Camryn let herself be herded out of the room.
Rick shook his head, wiping off his hands. “Teeny’s about as subtle as a freight train on fire.”
Nika’s brows went up. “Oh?”
Rick smirked. “Moose, we don’t have a snack machine.”
She lit up as she tended to do whenever he used the nickname, followed quickly by a blush this time as what he said filtered in. “Oh.” She scrunched up her nose and then let out a breath. “We were talking about homecoming.”
“I’m surprised they didn’t cancel it,” Rick said. He grabbed the package with the wiper blades, popping them free of their packaging. “Did you want to go? Because I’ve got to say, even if Mr. Cooper is in custody, I’m not going anywhere near homecoming.”
Nika watched him as he swapped out the blades, her hands shoved into her hoodie, her expression tight. “Oh.”
Rick marveled at how much he could understand out of one syllable uttered by Nika Page. The first oh had been curious, the second happy, while that third one had sunk like a heavy weight.
He threw away the packaging before wiping off his hands again, which were, miracle of miracles, free of oil.
He made his way over to where Nika stood, her expression tight, her shoulders drooping as she stared at the chipped paint on the old Nissan.
“I’d have to have a really good reason,” Rick said.
“If I’m going to risk being murdered.” He used a knuckle to lift Nika’s chin up so he could see her face.
“I’m not going to lie. Homecoming sounds boring as hell. ”
Her brows V’ed down even deeper, making him want to laugh. He fought it. As it was, even with the chin raise, she wasn’t looking at him. If she’d had laser eyes, she would have been burning a hole in his chest.
Rick kept his face straight, though he wanted to smile. “Are you going to be there?”
Nika blinked, like he’d startled her back into the moment. “What?”
“At homecoming,” Rick asked slowly. He took a half step closer to her, so her chin almost bumped his chest. “Are you going to be there?”
She finally tipped her face up at him. “No. It doesn’t feel right, honestly. After everything. My dad said I could have a few people over instead. He’d cook us dinner, and we could have a movie marathon.”
“Sounds great,” Rick said evenly. “Am I invited?”
“Of course.” Her words came out terse, like she was fighting to be polite. “Everyone is. Of the group. Of our group.”
“But am I invited?” Rick was trying so hard to tamp his amusement down. “For you?”
Her expression blanked. “What?”
He did laugh then. He couldn’t help it.
“What’s so funny?” She seemed hurt, like he was laughing at her, and Rick couldn’t bear it, even for a second.
“Me,” Rick said, putting his hands lightly on her hips. When she didn’t pull away, he slid his arms around her waist, reveling in the absolute bliss of it. How long had he imagined doing just this? “You.”
She hesitated, confused, but put her hands on his shoulders. He stepped even closer, causing her to slide her arms around his neck, hugging him.
“We’re funny?”
That set him off even more, and he buried his face in her neck, laughing until he was wheezing.
She patted his back. “I think something might be wrong with you.”
“No,” Rick gasped, fighting through the last remnants of his laughing fit. “Or maybe there is, I don’t know. I wasn’t, I’m not—” He straightened up, staring down at her. “I wasn’t telling you no. I wasn’t turning you down.”
“Oh?” This fourth oh was confused but had a hopeful lilt to it. He thought it might be his favorite one.
Rick swallowed hard, bringing his fingers up to trace along her cheek.
“If you wanted to go to the dance, god help me, I’d go.
If you want to watch movies at your house, I’m there.
If you decided you wanted to spend homecoming night knitting socks for dogs, I’m in.
” He tucked a lock of hair behind her ear.
“That’s why I was laughing. We’re ridiculous. ”
“I have a lot of questions about that last one,” she said, her voice soft. “Do you even know how to knit? Why do the dogs need socks? Why was that even choice number three?”
“No, but I’d learn, no idea, and also, no idea.” Rick sighed. “I just want to be where you are.”
Nika stared up at him for a few long seconds. Then she stood on her toes, grabbed the sides of his face, and pressed her lips to his.
Rick stood there, stunned. It was a bit like that time his mom opened a cabinet door not seeing him coming and he walked right into it.
When he’d closed his eyes then, he’d seen sparks and stars.
It was like that now, all sparks and stars.
He wrapped his arms around her tight and devoted himself to finally, finally kissing Nika Page.
His fingers slid under the back of her hoodie and met the softest skin on the planet.
Nika shivered, pulling him tighter to her somehow, her hands in his hair.
She tasted like cinnamon gum, and Rick was pretty sure he would get almost embarrassingly turned on every time he smelled it for the rest of his life.
Rick pulled away, their breaths loud in the quiet of the garage. Her closed eyes fluttered open, her pupils wide as houses.
The garage filled with the sharp sounds of several people slow-clapping. Rick turned his head just in time to see his uncle give a long whistle. He had a bag in his hands. “Impressive.”
“We thought we might have to bring you oxygen for a minute there,” Martina said.
“Were you watching us?” Rick shook his head. “Fucking creepers.”
Camryn looked affronted. “I was coming in to make sure you were both still alive.”
“And I brought you dinner,” Vic said with a sniff. “Not that you care or even thanked me.”
“I was being a creeper,” Martina admitted gleefully.
Rick dropped his head back and groaned, one hand going out to give Martina the finger. “Can we have a minute, please?”
“Can’t believe I’m being kicked out of my own place of business,” Vic grumbled. “Come on, you two. I’ve got some chips and stuff. Let’s leave the two lovebirds alone.” He swept his arms out and took them back into the employee area of the shop.
Rick sighed. “I hate them all so much right now.”
“No you don’t,” Nika said. “Not even a little.”
Rick peered down at her. “Sorry the first time I kissed you was in a dirty garage.”
“I’m not,” she said. “And anyway, I kissed you.”
He grinned, and he was sure it was cocky as hell. “You did, didn’t you?”
“I did,” she said. “And I don’t regret it. First implies a second.”
Rick pulled his head back. “What?”
“A first kiss implies that there will be a second kiss,” Nika explained. “Will there? Be another kiss, I mean.” She looked so hopeful, and Rick wasn’t sure he had it in him to deny her anything when she looked like that.
“See what I mean? Ridiculous.” He leaned down, pressing his lips gently to hers. Slow and easy, like they had all the time in the world before he pulled back. “So many you’ll lose count.”
“Good,” Nika said, a little breathless.
“Good,” Rick repeated, slinging an arm around her neck and leading her in the direction of the lounge, as a thought occurred. “He said not to take him literally, but…do you think your dad was serious, about no one finding my body?”
“He was kidding,” Nika said. “But he would do it.”
“That’s what I thought.” Rick considered this for a second. “Worth it.”