journalist following you around for a silly school-newspaper
article.”
Leave it to Amanda to use him in her dirty work. Charlie
wondered if she could see the steam pouring out of his ears from wherever she
was on campus at that moment.
“Yeah,” Charlie said, “Just some family stuff. But you know
what, I think the article would be good for me. It’ll give me the chance to
show people who I really am.”
“Wait, you’re not really a seventeen-year-old, Caucasian,
male soccer player? This article just got way more interesting…”
Charlie laughed. He liked how Laura kept him on his toes. She
was funny, but still so sweet.
“Well, let me talk to my editor, and I’ll get back to you,”
she said. “For now I’ve got to run home and Skype with some of my friends from
back home before they head out for their sunset surf.”
“God, that’s cool,” Charlie said. “Why did you ever leave that place?”
“I had to,” Laura said. “But so far…” she looked up at
Charlie and smiled, and his heart skipped a beat. “I’m not totally devastated
that I did.” And with that she turned and walked off toward her car.
Sasha
Sasha went wild gathering every
piece of information she could on her first official leads: Charlie Sanders and
Amanda Hunter. As she suspected, a quick hack through their online chat history
delivered their full names and a whole lot more.
Charlie Sanders was a soccer player and honors student whose
mother worked at the overnight call center for doctors at Jersey Shore Medical
Center. There was no info on Charlie’s father, so Sasha assumed he was gone. From
what she could tell, Charlie and his mom had moved into some crappy apartment
in the only rough corner of Englewood when he was in middle school. Charlie
seemed focused and competitive, serious, but also relaxed, and confident, but
still clearly under Amanda’s thumb. From what Sasha could find, the two dated
earlier in high school but broke up right around the time that the Sarah story
surfaced. Sasha typed that fact on a Post-it note and tagged it to the digital
board she created marked “ CLUES .”
Amanda Hunter was a typical alpha girl from the town’s most
alpha family. Mr. Hunter was mayor and had been for the past six months, but
had a decades-old reputation as a prominent town lawyer and community leader.
Mrs. Hunter served as president of the local hospital board. The family seemed
to have more money than God, and they spent it for the whole world to see—they
owned a huge mansion, the ritziest cars, and designer clothes for Amanda and
her younger twin sisters. Amanda was the clear center of the Hunter family
world. She surprisingly wasn’t an Englewood cheerleader, but she was president
of the student class, head of the annual Dance Marathon charity event, and
founder of the ski club and organizer of its annual ski trip. It appeared that
most of the fun anyone at Englewood had was because Amanda Hunter planned it.
It made sense why she was so popular. Sasha had never been one to admire a
queen bee, but Amanda didn’t seem like the typical terror—at least, not
in the online world.
For a second, Sasha wanted to stop. She’d spent months and
months desperate to uncover any information connected to the apparent suicide,
but now that she had exactly what she’d been looking for, she was terrified.
What did they know? Who had they told? Their conversation didn’t give much
away, but one line kept playing over and over in Sasha’s head: I would never
torture you about her. That told Sasha that Charlie and Amanda had some
kind of relationship with Sarah. This new girl, Laura, was the trigger that
brought the memories back for them, but what were they going to do next?
Sasha needed more from Charlie and Amanda. The question was
how to make them talk more. Sasha needed to create another trigger—maybe
a news article about Sarah’s death? That might work, but there was no news to
report. The detectives had
article.”
Leave it to Amanda to use him in her dirty work. Charlie
wondered if she could see the steam pouring out of his ears from wherever she
was on campus at that moment.
“Yeah,” Charlie said, “Just some family stuff. But you know
what, I think the article would be good for me. It’ll give me the chance to
show people who I really am.”
“Wait, you’re not really a seventeen-year-old, Caucasian,
male soccer player? This article just got way more interesting…”
Charlie laughed. He liked how Laura kept him on his toes. She
was funny, but still so sweet.
“Well, let me talk to my editor, and I’ll get back to you,”
she said. “For now I’ve got to run home and Skype with some of my friends from
back home before they head out for their sunset surf.”
“God, that’s cool,” Charlie said. “Why did you ever leave that place?”
“I had to,” Laura said. “But so far…” she looked up at
Charlie and smiled, and his heart skipped a beat. “I’m not totally devastated
that I did.” And with that she turned and walked off toward her car.
Sasha
Sasha went wild gathering every
piece of information she could on her first official leads: Charlie Sanders and
Amanda Hunter. As she suspected, a quick hack through their online chat history
delivered their full names and a whole lot more.
Charlie Sanders was a soccer player and honors student whose
mother worked at the overnight call center for doctors at Jersey Shore Medical
Center. There was no info on Charlie’s father, so Sasha assumed he was gone. From
what she could tell, Charlie and his mom had moved into some crappy apartment
in the only rough corner of Englewood when he was in middle school. Charlie
seemed focused and competitive, serious, but also relaxed, and confident, but
still clearly under Amanda’s thumb. From what Sasha could find, the two dated
earlier in high school but broke up right around the time that the Sarah story
surfaced. Sasha typed that fact on a Post-it note and tagged it to the digital
board she created marked “ CLUES .”
Amanda Hunter was a typical alpha girl from the town’s most
alpha family. Mr. Hunter was mayor and had been for the past six months, but
had a decades-old reputation as a prominent town lawyer and community leader.
Mrs. Hunter served as president of the local hospital board. The family seemed
to have more money than God, and they spent it for the whole world to see—they
owned a huge mansion, the ritziest cars, and designer clothes for Amanda and
her younger twin sisters. Amanda was the clear center of the Hunter family
world. She surprisingly wasn’t an Englewood cheerleader, but she was president
of the student class, head of the annual Dance Marathon charity event, and
founder of the ski club and organizer of its annual ski trip. It appeared that
most of the fun anyone at Englewood had was because Amanda Hunter planned it.
It made sense why she was so popular. Sasha had never been one to admire a
queen bee, but Amanda didn’t seem like the typical terror—at least, not
in the online world.
For a second, Sasha wanted to stop. She’d spent months and
months desperate to uncover any information connected to the apparent suicide,
but now that she had exactly what she’d been looking for, she was terrified.
What did they know? Who had they told? Their conversation didn’t give much
away, but one line kept playing over and over in Sasha’s head: I would never
torture you about her. That told Sasha that Charlie and Amanda had some
kind of relationship with Sarah. This new girl, Laura, was the trigger that
brought the memories back for them, but what were they going to do next?
Sasha needed more from Charlie and Amanda. The question was
how to make them talk more. Sasha needed to create another trigger—maybe
a news article about Sarah’s death? That might work, but there was no news to
report. The detectives had
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