“It doesn’t make a lot of sense, Ezra. They were everyone’s first pick for homecoming king and queen. He always had his arm around her or was holding her hand. He drove her to and from school, carried her books. They were inseparable. He would never harm her.”
“Judah and Kennedy have been like that since kindergarten, and I don’t think anyone would ever doubt how crazy he was about her. But that’s just it. They wereneverapart. He always sat next to her, even in class. They took most of the same classes. Of course we’d assume they were dating. But my brain just wouldn’t let it go, and the more I thought about it, I realized I’ve never once seen them kiss or do anything else even remotely like a boyfriend and girlfriend. I don’t think Kennedy was into him. I think she liked someone else, but Judah never gave her any room to breathe.”
She thought back to the day in the conference room when Judah was comforting Kennedy. Or that’s what she’d assumed he was doing. The girl had looked so uncomfortable under his arm. And the tears had started when Judah had whispered in her ear, not before. Something he’d said to her is what made her cry, and not the punishment handed down.
Immediately, she grabbed her radio and called in to the main office. “Put the building on lockdown. Now! If anyone sees Judah Lawson, do not engage.”
Within two seconds, the overhead announcement came over the PA system outside, placing the campus in lockdown mode. Any students, faculty, and staff inside the building would be hunkering down in classrooms, closets, bathrooms—wherever they could, behind locked doors—turned off lights, and radio silence.
She turned to Quint, but he was already putting in the call to the station and all units. The second officer was calling in to order the jamming of the cell phone towers.
In a matter of seconds, the campus was secure.
“Okay, Ezra. Walk us through what you’re thinking,” she ordered.
“Kennedy desperately wants to go to college, but her father is ill and can’t hold a job, so she’s been working full-time at the River Walk docks to save money for community college. Between her dad’s disability check and her job, they’re struggling to stay afloat.”
Nodding, Elyxandre said, “We figured she’d want that in order to get away from her father, but she’s been trying to protect her brother.”
“What are you talking about? Kennedy doesn’t want to get away from her father.”
“She doesn’t?”
“No. Who did you hear that from?”
“Judah,” she whispered. She looked at Quint. “He lied to Lucas and me, and we believed every word.”
Quint cut her off. “Ezra, normally we wouldn’t ask this question, but the circumstances warrant it. Does Kennedy’s father hit her or her brother?”
“Hell no! He loves Kennedy. He’s definitely got an alcohol problem, but ever since her mom left, those three have banded together so tight, they barely let anyone into their circle.”
“Where is Kennedy’s mom?”
“Her dad lost his job when we were in first or second grade, and her brother was barely a year old. I guess things were tight, and rumor is she took off with some guy from the oil rigs.”
Quint flashed her a look. “Something’s very wrong here.”
“Judah’s brilliant. Number one in our class. We’re not supposed to know each other’s ranks, but of course, everyone talks about it. He’s been talking about staying home, even though he’s been offered a full ride to several schools, so he could marry Kennedy and get a job. We all told him he’s crazy. Go to college. If it’s meant to be, she’ll wait for him.”
Quint said, “But if he goes off to college, that leaves Kennedy here at home. Without him.”
“If what you say is true, Ezra, about her liking someone else, then he can’t go off to college. She’d be unprotected with other single guys sniffing around.”
“I think someone already is. The more I thought about it today, the more it makes sense. When she started working at the boat docks, Judah started to become even more protective. Or what we thought was protective. Now I think he became more obsessed with her.”
“Why would a job make that happen?” Quint asked.
“Because it’s the same place Ryker worked,” Ezra replied.
“Proximity,” Elyxandre said on an exhaled breath. “Judah’s been telling everyone that Ryker’s been moving in on his girl. Why? Because he discovered they liked each other.”
“Makes total sense,” Ezra agreed. “Kennedy got that job last holiday season. Looking back, that’s when Judah and Ryker started to have problems. If he thought Ryker was moving in on Kennedy, or that they were actually involved in secret, he’d losehis shit. That’s also when Ryker started acting differently. He started getting in trouble. He was became a problem in classes. Disruptive. Angry. Accused people of being out to get him. The biggest thing, prior to the homecoming raid, was that Dad suspected him of submitting that essay written by AI. But what if Ryker was right? What if all the things he got blamed for were Judah setting him up?”
Could they really have been so blind? If it were true, she wasn’t sure she deserved to be a police officer anymore if Judah was able to dupe her and the rest of the staff so well.
“Why wouldn’t he say something? Point out that Judah was out to get him?”
“Everything Ryker got in trouble for, it was never the same person. In the case of the essay, he blamed his critique partner for submitting summaries he used AI to create to condense research for him. His partner denied it, but who else would it have been? The person would have needed access to log in to Ryker’s cloud storage, and it was his most obvious suspect.”
