Chapter 36
Chapter
Thirty-Six
When my sister doesn’t answer, I repeat my question. “What don’t you think Julie was into?”
“There’s a lot of conjecture involved in what I’m about to say, but I really need to say it.”
“Go on.”
“I think it started after their junior year.” Liv begins. “Matt told me about this one time when he stopped by Mom’s house. It was last summer, and Julie and her harem were there.”
“Harem? That’s the second time you’ve used that word.”
“It’s the way Matt refers to Julie’s friends.
Anyway, the girls were all lounging out at the pool.
He went there to pick something up—I honestly don’t remember what.
When Julie went in the house to get it, he said the scene changed into something like a bad porn film.
The girls were all wearing tiny bikinis that according to him barely covered.
..well, anything. As soon as Julie went inside, Jessie and Marty instantly became all flaunty and flirty.
” She shrugs. “He said it was very uncomfortable. According to him, when Julie came back outside, she went off.”
“At him?”
“No, at them. Matt said that Julie told them that family is off-limits, that family isn’t part of the game.”
Game. Becky used that word too.
“They have a game?” I ask. “A real game—like a competition?”
“I asked Julie about it, and she laughed it off. But there are other people I know who have talked about it. My friend Beth still lives in Blue Gil. She swears these girls are not to be trusted.”
“Yet so many people showed up to find them,” I say.
Liv nods. “I think it was because of what happened to Coach. If he hadn’t died, the town would have made assumptions about the girls too.”
“Thinking of Julie locked in that shed, I’m glad their disappearance wasn’t blown off.
” I lean back against the chair and think about what my sister just said.
“Tell me, what’s the endgame for the girls—for this game?
Is seducing enough or must there be sex?
Or is it to cause the destruction of some guy’s marriage? ”
“What I think,” Liv says as she looks back over the lake. “Or maybe it’s what I hope is true...”
“What?”
“This game—whatever they had going—started last summer. I believe that Julie actually liked Austin and didn’t want to play.”
“Then why do it?”
Liv turns toward me. “Do you remember high school here?”
I nod.
“Peer pressure is a real thing.” When I don’t respond, she continues, “So let’s say that this competition was already happening amongst the other girls.
Finally, Julie was either pushed into joining or did it on her own to stay with the harem.
Austin wasn’t onboard and broke up with her.
The way I see it, this happened after Christmas.
Some of the other girls had been doing this since last June.
Julie was behind. To catch up, she needed a sure thing, a married man who was a guaranteed score. One that wouldn’t reject her.”
“Craig.”
Liv nods.
“You don’t think it was real infatuation?”
“I don’t. She hasn’t been happy, the opposite.”
“Her weight?”
Liv nods again. “Mom has been beside herself.”
“Does Mom know about the game?”
“She didn’t. I told her my theory when Julie and Marty first went missing. I thought maybe it would help. I was hoping they were off in a hotel in Lawton or Kalamazoo with some married guy.”
“But they weren’t.”
She sadly shakes her head. “It’s why Mom forced Sheriff Manes to make the announcement. She hoped it would scare the other girls into stopping whatever they’re doing, if the game exists.”
I begin to pace. “Shit, if Julie’s connection to Craig was only for this game, there were probably other men. You said Jessie and Marty came on to Matt. Becky said Marty came on to Hank.”
“According to Beth, none of the girls were exempt. However, it always seemed like from the time they were young, Marty was a driving force.”
“It’s almost like Marty was the game master—overseeing everything,” I say. As soon as the words are out, Liv’s and my gazes meet and my stomach drops. “She can’t oversee anything without eyes.”
“Oh shit,” my sister says as she sits back down.
“Has anyone told the police about this game?”
“Unless one of the girls or Julie confirms it, it’s just speculation. Maybe I’m making up something that isn’t there. Maybe I don’t want Julie to be one of Coach’s conquests; instead, he was hers.”
My mind is going a million miles a minute. “If Marty oversaw, maybe on Saturday night, Julie came on to a perpetrator?” I say, thinking aloud. “That could justify the sexual nature of the assault.”
“This is what you do, isn’t it?”
“Kind of,” I reply. “Consulting and research. I help brainstorm ways to make the scenes and stories more plausible. Of course, what I do is fiction, and the people aren’t really dead.”
“And there aren’t killers and sexual deviants on the loose.”
The sound of a slamming car door comes from behind the cottage. I lift one finger, carry my wine glass, and walk back into the house. I stop at the back screen door and peer toward the uncovered back-door window. When I turn, Liv is behind me.
“Is that his vehicle?” she whispers.
“Blue truck. That would be Keith Gilbert’s.”
“Who did we hear earlier?”
“Probably him. Maybe he just went back out to his truck for something.”
“People are talking about him. Have you heard any of the rumors?”
I nod. “I have, and I just met him, but I think they’re wrong.”
“What kind of a conquest would it have been to seduce Coach’s older brother?” Her eyebrows raise. “The day after Coach’s funeral.”
I let out a sigh. “I don’t want to think about that, about Julie doing that.”
“Yeah, it’s making me kind of sick.”
The clock over the stove catches my attention as I set my mostly empty glass on the counter. “Liv, I’m glad you came, but with all this happening, you should go home before it gets dark.”
“The real reason I came out here wasn’t to spill the stuff about Julie. I honestly don’t know if it’s what I think it is.”
“You came to get away from Mom and Dad?”
She scoffs. “I came to ask you to come with me. Grab some of your things and come stay with Matt and me.”
Not her too. “There are locks here. Besides, you gave me a lot to think about.”
“Jillian, there were locks when we used to phrog out here.”
“I’m fine,” I repeat. Besides, I want to give this new information some more thought. Maybe Becky knows of other instances with one or more of these girls. I don’t say that. Instead, I lean forward and give my sister a hug. “Thanks for worrying about me.”
“I’m going to call when I get home.”
“Okay. I’ll have the cottage secure. I promise.”
She reaches out and places her hand on my arm. “I’m glad you’re home, and Mom is too, even if she hasn’t said it. It’s time we all move forward.”
The lump in my throat doesn’t allow me to verbally respond. Instead, I force a smile and nod. “Call me.” When I reach for the windowed door to the back stoop, it opens. “I thought I locked that after you came in.”
Liv’s eyes open wide. “Get your stuff and come with me.”
“I’m fine.”
“Then lock the door when I leave.”
Nodding, I turn on the back-stoop light.
“It’s locked,” I call as Liv walks to her car.
I wait for her to back away. It’s as I turn that I stifle a scream. “Shit. You scared me.”