I heard my own deep breathing as I lay low. Shifting nervously, I kept my eye on the exit that Ian had to go through to get to the parking lot. From the sound of his conversation, he was leaving. But the question was—why was he leaving? Who was he going to see?
Before I could even process any of this information in my head, Ian came storming around the corner, marching towards the direction of his car. I ducked my head down behind the vehicle I was hiding, watching him ripping the door of his truck open. I didn’t even have time to blink before he slammed the door so hard, it almost shook the ground.
Hearing the sounds of tires screeching against dry payment, he raced out of the parking lot, turning left. When he was a bit down the road, I saw my cousin’s van pulling up. The side door opened before the car came to full stop. I didn’t even have to look down to know they had texted me already.
Making sure no one was watching us, I dashed towards their car, before jumping into the backseat. Shutting the car door, they followed after Ian.
“Tell me why we’re chasing after him again?” No matter how much I wanted to know why he suddenly turned berserk, I rather much not go near him right now.
“Ian just became our number one suspect,” Skylar answered since Demitri was too busy trying to keep up with Ian—but also far enough he wouldn’t see us. “We need to follow him to see where he’s going. We can’t take what he’d said lightly.”
“Do you really think he’s the murderer now? He’s too sweet to be him . . .” My sentence drifted off, thinking back to only moments before. He certainly didn’t sound sane then.
“Sweet or not,” Skylar spoke, glancing at me. “He’s on our list.” I bit my lips, knowing that Skylar was right. They were all suspects, and could easily be fooling everyone. Even Bradlee . . . My eyes dimmed, as I fumbled with my fingers. Get it together Lily. You can’t like him—no matter how much he makes your heart race.
“Okay.” I nodded, pushing that thought to the back of my head. This wasn’t the time to think about this. “What do you need me to do?”
“Once we get there,” he instructed, “we need you to sneak out of the van, and follow him. Get close enough but not too close where he’ll see you. We need to record this conversation, so bring this.” He tossed me a device, small enough to be an ear-piece.
“Got it.” I stuck the device in my pocket, before I looked out the window, seeing Ian’s truck slowing down. Demitri made sure to turn into the opposite direction once he knew Ian's final destination.
Parking the car on the side of the road, Demitri cranked his neck around. “If you do happen to get caught—” I frowned. Only he would think that. “—just act like you’re visiting someone or something. Do not under any circumstances give us away.”
I rolled my eyes. Like I didn’t know that already. “Yes, sir.”
Before he could comment on my sarcastic tone, I ran out, shutting the door behind me. Checking my phone, I set a timer, making sure I’ll get back in time. If I skip class, there’s no telling what would happen. Texting Megan, I asked her to cover for me. I didn’t need anyone knowing where I’d gone.
Looking both ways, I ran down the street in search of Ian’s dark blue truck. When I saw it parked at the end of the block, I slowly walked down the pathway, making sure to take extra caution. When I got close enough, I saw a stone sign saying, Welcome to Monroe High.
Glancing upwards, a tall gate enclosed the front entrance of Monroe High. Seeing teenagers driving in and out, I knew they were also having their lunch period. Trying my best to blend in and away from Ian’s sight, I started my search for the bouncing-turned-crazy teenager.
When I didn’t see him near his truck, I hid behind the first car I saw, and peeked into the entrance of Monroe High. Seeing that not everyone was crazy enough to sit outside like we were, there were only a handful of people in the front yard. So, when I spotted Ian, I wasn’t all that surprised. Zeroing in on him, I noticed he wasn’t alone. He was standing in front of some girl, while she tugged on his sleeves, looking panicked. Was that his girlfriend or something?
Inching my way towards the left, I stood up on my tippy-toes, trying to get a better view of the situation. Another guy appeared in my line of view, as he stared directly at Ian. Well more like up, since Ian was indeed taller than the guy.
His body language looked like he didn’t give a flying fuck, glaring daggers at Ian. Knowing that I needed to get closer to them to hear anything, I bolted into the school, hiding behind some garbage can. I glared pointedly at the students who were looking towards my direction, before one of them started heading right towards me.
I gulped when she got in front of me. Shit. Demitri is going to kill me for getting discovered. “Um, are you lost or something?” a small girl, with bright red hair asked. “By your uniform alone, we can see you’re from Woodway.”
“Ah, no,” I said quickly, gathering my thoughts together. “I’m waiting for a friend of mine. He’s actually over there,” I easily said, pointing towards Ian.
She followed my gaze, and her eyes immediately widened. “You better get going. Drama is about to start.”
My eyebrow arched up at her in confusion. “What do you mean . . .?”
“Ashleigh got into a huge fight with her boyfriend, and it looks like her brother is here . . .” My head shot towards the girl hiding behind Ian. Now that I got a closer look at her, she did clearly resemble him quite a bit. She was practically the female version of Ian—only shorter and smaller in frame.
“Do you know what happened?”
“Well, from what I saw, Ashleigh’s boyfriend hit her pretty badly. I heard she cheated on him or something. But that’s all I know.”
I smiled at her. “Thanks for the information, now if you’ll excuse me,” I said, before dashing away from her. I vaguely heard her yelling, wait before I drowned her voice out. Seeing Ian’s back towards me, I took that as an advantage, and ran towards a bush a bit closer towards him.
Once I was in hearing range of their conversation, I looked back and saw the red-headed girl and her friends heading back inside the building. I bit my lips, hoping she’s not reporting me or something. Seeing that I was technically outside the school’s building, I wasn't trespassing. I hope.
“—your sister is a fucking who—,” a voice spat, catching my attention. Before he could even finish his sentence though, a loud smack sounded throughout the air, follow by a grunt.
“You better watch your mouth,” Ian hissed, his rage more prominent than ever. “Otherwise, I’ll fuck you up even more.”
“I-Ian,” a timid voice said, stuttering. “Come on, let’s just go. H-he didn’t—” Her voice was cut off suddenly, before Ian’s voice cut in.
“—don’t you dare say he didn’t do anything wrong! He slapped you for crying out loud! And called you a fucking whore, and he accused you of cheating!” he shouted in fury. I could tell he was trying to hold back his emotions, but with every word he spoke he just got louder and louder. I’m surprised they haven’t called anyone yet.
When I finally decided to peek my head around the bush I was hiding behind, I saw Ian.
“Listen shithead.” His eyes shot ablaze. “Slap my sister one more time, and I won’t think twice about killing you, got it?”
The kid nodded rapidly, looking like he had seen a ghost. When Ian let him go, he fell onto the ground in a crumpled mess, groaning in pain.
His light eyes looked down at him in disgust. “And if you haven’t gathered by now, she’s not your girlfriend anymore.”
“Yeah. Got it,” he sputtered, scrabbling onto his feet before running away.
“Why on earth did he ever think you cheated on him?” he asked his sister once her ex was out of earshot. I stared wide-eyed at him, completely baffled. Who on earth was this guy? His personality was completely different from the bubbly and random Ian Lynch I knew.
“He heard from a friend of his that I went to a club,” his sister replied quietly. She probably didn’t want to upset him any further.
“Seriously?” he asked, the irritation in his tone slightly dying down. “How the hell does he have connections, let alone friends in pennsylvania!?”
“I-I don’t know,” she squeaked, ducking her head downwards. “But his friend said he saw me making out with some guy, and you know I didn’t do that!” She clinged onto his shirt.
“Ugh.” He rubbed at his face. “This is why you shouldn’t have gone to that club in the first place.”
“Well how was I suppose to know that!?”
“I don’t know?” He paused, pretending to think about it. “Common sense, perhaps?”
She gasps, but I could see the playful undertone. “Did you just call me stupid?”
“I did no such thing!” His lips twitched up into a smile, finally looking like the Ian I knew.
“Uh huh.” She rolled her eyes at him. “Shouldn’t you be like getting back to class or something?”
“And leave you alone?” He arched his brow at her. “No way.”
“I like you so much better when you’re running around yelling random crap I don’t even understand.”
“Don’t we all.” He shrugged, pulling her towards her school—most likely signing her out. “Let’s just go home. Grandma isn’t even home—” I heard him say before his voice starting cutting off, the distance getting too far for me to hear.
I waited until the door shut close before I ran out of my hiding place, and started jogging towards my cousin’s van. When I was a few feet away, the door opened, before I hopped back in.
“I can’t believe we jumped to conclusions like that,” Demitri sighed dejectedly when I shut the door. “But, at least we know Ian’s personality isn’t really a lie. Although he definitely has a temper. ”
Skylar nodded, agreeing. “Yeah. Did you hear his voice when he threatened to kill that guy? It sounded awfully serious.”
“What about his little sister?” I probed. “Her name does start with the letter A.”
“Don’t worry, we’ll run a search on her like we did with your friends.”
I tilted my head to right. “My friends?”
“Annemarie and Ailee,” Skylar answered me. “We can’t be too careful. Anyone who’s associated with the suspects must be thoroughly checked, especially if their names starts with the letter A and are female.”
“And?”
“They both had turned out to be negative. Neither of their birthdays matched the other victims.”
I sighed, letting out a breath of relief. “Thank gosh.”
“Don’t celebrate just yet, Lily,” Demitri warned. “Now we have to be even more careful than ever. Especially around Ian.”
“What about the others?”
“Hunter still doesn’t spike up any real danger—besides the fact that he has that weird amnesia thing going on, and Bradlee, well he’s confusing. His personality doesn’t match his records, so that doesn’t add up at all, but then again Ian's personality doesn’t match his record either.”
“Ugh,” I groaned, pushing my bangs back. “And I’m suppose to figure out who the killer is by next week?”
“Unless you can somehow spend time with them during winter break, then I’m afraid so.” Skylar patted my back, trying to comfort me.
“Can’t I like, I don’t know get their DNA or something?” I asked. That’s how the detectives in the shows did it right?
“We could, but here’s the problem. You can’t just go up to them and be like, “Hey can I have a lock of you hair” or “Hey can you drink this, and then give it to me?”.”
I crossed my hands. “Why not?”
“One: it would be weird and too suspicious especially with all three of them around you during lunch. And two: if you do happen to get a bottle of water or something from them, there’s a chance your DNA will mix with theirs.”
“I’ll wear gloves—”
“—Again too suspicious. Plus a DNA test can take up to two weeks to complete, and we don’t have enough time especially if we have to compare more than one sample. And by the time you can gather up the DNA without giving yourself away, it’ll be too late.”
“Fine.” I sighed. “I guess you’re right.”
He smirked. “Of course I’m right. I’m—” he started saying before my timer went off. My eyes bugged seeing the time. Lunch was officially over and I still wasn’t back yet.
“Crap!” I screamed, alerting them both. “You need to drive me back pronto!" When Demitri didn't move, I smacked him on the shoulder. “Hurry!” I yelled as he glared at me. I watch him turn around before cutting the engine back on.
“Alright, fine,” he said, probably rolling his eyes at me. “Just hold on.” My hand shot up, grabbing the door handle when he practically slammed his foot on the brakes, speeding down the street. FBI, my ass. Whatever happened to obeying the law? I thought as I held onto dear life.
***
When they dropped me off at record speed, I ran inside the empty halls—save for a few students—heading to my locker. Dialing in my combination as fast as possible, I started stuffing my bag with my binders. I was about to reach for my textbooks on the top shelf when a white envelope caught my eye.
Lowering my eyes in bewilderment, I reached up seeing the blank envelope. When curiosity got the better of me, I ripped it open to find seven neatly typed words that literally stopped my heart.
Ian Lynch isn’t the killer. I am.
***
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