“I’m always here.”
“I know I’ve been … I don’t know what to do. After Drew and then with the school change, I don’t think I got the chance to really mourn her, you know. With Heather, it’s like I’ve lost a part of myself.”
I cupped her face and kissed her head. “Take as long as you like.”
“Why are you being so nice to me?” I asked.
“You’re my girl, Sian. I will do whatever you want me to do. I’m here for you if you need me.”
I wiped the tears from her face, and she moved closer, wrapping her arms around me. Kissing the top of her head, I breathed in her vanilla scent.
My eyes felt so heavy even though I didn’t sleep well at the best of times.
“Thank you,” she said.
“You don’t have to thank us for anything.”
She curled up against my side, and I stayed awake, listening for her breath to even out. Much to my surprise, the moment I felt her fall asleep, my own tiredness began to take over, and it wasn’t long before I joined her in sleep.
****
Mateo
“You don’t have to keep on sneaking around to see me,” Fred said. “My dad’s pissed off, but work is taking priority now. His nearly dead son is the last thing on his mind.”
“I don’t want to get you hurt.” I had taken a short detour to the lake where I knew Fred liked to go to feed the birds.
After ten months, he was still using crutches and going to regular physical therapy sessions to help him improve his mobility. The beating he’d taken had been a lot worse than people realized, hitting some of the nerves within his legs.
“Mateo, I’m fine. I told you that.”
“You never know who is watching or what they’re doing.” Even now, I could potentially be putting him at risk by just being close to him. I hated that. I hated feeling so helpless.
After coming from a media empire with everyone at my beck and call, being kept on a short leash was not something I cared to get used to. In fact, I found the last ten months really fucking debilitating. I wasn’t the kind of guy to sit back and do nothing.
Yet, that was exactly what I was doing.
Much to my dad’s annoyance, I hadn’t gone to college yet. My life wasn’t going to continue until Sian’s did. That required answers.
I didn’t know if the person who killed her best friend would help. The knowledge of who it was or why they did it.
“How are you feeling?” I asked, needing to cut off these feelings swirling inside my head. They were not exactly helpful. In fact, I found everything related to what went down with Heather and Sian, really fucking disturbing, especially as I knew it was her father. How could her own father have her friend killed like that? More importantly, who? Also the hair. I feel that was a symbolic part. Who would cut off Sian’s hair?
“Me, I’m fine. I’ve got a hot nurse who attends to me at every single lesson but I’m sure you know all about that, and the fact I’m partial to redheads.” Fred chuckled.
“I have no idea what you mean.”
“Yeah, you do, and you’re a good buddy.”
“You’ve helped me when you didn’t have to. I owed you.”
“Mateo, you don’t owe me jack shit, okay. This is a friendship, and if it makes you feel any better, I will tell you straight, friends do shit for each other all the time.”
“Even crazy shit that gets them beat up?”
“Even that kind. You can’t let this affect you. I knew what I signed up for.” Fred sighed. “Please tell me that I can do some digging?” Fred turned away from the birds in the lake to look at me.
“It’s not viable. I can’t ask you to do that.”
“Fine. What if I tell you that one night after a bad session where my leg was giving me pain and I was a stubborn bastard who refused to take pills, I happened to stumble onto something … interesting.”
I folded my arms as I looked at Fred. “Well, if your curious mind is what drove you to do something like that. I wasn’t there to stop you and I didn’t ask questions.”
“I feel like we’re in some fucking spy movie. Okay, I did some digging, of my own accord. Someone attacked me in my own room, and I didn’t see it coming. I lock my shit down tight. You know that.” He reached into his jacket pocket and handed me a USB drive. “That is what I’ve found so far. It’s kind of blurry, but I’ve matched the details with everything I know. No one would believe me when I told them it was Coach Bilson who attacked me. I know it was him. I would recognize his voice anywhere. The cops and the principal said Coach Bilson had an alibi. They couldn’t do anything without proof. I had to find it.”
“How long have you had this?” I asked.
“Since last night. I was … let’s just say I’m tired of having to sneak around. Shit needs to be done, and I’ve got the means to do it. I’m guessing my beatdown had a lot to do with the info I could find. Let me know if it’s any good. But I’m not crazy. I know it was Coach Bilson, and there is your proof.”
I stared at the USB drive. This could be the start of … something.
“What about the library?” I asked.
Fred sighed. “It was the first place I went to. Nothing so far. It looks like something went wrong with the security footage in that area. I know, it’s crazy. I’ll figure something out, but I’m going to find what you need, Mateo. Please trust me on this.”
“Don’t do anything that will get you killed.”
“Already on it.” Fred tightened his grip on the crutches. “Tell Sian I said hello.”
“I will.”
“How is she doing?” he asked.
“Not much better. It’s … tough.”
“I can imagine. Heather was a nice girl. Sweet. Kind. Smart. She gave me a run for my money, that was for sure.” He smiled.
“What do you mean?” I asked.
“You do know Heather was also a computer genius, right? She knew her way around a lot of systems. She’d have been able to crack half the shit you knew sooner.”
A car pulled up, and I moved into the shadows as Fred got to his driver. He looked back, and with a nod of his head, he climbed into the car.
Heather and computers.
Holding the USB key in my hand, I kept a tight grip on it as I went back to my car. I made a quick call to Dante to have them come to my place and immediately.
I gripped the steering wheel and drove home. There were no cars in the driveway. My mother was on one of her many cruises. She liked to escape the burden of being married to my father, not that I could blame her.
Knowing he was in love with another woman must be hard to live with. At least it explained why she had so many lovers and had no problem flaunting them in front of him.
I parked my car and headed inside, going to my bedroom to grab my laptop.
On my way downstairs, Sian, Dante, Gideon, and William came inside.
“What was the hurry?” Gideon asked.
I urged them into the dining room. After putting my laptop down, I fired it up and inserted the USB drive. Fred had done this for me so many times and explained it clear enough for me to know how to do this.
There was a single file. Opening the file, I brought up several pictures, including a video.