Gideon Green in Black and White by Katie Henry

Author:Katie Henry
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2022-02-10T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 16

DAD MUST DECIDE the negatives of having me at the restaurant far outweigh the positives, because he doesn’t take me with him on Sunday. He also barely speaks to me, and I’m happy to return the favor. When I wake up Monday morning, on the kitchen table is my phone and a note.

Went to Verde. Will be back by 2 PM. Come home immediately after school.

Even in writing he’s trying to use as few words as possible. Not a great sign. And neither is the Post-it on my phone that says, “Tracking stays on.”

I can’t find Lily anywhere at lunch, so I ditch my food and duck behind the portables to call her.

“You aren’t at school,” I say when she picks up.

“I decided seeing a body was deserving of a sick day.”

Fair. “Did you get to look into them more? O’Hara? And the police chief?”

“I—” There’s dead air on the line for a second. “I’m not sure if we should.”

“Should what?”

“Keep going with this.”

She can’t be serious. Just when it’s getting real, just when we’ve proven she was right all along about the crime wave—no one’s ever been murdered over a clerical error—now she wants to pull back?

“You want to stop? We can’t stop.”

“Friday really freaked me out, you know?”

“Yeah, Lily, I totally get it, but—”

“We saw a dead person. And I know it was just a horrible accident, and you were really the one who saw the body, not me, but we’re going into these situations we aren’t prepared for at all—”

We can’t leave it like this. She wasn’t the one who had to sit through the police chief recounting her biggest fuckup in excruciating detail. He’s told that story before, I can tell, and I can’t let his new punch line be Friday night and my dad dragging me out of the station. Again.

The next time he tells that story, there’s going to be a different ending.

“So maybe it’s for the best,” Lily says. “That we take a break.”

“But it wasn’t an accident,” I blurt out before she can completely talk herself out of this.

There’s a rustling sound, like she’s suddenly sitting up straight. “What are you talking about?”

“It wasn’t an accident and it wasn’t a coincidence we found that body. We just didn’t stumble on a tragedy—I mean, it’s tragic, someone’s dead, but—whoever O’Hara was supposed to meet did that.”

For a few seconds, it’s so quiet I wonder if the call dropped. Then Lily stammers out: “Are—are you saying somebody killed him?”

“Not somebody,” I say. “Whoever wrote the note.”

“Oh my God.” She breathes out, deep. “Oh my—”

“There’s more. Whoever that guy was, the guy we found, who died—he mattered.”

“Jesus, of course he mattered!”

“No, I mean, the police knew him. Or . . . knew of him.” I give her a rundown of the conversation between the two cops. “What do you think an OC task force is?”

“Orange County?” she suggests. “Maybe the dead guy was from there.”

“That’s a far drive.”

“Then I don’t know.”

“His last name is—was—something ending in -son.

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