Read Online Very Bad Things by Susan McBride - Free Book Online Page A

up yesterday before Dr.Capello left, wanting to fingerprint Katie and Tessa and Mrs. Gabbert. “So we can rule you out when we examine the box,” the cop had explained. But it had made Katie feel like a criminal, having her fingers rolled in ink and pressed onto an index card. She could still see the purple residue on her skin.
    “Everyone’s talking, you know.” Tessa hesitated, though she looked fit to burst. “Word is that Mark was the last one to see Rose alive.”
    “Stop,” Katie said sharply, and wrapped her arms around her stomach. Maybe the school gossips were getting off on this whole mess but Mark was scared out of his mind. He’d sent her text after text last night, telling her about the police showing up at his dad’s office and how he was under suspicion.
    i didn’t do anything! i didn’t hurt that girl. you have to believe me!
    Katie could only text back:
    I want to.
    At the moment, she wasn’t sure of anything. Her world had turned upside down again, just like when her dad died. But Katie wasn’t about to shut down this time. She didn’t feel depressed. She wasn’t even scared anymore. She was angry. Right when she’d found a guy she really loved—when she’d opened up her heart—someone seemed to be trying their best to take it all away.
    Within hours after Katie had opened The Box, theheadmaster had shot an email to the student body and their parents about a “disturbing item” having been sent to a student and requesting that anyone with any information contact campus security. He’d instituted a nine p.m. curfew as well. Katie’s mom had called her right after hearing directly from the headmaster about the incident.
    “Are you okay?” she’d asked, clearly upset. “Should I come and get you? Do you want to come home?”
    Katie was tempted to pack her bags and leave this whole mess behind—to forget about the hand and Rose Tatum and Mark and that disgusting photo she couldn’t get out of her head. But Katie knew she couldn’t go. As confused as she was about Mark, she wouldn’t bail on him, not when the Barnard police considered him the prime suspect in Rose Tatum’s disappearance. If she really loved him, she owed it to him to stick around until Rose was found. And she would.
    “I want to stay,” she’d told her mom. “I’ll be careful, I promise.”
    “Oh, baby, this makes me so uneasy! Text me every day, all right? And if you change your mind, I’ll fly up there.”
    “Okay,” Katie had told her, but she hoped it wouldn’t come to that. Graduation was only six weeks away. It would suck to take off before then.
The police are doing everything they can to find whoever’s responsible
, the headmaster had told her.
The campus police are cooperating fully. You’ll be as safe here as anywhere
.
    Katie hoped he was right.
    “Where is she?” Tessa asked, drawing Katie back to the present. “You think they’ll find her on campus?”
    “I don’t know,” Katie said, but she wondered, too. If Rose was dead, where was her body? What had gone on the night of the party? Who had hurt her, and why had they cut off her hand and left it for Katie at Amelia House? Was it some kind of threat?
    Someone knocked on the door, and Katie nearly jumped out of her skin.
    “Katie?” Mrs. Gabbert poked her gray head in. “There’s a police detective downstairs to see you. If you want me to tell him to come back—”
    “No, I’ll come down,” Katie said. She’d been expecting it. They’d interviewed Tessa the day before after fingerprinting her, but Katie hadn’t been up to it.
    She finished dressing and pulled her hair into a ponytail.
    “I’ll go with you.” Tessa started to get up, but Katie shook her head.
    “I should do this alone.”
    The detective was waiting for her in the den, underneath a portrait of Amelia Whitney, who frowned down at him. He stood as Katie entered. “I’m sorry to bother you,” he said. “I know you’re upset, but I have a few questions