Chapter 18: Blackmail

The rest of the day goes similarly, even Clancy Parker, who I consider a goody two-shoes though I'd never tell her so, acting all odd around the name Tom Brown.

"Don't you dare bring that darkness to my doorstep, Kit MacLean," she snarls at me when I pin her down at our bus stop. She looks over her shoulder at Abigail who chews her gum-a new piece, I assume-watching us and waiting for Clancy to join her. "Just stay away from me and stop asking questions."

I exult in my heart as she walks away, Abigail's narrowed eyes focused on me a moment until I turn, head down, and slump my way home. At least, that's how it looks on the outside. Inside, I'm leaping and bounding every step.

It only takes me another day of talking to students, of my keen interrogation and observation skills, to gather the absolute proof I need I was right about Tom and his tactics. If what I've been told through my subtle thread of questioning is true, more than half the student body either owes him something or is being blackmailed.

Okay, so the blackmail part I stumbled on, but I'll count it as a win, anyway. I just happened to be in the right place-the library-at the right time-third period-to catch Julie Smalls and Kirk Morris talking in the rear stacks where I researched my law project.

"Just tell him you'll do it." Kirk's voice sounded desperate. Enough I paused in re-shelving three books completely filed out of what Dewy Decimal intended to listen. "No one will know and he said he'd destroy the picture if you do."

"What if he doesn't?" Poor Julie sounded like she was ready to cry. I slipped The Law, The Prison System, and You off the shelf in front of me and peeked through to the other side. Kirk had his arm around her shoulders, Julie with her blonde head pressed to the plaid of his shirt. "I heard he never destroys them, Kirk. He keeps them forever." She shuddered and wiped at her face while his cheeks darkened. I'd known them both since childhood and they'd been boyfriend and girlfriend since ninth grade. Everyone thought they'd be together till they died.

His brown hair, shaggy around his collar, shook as he let her go. "I'm going to go talk to him."

"No!" She grabbed his arm, pulled him back. Tears tracked through the makeup on her face, leaving black rings under her pale eyes. She had the biggest lips of any girl I'd ever met, and they were even bigger now, swollen and puffy like she'd been biting them. "He'll ruin us both."

Kirk's hands clenched at his sides. "Tell me what the picture is of, Jules."

She hesitated, shook her head, ponytail shuddering. Julie glanced over her shoulder at the stacks leading to the front of the library before lowering her voice to a whisper. "I can't."

"It'll lose its power, won't it?" He met her eyes. "It's of you with Donnelly."

She choked and so did I, almost dropping the book in my hand. Any guilt I felt over eavesdropping died as Julie sobbed softly.

"I don't know what happened," she said. "I swear, I didn't do anything. But he has a picture, Kirk."

Kirk's anger vibrated a moment, and then he sagged. "He has one of me, too," he whispered back. "With Abigail."

Julie covered her mouth with both hands. "What are we going to do?"

"There's nothing we can do," he said, grim, furious but sounding as impotent as I felt for three long and terrible weeks. "We do what he tells us or those photos go public."

"Does it matter now?" Julie's shoulders went back and I secretly applauded her bravery, almost giving myself away in the meantime.

But Kirk seemed defeated. "You really want those pics made public, Jules?"

She shook her head then, mute.

The two of them left the stacks and I slipped around the corner, making sure they didn't see me. Maybe I should have gone to them both, told them I knew, that I'd help them, but at the time I was still in evidence gathering phase and until I processed this new information, I needed time and space to think.

It seems like forever ago. I finally catch Betsy again at the edge of the basketball court in the park two days later. And, as the sun goes down, I sit her next to me on the bench with books between us-loudly proclaiming I'm happy to tutor her in math anytime-before she slips her phone from her bag and shows me the picture that's keeping her hostage.

I try not to act over eager. She's clearly upset by the whole thing, though seems relieved to be sharing with someone. I take the phone gently from her hand and examine the evidence.

Gasp and look up at her wide-eyed. She nods, swallowing hard, looking away into the setting sun, wide shoulders slumped.

"I don't know what happened," she says in a thick voice as I return my gaze to the image and swallow hard.

She's almost naked, just her bra on, legs spread away from the camera, thank goodness, with Donnelly Holler and two other boys standing over her, pouring what looks like it might be beer over her body. She's grinning at the camera, hand raised like she's waving.

Betsy chokes as I hand the phone back. "I went to the party at Rick Silver's the weekend before school started." A senior last year, he graduated with the twins. "I thought it would be fun. I don't drink, Kit, I never have. Basketball is too important to me." Any doubt I might have she's at fault dies instantly and I smack myself internally. She's too upset for this to be some mistake she's made. "I remember being at the party then waking up at my house with my shoes on the wrong feet and my bra missing." Betsy sniffs and wipes her nose on the back of her hand. "This picture was on my phone when I turned it on. With a text." She hits a button before handing the phone back.

I own you now, Bets.

My stomach crawls and I don't have to ask her who the text came from. "Tom Brown."

She shudders next to me, snatches her phone and shoves it into her bag before lurching to her feet. "I never spoke to you," she says.

"Betsy, wait." I chase her, grab her arm and turn her around. She's angry, looming over me, an Amazon of a girl with desperation in her face.

"If my parents find out, I can forget about basketball. If the school finds out, I'll be off the team. No basketball, no college, Kit. My life will be over."

"He set you up." It has to be true. If she's insisting she doesn't know what happened, this has to have been planned. "What does he want from you?"

She shrugs. "Mr. Shute keeps drugs in his office," she says, whispers. "Oxy, stuff like that. I'm supposed to steal it and give it to Tom."

Supposed to. "You haven't yet?"

She shakes her head. "Either way, I'm done, Kit. Mr. Shute trusts only me and two seniors with the key. He'll know it was me. And if I don't..." She turns her back on me. "Just stay out of Tom's way, Kit, if you can. And pray for me."

I'll do a lot more than that. I'm going to save her and everyone else at Rimtree High if they like it or not.

Who am I kidding? They'll love it.

But, it's Nina Porter's confession that seals the deal for me. I find her in the library the next day, crying to herself, hunched over her phone. When I sit next to her and try to comfort her, she acts like nothing is wrong. I take her phone from her, nostrils flaring over the similarity of the image, the posed shot that looks almost exactly like Betsy's.

"You realize this is against the law." It is, I'm sure of it.

"It's not," she whispers. "I'm seventeen and so is Donnelly."

Well, crap.

"What do they want you to do, Nina?" I open my notebook and jot her name next to Betsy's. She hesitates, looking like she's going to bolt. Her fingers drift over a thumb drive next to her computer.

"I don't know what you mean."

Hmmm. Well, if they haven't asked her to do anything yet, maybe she-

Nina bursts into tears and presses the thumb drive into my hands.

"I volunteer in the office," she wails, low and hurt. "With Miss Nigel. She lets me use the computer."

Well, that doesn't sound so bad-

"Test answers." Nina drops her forehead to the desk and raps it against the surface twice. "I'm going to be expelled."

***