“I saw the news,” she says. “After... after I realized Justin hadn’t come home, I knew—Fuck!”
The word takes me by surprise as she slams her fist into the ground.
“He was stupid,” she says. “Always so fucking stupid. And see, Justin, now that you’re gone there’s no one to tell me I shouldn’t swear, is there?”
Tears well up as she continues. “You and your stupid, stupid schemes. We didn’t need the money. We never needed it, but you had to have it. Dad sent enough. Then you lost your job and suddenly you’re being stupid, doing stupid things and treatingmelike the stupid one, too dumb to figure it out.”
She swipes at her face. Then she looks up at me. “It’s true, isn’t it? What was in the news. That was him.”
I crouch to her level, staying an arm’s length away. “It is. I’m sorry.”
The tears burst through then, streaming down her face as she begins to sob.
We have a problem. Well, the first problem is what to do with Gina while we sort this out, but we can handle that. The bigger issue is that Justin lied. No one stole the drugs. He double-crossed the dealer.
According to Gina, everything had been fine while Justin worked in a sandwich shop. When the shop closed down, Justin said they’d be okay until he found a new job. Her dad sent them money every month, and it was enough to live on. Then Justin started sneaking around, making furtive calls, buying a second phone. She followed him and heard that he owed money to a guy, which he promised to repay soon. He had a plan. That plan, apparently, was double-crossing a drug dealer.
Gina had been following him when he took possession of the drugs. Then she watched where he hid them—inside the still-shuttered sandwich shop. That night, he told her to stay at a friend’s place. Yesterday, she went home at lunch to find two guys searching their apartment. She’d fled and realized that whatever Justin was up to, it’d gone wrong. That was when she went to a library and found the story about the unidentified body.
So Justin hid the drugs and then told the dealer they’d been stolen, and the guy threatened his sister... and then shot him? Wouldn’t they try to get his sister then, use her as leverage?
They’re following Gina because they think she has the drugs. What’s the chance that Justin’s partner in crime is his thirteen-year-old sister? No. There’s a reason they think Gina knows more, and I hate it. For Gina’s sake, I really hate it.
We’ve put Gina up in a hotel. That seems oddly impersonal. She’s thirteen—shouldn’t we take her back to our place? No. One, Justin knows where we live, and I don’t trust him. Two, while Derek would never complain, I know he’s uncomfortable with strangers in his “den.” I can easily afford to check into an upscale hotel, and that seems the safest place for Gina while we resolve this.
Then we need to confront Justin.
“Justin!” I call, as Derek and I stand in the courtyard behind our apartment. “Time for another chat.”
The ghost doesn’t show up right away. Usually, I have a spirit guide to help me with this sort of thing. Liz was another subject in our experiment, one who didn’t survive. Right now, she’s out of contact, enjoying her afterlife. Wonderful for her... lousy timing for us.
Justin must be within shouting distance, though. A few minutes later, he comes running into the courtyard.
“Did you find her?” he says. “Please say yes. I’ve been checking out her friends’ homes and her favorite spots all night.”
“Why are they after Gina?” I say.
He blinks. “Because they think she has the drugs.”
“Which you hid.”
“What? No. Someone stole them. I put them—”
“—in the sandwich shop where you used to work.”
He pauses.
“They’re still there,” I say. “We just checked.”
That’s a lie—we may have made mistakes tonight, but we aren’t stupid enough to risk being found near a drug stash.
Justin swallows. “I...”
“You thought you could double-cross a dealer. He figured it out, probably because you aren’t the first idiot to try it. They threatened your sister, and when you didn’t tell them where the drugs were, they shot you.” I continue. “So why go after Gina?”
“Like I said, they must think she knows where—”
“Bullshit. You’re not bringing your kid sister in on a plot like this. You aren’t even going to admit youhavea little sister. You told them she took the drugs. That’s why they’re after her. They think she has the stash.”
