She pushed a chocolate bar and a bag of chips at me. “Here. Eat up.”
She was looking at me expectantly and I got the feeling she wasn’t going to say anything until I ate something, so I unwrapped the bar and took a small bite. The heavy sweetness made me feel sick. My lawyer had told me our chances of getting out looked good. Did Suzanne know something Angus didn’t?
She glanced at the guard watching the room and he gave her a nod. I was also getting the feeling this visit wasn’t on the books. Suzanne looked back at me.
Still unsure of what this was about, I kept my mouth shut. She said, “How much do you know about the investigation?”
“Not much. They’ve been keeping us in the dark.” I shared what I knew so far. My lawyer had told me Shauna and Frank McKinney had been denied bail, but McKinney was in protective custody because he’d been a cop. Once the police had reviewed Ashley’s tape and all our statements, they pulled in Kim and Rachel for questioning. “We know they were arrested,” I said, “but we don’t know what the charges were and haven’t heard anything since.”
Suzanne was nodding as I spoke. “I have some friends on the force. They told me Kim rolled right away on Shauna.”
“You know what really happened that night? Were they all involved?”
She nodded again, her eyes sad. “I’m bending the rules, but I wanted you to hear it from me.”
I sucked in a big lungful of air, bracing for what was coming next, then said, “How did they get her out of the truck?”
“Kim says that after Shauna told them Nicole had been messing with Rachel’s boyfriend, and that Nicole was the one who told Kim’s mom she was gay, they were furious. Shauna wanted to get back at Nicole, and the girls agreed.”
“Did they plan on killing her?”
“Doesn’t sound like it. They were just going to get her alone and humiliate her by stripping her down, taking photos, then spreading them around. They’d been harassing Nicole all week, phoning her, threatening that they were coming for her.” I thought of how thin Nicole had gotten those last few weeks, how she’d stolen the pills because she couldn’t sleep. I could well imagine how terrified she must have been, how alone she must have felt not being able to confide in anyone, how she hadn’t wanted to be home alone that Friday.
“They were waiting outside your house. When they saw you all leaving together, they followed you to the lake.” I remembered that night, the heat coming through the windows, Nicole’s bare leg brushing against mine, her face serious.
“They parked their car and snuck up on the truck,” Suzanne said. “When they realized you guys had left Nicole by herself, they figured you’d be gone awhile. They sent Cathy to lure Nicole out of the truck.”
Cathy, who’d spent the next seventeen years smoking and drinking everything in sight. I started tearing at the chocolate bar wrapper, ripping the corner off into little bits, my fingers itching to attack something, anything.
Suzanne’s voice got lower, more serious, her gaze flicking to my hands as she said, “Cathy told Nicole she’d been at the party below, seen her drive by, and just wanted to talk so they could clear the air.”
I felt sick. “That’s why she got out. She thought she could fix everything.…” Sunny, sweet Nicole, who wanted to be everyone’s friend.
Suzanne paused, letting me gather myself before she continued. “After Nicole was out of the truck the other girls rushed her and ordered her to take off her clothes. When she refused, Rachel punched her. Kim says Nicole tried to hit back, but then both Kim and Shauna attacked her, knocking her down.”
I stared at the little pile of ripped plastic in front of me, my eyes filling with tears as I saw my sister falling to the ground, imagined her desperate pleas, her eyes searching for Ryan and me, praying we’d come back and save her.
I could barely find my voice, whispering, “What else? What else did they do?”
Suzanne told me the rest of the terrible story. While Kim and Rachel slapped and kicked Nicole, Shauna grabbed the tire iron from behind the truck’s seat. The girls stopped, scared now, but stood frozen while Shauna, in a rage they didn’t understand, hit Nicole several times in the head and the face. By the time they finally pulled her off, Nicole was unconscious. Shauna told them they’d all go to jail for assault if Nicole lived, so they had to kill her. She made Rachel hit her with the tire iron too.
I held up my hand. “Give me a minute.” The tears were running hard, and I wiped them on my sleeve, fighting the brutal images twisting through my mind.
Suzanne said, “Maybe I shouldn’t—”