They decided to start with Caroline Russo.
Jules had given a great deal of thought as to what he was going to say to her, because “Hi, I’m Jules, do you have a sec to answer some invasive questions about the trauma of your alleged rape?” probably wasn’t gonna get him very far.
He and Sadie stood on the brick landing outside of Caroline’s parents’ front door, and she took his hand and squeezed it. “You got this,” she said.
He’d been practicing—literally. Belle and her gang took the idea of a dress rehearsal very seriously.
They were taking this entire investigation seriously, working together to compile a list of girls who might’ve suffered the same fate as Shelly, which according to their working theory was: attend a local party, have someone—Suspect X—spike their drink, somehow carry them out ofthere without being noticed, transport them to the woods, again carrying them quite some distance, since Shel had awoken rather far from the road.
Their working theory was that since Suspect X was strong enough to lift and carry an unconscious girl, Suspect X also most likely had a penis.
Although they didn’t know that for absolutely sure.
Plus, Jules had spent a great deal of time thinking about all of this, and had had to suggest that itwaspossible that Shelly’d beenWeekend-at-Bernie-ed.
“We’re assuming there’s only one rapist,” he’d pointed out. “If there’re more than one, or even an accessory, they could’ve easily carried her out between them.”
His new friends had fallen silent then, all clearly thinking of the ramifications ofthat. One boy raping local girls was bad enough. But another,helpinghim do it...?
Clem load your shotgun, indeed.
But rage wouldn’t help them find any answers, so they’d focused on ways to get more info.
Belle and the others who lived here for longer than a month had created a short list of girls they believed were Suspect X’s previous victims. In addition to Caroline Russo who’d publicly claimed to have been raped, they’d penciled in three more girls: Krista, Rachel, and Diana.
Krista was a junior whose parents had organized a search party on a night that she hadn’t come home, last June, a few months after Caroline’s assault. She was found early the next morning—wait for it—in the woods. She’d gone to a party, had too much to drink and passed out.
At least that was the official story.
Rachel and Diana were both also juniors at the time, who’d suddenly broken down crying in the middle of their English class. Apparently they were working on some projecttogether, but they just lost it in the middle of a discussion ofAs You Like It, and then both were out of school for about a week after. Belle had witnessed the entire incident and she now believed that one or both of them had been assaulted by Suspect X.
It was Belle who pushed to start their series of interviews with Caroline. But, “We can’t all just show up, knocking on Caroline’s door,” she had proclaimed. “Way to get her to scream and run away.” She’d looked at Jules then. “I think it should be you, asking the questions, but you should have a girl with you, make you even less... scary.”
“I’m okay to do it if you don’t want to,” Tom told Jules.
“No,” Belle said. “Tommy. That’s so great that you’d be willing to, but... See, Jules is a better choice. He’s gay, plus he just moved to town. Anyone with a penis who was here back when Caroline was attacked is a potential suspect in her book. At least they would be if it wasmybook.”
That made sense.
“Plus, I really want to do it,” Jules said. “I have so many questions. But you’re right, I shouldn’t go see her alone, and taking a girl with me absolutely makes me less threatening.”
“I’d volunteer, but... Caroline never really liked me,” Belle said.
“Well, yeah,” Sadie said. “You got the lead in the musical when you were only a sophomore. She felt robbed.”
“She can sing pretty well,” Belle told Jules, “but her acting’s for shit. She’s a total wooden spoon. It’s calledAnnie Get Your Gun, notAnnie Get Your Gun and Shoot Us to Put Us Out of Our Misery.”
Jules laughed despite himself. “Okay, so it shouldn’t be Belle.”
“I’ll do it,” Sadie said. And really, it had to be her. Shelly wasn’t ready to do much of anything. Not yet, anyway.
Shel was listless and subdued and clearly just counting the days until the appointment Belle had made for her in Hartford, to get tested for potential STDs. At least she knew she wasn’t pregnant—the blood on her legs had been from her period, not something worse, thank God.
Jules wished she had someone to talk to, but she’d been right to not take him up on his offer to go see his mother. He’d approached his mom with a hypothetical.If you found out that a girl from the high school had been assaulted at a party, would you feel obliged to tell her parents?His mother had looked at him hard and said, “What don’t I know?”
He’d correctly guessed, “You would, wouldn’t you?”
Honestly? Yes.Jules, sweetie, I’d have to.
