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Josh grabbed her arm before she could push open the door. She stopped, but refused to turn around. “Wait, Elena, please. Whether you believe me or not, I don’t want to see you get hurt, especially not because of me.”

“I’ve already been hurt because of you!” Josh didn’t miss the slight tremor in her voice. Or the quick motion of her hand that suggested she might have wiped away a few tears.

“Just be careful,” Josh whispered.

“I’ll keep that under advisement.”

Josh watched her leave with mixed emotions. Guilt and suspicion vied for control as she glided down the hallway. He was so intent of his own thoughts; he didn’t even notice Andrea and Jim until he ran smack into them. Andrea looked at him, glanced at Elena’s retreating back, and then at the broom closet Josh had just emerged from with a horrified expression.

“Josh, please tell me I didn’t see you and Elena come out the broom closet together,” Andrea begged. “I thought you were through with her.”

Jim snickered beside her. “It looks to me like Josh and Elena might be getting back together.”

“I sure hope not. I was planning on snagging Elena for myself now that she’s single.” Kevin snuck up behind them, and Josh jumped at the sound at his voice. His nerves were frayed to the breaking point, but if his friends noticed his jumpiness, they didn’t mention it.

“You can have her,” Josh told him. “I swear there’s nothing whatsoever going on between me and Elena. Not anymore.”

“Sure there isn’t!” Jim kidded. “Then what were you doing in the janitor’s closet with her?”

Kevin frowned. “The closet?”

“It’s not what you think,” Josh assured them, but Kevin wasn’t appeased. In fact, his frown seemed to grow in proportions.

“I don’t care whether there’s something going on between you or not,” Kevin informed him. “I’m going to win Elena over. Prepare yourself for some serious competition, man. Maybe then you won’t be so high and mighty.”

There was an obvious bitterness in Kevin’s voice that Josh had never heard before. For a moment, Kevin seemed consumed by jealousy and even a little hatred. It faded quickly, but Josh had seen it. Did that hate go deep enough to kill? But that was crazy! Josh couldn’t start suspecting everyone he knew of murder. Kevin had been one of his closest friends since grade school. Josh was letting his imagination run away with him. Nevertheless, the tense silence that surrounded the four friends was definitely not his imagination, and it only added to Josh’s suspicions. Much to Josh’s relief, Jim broke the awkward silence with a casual reminder.

“Come on guys, we need to get to practice. We’re going to be late,” Jim said.

“I’ll catch up with you guys in a minute,” Josh replied. “I need to talk to Andy.”

“Whatever,” Jim told him. “But make sure you show up this time. You already missed two practices and they haven’t even been going on for a week yet.

“Don’t think you’re above getting kicked off the team,” Kevin added. “There are plenty of other people who would be happy to take your place as captain.”

The last thing Josh wanted was to get in any arguments. He ignored the snide remarks and turned to Andrea. The halls had thinned out since school had let out, and Josh was glad to see they were alone in the empty corridor.

“What’s Kevin’s problem?” Andrea asked once Kevin and Jim were out of earshot.

Josh shrugged. “Who knows. He probably just failed a test or something.”

Andrea crossed her arms. “Well, he has no right to take it out on you. After everything you’ve been through this week, he has a lot of nerve.”

“It doesn’t matter. I have more important things to worry about than Kevin’s mood swings.”

“I can imagine,” Andrea sympathized. “How was the funeral yesterday? Was it . . . nice?”

Nice wasn’t exactly the word Josh would use to describe a funeral. Not any funeral, let alone one for a sixteen-year-old girl whose life had ended before it even had a chance to begin. It was hard to find a word that was suitable. Death was a rough topic for high school kids. It was easy for a teenager to feel immortal. It took a tragedy, like Lily’s death, to remind them that they weren’t. No one liked those kinds of reminders. Just thinking about it made Josh realize he needed his best friend more than ever. He told Andrea exactly how the funeral was, and he didn’t stop there. He told her the whole sordid story, right up to his discussion with Elena.

“Do you think I’m completely insane, Andy? I’m starting to suspect everyone. Next thing you know, I’ll be suspecting you!”

Andrea exhaled deeply and shook her head. “I don’t think you’ve gone over the deep end just yet, but you are making me worry. If you’re right, this could get dangerous. You should leave it to the police.”

“I told you, the police don’t believe us!” Josh said in frustration. “So far, you and Rosa are the only ones who even considered it was a possibility.”

“So far? How many people do you plan on telling?” Andrea asked. “It was a big enough mistake blabbing to Elena. The whole school will probably know by tomorrow morning.”

“I have to warn Nadine and Jasmine,” Josh told her. “They could be in danger. And now that I think about it, if this person is out to hurt me, they might go after you too. Promise me you’ll be careful, Andy. I don’t know what I’d do if anything ever happened to you.”

“I’ll be careful,” she promised. “But you need to take care of yourself, Josh. The next time someone poisons you, it might be with cyanide. And If I were you,” she added, “I wouldn’t trust Bryan completely.”

Kevin avoided Josh throughout wrestling practice and Jim stuck close to his side. Josh didn’t really care. He knew they would work things out eventually. They always did. Besides, it gave him the opportunity to talk more with Bryan about their plans for the afternoon. When practice was over, Josh and Bryan left together, surprising everyone, especially Coach Kubiak, who kept waiting for them to break out in another fist fight. They had to walk to Bryan’s house since Josh’s car had been taken away. Technically, he was still grounded and was supposed to go straight home, but it was hard for Josh’s parents to enforce their punishment when they were never home themselves.

“Here we are,” Bryan said when they arrived at a ramshackle old rancher. “It’s not the hotel Ritz, but it’s home sweet home.”

Josh was surprised at the unkempt condition of Bryan’s house. There were pieces of siding missing on one side of the house and the roof looked like it might cave in at any moment. It was early fall and the grass was still growing tall, and no one had even considered raking the falling leaves. Peeking out from among the overgrown weeds was a tacky family of garden gnomes. Josh started to understand why Lily had never let him pick her up for their dates.

Bryan didn’t waste any time. He headed right for their target destination, and Josh was forced to stop sightseeing and follow him. The two-car garage was attached to the main house, but had its own rear entrance. Bryan’s hand shook as he twisted the knob and pushed open the door. He took a step back to let Josh enter first. Not out of politeness, but out of sheer panic. No one had been in the garage since they took Lily’s body away. Bryan, his face whiter than chalk, was not quite ready to face the still fresh horror that lay beyond that door.

Josh wasn’t any more comfortable than Bryan. In fact, when he first stepped through the entryway, he closed his eyes. He was afraid that when he opened them again, he would see the white outline of Lily’s body, just like in a horror movie. Then he would know just how her neck was bent and which way her arms had flailed out. It was too horrible to imagine. When he finally swallowed back the fear and glanced around the garage, there was nothing to see but a bunch of boxes overflowing with dusty knick knacks and Lily’s beat-up sedan.

Josh let go of a breath he hadn’t realized he’d been holding and turned to Bryan. He realized his new friend wasn’t doing nearly as well. He was trembling and leaning against the wall for support, and he was making a strange sound that was half-gasping, half-choking. Josh recognized the signs of panic, but wasn’t sure how to handle it. He had never been good in a crisis, but he made a valiant effort.

“Bryan, are you all right?” Josh put a hand on his shoulder. “You can wait outside if you want. I can handle this alone.”

“No,” Bryan insisted, after he had taken a few deep breaths to steady himself. “Lily was my sister. I have to help. Besides, I live here. I’ll recognize something out of place. You might not.”

Josh didn’t think it was a good idea, but Bryan was adamant. “All right then. I don’t know exactly what we’re looking for, but let’s start looking.”

Josh and Bryan searched the garage from top to bottom trying to find something that might be a clue. They opened boxes of decorations, and moved around bicycles and gardening tools. They looked around the car and underneath of it. They rummaged for close to an hour, but still they found nothing but dust and spiders for their trouble. Finally, when Josh began to cough and sneeze from the combination of stale gas fumes and dust, he decided it was time to move on.

“We just need to search the car,” Josh said as he wiped the sweat from his forehead. “Then we can call it a day.”

Bryan was silent as he reached for the door handle, but then he froze. For a second, Josh thought maybe the killer had already struck again. Bryan turned green, put a hand over his mouth and ran out the door. Josh heaved a heavy sigh and followed him outside. He found Bryan on his knees with his head in the bushes.

“Bryan? You okay?”

“I’m fine,” Bryan told him. He wiped his mouth on his sleeve, pulled his cigarettes from his pocket, and lit one with a trembling hand. He smoked two of them back to back almost down to the filter before he finally spoke again. “I’m sorry about that. It’s just . . . for a second there I was back in that moment, you know? When I opened the car door, I almost expected Lily to fall onto the ground again.”

Josh cleared his throat. “It’s okay, man. I can only imagine how hard this is for you.”

“I remember every detail of that day so vividly,” Bryan continued. “Lily was . . . she was so pale and so still. I kept shaking her, trying to wake her up. I even tried mouth to mouth. But in my heart I knew from the second I saw her that it was never going to work. I knew that she was gone.”

Josh wasn’t even sure if Bryan realized he was crying. The big tears rolling down his ruddy cheeks seemed almost ridiculously out of place on such a big guy. Josh liked it better when Bryan was trying to hit him. At least he knew how to deal with that. Josh had no idea how to handle this type of emotional breakdown. He didn’t know what to do or say, so he sat down beside Bryan and let him do the talking. Apparently it was something he needed to do, and it didn’t seem like he had anyone else.

“Lily was so furious with me when she found out I started a fight with you,” Bryan said with a sad laugh. “She screamed at me for hours. I finally got disgusted and left. I thought she should be grateful that I was defending her honor. It pissed me off that she was still taking your side after what you’d done. When I came home, she was already . . . gone.  I never even got to apologize. Our last words to each other were a stupid fight.”

“About me,” Josh said, and hung his head. “I’m so sorry.”

It wasn’t the first time that Josh had said those words, but it was the first time that he meant them on such a personal level. Lily and her brother had fought because of him before she died. How was he supposed to live with that?  He couldn’t. Not unless he cleared Lily’s name, and gave Bryan some peace.

“I think Lily would be glad that we’re working together,” Bryan continued. “I think it would make her happy.”

“So do I,” Josh agreed. It was the truth. If he tried hard enough, he could almost see Lily smiling at them from the window, urging them on. It gave Josh the strength he needed to get off the sidewalk and walk back into the garage. “You wait here,” Josh told Bryan. “I can handle this on my own.”

Bryan looked relieved. “Thanks, man.”

Despite his brave front, Josh didn’t want to search the little sedan any more than Bryan, especially without the comfort of another living, breathing person offering moral support. When he touched the vinyl seats of the car, he felt himself cringe. Lily had died in this car. She had taken her last breaths there. If her spirit was still lingering anywhere, it would be there.

Josh shook his head to get the morbid thoughts out of his mind. He forced himself to get down to business. There wasn’t much to search in Lily’s car. She had been a neat freak despite the condition of the house. There were a few classical CDs in cases on the passenger seat, some change in the cup holder, and a statue of the Blessed Mother on the dashboard. Aside from those few items, the car was empty. Josh opened up the glove department, and found only an insurance card, registration, and owner’s manual. He even looked between the seats. He discovered another dollar in change and a butterfly earring. Aside from that, there was nothing.

“Well, this has been a total waste of time,” Josh mumbled to himself as he slammed the door of the car shut.

“What’s that in your hand?”

Josh jumped at the sound of Bryan’s voice. He hadn’t realized he had come back into the garage until he stood looming over him. “Oh, it’s just some loose change and an earring that I found in the cushions,” Josh explained with a small shrug.