Chapter 31 Parallel Lines
PARALLEL LINES
ELYXANDRE
Ezra was running full-out across the lawn, with the officer Quint had sent to find him two steps behind. When they arrived at the squad car, both were out of breath, and Ezra was trying to force words out.
“It’s not… Ryker,” he panted out.
“Ezra?” she asked.
Quint reached into the cooler in the trunk of the vehicle and pulled out a bottled water for both of the runners. “Take a breath, kid. Drink some water. Five seconds won’t change anything.”
Ezra grabbed the bottle from him, guzzled half of it, and then wiped his mouth on his arm. “It’s not Ryker. He doesn’t have Kennedy. It’s Judah!”
“Judah Lawson?” she asked. Why would her boyfriend kidnap her and Lucas? “Why do you think he has Kennedy and Dr. Vaughn?”
“After we talked today, I realized that you and Dad kept asking about Ryker. But Ryker couldn’t have taken Kennedy because he was at the study zoo, and he couldn’t have taken Dad because he was in classes all day.
My mind just wouldn’t stop thinking about it.
That’s when I realized that Judah never showed up Saturday night, and he wasn’t in any of our classes today.
I didn’t think much of it at the time, figuring that if Kennedy couldn’t get out for study zoo, then he probably wouldn’t come. But what if he took her?”
“But why would he do that, Ezra? Do you think they ran away together?” Elyxandre frowned.
“No. They only had a few more weeks until Kennedy turned eighteen. It wouldn’t make sense to run away now.”
“It doesn’t make a lot of sense, Ezra. They were everyone’s first pick for homecoming king and queen. He always had his arm around her or was holding her hand. He drove her to and from school, carried her books. They were inseparable. He would never harm her.”
“Judah and Kennedy have been like that since kindergarten, and I don’t think anyone would ever doubt how crazy he was about her.
But that’s just it. They were never apart.
He always sat next to her, even in class.
They took most of the same classes. Of course we’d assume they were dating.
But my brain just wouldn’t let it go, and the more I thought about it, I realized I’ve never once seen them kiss or do anything else even remotely like a boyfriend and girlfriend.
I don’t think Kennedy was into him. I think she liked someone else, but Judah never gave her any room to breathe. ”
She thought back to the day in the conference room when Judah was comforting Kennedy.
Or that’s what she’d assumed he was doing.
The girl had looked so uncomfortable under his arm.
And the tears had started when Judah had whispered in her ear, not before.
Something he’d said to her is what made her cry, and not the punishment handed down.
Immediately, she grabbed her radio and called in to the main office. “Put the building on lockdown. Now! If anyone sees Judah Lawson, do not engage.”
Within two seconds, the overhead announcement came over the PA system outside, placing the campus in lockdown mode.
Any students, faculty, and staff inside the building would be hunkering down in classrooms, closets, bathrooms—wherever they could, behind locked doors—turned off lights, and radio silence.
She turned to Quint, but he was already putting in the call to the station and all units. The second officer was calling in to order the jamming of the cell phone towers.
In a matter of seconds, the campus was secure.
“Okay, Ezra. Walk us through what you’re thinking,” she ordered.
“Kennedy desperately wants to go to college, but her father is ill and can’t hold a job, so she’s been working full-time at the River Walk docks to save money for community college. Between her dad’s disability check and her job, they’re struggling to stay afloat.”
Nodding, Elyxandre said, “We figured she’d want that in order to get away from her father, but she’s been trying to protect her brother.”
“What are you talking about? Kennedy doesn’t want to get away from her father.”
“She doesn’t?”
“No. Who did you hear that from?”
“Judah,” she whispered. She looked at Quint. “He lied to Lucas and me, and we believed every word.”
Quint cut her off. “Ezra, normally we wouldn’t ask this question, but the circumstances warrant it. Does Kennedy’s father hit her or her brother?”
“Hell no! He loves Kennedy. He’s definitely got an alcohol problem, but ever since her mom left, those three have banded together so tight, they barely let anyone into their circle.”
“Where is Kennedy’s mom?”
“Her dad lost his job when we were in first or second grade, and her brother was barely a year old. I guess things were tight, and rumor is she took off with some guy from the oil rigs.”
Quint flashed her a look. “Something’s very wrong here.”
“Judah’s brilliant. Number one in our class.
We’re not supposed to know each other’s ranks, but of course, everyone talks about it.
He’s been talking about staying home, even though he’s been offered a full ride to several schools, so he could marry Kennedy and get a job.
We all told him he’s crazy. Go to college.
If it’s meant to be, she’ll wait for him. ”
Quint said, “But if he goes off to college, that leaves Kennedy here at home. Without him.”
“If what you say is true, Ezra, about her liking someone else, then he can’t go off to college. She’d be unprotected with other single guys sniffing around.”
“I think someone already is. The more I thought about it today, the more it makes sense. When she started working at the boat docks, Judah started to become even more protective. Or what we thought was protective. Now I think he became more obsessed with her.”
“Why would a job make that happen?” Quint asked.
“Because it’s the same place Ryker worked,” Ezra replied.
“Proximity,” Elyxandre said on an exhaled breath. “Judah’s been telling everyone that Ryker’s been moving in on his girl. Why? Because he discovered they liked each other.”
“Makes total sense,” Ezra agreed. “Kennedy got that job last holiday season. Looking back, that’s when Judah and Ryker started to have problems. If he thought Ryker was moving in on Kennedy, or that they were actually involved in secret, he’d lose his shit.
That’s also when Ryker started acting differently.
He started getting in trouble. He was became a problem in classes.
Disruptive. Angry. Accused people of being out to get him.
The biggest thing, prior to the homecoming raid, was that Dad suspected him of submitting that essay written by AI.
But what if Ryker was right? What if all the things he got blamed for were Judah setting him up? ”
Could they really have been so blind? If it were true, she wasn’t sure she deserved to be a police officer anymore if Judah was able to dupe her and the rest of the staff so well.
“Why wouldn’t he say something? Point out that Judah was out to get him?”
“Everything Ryker got in trouble for, it was never the same person. In the case of the essay, he blamed his critique partner for submitting summaries he used AI to create to condense research for him. His partner denied it, but who else would it have been? The person would have needed access to log in to Ryker’s cloud storage, and it was his most obvious suspect. ”
“But Judah’s in your AP Computer Science class. He might know how to break into digital files, unsubmit the real file, submit a new file, and no one would ever know,” Elyxandre surmised.
“Yes. In fact, our teacher actually gave us an assignment to try and break into encrypted files he created in a dummy cloud storage. It’s an annual assignment. The first person to do it got an exam exemption, so we competed hard for that. Judah won.”
“Which means he could have been responsible for swapping Ryker’s essay without anyone noticing, as well as hacking the school’s social media account.
He could have easily broken into Lucas’ calendar and changed the appointment time with Dr. Sealy to lead him into a trap.
” Elyxandre paused. “What about all the damage at my house?” she asked.
“Judah’s pretty handy. His dad is a construction contractor. He might have known how to create a leak or destroy your air-conditioning unit.”
“Doesn’t make sense. Some things happened long before the raid punishments. Although, he could have been responsible for the flooding in the girls’ locker room.”
“Yes. And ripping up plants doesn’t take a lot of sophistication.”
“Jesus,” Quint mumbled. “We’ve been going at this all wrong. But why snatch Kennedy? And Lucas? He was on Judah’s side. And what about the bruises on Kennedy? You questioned her after the raid, and you said she had bruises on her. She denied they came from her father.”
“Right. She said she got them on the night of the raid from running around,” Elyxandre said.
An epiphany hit. “Christ, they came from Judah! I’m so damn stupid.
What if she told Judah to back off? She finally decides to break off their friendship, or whatever facsimile of a relationship they’re engaged in, because he’s become too controlling.
He won’t take no for an answer, so she confesses to being in a relationship with Ryker.
That might push him to the next level and become abusive. ”
“But why wouldn’t she say anything to us?” Ezra asked. “She had to know we would help her. She’s our friend.”
She rubbed her permanently misshapen clavicle out of habit and association.
Elyxandre’s past flooded back. Her father had been a drunk and hooked on drugs. His wife had left, and Elyxandre was his convenient scapegoat.
She developed anorexia.
When he hurt her where people could see, which hadn’t been often at first, she stayed home, so she missed a lot of school.
Her grades slipped.