TWENTY-FIVE
I text Jack right away, asking him if Taylor was there that night at the marina or if Jay or Lance mentioned at any point that she would be joining them for this night cruise. Jack doesn’t write back. I don’t know why I didn’t think of Taylor being involved before now. She is literally Lance’s sister. If this was all for the trust money, she’d also get part of it if Jay doesn’t claim it. I don’t know if this means Taylor killed Jay, or lured him onto the boat, or anything, really. Or maybe she helped him somehow. Jay wrote that he’d be fine, which means at the moment he posted that Instagram post, he thought Taylor would keep him safe. But it’s been five months since then, and no one knows where he is. Clearly Taylor did not keep him safe.
Jack finally writes back that he doesn’t remember seeing Taylor or anyone mentioning her, but he doesn’t really remember a lot.
Should I go see Taylor? There is no way she would talk to me. The girl hates me. Maybe Mia can help? But then, I’m pretty sure Mia hates me too. I sigh and grab my bag, hoping that maybe some shred of our friendship still exists.
I call Gracie and ask her to meet me outside West Hall. When we get there, we follow another student into the building and take the elevator to the fourth floor. I knock on the dorm room that was mine only a month ago. It feels weird. I lived in this room longer than my room in East House, but this building now looks like a distant memory. It feels like a lifetime ago that I left Mia. I’m not the same person I was then.
Mia opens the door, and her face falls when she sees me. Maybe she is expecting ... hoping for someone else?
“Aleeza ... what are you doing here?” She glances at Gracie, and frowns. Gracie is wearing her black-framed glasses, a dress printed with multicolored cats, and a purple cardigan. I think she looks adorable. Mia’s wearing sweats and a T-shirt. Her hair is flat-ironed straight again.
“We need to talk to you,” I say. “Is Lance here?” I hope he’s not.
Mia’s face falls a little. I detect it because I know her. But she’s trying to hide her disappointment. “No,” she says.
“What about Taylor?”
Mia shakes her head. “No.”
“Okay, then, can we come in?”
She looks like she doesn’t want to let us in. It suddenly occurs to me that as strange as it feels for me to see her like this, it must be even stranger for Mia. I’m the one who walked away from her and never once tried to come back to the familiar place under her wing. I’m the one with new friends, with a new passion, with a new life.
Mia finally steps aside and puts her hand out to let us in. Walking into the room is like going back in time. It looks the same, because of course it does. All the K-pop posters, all the decor—it was always Mia’s choice. I was the afterthought. Only Ted was mine.
I’m not an afterthought anymore.
But wait. Kegan told me someone else moved in here. I look over to the door that used to be mine. “Did you get a new roommate?”
Mia frowns. “Yeah, that’s Taylor’s room.”
Oh. How did I not know Taylor moved into my old room? And a better question ... why?
Mia sighs and sits on the small sofa in the room. I don’t want to sit next to her, so I sit on one of the wood kitchen chairs. Gracie takes the other.
“Did you and Lance have a fight or something?” I ask.
She doesn’t say anything.
“Okay, we’ll skip the small talk,” I say. “You know we’ve been looking into Jay Hoque’s death, right?”
She nods.
“Did Lance know?” Gracie asks.
Mia nods. “He and Taylor both knew. Taylor said you were pathetic, chasing a ghost.”
Were Taylor and Jay two steps ahead of me the whole time? It was only two days ago that I figured out that Lance and Taylor were involved.
“Are you and Lance still together?” Gracie asks.
Mia shrugs again. I see something there. Mia looks ... a little lost. I can’t decide if it’s because of the loss of her boyfriend, the loss of her wealthy new friend group ... or something else. I want to ask her ... the muscle memory of supporting Mia through yet another breakup is kicking in.
But I can’t get sucked into her orbit again. “Okay, I’m glad you’re not hanging out with them anymore,” I say. “I need to warn you ... I suspect Taylor and Lance have something to do with Jay’s disappearance. We’ve already gone to the police. We have a witness.”
She looks at me, blinking. “Who?”
“Jack Gormley. He saw Jay with Lance that night at their yacht club.” My only evidence that Taylor was also involved came from Jay himself, so I don’t mention it.
“Jack.” Mia snorts. “Doubt he was sober enough to remember anything.”
“He remembers seeing Lance.”
“Lance’s father has a boat at that club. Actually, his whole extended family has boats there. Of course he was at the club that night.”
“We found a motive too.”
Mia crosses her arms in front of her. “So you’re here to get information about Lance?”
I shake my head. “No, actually. I’m looking for Taylor. Do you know where she is?”
Mia shakes her head. “I don’t understand why you’re so obsessed with Jay Hoque. Is it because I didn’t want to do your little mystery show anymore?”
“No, believe it or not, I’m doing something that has absolutely nothing to do with you. Something bad happened to Jay, and your friends have something to do with it.”
“You didn’t even know him!”
“But I did know him,” Gracie says. “He deserves justice.”
Mia narrows her eyes at us. “Lance said he was a dick, anyway. You should have stayed here and done the web series with Taylor and me ... it’s going to be huge. She’s already lined up sponsors.”
I roll my eyes. “No, thank you.”
“So you’re still doing the weird mystery show with your weird new friends? Taylor says true crime is stupid, and people should leave solving shit to the police.”
I smile. “A funny thing happens in a big city, Mia. You were a big fish in Alderville, but there are bigger fish here. And in Alderville, there were no fishes like me, but here in the city, there are lots and lots of fishes like me. I’m not weird here ... I’m just me.”
She snorts. “I don’t understand your whole fish obsession.”
“You don’t have to.”
“Octopuses aren’t fish,” Gracie adds. “They’re cephalopods.”
Mia crosses her arms, clearly annoyed. She’s not used to me talking to her like this.
I sigh. Despite everything, the fact is I’m here because her boyfriend and his sister are my prime suspects in a murder. Mia may not be my favorite person, but I don’t want something bad to happen to her.
“Have you ever heard Taylor say anything ... strange about Jay?”
Mia sighs. “She hated him. She said he didn’t belong with her friends. She even showed me this Instagram account the night I met her that was, like, exposing him for cheating or something.”
“The Birdwatcher,” I say. “Did she say who wrote it?”
“It was anonymous. She said he should drop out of school.”
“Why didn’t you tell anyone this?” Gracie asks. “Taylor was bullying him, and then he disappeared.”
She shrugs again. “Lots of people hated him.”
I roll my eyes. Despite what Jay may have thought at the time, I don’t trust Taylor at all. There is no way she ever had any intention of keeping Jay safe. “Has she said anything about him recently? Like, when his coat was found, did she say anything about that?”
Mia shakes her head.
The Instagram post said Taylor was taking him home. “Mia, where is home for Taylor?” I look around my old dorm room. “Is this the only place where she’s living?”
Mia blinks at me, silent.
“What aren’t you telling us, Mia?” I know she’s hiding something.
She sighs. “I’ve barely seen Taylor since she moved here. Like ... she’s with her boyfriend all the time.”
I snort. Tables have been turned.
“Who’s her boyfriend?” Gracie asks.
“He’s from out of town or something. She said he’s been staying on her family’s boat. He sounds like bad news.”
I frown. The same way Jack lives on his boat?
“Mia, are you and Lance even together anymore?” I ask.
She looks right at me, then shrugs. “Don’t see much of him either. He’s not answering my calls.”
Gracie chuckles. “He’s ghosting you?”
Mia glares at Gracie.
“What marina is Taylor’s boat at? Same one as Jack’s, right?”
She shrugs again.
What if ... what if there is no boyfriend? What if she’s been hiding Jay on that boat, holding him captive until it’s too late for him to claim his trust money?
Wednesday took me. But I’ll be fine with her. Who knows what Taylor told him to lure him to the yacht club that night.
“Mia,” I say slowly. “Have you ever met Taylor’s boyfriend?”
Mia shakes her head. “No. Why?”
I pause, thinking. Is it possible that Jay is alive?
I look at Gracie. She is clearly thinking the same thing. “We need to get to the yacht club,” she says.
We rush back to East House to grab Aster’s voice-recorder necklace. I have no idea what we’ll find at the yacht club, but we may need recorded evidence. Once we have the necklace, Gracie calls an Uber to take us to the North Toronto Yacht Club. While we’re in the car, it occurs to me that we have no way of getting into this private club. I doubt very much they’ll let two teenagers in to check if a member is hiding a missing nineteen-year-old on their sailboat. I text Jack and tell him we need to get into the yacht club to find Taylor and Lance’s father’s boat right now. He says he’s already at the club and will meet us at the entrance.
I piece together a theory on the way there. On that night, maybe Taylor went to see Jay in East House and somehow convinced him to come with her to the yacht club. She promised that they meant him no harm. Since our ResConnect link was deleted, Jay couldn’t tell me he was going with Taylor, so he left me the painting and the Instagram post to tell me he’d be fine.
But when they got to the marina, Taylor and Lance did something to Jay. Maybe drugged him like they drugged Jack. And they’ve been holding him on their father’s boat until ... maybe until he could claim the trust? Or until he could no longer claim the trust ... six months after his birthday.
Are Lance and Taylor even capable of that? And if Jay has been held against his will at the yacht club all winter, wouldn’t someone have noticed? The whole theory seems like such a long shot, but it’s worth it to check. Jay might be alive.
When the car drops us off, Jack is talking to a guy in a security booth. He’s wearing flannel pants and a T-shirt, with an oversize parka over it. And he has a ball cap on. After seeing him always dressed to the nines, Jack looks a little strange to me. More real.
This isn’t my first time at a marina—Alderville is literally on a bay. But the marinas I’m used to are nothing like the North Toronto Yacht Club. Namely, the boats here are bigger and much more expensive. Also? Even though it’s only early April, most of the boats are in the water, albeit almost all shrink-wrapped in plastic. I’m used to people dry-docking their boats in the winter. This marina has bubblers to keep the water from freezing around the boats. Also, instead of an old clubhouse, this yacht club has a restaurant overlooking a stunning view of Lake Ontario.
“So what’s the deal?” Jack asks once we’re through the gate. He guides us over to a bridge toward the docks and slips.
“Mia said Taylor has been spending a lot of time on her dad’s boat with a mysterious boyfriend,” I say. “Have you seen her here?”
Jack shrugs. “Nah, but their boat is on the other side of the club. Far from mine.” He points to a bunch of boats to the left of the clubhouse. “I got Andrew Murray’s slip number from Roger, the security guard.”
“Do you think it’s possible that Taylor’s boyfriend has been living there all winter?” Gracie asks.
Or maybe possible that Jay has been living there?
Jack frowns, then looks at the boats around us. “Yeah, it’s possible. This club technically doesn’t allow winter liveaboard, but I’ve been here most nights anyway. Security looks the other way for a lot of shit here. There aren’t a ton of people around this time of year, so it’d be easy to hide someone.” He raises his brows suddenly, probably realizing it’s Jay who I believe has been here all winter, not Taylor’s mysterious boyfriend.
But the more I think about it, the more I know it’s incredibly unlikely that Jay has been hiding out on a boat all winter. Right here—in downtown Toronto the whole time?
But I need to know. Even if he’s not my Jay ... the one from the five-months-ago timeline, even if he has no idea who I am or why I’m here, I need to know that he’s okay.
I glance over at the boats with the opaque white plastic around them. “Where is Andrew Murray’s boat?”
Jack points. “It’s over—”
“Shit,” Gracie interrupts, looking in the direction of the club entrance. Taylor is coming down the gangplank. She’s talking to a man behind her. Maybe there really is a secret boyfriend?
We rush off the bridge and duck behind a sailboat, but I peek to watch them. The guy is tall and very well dressed—not in a suit, but the pants and dress shirt he’s wearing fit perfectly. He’s Black with medium-brown skin and close-cropped hair. Very good-looking, but clearly a lot older than Taylor. He’s carrying reusable grocery bags from a gourmet store.
Jack motions us over to a sailboat a few slips away from the one we’re behind. It’s enormous. Seriously. Like, bigger than my house. “Is this what your boat looks like?” I ask Jack when we get to it.
He shakes his head. “Nah. Mine’s a bit bigger.”
Gracie peeks out from behind the boat. “They’re headed left from the bridge. Should we follow?”
“They’ll see us,” I say.
“Give them five minutes or so, then we go snoop.”
I exhale. This guy must be the mysterious boyfriend, which means ... Jay isn’t here. But still. Something is going on with Taylor. I’m sure of it. Jay’s message to me was clear: Wednesday took him home. And Taylor is Wednesday. But where is home? Her dad’s boat? Her mother’s house?
I don’t know what yet, but my gut is telling me that something is going to happen here today.