0451476247 by Cristina Moracho

Author:Cristina Moracho [Moracho, Cristina]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Penguin Young Readers Group
Published: 2017-01-26T14:36:32+00:00

CHAPTER NINE.

WE GAVE IT about a week. Serena told a few of her fellow churchgoers about the potential eyewitness, and we waited for word to spread. I kept working at the diner to keep Owen and Dad happy, and even though I was mostly exiled to the kitchen I made it a point to emerge periodically, to clear a table or grab a cup of coffee, so I could hear the chatter among the patrons and see if the rumor had stuck. On the nights Jed bartended at Charlie’s, Serena and I posted up there, drinking beer and feeding the jukebox, listening.

It took a few days, but finally one evening as Serena and I were programming the jukebox with every track from Appetite for Destruction, more for our own sanity than anything else—“If ‘Brown Eyed Girl’ comes on one more time,” she said, “I will fucking stab someone”—we overheard a conversation at one of the tables. It was a middle-aged couple. The man was eating peanuts and throwing the shells onto the floor. Serena and I stilled when we heard Calder’s name.

“I think it’s ridiculous,” the man was saying. “Calder Miller didn’t kill anybody. They don’t even know if that girl is dead. Didn’t someone just see her near town the other day?”

“I’m just telling you what I heard.”

“Well, it sounds like bullshit to me.”

“Fuck,” I whispered to Serena.

She angrily punched the code for “Rocket Queen” into the machine, and we went back to our seats.

“At least they’re talking about it,” I said.

“What good does it do if they don’t believe it?”

“We can’t make them believe it.”

“Maybe we can,” she said.

“Oh, yeah? How?”

She looked at me, narrowing her gray eyes. “They’ll believe it if they read about it in the paper.”

I snorted. “You think my dad will put something like that in the paper just because I ask him to? Are you kidding?”

“I wasn’t really thinking about asking his permission.”

My smile faded. “No way. No fucking way.”

“Come on. You’ve got keys to the office, right? How hard would it be to go in there one night after he’s put the paper to bed and just make a few changes?”

“Do you have any idea how much trouble he could get into?” I lowered my voice, not that anyone could hear me over “Welcome to the Jungle.” “You and I telling a few lies is one thing. Putting something like that in the paper? That’s libel. Leroy could sue my father, bankrupt him, shut down the paper—”

“Okay, calm down. It was just an idea.”

I grabbed my cigarettes and headed for the deck, welcoming the fresh air after sitting inside for so long. The clouds had returned, bringing with them a prickling drizzle. Leaning over the railing, I watched the waves far below.

Serena approached me softly, putting her arms around my waist. “I’m sorry, okay? It was a stupid idea.” She stroked my hair back from my forehead and kissed me, hard. “Please don’t be mad at me.”

I pushed her away. “I’m not mad.

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