Chapter 13 #2
Caroline remembered halfheartedly flirting with some boys who’d come to the party from neighboring Ottersfield.
That was new information. They were soccer-camp friends of Brice Baker, the kid who was hosting the party.
One of them—the cutest one named Rob or Bob had to leave early because.
.. something about his mother needing the car?
At the time, Caroline was sorry to see him go.
Hobbit had created two other lists: Party host, and had written Brice Baker in red and Craig Robinson in blue. Apparently the recent party where Jules had left early was at Craig Robinson’s house. If he squinted, he could maybe picture a kid with brown hair in his history class. Maybe.
His second list was Kids Seen at the Party.
Unknowns from O had a red check next to it, although when asked, Shelly could only report that yes, at Craig’s house, too, there were kids there she didn’t know.
But most of the other kids on that list—from almost the entire soccer team to the kids in the jazz band to the hardcore stoners—had both red and blue checks next to their names.
Party people gotta party, apparently.
Caroline’s memories of that night had ended shortly after her beer or two. She’d had maybe a very slight sense that the beer was hitting her harder than usual. Maybe.
But after that...
Nothing.
No memories. Red check, blue check.
Just a great big blank until she woke up, like Shelly, in the middle of the woods. Far from the road. Check, check.
With her jeans down around her ankles and her shirt up around her neck. Check, check.
In a puddle of her own vomit. Like Shelly, she’d thrown up for hours after. Check, and check.
Unlike Shelly, however, Caroline had immediately gone to the nearest house and called her mother, who took her to the hospital and called the police.
But her mother was the only one who’d believed her, which really had to suck.
Sadie spoke first, glancing at Jules. “We should add what we just found out from Krista today.”
“Yeah,” Jules agreed. Hobbit had brought along an enormous pack of brightly colored markers and he opened them now, choosing the green and holding it out for Jules to take.
“You mind writing it?” Jules asked him. “Your handwriting is...”
“He writes like he’s making little word drawings,” Shelly said from where she’d melted onto Jules’s bed. Post assault, she seemed to want to be horizontal wherever she went.
“He does,” Jules agreed. “But it’s more his organizational brain that I want to take advantage of. This board is brilliant.”
Hobbit was already adding a green K—for Krista—to one of the spaces on the board that he’d intentionally left blank, but now he glanced at Jules. “This board is all you, Joe Hardy,” he said. “I’m just drawing what you said.”
“In my head, it wasn’t this clear, but being able to see it like this is amazing.” Especially now, knowing Krista’s story. With Hobbit’s board as a guide, Jules could close his eyes and picture it—covered now with a full array of green checks.
“Let’s do this.” Sadie cleared her throat, shooting a loaded look at both Belle and Tom, who kicked off their shoes and joined Shelly on the bed, in what was clearly a pre-arranged plan.
They made her the center of a sandwich, pulling her up to sit close between them as they prepared for Jules and Sadie’s potentially triggering debrief.
“Okay. Krista’s rape happened in late June,” Jules said. “Right after school got out. And yes, it was a rape. No question.”
“Fuhhhck,” Tom breathed from the bed.
Yeah.
Krista was a junior who’d triggered a townwide search after she’d gone missing for one scary-for-her-parents night back in the summer. She’d been found in the woods, where she’d “passed out” after attending a party and having had too much to drink. That was the story they all knew.
But.
“The party was at Brian Lansing’s, and yes, there was a keg there,” Sadie told Hobbit, who added Brian’s name to the Party Host list, and added a green check to the overview list that included a bullet point for Beer/Wine.
“Unlike Shelly and Caroline, Krista wasn’t dating anyone,” Jules said. “So, no bad break-up but... Her dog died that day.”
“Motherfucker!” Belle was incensed as Hobbit, yup, put a green check next to the bullet point for Vulnerable.
“He was twelve years old and he was fine until he wasn’t,” Jules recounted what Krista told them. “He had a seizure and they rushed him to the vet where they had to put him down.”
“God, that must’ve been awful,” Shelly said.
Hobbit pointed to the bullet beside Alone. “So her dog died, a dog she’s loved since she was, like, four, and her best friend is that horsey girl, what’s her name? She goes to Montana every year right after school gets out...”
“Amanda,” Sadie volunteered. “And yup. Amanda was at horsebacking riding camp, so Krista went to the party at Brian’s, hoping to meet up with some of her other friends who were still in town. But they never showed.”
Alone. Green check.
“She also had at least two of those red solo cups of beer from the keg. Maybe more,” Jules reported as Hobbit swiftly filled in the info on the board.
It was remarkable how neatly he wrote—and how he didn’t miss a single beat.
“The soccer team was there, and yes, with some friends of theirs from out of town. She didn’t know whether or not they were from Ottersfield—just some other school nearby. ”
Hobbit put a green check with a question mark—good clarification—after Unknowns from O.
“Krista did say that Rod and his friends were being their usual asshole selves,” Sadie pointed out. “She remembered thinking she should leave, and...”
“That was it,” Jules said. “The rest of the night was a blank, until she woke up, in the woods, half-naked, and throwing up.”
Hobbit swiftly went down the list with his green marker. Check, check, check, check.
“She got her clothes back on just a minute or two before Mrs. Mitchell and Mrs. Rogers found her. They were part of the search party,” Sadie added.
“She told her parents she drank too much and passed out,” Jules said, “skipping over the waking-up-naked part because, well... But a month later her older sister took her into New Haven, and um...”
Sadie was unafraid to say the words. “Krista had an abortion. FYI that info does not leave this room. Are we clear about that?” She looked each of them in the eye while wearing her fiercest Sadie-face. Everyone nodded.
Jules was already on board—it was a promise they’d made to Krista, who hadn’t told anyone besides her sister about any of it. Not her parents, not even her friend Amanda. It was a little daunting—the trust she’d placed in him and Sadie.
“So there’s absolutely no doubt about it,” Belle came to the same grim conclusion that Jules had, hours ago. “Even though she doesn’t remember it happening, Krista got pregnant. Which means she was definitely raped that night.”
“So I probably was raped, too,” Shelly whispered. She was looking directly at him for confirmation, so Jules nodded.
“You were,” he told her, taking the maybe out of it, because, Jesus, he wanted to be honest with her.
And after talking to Krista, he had no doubt.
It was clearly the same person or persons who’d committed all three of these crimes.
“Raped.” Time for him to call it what it was.
“But we are going to find him. I promise you that.”
She nodded.
“Also,” Jules said. “Something that Krista told me—Sadie, it was when you were in the bathroom, and I meant to tell you in the car, but... she got pissed when I used the word victim. She said she’s not a victim, and well, Shelly, you’re not either.
You’re survivors.” He put it into Shelly-and-Sadie-speak.
“Fuck that victim shit. Yeah, you survived something that really, really sucks, but you’re a strong, unbreakable woman with friends who love you. ”
Shelly’s smile was tremulous, but it was a smile. She nodded. “Survivor,” she whispered. “Yeah.”