13. The Dead Drop
The Dead Drop
Jack
The number of places that are safe for us is pretty low. We head to my house because as long as we stay in the basement, we shouldn’t disturb anyone or wake up Lucy. While it’s not really past curfew, I’d get in trouble if we wake Lucy up.
My dad must be in his office as I let the guys and Harper in. We go downstairs and close the door behind us. Our rec room isn’t as decked out as Luke’s or Caden’s, but we’ve got a good family room set-up down here and an area for Lucy’s toys.
My parents went overboard for their second child.
Harper unwraps the cord from her waist and sets the camera on the table. The table is Lucy’s project table. When my parents tried to get her a child-sized one, she refused. She wanted one I could sit at too.
I sit beside Harper and hold my hand out to ask for the thing she found. She pushes it toward me and releases her breath. When I turn it over, blood specks the surface. I glance at her, and she has a bandage wrapped around her finger.
“I took care of it in the car.” Caden shakes his head. “She cut it on the knife. It’s not deep. I had antibacterial ointment and wet wipes. She’ll be good until we get to my house. I’ll rewrap it before we go to sleep.”
Okay then. I study the box. There’s a padlock on the camouflaged case and a lens on one side. This was built to hide in plain sight and remain outside for a long time.
Maybe not over a decade though.
“Trail cam?” Caden narrows his gaze on it. “I doubt someone was watching for deer up there.”
“Most trail cams are placed about chest level to capture game.” Eli sits back with his foot out. He knows the most random shit sometimes. “But it looks like a trail cam.”
“The combination lock was my birthday.” Harper’s voice is soft. She hasn’t said much since her discovery. She might be terrified of what we’ll find. It’s not unreasonable. William said there was an accident. Maybe we’ll find proof it wasn’t. Or maybe an actual image of the accident.
We won’t let her see that.
I rub her thigh next to mine and she rests her head against my shoulder. Her dark eyes never leave the camera.
I turn to Luke. “Can you grab my kit?”
He nods and heads upstairs, taking two at a time, but being quiet about it.
“Kit?”
Chuckling, I glance at Harper. “Lock pick kit.”
Her eyes narrow, and her mouth opens and closes. She’s probably trying to guess if that’s how we get into her house without her knowing. Yeah, she can think that all she wants.
“It’s easier than the aluminum can trick,” I say. I saw it on YouTube, but haven’t tried it yet. Will she ask about it or let it go?
Eli has his phone out and nods at me to pass the trail cam. When I do, he lifts it and takes in every inch of it. After taking a picture of it, he pushes it back across the table to me and continues typing on his phone.
“Is there any secure way to get ahold of my mom?” Harper’s soft words stop all of us. There’s a little wobble in her voice.
I lift her onto my lap and wrap my arms around her. She turns into me and slides her arms around my neck, ducking her head against my shoulder. Fuck, she’s being so strong that it’s hard to remember how vulnerable she is.
I’d miss my parents if they went missing. The others have to deal with shitty parents as their norm and hardened their hearts for it. But not me and Harper.
I get what Harper is going through. My parents love me and my sister. My father gave up his career to make sure we were taken care of. He still does some consulting work, but otherwise, his hours are for Lucy and me.
If he disappeared, I’d be lost.
“We can try, sweetheart.” I can’t promise her we’ll be able to, because I don’t know where or what Jennifer is doing.
How far off the grid she might have gone?
If our friend is helping her, we might be able to ask them.
“We still have the chat connection that’s secure.
I can check her cards and bank account to see if she’s been using them. ”
It’ll take some time to get into the banking systems, but it’s not impossible. I might be able to write a script.
Harper pulls back. Her brown eyes are watery, but she’s not crying. Her expression is determined. “No.”
“What?”
“You don’t need another thing to keep you up at night.” Harper shakes her head and drags in a deep breath. “My mom is safe. When it’s safe for her to come back, she will. She’ll find a way to contact me.”
I rest my forehead against hers. She cups my jaw and presses her lips against mine before she slides over to her seat. I want to fix this for her, but I can’t. Besides, her mom is smart enough to not leave an easily traceable trail.
Eli and Caden watch Harper carefully as Luke comes down the stairs.
“I’m not a bomb.” She looks up at the ceiling and fans her face to get rid of the tears.
“What?” Luke takes the seat on Harper’s other side and turns her face to him, studying it. “Crying?”
“No, Death. Just a little emotional.” She pulls away from him and turns back to me, sliding the kit Luke set down over to me. “Do your thing.”
I nod and work on the lock.
“This might be it.” Eli holds out his phone, but I focus on setting the tumblers on the lock. “It’s a game camera, but it’s a good one for 2011.”
“Video?” Caden leans in, clasping his hands on the table and watching me work.
Eli shakes his head. “But it does some rapid-fire shots. It’ll depend on how whoever put it up there set it up.
Depending on the SD card, it could have a lot of pictures to sift through.
In the tens of thousands. We need to be careful opening it.
It takes twelve AA batteries. Recommended rechargeable. ”
I nod. “Gloves and a container in case they’re leaking.”
Caden stands and heads upstairs. My parents are used to the guys coming and going from the basement rec room. They won’t know Harper is here unless they come downstairs, and usually my dad is good about leaving us to whatever we’re doing.
The lock clicks, and I pull it open. Setting it to the side, I hope nothing is leaking. I hold out my hand to Eli, knowing he’ll have the schematics pulled up. He puts the phone in my hand, and I look over how this thing was made. Where the battery compartment is and where the SD card goes in.
“The batteries are right next to the SD card.” I sigh and hand Eli back the phone. “It doesn’t mean it will be damaged, but we’ll need to be careful.”
Rechargeable batteries generally don’t leak like disposable. But fifteen years with varying temperature extremes... who knows what we’ll find when we open the box.
Caden comes back and tosses the gloves my way and sets down a glass container. It’ll do.
Harper shifts next to me and runs her hands up and down her thighs. “It was aimed in the direction of where you guys thought the meeting would happen.”
Luke grabs her hand and holds it on his lap. “The reality is it might have sat too long, and we’ll get nothing useful from it. You have to prepare yourself for that.”
“But it could,” she argues. “It could have my dad and your dad and what happened at that meeting.” Her gaze dances around to each of us. “It could unravel everything.”
“It’s a camera, not video. We’ll have what they did, but likely it will just be them standing there talking.” I don’t want her to get her hopes up. “If he had a recording device—”
“There could have been one. We can go back and look.”
Luke tips her face his way. “This won’t be a smoking gun, Harper. It will be part of what we’ll have against our fathers, but it won’t be everything. We’ve been through this too many times before.”
We all nod and make an acknowledging noise. Whenever we think we’ve found the key to get us free of this town, it’s never enough.
“It will be a part of the puzzle or it will be nothing, but the likelihood of it being a smoking gun is minimal.”
“I just want this part to be done.” She leans into Luke, and he draws her onto his lap. She snuggles against him.
We’re all ready to finish this. Whether it’s ending Zach’s plan, figuring out what the hell is going on at our school, or escaping our parents’ legacy.
It doesn’t surprise me that my dad left the group first. He’s strong and definitely takes charge when he needs to, but he also respects my mother and her ambitions. He loves me and Lucy. He supports me and my friends when he can.
I brace myself for disappointment when I slide on the gloves and open the camera.
The batteries rest on one side of the open case while the camera components rest on the other. Cautiously, I drag a tissue across the batteries to see if anything is leaking.
When the tissue comes away dry, I release my breath.
“The batteries all look intact. None of them are bulging or leaking.” I drag the tissue across the camera side. “If any moisture got in, it’s dry now.”
That’s the part that worries me the most. Moisture. It could ruin the batteries or the SD card. The actual case doesn’t appear damaged. I just hope the card is intact. There are ways of getting the data off a damaged SD card, but it won’t be easy and might not be in my wheelhouse.
I check the SD slot and breathe out when there’s a card in it. Harper would have been devastated if she went through all that for nothing. I press on the SD card and it pops out. Carefully, I slide it out and put it on a piece of paper.
“You’ll upload the images to the cloud so we can divide and conquer.” Eli waits for me to look up at him. “You can’t go through everything alone. If you don’t sleep, Harper’s going to roofie you.”
“Harper can roofie me anytime.” Caden chuckles. But when my eyes meet Harper’s, concern lingers there. She’s worried about me.
“Yes, I’ll upload them to the cloud and make duplicates and maintain the original file.” Slowly, I pull out the batteries, one by one, and put them in the container. They were good quality back then, but they’ll need to be disposed of properly.
I need her to be prepared. “There might not be anything. A leaf could have blocked the lens.”
Harper straightens. “I understand, and I know that. I just... We need something to go our way. Anything.”
I fucking hope this is the turning point we all need.
After making sure there wasn’t any damage, we put the box in a plastic baggie to keep it safe. Eli grabs the container of batteries to take with him. Luke kisses Harper’s hair before Caden leads Harper to his car.
We stand there in the dark and watch him drive off with her.
“Everything good at home?” Luke asks.
“Yeah.” I rub the back of my neck and turn to glance at Eli. “When are we doing our night?”
“Sidney’s tomorrow.” Luke scuffs his shoe on the driveway.
“Yeah, I’m not competing with that.” I smirk. “Are you going to have Harper over?”
“No.” Luke looks in the direction Caden left. “She’s got too much going on as it is. I’ll deal with Sidney like I should have from the start.”
“We could kick Caden out of his room since his parents will be gone.” Eli rubs his chin. “Would be easier than sneaking her into my house or yours.”
I nod. Caden told us about his mother and how she’s taking his father away.
“Fuck it.” Luke sighs. “I might need to crawl into bed with them just to get some fucking sleep.”
“If you’re not sleeping, I have a million things you could look over. Not to mention, however many pictures are on the card.” I didn’t want to pull up the files with Harper here, waiting, hoping. It’s going to crush her if it’s not her father’s.
It’s possible it’s someone else’s. The birthday could be a coincidence. I just don’t want her to be hurt by all this, but I don’t see how she won’t be. If there aren’t pictures, she’ll be disappointed. If there are, what’s on them might destroy her.
“The next few nights are going to be busy.” Eli brushes his hand through his hair. “Fucking Homecoming Court. I still say we all abdicate and leave it to Zach and let Ashley, Emma, and Sidney duke it out for queen.”
“I’d watch that fight.” I chuckle. “My bet would be on Ashley, but Emma can be vicious when she needs to.”
“We know what’s coming.” Luke squeezes the bridge of his nose. “If we change, he’ll change his plan. We’ll constantly be looking over our shoulders.”
“Like we aren’t now?” I ask.
“What if we can’t protect her?” Eli says the words none of us want to hear.
“We have to.” Luke claps me on the shoulder. “Send me the link when you have them up. I doubt I’ll sleep tonight.”
I doubt any of us will.