Like Shelly, Caroline had gone to this party alone, hoping to connect with friends. Like Shelly, her tried-and-true friends were AWOL, so she’d drifted a bit, had a beer or two.Alone. Red check, blue check.
Caroline remembered halfheartedly flirting with some boys who’d come to the party from neighboring Ottersfield. That was new information. They were soccer-camp friends of Brice Baker, the kid who was hosting the party. One of them—the cutest one named Rob or Bob had to leave early because... something about his mother needing the car? At the time, Caroline was sorry to see him go.
Hobbit had created two other lists:Party host, and had written Brice Baker in red and Craig Robinson in blue. Apparently the recent party where Jules had left early was at Craig Robinson’s house. If he squinted, he could maybe picture a kid with brown hair in his history class. Maybe.
His second list wasKids Seen at the Party.Unknowns from Ohad a red check next to it, although when asked, Shelly could only report that yes, at Craig’s house, too, therewerekids there she didn’t know. But most of the other kids on that list—from almost the entire soccer team to the kids in the jazz band to the hardcore stoners—had both red and blue checks next to their names.
Party people gotta party, apparently.
Caroline’s memories of that night had ended shortly afterherbeer or two. She’d had maybe a very slight sense that the beer was hitting her harder than usual. Maybe.
But after that...
Nothing.
No memories. Red check, blue check.
Just a great big blank until she woke up, like Shelly, in the middle of the woods. Far from the road. Check, check.
With her jeans down around her ankles and her shirt up around her neck. Check, check.
In a puddle of her own vomit. Like Shelly, she’d thrown up for hours after. Check, and check.
Unlike Shelly, however, Caroline had immediately gone to the nearest house and called her mother, who took her to the hospital and called the police.
But her mother was the only one who’d believed her, which really had to suck.
Sadie spoke first, glancing at Jules. “We should add what we just found out from Krista today.”
“Yeah,” Jules agreed. Hobbit had brought along an enormous pack of brightly colored markers and he opened them now, choosing the green and holding it out for Jules to take.
“You mind writing it?” Jules asked him. “Your handwriting is...”
“He writes like he’s making little word drawings,” Shelly said from where she’d melted onto Jules’s bed. Post assault, she seemed to want to be horizontal wherever she went.
“He does,” Jules agreed. “But it’s more his organizational brain that I want to take advantage of. This board is brilliant.”
Hobbit was already adding a green K—for Krista—to one of the spaces on the board that he’d intentionally left blank, but now he glanced at Jules. “This board is all you, Joe Hardy,” he said. “I’m just drawing what you said.”
“In my head, it wasn’t this clear, but being able to see itlike this is amazing.” Especially now, knowing Krista’s story. With Hobbit’s board as a guide, Jules could close his eyes and picture it—covered now with a full array of green checks.
“Let’s do this.” Sadie cleared her throat, shooting a loaded look at both Belle and Tom, who kicked off their shoes and joined Shelly on the bed, in what was clearly a pre-arranged plan. They made her the center of a sandwich, pulling her up to sit close between them as they prepared for Jules and Sadie’s potentially triggering debrief.
“Okay. Krista’s rape happened in late June,” Jules said. “Right after school got out. And yes, it was a rape. No question.”
“Fuhhhck,” Tom breathed from the bed.
Yeah.
Krista was a junior who’d triggered a townwide search after she’d gone missing for one scary-for-her-parents night back in the summer. She’d been found in the woods, where she’d “passed out” after attending a party and having had too much to drink. That was the story they all knew.
But.
“The party was at Brian Lansing’s, and yes, there was a keg there,” Sadie told Hobbit, who added Brian’s name to theParty Hostlist, and added a green check to the overview list that included a bullet point forBeer/Wine.
“Unlike Shelly and Caroline, Krista wasn’t dating anyone,” Jules said. “So, no bad break-up but... Her dog died that day.”
“Motherfucker!” Belle was incensed as Hobbit, yup, put a green check next to the bullet point forVulnerable.
