Prep Boy Secrets

Chapter Five

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C H A P T E R  F I V E

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“We need to finalize your alibi,” said Chris, my lawyer. I was sitting in his office towering above the concrete city, trying to get this meeting out of the way so I could just enjoy another weekend that had already crept up on me.

“What we need to do is get one of the guests from your father’s award dinner to confirm that you were there at around nine fifteen, which is Amber’s estimated time of death. Once we have that, the police will back off and you won’t have to go to trial,” Chris told me. He always liked to lay things out as simply as he could for me. Sometimes I couldn’t help but feel offended by his constant “dumb-ing down”.

I’m going to Harvard, so you can use big lawyer words around me you know, I thought.

I stared at Amber’s photograph sitting in the case file on his desk. The problem of finding an alibi was that I didn’t really have one. Yes, I was at my dad’s award dinner for most of the night, but I wasn’t allowed to use my parents as alibis. The strongest alibi would be practically any other guest that was there. Most of the guests could vouch that I was there for my dad’s speech, but it was after his speech that Amber died.

Chris probably thought this would be the easiest thing for me to do, find someone who I was talking to at the event at the time of Amber’s death. I had to pull an alibi out of thin air and get them to lie for me, to say that I was at my dad’s event around nine fifteen at night.

I racked my brain as Chris was waiting for me to answer. Then the perfect person came to me, “Mr. Alan Crest. I talked to him at the event around that time,” I said.

Chris looked through his file and pulled out the official guest list from my dad’s event. “Okay, here is his contact information. I want you to talk to him and get back to me by Monday. Take this legal form with you, have him fill it out,” Chris said. He smiled at me like I finally was doing something right.

This would all work out perfectly if I could confuse old Mr. Crest that I was talking to him earlier in that evening than I really did. Which should be pretty easy, but my conscience wouldn’t feel good about it. Hell, my conscience isn’t clean anyways; I’m trying to clear my name for a crime I really did commit.

“Sounds simple enough,” I said. “Now are you sure you want me to get the alibi? Doesn’t that make the alibi invalid if I talk to them?”

“No, no. Once you get Mr. Crest to confirm that he is your alibi, the police will take it from there by interviewing him under oath. I have to go meet with another client now, so follow me to the elevator after I lock this place up,” Chris told me.

“Yeah no problem. Um, I was wondering if you talked to my parents about my friend’s party tonight. Do you think I could go?” I asked cautiously.

Chris ignored me for a moment to lock his door before we headed to the elevator. “I talked to them and Ryan’s parents and we agreed that you can go. But there will be chaperones there and you have to come back home before midnight. We’ll have a tinted town car take you there and back. Also, NO pictures of you can be taken there, the last thing the press needs is pictures of you partying, regardless of how innocent it is.”

I was so happy they at least agreed to let me go, even if it was under such strict circumstances. I haven’t seen my classmates since the funeral and I wanted the chance to say goodbye before we all went to our separate colleges. The most important thing about that party was that “UNKNOWN” said they would be there, and hopefully I could make them stop harassing me.