All Unquiet Things (22 page)

“There’s that word again.”

“So what do you say, Audrey Ribelli?” he asked. “Will you be attending the event of the year?”

I paused to consider. I really wanted to spend time with Cass, and he was personally inviting me, but I could see how this would go: I’d show up, there’d be a million other people there he knew better and he’d ignore me. Carly and Neily wouldn’t go with me; their holiday spirit had definite limits. I’d probably be stuck in a corner alone, drinking spiked punch and missing my mom. “I don’t think I’ll be very fun tonight, to be honest. Some other time, maybe.”

“How about next weekend?” Cass suggested.

“You’re having another party next weekend?”

He shook his head. “I meant just you and me hanging out. We could go see a movie and have dinner or something.”

“Are you asking me out on a date?” I was so excited I thought I might choke, but I forced myself to breathe and tried to look calm.

“Yes,” he said firmly. “Are you accepting?”

“Yes,” I said, feeling so light it was as if I were airborne. “Absolutely.”

Senior Year

I
called the Bean’s number as soon as I shook Cass, but he didn’t pick up, so I left him a message. I doubted he would call back. The Bean had only known me through Cass, and it was pretty likely he’d either forgotten me or dodged my call on account of my ex.

Neily and I met up at Paul’s house to keep going through Carly’s things, and I told him what I had found out. He seemed to find my conversation with Cass a lot more interesting than what Cass had told me.

“So he does want to get back together,” Neily said. “And you blew him off?”

“Naturally,” I said, folding a sweater and putting it in the Goodwill box. “What did you think I was going to do, swoon? The guy barely even apologized.”

Neily shrugged. “You had a really intense thing going for a really long time. I wouldn’t blame you if you still had feelings for him.”

“Yes you would.”

“Yeah, you’re probably right. Hey, have you figured out a way to get to the safe-deposit box yet?”

“No. And I’m starting to think it doesn’t matter if I do.”

“You don’t know what’s in it,” he pointed out. “There could be something important in there.”

“I don’t even have the key,” I told him. “And I can’t very well ask Paul for it.”

“Maybe Carly had one.”

“We didn’t find it in her room.”

“Yeah, but we haven’t gone through everything. Anyway, maybe Carly hid it. It would be like her to do that.”

“Maybe,” I said. “Or she could’ve misplaced it. But I wouldn’t worry about it just yet—I’m sure it’ll turn up eventually.”

The Bean never called me back, but that didn’t matter. Neily did some recon, visiting every auto body shop in three towns until he found someone who could tell him where the Bean worked.

“There’s a place in Danville,” Neily told me over the phone on Saturday morning. “Keptow Auto Body. The Bean’s some sort of foreign-car specialist.”

“Figures,” I said. “Only the best spark plugs for an upper-middle-class mechanic.”

“You should’ve heard how they talked about him,” Neily said. “Reverently, like he was some sort of BMW god.”

“Maybe I
should
have him take a look at my car,” I said. “Are you at home?”

“Yeah, why?”

“I’m coming to pick you up. We’re going to pay a visit to the Bean.”

C
HAPTER
F
IFTEEN

D
anville was a few towns away, which in northern California can mean thirty miles with the way the foothills separate everything. They cordon off Empire Valley on all sides, and we had to hop on the freeway to get out. It was Saturday, so the traffic was light, and it only took us about twenty minutes to get to the Bean’s garage.

“Wow,” Neily said as we got out of the car. “It’s like Beamer heaven. The gleam of the sun off the expensive German parts is blinding.” He shielded his eyes.

We went into the front office and approached the receptionist. “Hi,” I said. “I’m here to see Toby Pinto? He’s one of your mechanics.”

“I know who he is,” the girl said haughtily. She looked about sixteen. “The Bean is my boyfriend.”

“So they’re still calling him ‘the Bean,’” Neily whispered. I swatted at him and he retreated to a corner, burying his face in an old issue of
Foreign Auto
.

“You’re Toby’s girlfriend? That’s really great,” I said.

“Who are you?”

“Just an old friend from high school. I wanted to stop by and pay a visit. It’s been a really long time.”

“Not that long. He graduated in June,” the girl said. She was not entirely unattractive, but definitely horse-faced, and her snottiness worked not at all in her favor. Still, my smile never wavered. Probably no one was ever nice to this chick.

“I don’t think Toby ever mentioned you. What’s your name?”

“Amanda,” she said.

“Amanda. Look, I’ve known Toby for years, and I think he’d like to see me, so if you could just tell me whether or not he’s here, I’d really appreciate it. As a favor?”

“He’s here,” she told me reluctantly. “Just go on back. If Leo gives you trouble, tell him you’re a customer.”

“Great, thanks,” I said, grabbing Neily.

“How’d you get her to back off?” he said.

“It’s all about confidence,” I said as we wound our way to the garage at the back. “You act like you have all the power, and people will normally give you what you want. Cass taught me that. He does it all the time in restaurants.”

“Nice.”

“Plus, there’s something to say for just being polite. Look, there he is. Let me do the talking, all right?”

Neily nodded and gestured for me to go ahead. I strolled up
to the Bean and gave him a big smile. “Hey, Toby. How’s it going?”

“What are you doing back here?” the Bean asked, furrowing his brow in agitation. I couldn’t tell if he guessed the reason we were there, but it was pretty clear from his expression and the way he drew himself up as straight as possible as I walked toward him that he was surprised and unnerved to see us.

“I came to have a little chat. I called you a few days ago, but you might not have gotten the message. I was really hoping to talk to you,” I said, inching closer to him. I was wearing a low-cut top (one of the reasons Amanda had been eyeing me suspiciously, I’m sure) and I leaned in to the full advantage of my cleavage. Nothing too slutty, just the right amount of interest combined with the right amount of … well, let’s call them “assets.”

“Yeah, Audrey, right?” he said uncertainly, staring at me in the predictable way.

“I thought you might not remember me, since I wasn’t in school all last year. It’s really great to see you.”

“Yeah, you too,” he said, still looking befuddled. “But can we sign each other’s yearbooks another time? I’m kind of in the middle of something.” He pointed to a car that was jacked halfway up to the ceiling.

“This’ll be real quick.” I held up three fingers. “Scout’s honor.”

The Bean relented. “Okay, sure. But what’s he doing here?”

“He’s a friend of mine,” I said, unsure how much the Bean remembered Neily.

“You’re that guy,” he said to Neily. “You used to date Carly Ribelli. We have that in common.”

To his credit, Neily didn’t make a face. “Yeah, man.”

“So what do you want?” The Bean had gained weight since I last saw him, but he was tanner now and he had cut his hair. He was about three or four inches shorter than Neily, and seemed anxious around him.

“Actually, this is about Carly,” I said.

He turned away and rummaged through a box of tools. “Yeah?”

“Do you remember the last time you talked to her?”

“Um, I guess it was a couple of days after prom. I got a hotel room that night and she seemed to be really mad about it, so I left her alone and let her cool down.” He shook his head at Neily. “Women.”

Neily shrugged. “Then what?”

“Then I saw her after school with Adam Murray and I got pissed, you know? I mean, here’s my girl, making out with her ex-boyfriend. I had a right to be pissed.”

“Sure.”

“So I went over to her house that night and confronted her about it. She said that she was sorry, but she was still in love with Adam or some shit. She dumped me. It was brutal.” He shook his head. I looked over at Neily, but he had wandered away, pretending to admire a Lexus nearby, still within ear-shot.

“And that’s it?”

“She avoided me after that. What was I supposed to do?”

“You didn’t try to talk to her again?” I asked. “Like maybe at Cass’s School’s Out for Summer party, the one he threw at the end of your junior year?”

“Maybe for a few seconds. Adam told me that if I ever came
near her again he’d kick my ass so bad even my own mother wouldn’t recognize me. And you know he could do it. He bench-presses his own goddamned body weight. I knew better than to mess with him.” He looked around nervously. “That better be it, because my boss has been riding me lately about my ‘commitment’ to the job. You should probably go.” I nodded.

“We’re leaving. Thanks for your help, Toby.”

“Okay.” He looked puzzled, but I didn’t stop to explain further. I just grabbed Neily by the arm and dragged him out of the shop.

“Did you catch that?” I asked him when we got back to the car.

“Yeah, Adam’s jacked. All you have to do is look at him.”

“No, I mean what the Bean said about Adam bullying him. Do you think he’s just being melodramatic?”

Neily shook his head vehemently. “I’ll admit, where Carly’s concerned the Bean is still living in a fantasy world, but I don’t doubt for a second that Adam threatened to maim him.”

“What makes you so sure?”

“Because he did the same thing to me.”

I raised an eyebrow. “Really? When? How come I didn’t hear about this?”

Neily hesitated. “It was at the start of sophomore year, three months after Carly dumped me. I’d kept my distance, but she hadn’t dropped out of the program yet and I saw her around sometimes. Once, she came up to me at my locker and asked how I was. I told her where she could stick her concern, but I guess Adam saw us talking and got pissed. Five minutes
later I had my head shoved under a faucet in the bathroom, and I was choking on running water. Adam told me that if I ever spoke to Carly again I would seriously regret it.”

“Did Carly know about this?”

Neily shook his head. “I don’t think so.”

I leaned against my car. “Adam’s not exactly a teddy bear, but I had no idea he got so out of control.”

Neily grimaced. “That’s nothing. You know that kid who got seriously beat up in San Leandro last summer?” San Leandro, a notoriously sketchy town where the rich kids from Empire Valley sometimes bought and sold drugs, was about twenty minutes down the freeway. I remembered hearing about it but hadn’t really paid much attention.

“Adam did that?”

Neily squinted, pausing as he struggled with how to put it. “I don’t know. But that was the rumor. People said it was a bad deal.”

“Jesus.”

“How could you not know about all this?”

I shrugged. “Nobody ever said anything to me. According to Lucy, there was a whole conspiracy in place to keep me out of the loop. And I’m sure Carly didn’t know about it.”

“Oh, I doubt that.”

“Carly was a good person,” I protested. “She may have treated you badly, but she never would have stood aside and watched her boyfriend wreak havoc.”

“Seriously? You expect me to believe that? Just because you’ve got all these warm and fuzzy memories of Carly kicking around in your head doesn’t mean you should let them affect the way you look back on her behavior. Carly wasn’t always good. Sometimes, she was horrible.”

I took in a sharp breath and let it out slowly, trying not to get angry with him. Because he was right, of course. For every act of kindness Carly was capable of performing, there was an equal amount of trouble that she doled out, almost unconsciously, in my opinion. I should know—I was often the receiver of that trouble, those sharp remarks, those impatient outbursts. Still, I felt compelled to defend her, and was annoyed that Neily did not. “Those last few years were really hard. Miranda’s death—it changed her.”