Tunnel Vision (9 page)

NINETEEN

Betty was slogging through another day of school when halfway through third period her phone buzzed. “It’s a yes,” said the text from Andrea. “Our house @ 4. Let me know if u cant make it.”

Betty wanted to jump from her seat and run around the room, but instead she discreetly put the phone away in her pocket, making a mental note to text her mother back at the end of the class. Glancing at the clock as her teacher droned on about nonsense, Betty knew the text was only going to make time go even slower.

Minutes after the first text, Betty felt her pocket buzzing again, but this time when she took it from her pocket the message was from Jake. It was simple, short, and to the point: “We ned 2 talk.”

The message filled Betty’s stomach with a cold dread. Was
he
going to end it?

That should’ve been a happy prospect, right? She wanted things to be over with Jake, or at least she thought she did, but the idea of him wanting it to be over was sickening in a new way, and it made her feel awful that she could be so shallow. Betty had never been dumped, she’d always been the one holding aces at the end of every relationship she’d ever had, and the feeling that she was dump-able was gut churning.

Betty was just tucking the phone back into her pocket when the teacher, Mrs. Huevel, asked, “Betty, is there something you’d like to share with the class?”

“No, Mrs. Huevel,” said Betty.

The scrunch-faced teacher smiled thinly. “Then put the phone away, dear.”

Betty nodded but wasn’t sure of exactly what to do, as the phone was already back in her pocket. She settled on rubbing the outside of her jeans, and the motion satisfied the prunelike teacher.

“Now, as I was saying,” said Mrs. Huevel, and Betty once again drowned the older woman out, thoughts of boyfriends, detectives, and a dead girl from the past far too interesting for her to pay any mind at all to math.

When class was finally over, Betty grabbed her bag and walked out the door. The plan was to get to June, tell her about the meeting set for that night, and then text Jake and tell him that she’d be up for a phone call later on. After all, she was far too busy for a meaningless high school relationship right now, and if all Jake wanted was for it to be over, then that would work for her, too.

The thought died in her mind as a hand landed on her shoulder, and then a voice said, “We need to talk. Can I walk with you?”

Betty turned to see what her ears had insisted was Jake, but what part of her mind had argued was very likely an escaped and vengeful Duke. “Sure, we can talk if you want,” said Betty, wondering why the Duke thought had ever come into her mind in the first place. Even if he were out of prison, there would be no reason for him to suspect that Betty and her friends were working on a project about the murder.

As Jake and Betty began to make their way through the crowded hallway, Jake said, “So I’ve been thinking—”

“Let’s wait until we’re outside.” The words came out too blunt, too much of an order, and Betty could see Jake’s face redden in her peripheral vision.

“All right,” he said sheepishly, his eyes locked on the door ahead of him.

Betty kept her eyes locked straight forward, too. Before the text from Jake, all she’d wanted of the day was to escape school and get the interview that Andrea had set up, but now she would have been happy just to leave and imagine that none of this was happening. Dating Jake was supposed to be fun, just a little fling that never really went anywhere, but now Betty felt like she was destined to be thrown to the scrapheap that was the school’s rumor mill, not to mention the emotional bruising that would come part and parcel with a breakup.

When they reached the doors, Jake pulled one open to allow Betty to walk outside, but without thinking she opened the door on the other side of the breezeway and then waited for Jake on the other side. June was out there waiting for her. In the stress of the Jake situation, Betty had forgotten all about their planned walk to the library. June shuffled out of the way as Jake followed Betty onto the sidewalk, and the three of them came to a halt and exchanged glances that covered the matter as well as words would have.

“Jake and I need to walk alone today,” said Betty, as if the matter was really that simple, and June slipped back inside without a word.

“What’s up with her?” Jake asked, and Betty wasn’t sure what to say, so she answered him with a shrug.
June saw the look on my face
,
thought Betty to herself,
and she wanted to leave before we started screaming at one another.
That they’d made it outside and the parking lot and lawn were devoid of people were the lone blessings of the situation.

Betty started across the sidewalk, then stepped over a curb and onto the asphalt, before crossing the road and hopping the next curb onto the lawn.

“You don’t need to walk so fast,” said Jake. “Besides, we both know I can outrun you.”

“Especially if you get me in trouble and stuck doing push-ups,” replied Betty, instantly regretting her bitchy tone.

Jake’s face reflected the words’ heat. “Betty, I’m really sorry about that,” he said, “and about getting you in trouble at home, too. I do stupid things sometimes, like talk to you when we’re supposed to be running, or that damn text, but I really do care for you.”

Here it comes, the moment where he tells me that he likes me as a friend, or that he needs time for himself.
Not sure why she was even upset, Betty just kept walking.
This is a good thing, it means you both get off easy. He doesn’t get a broken heart, and you don’t have to be the bad guy.

But mainly, Betty was rocked by the fact that she’d never considered how she would feel in this situation. The reality of it was like seeing a semi bearing down on her. The idea of being the one dumped, and then seeing Jake with some cheerleader slut or whatever else had caught his eye made her feel like she could dust her shoes with her breakfast right there on the lawn.

She didn’t, though. She just kept on walking, until Jake grabbed her arm. “Aren’t you going to ask me what I want to talk to you about?”

“I figured you’d tell me when you were ready.”

“Yeah, I guess so,” said Jake. “This is actually tougher than I thought, though.” Jake raised his face to the sky, sighed deeply, and then lowered his head to lock eyes with Betty. “I’m thinking about joining the navy.” The words coming from his mouth were so unexpected that Betty wasn’t capable of responding. She just stared at him with what felt like an impossibly dumb look on her face while he kept on talking. “I want to sign up so that as soon as I graduate I can go to boot and get it over with. My parents are totally supportive, and all I really need to do is talk to you about this.”

“You want me to try and talk you out of it?”

“No,” said Jake. “I want you to come with me. If we get married, then after boot you can come live with me on a base somewhere. I’ll make more money if I’m married, and we’ll both have insurance and stuff. I know we’re young and this probably sounds crazy, but it would be the only way that you can come with me.”

Betty opened her mouth to speak, to tell Jake that he was insane. She wanted to tell him that the two of them were nothing, just a little high school thing to keep from getting bored, and that his idea to join the navy and have a little family was probably the least attractive thing that she’d ever heard in her life. Betty wanted the wind in her hair and a guitar in her hands, she wanted to live before she was resigned to a house and a nine-to-five, she wanted to be the person that she’d always imagined, on stage and screaming about everything that had ever mattered to her.

“I don’t know what to say,” said Betty, one of the most purely true things ever to cross her lips.

“Don’t say anything yet,” said Jake. “I know it sounds awesome, but it’s a big commitment, and we need to be totally sure before we do this. Why don’t you give me a call tonight, if you’re able to, and we can talk more?”

“I’ll try,” said Betty. “I’m still grounded, and that includes you, especially after what happened.”

“Well, they’re going to need to get over that,” said Jake. “Either way, we’re going to be together, so they just need to get used to it. We need to do this, Betty. This is going to be our life, and I’m not going to let anyone take that away from us.”

Betty stared through him. Jake had always seemed dumb in a friendly sort of way, like a six-month-old dog, but this was a whole new depth of stupidity that she’d been completely unaware of. The Jake she knew, the jock that was dangerous enough to be interesting, was a far cry from this delusional little boy.

“I’ll try,” said Betty, and then the bell sounded from inside the school, an ear-splitting mercy.

TWENTY

Betty thought she’d be able to gloss over the details of her encounter with Jake and compile a list of what she should ask the cop later that afternoon, but June was far too intrigued for anything that reasonable. Once she was over the initial shock of Betty somehow being proposed to—a word that seemed more like a curse to Betty than it ever had before—June spelled out very clearly what she wanted.

“Every detail, Betty,” said June. “Every single word, I want deets and I want them now. This is probably the biggest thing that has ever happened to us. I include my aunt in that—this is bigger.”

“No, it’s not,” said Betty, the annoyance clear in her voice. All she wanted to do was work on the project, but June was going on like an idiot.
It’s not even a big deal, it just means that dumping him is going to go even worse than I expected.
The thought was callous enough to redden her face. She was the one who had been terrified of being broken up with just ten minutes earlier, and she didn’t even like Jake all that much. He was the one in love with her, and he was going to take it terribly. That was clearer now than it had been before.

“Yes it is,” said June. “God, I cannot wait until this gets out. There aren’t usually proposals until senior year. At least that’s what my mom always said. Seriously, this is like the weirdest thing ever. How can you say it’s not a big deal?”

“You swore you wouldn’t tell anyone.”

“I’m not going to,” said June, and then she shook her head to indicate her unassailable loyalty, even in the face of such incredibly juicy gossip.

“I expect you to stick to that,” Betty said, “no matter how exciting the idea of the whole school talking shit about me might be. God! I can’t even believe we’re talking about this right now. I have to meet some cop friend of my mom’s tonight, and I’m going to look like a total asshole if I don’t have good questions to ask him. We need to worry about that, not Jake Norton or his stupid fucking ideas.”

“I’m not even sure I can think about anything else,” said June. “I don’t care how stupid that sounds, either. This is the craziest thing ever, and I just want to soak it in.”

“All right, I get it,” said Betty. “I still need help, though, I’m not going to have time after school to come up with good questions on my own, and we’ve already wasted twenty minutes of a fifty-five-minute class. We need to come up with something, and
now.
”

June was nodding at her like she was totally getting her urgency, but when she spoke she said, “Will you keep Martinez, be a hyphen, or spend the rest of your days as Betty Norton?”

She asked the question with a smile in her eyes, but Betty couldn’t take any more. She grabbed her bag from behind the chair and then stomped out of the library.

Betty could hear June calling after her in a hushed voice, along with a librarian shushing her, but she didn’t care. She hated that she’d told June, she hated Jake for making a fool of her, and she hated that they were never going to figure out who had killed Mandy Reasoner.

Betty walked from the library straight to her car and started it without a second thought. When she reached the security post she blew right through it, almost hitting the guard’s waiting arm. He wanted a pass that she didn’t have, but Betty didn’t care. She needed answers, but first she needed questions, and there wasn’t going to be time for any of those during school. No longer clouded by thoughts of Jake, skipping school, or the guaranteed rage of the moms, Betty stomped the gas pedal and drove, no destination in mind.

TWENTY-ONE

Betty’s mad dash from the high school ended at Riverside Park. She parked her car by a playground, then walked past a man wearing an eye patch and staring at the birds. He looked sort of scary to Betty, but also very comfortable in his surroundings, almost as if he belonged in the park. Betty settled on a bench across the playground from the man, and after giving him a sideways glance, slid a notebook from her bag. Betty flipped the notebook open, grabbed a pen from the bag, and then exhaled deeply before leaning back into the bench.

I probably could have handled that better
,
Betty admitted to herself. It was a rough truth, but it was true, and there was no way this was going to help with the grounding. Worst-case scenario, the school called Ophelia at home, Ophelia called Andrea, and Andrea called her cop friend to cancel the meeting. Even worse, now that she was separated from June, Betty found it hard to even find fault with her friend. If June had been proposed to in such an awkward and ridiculous way Betty would have been the first one on board to give her shit over it, but when it was her turn to take a little medicine, she’d run off like a spoiled little brat.

Forcing herself to accept the situation for what it was, Betty turned her attention back to the waiting notebook on her lap. The blank page was calling to her with the same siren song that a cursor in Word beckoned with, and Betty wanted nothing more than to fill the page with questions.

Gripping the pen in twitching fingers, Betty added notes to remind herself to ask about the timeline of events from a police perspective, rather than the one listed on the Free Duke site. Next, Betty added inquiries as to whether there had ever been other suspects, whether there had ever been any investigations after the trial, and whether Duke was suspected of any other murders.

Betty was so deep in thought that she didn’t even notice that someone was approaching her until a male voice said, “Shouldn’t you be in school?”

When Betty snapped her head up at the sound, she found a redheaded boy with a scar under his right eye standing before her. He was wearing a Hot Water Music
shirt and grinning at her in a sideways sort of way with a matchstick hanging out of his mouth.

“Shouldn’t you be?” Betty asked, annoyed at the intrusion, but also intrigued. The boy was familiar somehow, but even more oddly, he was cute in a mutt puppy kind of way.

“Nah,” said the boy. “Not really feeling school lately.” He cocked his head as if he were thinking and then said, “Rhino’s, right?”

“Yeah, every now and again,” said Betty. “My mom is a judo nut, and I train with her sometimes. You go there too?”

“Yep, I’ve been known to drop in and out on occasion,” said the boy. “What are you working on?”

“A project for school,” said Betty.

The boy looked from the notebook on her lap to the treetops. “Nature project?”

“Not hardly. About the most unnatural thing ever, actually.” When he cocked his head at that, she found herself babbling away, filling him in. “No, it’s this thing for school. There was this girl killed fifteen years ago, but a lot of people think the cops busted the wrong guy for it. My mom set up a meeting with a cop after school, and I’m supposed to be able to ask him a bunch of questions, but I’m still working out what I want to say. I was supposed to be doing this with my friend June but we got in a dumb fight and . . .” Betty let the last word trail off and then looked at the boy and said, “Why am I telling you all of this? I don’t even know your name.”

“My name’s Nickel. What’s yours?”

“Betty,” she said, and then extended a hand. Nickel—if that really was his name—took it and gave it a quick shake. “It’s nice to meet you,” she said.

“It’s nice to meet you as well. So what are you planning on asking your cop friend?” Nickel sat on the bench next to her, and then Betty quickly read him the words on the page. She still wasn’t quite sure why she was doing it, other than that the boy was nice and cute in that weird sort of way.

When she was done, he looked at her and said, “Those are all pretty good. You’ve got a knack for this. You’re missing a couple, though. Do you mind if I give you a couple of ideas?”

“Not at all,” said Betty, deciding just to roll with it. She didn’t know whether anything the kid had to say would be worth hearing, but he was the only one there to talk to besides the guy in the eye patch. The worst that could happen would be she just wouldn’t use any of his suggested questions.

“Cool,” said Nickel. “First off, some advice: Don’t believe what the cop tells you, at least not one hundred percent. I’m not trying to say he’s a liar. I just mean the stuff he believes about the case might not all be correct. There are three versions of a story like that: the cop’s version, the criminal’s version, and the truth. And the only person that knew the truth for sure is dead.”

“All right,” said Betty, not sure what else to say to the kid. He must have spent a lot of time thinking about this stuff, but what kid did that?

“As for questions, I’d make sure to keep your focus on the roommates as much as possible. From what I know about the case, that was one of the most contested—”

“Wait, you already knew about this?” Betty said, her voice incredulous, and her mind racing. “How is that possible? I just heard about all of this.”

“I have an interest in this sort of thing,” said Nickel. “Just in general, but especially because it happened locally. Anyway, aside from the roommate, I think you need to ask about the man in the green jacket, the one Duke Barnes claimed to see leaving the house when he was first arrested. He recanted later, and none of that testimony made it too far, but if your cop knows about the case then he knows about that.”

“But how do you—”

“Like I said, it’s just kind of a hobby, but I can be very thorough. Also, I think you need to ask why the police disregarded the existence of those roommates so quickly. Unless your cop was really close to the investigation, he’s not going to know, but it’s still worth trying. That was one of the things Duke’s lawyers tried to get mentioned in court, but it was barred as evidence. There was at least one other person in that house at the time Mandy was killed. That’s something Duke never wavered on, not even when he was first being interrogated and he was strung out on heroin and babbling out his confession. The only question is if the guy in the green coat was a roommate or some other guy.”

“How can you possibly know all this stuff?” Betty asked the question with fear in her voice. Nickel looked to be the same age as her, but he spoke as though he’d been alive and watching the courtroom and interrogations as they happened.

“I just do,” said Nickel with a shrug. “Like I mentioned, I find it interesting. I’ve considered looking into it further like you are, but I don’t have a friend in the police department, and there always seems to be something else to do.” Nickel paused and then said, “One more thing. Ask about Mandy’s diary. Duke mentioned it several times during his initial interrogation, but it never came up again. If it exists, it’s likely the cops either buried it or never took possession of it in the first place. If the latter is the case, and Duke didn’t destroy it himself, it’s possible it’s still out there.”

“This is incredible,” said Betty, scarcely able to believe the wealth of information this mysterious boy was sharing with her.
If he’s lying he’s damn good at it, and what reason could he possibly have to make all of that stuff up?

“I have to go,” said Nickel. “The person I was supposed to meet is going to be here soon.” Nickel looked past her toward the parking lot, but when Betty turned to see what he was staring at, there was no one there.

“Here,” said Nickel, a business card appearing in his hand as he stood. “It’s just e-mail, but I’ll get back to you if you send me something. Use it or don’t, it’s totally up to you.” Betty took the card from him. It was white with black lettering and it said [email protected].

“Thanks for your help,” said Betty as she pushed the card into her pocket. “I don’t really understand how you could know so much about this, but I really appreciate the help.”

“I know,” said Nickel. “Let me know if you need anything.” Then he walked toward the parking lot without another word.

Betty watched him go with the sort of wonder on her face that’s usually reserved for UFO sightings, and then Nickel disappeared into the parking lot. Betty shook her head, gave the man with the eye patch a look, and then stuffed her pen and notebook back in her bag. She doubted that her mother’s cop friend would be able to give her all the answers she was looking for, but the help she’d gotten from a very odd stranger certainly seemed like it might be of some use. Betty stood, gave another look to where Nickel had disappeared to, and then began the walk back to her car.