You're Next! Chapters 4-7
Follow the continuing adventures of Emily as she tries to track down her missing friends while not being the next victim herself!
All right, it’s Friday, and you know what that means, right? Yup. It’s time for the next chapters of You’re Next!
So, where we left off, Emily had gotten that ominous note in her locker, and when she reported it, it mysteriously disappeared, so everyone thought she must have made it up. What happens next? Let’s find out!
Haven’t read the beginning parts yet? Well, follow these links and get yourself caught up!
Otherwise… Enjoy chapter 4 through 7!
CHAPTER 4
Emily took the stairs near the principal’s office and left the building through the fire exit that opened onto the playing fields. She couldn’t face the cafeteria, kids staring at her like she was crazy, like she was attention-seeking with Jordan missing.
Maybe the photo of her and Jordan did fall out of the locker when she slammed it shut, but it was there when she saw the red paint which means that between dashing off to the principal’s office, and the principal returning with the police officers, someone had removed it, and got rid of the warning.
But who?
And how had they done it without anyone noticing? Aren’t there supposed to be cameras or something in the halls watching every move that students make?
Emily didn’t go to the fields. Instead, she circled the bleachers and left the school grounds to walk home, her hood pulled up against the rain which had slowed to a steady drizzle. She’d never ditched school before. She knew her parents wouldn’t be happy, but her mom would probably be angrier that she’d walked home rather than wait for a ride. It wasn’t important. There was no way she could sit through math and chemistry this afternoon without freaking out over the message in her locker.
Turning into the tree-lined avenue that led away from school in the direction of her neighborhood, Emily heard footsteps behind her. Instinctively, she stopped and turned around, and saw Derek walking towards her.
“Where are you going?” he asked.
“What?” She shook her head. “Are you following me?”
“No … well yes … I guess. I saw you come out of the principal’s office, and you looked upset, so I thought I’d repay the favor.”
“Which favor?”
“You helped me this morning. With Jordan’s boyfriend.”
Abi’s words came flooding back to her—she’d said that Derek was always staring at Jordan when she was with Kyle. “How do you know he’s Jordan’s boyfriend?” she asked, sliding her book bag around so that she could hit him with it if he came too close.
“Everyone knows. I don’t exactly live under a rock, and we do all go to the same school.”
She nodded and carried on walking.
Derek fell into step beside her. “So, what happened? With the police?”
“It doesn’t matter.”
“It mattered enough to get the police involved. Are you in trouble?”
“No.” She glared at him. Last thing she wanted was this kid following her home and finding out where she lived. “You should go back to school. I just need some space.”
He nodded. “Tell me what happened, and I’ll go back.” At her confused glance he added, “You opened your locker and then ran off. You looked like you’d seen a ghost.”
He was there. Maybe he’d seen something. “Did you see anyone go to my locker?” she asked.
“After you ran off?”
“Before.”
He shook his head. “I was coming back from the nurse’s office, so I didn’t see anything.”
“What about after. Did I leave my locker open?”
“No, you slammed it shut. I remember because it made me jump. Then you ran off.” He watched her with narrowed eyes. “Did someone put something in your locker?”
She didn’t know anything about this boy, but if he was somehow involved, at least he would know that she’d informed the police about the warning. “Someone had painted the words ‘YOU’RE NEXT!’ on the door.”
He blinked, his pale eyes even more watery in the rain. “What are the cops gonna do about it?”
She shrugged. “Not much. It was gone by the time they went back to my locker. You didn’t see anyone?”
“Jeez.” He peered all around as though someone might be listening. “No, I went to my locker, but no one else was hanging around. They’ll still investigate though, right?”
“I don’t think they believed me.” Emily shifted her bag back over her shoulder. “Look, I gotta go. I just want to go home and … think.”
“Sure,” he said. He started walking back to school then, backwards, smiling at her. “I believe you,” he said.
**********
Emily messaged her mom not to collect her from school. She was watching TV in the den, her legs curled beneath her on the sofa when her mom came home from work. She’d needed to watch something she didn’t really need to pay attention to.
Her mom sat beside her and smoothed her hair away from her forehead. “You want to tell me about it, honey?”
She leaned her head against her mom’s shoulder and told her about the warning inside her locker, and how it was gone by the time the police went to investigate.
“Did anyone see anything?” her mom asked.
“No. The police think I imagined it. They said I should have counselling to deal with the trauma of Jordan going missing.”
“I think that’s a good idea, honey.”
Emily straightened. “You believe me though.”
“Of course I do, but I really don’t think whoever is behind this would be able to sneak into school, break into your locker and leave a warning, and then get rid of it without anyone spotting them.”
“So … what are you saying?”
Her mom stared at the TV, thoughtful. When she turned back to Emily, she forced a smile that was too bright. “I’m saying that this sounds more like a prank than a warning. None of these girls disappeared from school. The perpetrator isn’t going to wander freely around the building without someone noticing him, especially not right now when the school is on high alert.”
“Unless they already belong inside the school.” Emily didn’t know where that had come from, but now that she’d said the words out loud, it made perfect sense. She didn’t know if she was thinking of Derek Graham when she said it, but what if it was someone she already knew from school? What if it was someone who knew the girls well enough to know their movements?
“Emily, I don’t want you to worry about this,” her mom said. “You’re safe in school. You’re safe here at home, and wherever you go, I want you to make sure that you’ve arranged a ride first with people you trust.”
Emily nodded. “Sure, Mom.” It was what her mom wanted to hear because it was her job to keep her daughter safe. But Emily had watched plenty of cop shows on TV and she knew that it was often the people you trusted who turned out to be the ones you should be afraid of.
“I’m going to make dinner,” Mom said, patting Emily’s leg. “Try not to worry, okay?”
Emily waited for her mom to go to the kitchen before she went to her room, found a notepad and pen, and sat at her desk. If someone in school had put that warning into her locker, prank or not, she was going to find out who it was. She was still convinced that the warning was real, left there by whoever took Jordan and the other girls, but she couldn’t dwell on that right now because she’d fall apart, and that would leave her weak and vulnerable.
At the top of the first page, she listed the names of the missing girls in order of their disappearance:
Bella
Megan
Taylor
Hannah
Jordan
Beneath this she wrote each girl’s name again, and added their boyfriend’s name, and the circle of friends they hung out with. She wasn’t too sure what she was looking for, but it was a start. Then, on a separate page, she wrote down all the after-school activities the girls took part in, hobbies, favorite hangouts, diners.
When she’d noted everything that she could think of that seemed relevant, she pored over the lists, circling the names that kept reappearing, friends that all the girls had in common, places they all used to visit. She drew interconnecting lines, crossed through names that only appeared once, circled others in red ink. By the time she was finished, she had two names and one venue that all five girls had in common:
Emily
Kyle
The Venue Club.
CHAPTER 5
“What are you doing?”
The voice was so close to her ear, so unexpected, Emily jumped, turning to find Derek standing beside her. She felt her cheeks growing hot.
She’d been watching Kyle. He’d been hanging around the lockers for a while, even though the other jocks had drifted off to their classes, and now he was speaking to Jordan’s sister Chloe, who was in the year above them, the same year as Kyle.
“Nothing,” Emily said, clinging to the bag-strap over her shoulder.
But Derek had already followed her gaze. “You think he was the one who did it?”
“Did what?”
“Painted the inside of your locker.”
“Oh.” She mentally shook herself. If she was going to keep tabs on Kyle’s movements, she needed to be a bit more alert. If Derek could sneak up on her without her realizing, then so could whoever was guilty of abducting her friends. “Yes. Maybe. I don’t know.”
She took a deep breath. Should she tell Derek about her ‘list of suspects’? He hadn’t featured anywhere in her notes, which didn’t exactly make him innocent, but she also wasn’t about to believe the rumors spread around by people like Abi who didn’t care about the consequences of their actions. And besides, Derek was the only who had taken her seriously yesterday.
She pulled him along the hallway so that they were out of sight of the lockers and made sure no one else was around. “I wrote some lists last night at home: the missing girls, their friends, boyfriends, and there were only two names that were connected to all of them.”
“Let me guess, Kyle was one of them,” Derek said. Emily nodded. “So, who was the other one?”
She chewed her bottom lip, unsure whether she should tell him or not.
Derek hung his head and studied his sneakers which were so grubby they barely looked white anymore. “It was me, right?” he said, his voice low.
“No!” she blurted out. “No, it wasn’t you. It was me.”
He raised his eyes to her face, his eyebrows almost meeting in the middle. “You?”
“Yeah. I’ve hung out with all the girls at some point, but I didn’t write those words in my own locker. I know how it looks. If I’m a target, then no one will suspect me, but that’s not what happened.” She was speaking too fast, but she couldn’t stop herself.
Derek was quiet for a while. Then he said softly, “That wasn’t what I was thinking.”
Emily waited for him to elaborate, but he didn’t need to because she knew what he meant. If she was connected to all five girls, she was the one most likely to be next, just like the warning said. She swallowed. Her thoughts were spinning, her pulse speeding up. She knew it was a possibility—all the girls must’ve been thinking they might be next—but now that possibility had suddenly taken shape, become something tangible that she could taste in the back of her throat.
“It’s okay, Emily,” Derek said. “I want to help. Tell me what to do.”
**********
Derek didn’t attend any classes with Kyle; he was exempt from gym class too although Emily didn’t ask why. So, Emily was going to follow Kyle and his friends as closely as she could without arousing their suspicions, while Derek would report back if he overheard anything that sounded important.
She watched Kyle fooling around with his friends in the cafeteria, pouring water over each other’s heads, sneaking mayo (at least she hoped it was mayo) into fruit salad, the usual dumb stuff. In Geography, he seemed pretty normal, and she was surprised to find during their literature lesson that he’d read more of Pride and Prejudice than she had—she still hadn’t been able to concentrate long enough to get through more than a few paragraphs.
The principal had agreed to the self-defense classes proposed by Mr. Dubium, and the following afternoon, Emily went straight to the gym after last bell for the first session. At least twenty girls were there, mostly from Emily’s year, and the year above. Abi was there. Jordan’s sister Chloe was there.
Emily was surprised when Mr. Dubium came in with an older guy she didn’t recognize with silver streaks in his thick, black hair; he wore jogging bottoms and a hoodie, and even through his clothes, she could tell that he was ripped. But she was more surprised when Kyle followed them into the gym.
“Thanks for coming,” Mr. Dubium said with his usual cute smile. “This is Pete. Pete owns my local gym, where he also operates self-defense classes. He’s very kindly offered to come along this afternoon to show us the ropes, with the help of Kyle.”
Pete smiled at them. “Don’t look so worried, girls.” He seemed to be looking directly at Emily when he said this, and she self-consciously looked away, rubbing her arm which was covered with goosebumps. “We won’t expect you to do anything that makes you feel uncomfortable. We’re just here to show you some basic techniques that will enable you to defend yourselves should the situation ever arise.” He rested a heavy hand on Kyle’s shoulder. “You probably all know Kyle. He helps me out with these classes at the gym, so he knows what he’s talking about.”
Pete got straight to it, demonstrating with Kyle, a basic, effective move of shifting their weight to catch a potential assailant off-balance. He grabbed Kyle from behind, and Kyle simply dropped into a squat, thrusting his hips backwards, which caught Pete off-guard and forced him to drop Kyle.
Emily wondered if that would work in the heat of the moment, or whether she would even recall such a simple move if she were really grabbed from behind, but if the police weren’t prepared to listen to her, she was going to do everything she could to stop herself from being the next victim.
“Okay,” Pete said, clapping his hands. “I want you to pair up with someone and try it out for yourselves.”
Everyone glanced around trying to find someone smaller to pair up with up. Emily watched Abi, assuming that she would make a play for Mr. Dubium, batting her eyelash extensions at him, but instead, she went straight to Kyle and claimed him for herself. Emily was so busy watching Abi, that by the time she remembered she was supposed to be pairing up with someone herself, everyone else had partnered up and she was the only one alone.
Mr. Dubium came towards her. “Sorry,” he said, “looks like you’re stuck with me.”
Emily smiled weakly. She felt uncomfortable standing this close to a teacher, but it was worse knowing that he was going to try to grab her from behind, even if this was a self-defense class. Abi was right though—he did smell good. His cologne reminded her of someone, and she wondered if it was the same scent her father used, or maybe Uncle Jack.
Pete approached them then and asked Emily her name. “Okay, Emily, I want you to turn around so that you’re facing me. Dan will reach around you with both arms. The moment he makes contact, I want you to squat and throw your hips backwards.”
She watched Pete uncertainly.
“I know,” Pete said, “he’s your teacher, and you didn’t expect to find yourself in a compromising situation with someone you respect, but for the purpose of this class, forget all that, okay? He’s just some random guy who’s about to attack you.”
Emily nodded. “Okay.”
Behind her, Mr. Dubium said, “Be gentle with me, Emily.”
It made her smile, and she relaxed a little. That was when she felt his arms snake around her waist and pull her backwards. She watched Pete who gave her the nod. Instantly, Emily bent her knees and squatted, Mr. Dubium’s arms tightening around her, and then she forced her hips backwards, causing his knees to give way as they were pushed in the wrong direction. He released her and she landed on her knees on the floor.
“Perfect!” Pete helped Emily to her feet. “Well done!”
She gave Mr. Dubium a half-smile. “Sorry.”
“Don’t be,” he said. “You’re here to learn.”
“Right, let’s go again,” Pete said. “Faster this time. The attacker in the street isn’t going to move slowly. He’s committing a crime. He’ll want to get it done as quickly as possible.”
They took their positions, only this time Mr. Dubium moved without warning. It took Emily by surprise, but she followed Pete’s instructions and was shocked to find that it worked a second time, despite Mr. Dubium getting a tighter hold around her.
As she got back onto her feet, she heard a thump the other side of the gym. She turned around to find that, while she’d been busy defending herself against her literature teacher, Chloe had somehow partnered up with Kyle. And now Kyle was on the floor.
CHAPTER 6
In the cafeteria the next day, Emily sat alone at a table by the window where she could watch everyone coming in. Kyle was with his friends at a long table. Nearby, Abi was sitting with the other girls in her group: Chantelle, Winnie, and Jade. They were the popular girls, the ones who all dyed their hair the same shade of honey-blonde (about five shades darker than last year), the ones whose parents drove the biggest cars and lived in the gated area in the hills. They were the girls who looked down their noses at people like Derek, people who had holes in the elbows of their sweaters and couldn’t afford to go on the school ski trips.
Emily had never been a part of their group, but neither had she ever been picked on by them. She’d managed to avoid their radar by not being too geeky, or too weird, or too goth… or too anything really. They were happy to let girls like Emily go unnoticed, while they claimed all the attention for themselves.
Behind them, Derek also sat alone, eating a sandwich that he’d brought in from home wrapped in tinfoil. They’d not spoken since Tuesday when Emily had told him about her list of suspects, and although he looked lonely, lost even, she wasn’t about to go and share a table with him for everyone else to see.
As she watched, Abi and her friends sat with their heads close together, obviously whispering about someone they didn’t like. Emily stared out of the window. She wondered if they would have so much attitude if one of their friends were missing. What made them think they were untouchable? It was a terrible thing to think, and she felt instantly guilty.
Someone walked by her table and slipped a note onto her lap. She turned around, grabbing the note, and sliding it out of view beneath the table, and saw Derek’s back as he left the cafeteria. She unfolded the slip of paper. It read:
Meet me in the library.
Emily finished her lunch, avoiding eye contact with anyone, and made her way straight to the library.
Derek was waiting for her at the back, seated at a table. It was his unruly hair she spotted first.
She slid into the seat next to him. “What is it?”
“I overheard a conversation between Abi and those other girls,” he said. “It seems that Abi has been seeing some mystery guy.”
“Mystery guy?” Emily was trying to figure out what this had to do with anything. Abi didn’t even feature on her lists.
“Even her friends don’t know his name.”
“Okay.” It felt weird sitting here with this guy she didn’t even know until this week, and after what Abi had said to her in homeroom, she was starting to wonder if he was just using this as an excuse to get close to her—or to Abi. Either way, she’d handed him a readymade reason on a plate and now he was taking full advantage of it.
“So, why do you think a girl like Abi would not shout from the rooftops about a guy she’s seeing?” he said.
Emily thought about it. He was right—Abi wasn’t the kind of girl who kept her boyfriends a secret, especially as they were usually the jocks that all the other girls fancied too. She’d often thought it must be a minimum requirement to date a girl like Abi: jock, wealthy family, super-cute.
“Because he’s someone she shouldn’t be seeing,” she said. “Like someone else’s boyfriend.”
Derek smiled. His pale eyes didn’t get any warmer. “What about if mystery guy’s girlfriend is currently missing?”
“Oh my God!” Emily stared at him, wide-eyed. “What if it’s Kyle? That would explain why Chloe had him on the floor last night.”
“Huh?”
She realized what she’d said, and her cheeks grew hot. “Self-defense class after school yesterday. Abi paired up with Kyle.” She clamped a hand over her mouth—no wonder the girl had chosen Kyle over Mr. Dubium. “But then I looked around and Chloe had swapped places with Abi, and Kyle was on his back on the floor.” She hesitated. “What does it mean though? Even if Kyle is cheating on Jordan, it doesn’t mean he has anything to do with the missing girls.”
“No, but it’s a start. They’re going to the dance club tonight; I heard them talking about it over lunch.”
“The Venue?” Emily sucked in a deep breath.
“What?” Derek studied her face and for the first time, she noticed the dark grey flecks in his eyes.
“Jordan disappeared from the dance club.” Her heart was racing just thinking about it. She was reliving the moment when she realized that she’d been waiting so long for Jordan to come back out with her jacket that she’d either missed her somehow, or she wasn’t going to come out. “When I was writing my lists, the dance club was the one meeting place that we all had in common.”
“We?” She blinked at Derek. “You said ‘we’, Emily. What did you mean?”
“The missing girls … and me. It was the one place where we’ve all hung out. There were two names and the dance club. That was it.”
Why had she included herself? Was it because of the warning? Did she really believe that it was only a matter of time before she disappeared too?
“We’re going dancing tonight then,” Derek said. He smiled at her and his eyebrows danced independently.
She didn’t know if that was supposed to be a cool move, but for some reason, it made her stomach twist and she had to look away. “My mom will never let me go.”
“Make an excuse. Tell her you’re having a sleepover with a friend. If it’s the one thing the missing girls all have in common, it’s the first place we should look, right?”
Emily thought back to the night Jordan went missing. She’d gone back into the club, looking for her. There were still lots of people hanging around and the girl at the coatroom desk said she’d seen Jordan with her jacket, but she didn’t know where she went after that. Emily had called her mom, sobbing, her fingers trembling so badly she could hardly keep the phone to her ear. The police would have questioned the girl, and Roger the owner, but they won’t have spoken to every kid who was there, and they didn’t know Jordan like she did.
“Okay,” she said. She still wasn’t sure if she was making the biggest mistake of her life, but she had to try, for Jordan’s sake.
They arranged to meet outside the club that evening. Emily left the library first—Derek wanted to stay behind and do some history research.
She didn’t question it. She was just happy to be away from him for the moment.
She was climbing the stairs near the languages department, lost in thought about what she would say to her mom, when she almost collided with Chloe.
“Sorry,” Emily stammered, as she tried not to trip over her own feet. “I didn’t see you there.” Chloe looked tired, which was no surprise. She couldn’t imagine how it would feel not knowing what had happened to your sister. “How are you doing?”
Chloe shrugged. “Not good. I’d rather be out there looking for her, but my mom’s insisting I carry on as normal because, you know, exams are important.” She shook her head and blinked back tears.
Emily got it. She wouldn’t care about exams either. “I’m so sorry.” She didn’t know what else to say.
“How are you, Em?” Chloe asked. “It must’ve been awful for you…” She left the sentence hanging because they both knew what she meant.
“I’m… fine.” Emily was going to walk away but changed her mind. “What was that all about last night with Kyle?”
Chloe glanced up and down the stairwell to make sure no one else was around. “They had an argument that night,” she said. “Kyle and Jordan. She was messaging me about it while you guys were at the club.”
Emily swallowed. “Was he cheating on her?”
“What? No.” Chloe shook her head. “He accused Jordan of cheating on him.”
“I don’t get it,” Emily said. “Why would he do that? Jordan would never cheat on him.”
“I know. Apparently, someone had told him she was messaging some other guy. I don’t believe him. I think—”
“Do you think whoever took Jordan told Kyle she was cheating on him to cause an argument?”
Chloe stared at her. “I hadn’t thought of that. Do you think we should tell the police?”
“Maybe,” said Emily thoughtfully. She told Chloe about the words painted inside her locker. “I’m going to the dance club tonight. I just want to know for sure that no one saw where she went.”
Chloe’s eyes lit up. “I’m coming with you.”
CHAPTER 7
Emily asked her mom to drop her at Jordan’s house; she said she was spending the evening with Chloe, watching a movie, and chatting about Jordan.
Her mom wanted to speak to Jordan’s mom, but Emily persuaded her that it probably wasn’t a good time. “Imagine how you would feel, Mom. I don’t think you’d want people knocking on the door if I was missing.”
Chloe was ready to go when Emily got there. She drove and parked her car across the road from the club so that they didn’t have far to walk when they were ready to leave.
The instant they climbed out of the car, Emily spotted Derek waiting for them outside the club. He was still wearing his grubby sneakers, and the coat he wore to school, but he was wearing a checked shirt and jeans that weren’t frayed around the hems. He watched them cross the road, hands stuffed inside his pockets, a smile on his face.
“What’s he doing here?” Chloe asked,
“Sorry, I forgot to say, he’s coming with us.” Emily grimaced. She didn’t forget; she’d deliberately not mentioned it to Chloe in case she told her to avoid him.
But Chloe shrugged and kept walking. They hadn’t discussed what they were going to do or say; Emily thought it best to come with no preconceived plan. That way they wouldn’t be disappointed if they came away with no information.
Inside, the heat hit them like a wall. The music was loud, and as they waited near the coatroom, the inside door opened, lights spilling out onto the dark carpet. A different girl took their jackets. Emily hadn’t seen her before.
“Is the other girl here tonight?” she asked.
The girl handed her a ticket and peered at her as if she’d spoken a different language. She had black hair with green tips, her eye liner flicked out at the corners of her eyes, and there were black jewels piercing her dimples. “Just me tonight,” she said.
“Will the other girl be back next week?” Emily persisted.
The girl shrugged. “Maybe… you should ask Roger.”
They went through the doors and into the club, Chloe muttering, “She was helpful.”
It was livelier than the week before, Emily noticed, as though the kids had decided to enjoy themselves while they could, and she realized that she’d been expecting it to be quiet. Glancing around, she saw Abi’s group already on the dance floor. They all wore short dresses that shimmered under the lights, Abi standing out because her dress was turquoise like the ocean on a summer’s day. She demonstrated her perfect twerking and then they all giggled.
She followed Chloe’s gaze to Roger, who was standing at the end of the bar, a tumbler filled with dark liquid raised to his lips, his eyes fixated on the girls on the dance floor.
“I’m going to speak to Roger,” Emily said.
She walked over to him, Chloe and Derek behind her.
He set his drink down when he saw Emily. “How are you, sweetheart?” he asked. “Didn’t expect to see you here tonight.”
She looked at him. He was always here, always dressed smartly in a designer shirt and jacket, his shoes polished till they shone. He must have been in his early forties, she guessed. He was probably good-looking when he was younger, with his dark curly hair and dark eyes, but there were lines etched around his mouth, and his cheeks were drawn as though he survived on alcohol rather than three decent meals a day.
“I wasn’t going to come,” she said, “but I wanted to speak to you about Jordan.”
His eyes darted behind her to Chloe and then settled on Derek. “What’s Derek doing here?” he asked.
Emily instinctively glanced behind her. “You know him? Is there a problem with him being here?”
Roger shook his head and fixed a smile in place, nodding to the girl behind the bar to serve them Diet Cokes. “No problem,” he said. “Just didn’t expect to see you here with him.”
His tone was bland, so Emily couldn’t tell what he was implying.
“Last Friday,” she said, drawing his attention back to her. “The night Jordan went missing. She came back inside to get her jacket.”
“Did she?” he asked.
“It was in here. She didn’t leave it in the coatroom because she was cold. Did you see her?”
Roger’s eyes roamed to Abi and the other girls on the dance floor, and then back to Emily. “I don’t remember seeing her. So many kids leave stuff behind in here, I could open a store with them. Jackets everywhere. Shoes sometimes.” He shook his head. “She was with you until that fella arrived.”
Emily’s heart stopped momentarily and then started racing. Chloe was by her side. “Who?” she mumbled, her voice struggling to be heard over the music.
“Who was it?” Chloe demanded. “Can you describe him?”
“Do you know how many people I see in here every night? I didn’t recognize him is all I could tell you. Not one of your regulars, Emily.”
Emily shook her head. “We weren’t with anyone else. It was just me and Jordan.” Then a thought crept into her head. “Was it Kyle?”
“Nuh-huh. I’d have recognized her boyfriend.”
“Did you tell the police this?” Chloe asked.
“Sure, I did.” Roger’s eyes flickered back and forth to the entrance. “I’d protect you kids with my life.”
Emily studied his profile; she couldn’t be sure with the dim lighting and the spotlights travelling across the dance floor, but she thought she saw tears in his eyes. “Is there another way out of here?” she asked. “A back door or staff exit?”
“There’s a fire exit out the back, but you have to go behind the bar to get to it. No one gets through there without me noticing.”
“Okay, thank you,” she said. “Would you … can I ask a favor? If you recognize the guy tonight that you saw Jordan with, would you please let me know?”
Roger smiled. “Sure, I will.”
They rejoined Derek and took their Diet Cokes to a table pushed up against a wall. “The server told me she saw Jordan with some guy last week,” Derek said, before they’d hardly sat down.
“What? Who was he?” Emily asked.
“She said she didn’t recognize him; he’s not a regular. Cute though. Her words,” he added.
“How did she know who you were talking about?” Chloe’s eyes were narrowed as though she didn’t trust Derek to have the correct information.
“I showed her a picture.”
Emily stared at him. “You have a picture of Jordan?”
“Social media?” Derek waved his phone at her. “Who doesn’t have their pictures on social media?”
Emily’s thoughts were whirring around inside her head. She didn’t know what to believe. They’d danced with some boys from school last week, the same boys who were always here, so Roger would recognize them instantly.
So, if Roger and the server were telling the truth and they’d seen Jordan speaking to another guy, who was he, and why had he waited until Emily was outside before he approached her? Because he was planning on taking her? And if the only other way out was through the bar, why did no one stop him? There was no way Jordan would’ve willingly gone with someone, when she knew Emily was waiting for her. Would she?
She looked at Derek. He appeared even more awkward here than he did in school. He might have been sitting with two girls, but he still looked like he was alone, like he would rather be anywhere else than in a dance club with them on a Friday night, and she felt a pang of something … not pity … something she couldn’t put her finger on.
“How do you know Roger?” she asked.
Derek’s gaze took in Roger who was still standing near the bar. “He knows my grandma.”
“Your grandma?” She hadn’t meant it to sound as harsh as it did.
“I’d rather not talk about it, okay?” Derek slumped in his seat and stared at the dance floor, his thigh brushing Emily’s.
She moved her leg and looked away quickly. Abi had disappeared. “Where did she go?” Emily asked.
“Who?” Chloe sat forward, watching the dance floor.
“Abi. She was there a moment ago.” She should’ve been paying attention. If anything had happened to Abi while she was sitting here playing at being a private investigator and getting mixed emotions over Derek, she would never forgive herself.
She was already on her feet. “I’ll go and check the restroom.”
Two girls who must’ve been a couple of years older than Emily were standing in front of the mirrors in the restroom, re-applying lip gloss. They barely glanced at her as barged in. The stalls were empty apart from the last one. Emily marched up to it and banged on the door. “Abi? Is that you?”
“No, it’s Petra,” came the reply.
“I … I’m sorry.” Emily ran out of the restroom, the girls staring at her reflection in the mirror. Where did she go? She went to the girl in the coatroom and asked if she’d seen Abi. “She’s wearing a turquoise dress. You can’t miss her.”
The girl shook her head. “No, sorry.”
Back to the restrooms and she heard a voice coming from the boys room. A girl’s voice. She pressed her ear as close to the door as she could without it opening. It sounded like Abi, but it was muffled through the door. Holding her breath, her blood gushing in her ears, Emily pushed the door open slowly until she caught a glimpse of shimmering turquoise sequins. Abi had her back to the door which wasn’t helping, but she had her phone pressed to her ear.
“When can we meet?” Abi spoke softly into the phone. There was a pause and she half-turned so that Emily could partly see her profile. She was smiling as if the person at the other end could see her. “Sure, I can get out then,” she said. “No, I promise I won’t tell anyone.”
Emily couldn’t believe what she was hearing. Did Abi not realize that five girls were missing? Why would she arrange to meet someone without telling anyone?
“Okay, bye, can’t wait.” Abi ended the call.
Emily quickly closed the door and dashed into the girls’ restroom where she waited just inside, the door open a fraction so that she could see Abi walk past. Moments later, the turquoise dress came into her line of vision and Abi went back through the doors into the club. Emily waited, her heart pounding. She needed to find out who Abi had been speaking to, but it was impossible unless she went up to her and announced that she’d been listening to her private conversation and demanded to know who she’d arranged to meet. She could just imagine how that would go down.
The sound of running water reached her from the sinks in the restroom. Taking a deep breath, she was about to step outside and go back to the club, when Derek left the boys room and followed in Abi’s footsteps.
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