Kylie got out of her car at the library when her phone rang. Glancing at the number, she groaned. There wasn’t any avoiding the call, but she sure didn’t want to take it. Placing her laptop case on top of her car, she took in the cars in the parking lot and who was walking on the sidewalks and coming and going from the library as she answered.
“This is Donovan,” she said officially.
“Donovan, I’m going to kick your ass,” John Athey yelled into the phone.
“Take a number,” she said, and rolled her eyes. She really didn’t have time for this crap. “The cameras are on and running properly. I’m headed into the library to meet with some kids and learn if and who might be talking to Peter. Anything else you needed, Chief?”
“Don’t fucking patronize me,” he hissed, sounding as though his blood pressure would go through the roof any minute. “I’ve gone through your file. Your level of insubordination won’t fly in this town, missy.”
“Look through the file again. You’ll get your man. I always deliver.”
“Many agents deliver,” he came back without a breath. “That security system is in your house for a goddamn reason. Don’t think I won’t pull someone else in on this case if you pull a stunt like that again. See how you like that on your permanent record.”
“I could handle a vacation.” She hated threats, hated them more than anything. “You want me to go talk to these kids, or contact my travel agent?”
“Don’t fuck with me,” he snarled.
“Fine. Oh, and tomorrow night I’m going over to four of these teenage girls’ home for dinner. Their mom invited me,” she added, and then breathed in deeply. Getting pissed wouldn’t help her think clearly when she met the kids inside the library. “I see a golden opportunity to learn more about what’s on their home computers. These teenagers are going to become my best friends.”
John didn’t say anything for a moment and Kylie rode out the silence, watching as the city bus slowed on the street and its doors opened.
“Maybe we will wire you,” he said slowly.
“Nope. I’m gathering data right now. Besides, I won’t be in the company of any perps. They’re all teenage girls.”
“Who are these teenagers?”
She rattled off their names, pretty sure she got them right.
“Is the cop they’re related to planning on being there, too?”
She scowled, frowning as she looked down at her fingernails. “Lieutenant Perry Flynn will probably be there.”
“Then you have a possible suspect. Kylie, you know your track record is impeccable. Peter is a cop, or someone who works and has access to computers in the police department.”
“I already know that.” The more time she spent talking to John, the more he got on her nerves. “And I’m still waiting for confirmation on whose computers were used down at the station. Is there a reason we don’t have that information yet?”
“I’ll check with Paul and get back to you on that one.”
When she looked up, Dani and a few other girls were gathered in the grass around the bus stop. Dani spotted her and waved, then beckoned to her friends. The group headed in Kylie’s direction.
“The latest murder, Kathleen Long-there was a picture of her on a pornography Web site.”
“What?” Kylie’s heart lodged in her throat as she quickly processed this information. “Peter has more of an agenda than simply stalking teenagers online and luring them into his trap of rape and murder.”
“Can’t prove that Kathleen is connected to the Peter girls yet. But we can confirm that Web site is based out of Kansas City. Don’t get so close to Lieutenant Flynn that you lose perspective. There very well might be a reason why he’s trying to get close to you.”
The lump in her throat damn near choked her. “I’ve got to go,” she whispered. “Company. And don’t worry. I never lose perspective.” She hung up before John could lecture her further, and stepped out of her car as the girls approached.
“That dress is so to die for,” a thin blonde said who wore a very short leather miniskirt and halter top that barely covered her well-developed figure.
Kylie glanced down at the figure-hugging dress she wore today. It wasn’t much longer than the blonde’s, although where the blonde wore black stockings and boots Kylie’s legs were bare. She looked up in time to catch Dani giving the blonde a scrutinizing glare.
“Thank you,” Kylie said, smiling at the girl. “I’m Kylie, by the way.”
“Nancy.” Instead of offering her hand, she turned to the girls around her. “Dani says you’re doing some really huge research paper on teenagers. I wish I got homework assignments like that.”
“As if it would matter.” Dani adjusted her backpack on her shoulder. “You don’t do your homework now. We going to stand out here or go snag a computer or two?”
“We should go over to the Java Cup,” the girl on the other side of Dani offered, whose hair had to be dyed black. It was long and glossy looking and raven black. She immediately shrugged as though her suggestion didn’t matter.
“Is James working?” Dani poked the girl in the ribs.
“How would I know?” The girl’s expression turned stubborn when she turned away from Dani and hugged herself. “But we can talk easier and they got computers there.”
“I’m game, but I’m not walking.” Dani looked at Kylie expectantly.
The other two girls followed suit.
“What about your parents?” Kylie wasn’t going to take off with girls she barely knew. The last thing she would risk was parents getting pissed at her for driving their daughters places other than where they were supposed to be. “Don’t they think you’re at the library?”
Dani rolled her eyes, already heading around Kylie to the passenger-side door. “Shotgun,” she announced. “And you’ve got to chill, Kylie. We’ve got cell phones. Mom doesn’t care where I am as long as I’m home when she gets off work.”
“All I have to do is call and leave voice mail,” Nancy said, lining up behind Dani. “And Mandy’s parents never care where she is.”
“They just work a lot.” Mandy, the black-haired girl, shrugged as if it didn’t matter to her.
“Okay. I don’t want anyone yelling at me.”
The Java Cup turned out to be only a block and a half away from the library, and by the time Kylie parked she decided they would have gotten there faster walking. The coffee shop itself was quaint, though. Kylie liked the atmosphere, with cork walls covered with posters, some of which looked like they’d been hanging there for years. When she saw the young people behind the counter, with their piercings and tattoos, her impression of the place dropped. It was a teenage hangout in disguise.
“I never dreamed of drinking coffee at your age,” Kylie mused.
“Whatever, like you are so much older than I am.” Dani rolled her eyes and breathed in the aroma of her drink. “I can’t start my day without a cup.”
“Not me.” Mandy led the way to a doorway that entered into a smaller room where two computers and then several tables with decks of cards and magazines were scattered. “It’s Pepsi all the way, baby.”
“Whatever happened to orange juice for breakfast?” Kylie took the chair next to the computer chair, letting the girls decide who would sit at the helm.
“God, I told them you were cool.” Dani nudged Kylie. “Don’t embarrass me.”
“I’ll try not to,” Kylie said dryly, giving Dani a look to say she should consider herself lucky to be hanging with Kylie.
The look worked, surprisingly, when Dani grinned easily and nudged her way between her friends to take the seat in front of the monitor.
“Mandy, there’s James.”
“Where?” Mandy spun around with enough force that she almost toppled sideways. She then turned back to face them so quickly it was comical. “Don’t say anything,” she hissed.
Nancy and Dani giggled and Kylie searched the small room and then looked through the doorway into the larger shop area where a handful of teenagers now huddled in a group, as if plotting their moves while they were at the Java Cup.
It was odd sitting with the three girls, listening to them tease and insult one another and then profess their love in the next sentence. By the time Kylie was fourteen, her teenage years had ended. Kylie didn’t have one memory of hanging out with girlfriends like this. Dani and her friends believed Kylie was a lot younger than she actually was, but that was their assumption. Mandy told a joke and Kylie found herself laughing with the other girls. It was easy fitting in with them, their lifestyle so simple and dramatized that it took little effort to act their age.
“Whoa, dude,” Mandy said, and laughed, pointing at the screen when Dani logged in. “Look at all of your off-line messages.”
Kylie leaned in, staring at the list of messages that appeared over Dani’s buddy list as soon as she signed into her chat program. Apparently Dani used Yahoo! Messenger, which offered a list of comments people had sent her while she’d been signed off.
Nancy leaned over the back of Dani’s chair and rested her arms on Dani’s shoulders. “Who is Pfietterphish?” she asked.
“It’s pronounced ‘Peter Fish,’ and it’s Petrie, that exchange student I worked on my German assignment with last semester. Remember?”
Kylie leaned in, noting the spelling of the screen name while her stomach twisted into a cruel knot. She didn’t want to think about Peter stalking Dani. But if he was, with her uncle being a cop it would make sense that Peter would disguise his screen name and the name he gave her.
“Where is he from?” Kylie asked, trying to sound unconcerned while she slowly repeated the screen name and how it was spelled in her head, saving it to memory.
“Spain, but he speaks several different languages and he helped me get an A in German.” Dani highlighted each message and read it before deleting it.
“Have you met him?” Kylie tried not to be too obvious but managed to catch a few of the messages before Dani deleted them. It looked as if the two of them were rather flirty online. The cruel knot in Kylie’s gut rose to her throat, leaving a bile taste in her mouth.
“No, but…” Dani turned and met Kylie’s gaze. “Oh no, dude. Don’t even go there.”
“What?” Kylie asked.
“I know you aren’t more than five years or so older than me, but sometimes you get this really adult attitude about you. And no offense, but it’s really annoying.”
“What did I say?” Kylie asked, managing to sound wounded and fighting to stay calm so she could learn as much as possible about Petrie.
“Yeah, man, don’t jump her ass,” Mandy instantly defended Kylie. “They’re planning on meeting, but there’s no way you can let her mother know.”
“Mandy!” Dani hissed.
“What? You don’t trust me to tell me this?” Kylie leaned back, crossing her arms and staring Dani down. It was imperative she knew every detail about this person Dani might meet. What she wouldn’t have done for the social skills when she was a teenager that spilled out of her so easily now.
Dani stared at Kylie for a long moment, taking her time while chewing her lip. She looked as though she wasn’t sure how to respond, and the best way to get her to keep open channels was to stay quiet and wait out the silence.
“I’ll make you a deal,” Dani said, cocking one eyebrow. “Promise you won’t come to dinner tomorrow night and I’ll tell you about Petrie.”
“You don’t want me to come to dinner?” That one surprised Kylie.
“You want to come?” Dani sounded equally as surprised.
“If your mom wants to meet me, I don’t have a problem with that. I’d be curious, too, if some lady were hanging around with my girls.”
Dani snorted and the other girls laughed. Kylie glanced from one of them to the other, sure she’d just missed something.
“What did my uncle tell you?” Dani leaned back in her chair but then snapped to attention when she got an instant message. “We told Mom about you, and my uncle got all bent out of shape. That’s all Mom needs to think she can play matchmaker. It will be a totally humiliating evening with her making a big deal over you sitting by Uncle Perry and then scooting everyone out of the room so you are left alone with him. You don’t want that, do you?”
Dani didn’t want to share her uncle. Kylie believed Dani liked her. Actually, she had no doubts. But there was a line Dani didn’t want crossed. Her uncle wasn’t available.
“I don’t want to upset your mom by declining.”
“Just be busy or something. She’ll understand.” Dani typed a message and hit “enter,” sending the message up into the chat box. “Uncle Perry will be relieved if you back out,” she added, giving Kylie a knowing look. “He hates it every time Mom tries hooking him up with ladies. It’s not like he doesn’t have ladies all over the place anyway.”
Kylie pressed her lips together to keep herself from asking how Dani might know about her uncle’s social life. Did he bring women around his nieces? And if so, Kylie hated the rather possessive sensation suddenly rushing over her when she ached to learn more about all of these women.
She realized Mandy had disappeared and Nancy stood with her arms crossed, watching the interaction between Dani and Kylie with a distracted air of boredom. She looked as though she was trying to decide whether she should remain with them or join the kids in the other room.
Taking an indifferent air would be Kylie’s best move. The whole point of agreeing to meet Dani and her friends today was to learn where Peter was striking and to nab him before he captured another girl. If Kylie could do that here more so than at Dani’s home, then so be it.
“I’ll see if I can think of an excuse to convince your uncle and get out of it,” she said, and nodded toward the computer. “Tell me about who you’re chatting with.”
Dani accepted the arrangement and then began talking about everyone she chatted with. As if they guessed they were being discussed, many started talking to Dani online until she easily chatted with five different people, the computer screen full of chat boxes. Kylie straightened when Petrie instant-messaged Dani.
Homework sucks.
Mandy had returned and she and Nancy pulled chairs around Dani, instantly alert when Petrie sent the message. Kylie glanced at the three girls, realizing the other two knew a fair bit about Petrie. As well, Dani’s expression changed and she quickly typed: BRB into the other chat boxes and gave Petrie her exclusive attention.
“Tell him you’ll help him study,” Nancy encouraged.
Dani ignored Nancy, her gaze riveted to the screen, and typed: No shit. I’ve got Geometry.
Same here, and History. Like I care about what happened hundreds of years ago.
Dani appeared to forget she had an audience as she lost herself in her conversation with a boy who obviously she knew pretty well, in spite of never meeting him.
Mandy leaned around the back of Dani and whispered to Kylie, “Petrie is Dani’s boyfriend.”
“Shut the fuck up,” Dani hissed as she continued to type.
“Write about her.” Nancy poked Dani in the arm but grinned at Kylie. “Put in your paper that some teenagers are whacked and commit to boys they’ve never met.”
“I’m going to meet him,” Dani said, but then leaned back, pausing from her online conversation, and gave Kylie a furtive look. “We’ve got a deal that nothing we share with you will be repeated to anyone, right?” She stressed the word “anyone” while staring hard into Kylie’s eyes. “You’ve got to swear to that.”
“Your mom wouldn’t like Petrie?” Kylie decided to play ignorant and hear Dani say exactly what it was she didn’t want anyone knowing about.
Dani rolled her eyes and then returned to her conversation. Kylie turned her attention to the chat box as well.
This Friday might work after school.
Dani posed her fingers over the keyboards, not saying anything for a moment, and both of her girlfriends watched her with bated breath. Kylie held her breath, it hitting her that Dani and Petrie had discussed meeting in person prior to the chat.
Dani blew out a breath and typed: I’ll let you know. G2G for now.
She X’d out the box and quickly closed her chat program. Then pushing her chair back, she grabbed her coffee and stood, walking away from the three of them without saying anything.
Kylie watched her disappear into the other room, noticing she pulled her cell phone out of her backpack when she stood by the front door to the coffee shop.
Nancy moved into Dani’s seat and took over the computer. “She doesn’t want us to see her talking to Petrie,” she pouted.
“Have they been chatting on the computer for long?” Kylie asked, still watching Dani.
“Forever.” Mandy rolled her eyes and leaned forward, lowering her voice. “She’s scared to meet him but won’t admit it.”
“Do you all meet guys off the computer a lot?” Kylie asked.
“Oh, sure. All the time.” Mandy waved her hand in the air as though it didn’t matter. “But Dani’s uncle fills her head with crap about stalkers and rapists and bullshit like that who prey off poor little innocent girls like us.”
Nancy made a very unladylike snorting sound as she continued typing on the computer. Kylie watched her open the Facebook Web site but kept glancing past the girls to Dani.
“It’s not completely bullshit,” Kylie said, not focusing on either one of them. “Even I wouldn’t meet someone online without knowing a lot about them first. Or at least talking on the phone.”
“She talks to Petrie on the phone all of the time,” Nancy told Kylie.
Dani pulled open the door to the Java Cup and disappeared outside.
“Still sounds like she should be careful,” Kylie said, fighting the urge not to break into a serious lecture. All she would do was chase them away if she did that. “Where’s the bathroom?”
The girls pointed to the door leading to the other room. Kylie had spotted the restrooms when she first entered, but it was a good excuse to check on Dani without the others knowing. Neither girl offered to go with her, and Kylie left them hovering in front of the computer, not paying any attention to whether she went into the bathroom or not.
She slipped outside, hoping she hadn’t lost Dani. Kylie squinted against the late-afternoon sun at the teenager, who’d managed to make it across the street and leaned against the back of Kylie’s car in the parking lot. Watching Kylie approach, Dani repeatedly glanced at her phone in her hand while she text-messaged someone. Her frustrated expression didn’t fade when Kylie approached.
“Are all men assholes?” Dani demanded to know, and pressed her lips together as if she’d just swallowed something bitter.
“I don’t know all of them.” Kylie lifted one shoulder and shrugged lazily, then leaned against her car next to Dani. “Is it Petrie?” she asked quietly.
Dani nodded once. Her cell phone played a happy-sounding jingle and Dani held it in both of her hands, pushing the buttons with her thumbs, when she answered the text message.
“He’s going to meet Lanie Swanson. He knows I hate that bitch’s guts.”
“He sounds like a player,” Kylie offered, crossing her arms and staring at the Java Cup across the street.
“No. He’s not like that at all,” Dani assured her, shaking her head hard enough that her long brown hair fanned over her shoulder and shrouded part of her face. “Lanie is the player. She’s a little tramp. The only reason she’s chasing him is because she knows I like him,” Dani said, her last sentence fading when she lowered her tone to a whisper.
“Do you know anyone else who’s met him?” Kylie asked, pushing herself away from her car when Mandy and Nancy walked out of the Java Cup.
“No. And I know what you’re thinking. He’s not some serial killer.” Dani straightened as well. Her phone played its little jingle again and she scowled at the message, then pushed the buttons, answering it while sighing. “I know Petrie is for real.”
“How do you know?” Kylie turned when Nancy and Mandy spotted them and hurried across the street toward them. She faced Dani, studying the teenager’s determined expression. “Have you actually talked to him on the phone?”
Dani’s soft green eyes looked darker with the black eyeliner that was neatly applied. Her pale blue eye shadow and dark mahogany lipstick hid her natural beauty. It could also mislead a person into believing Dani was older than she was. Kylie remembered John telling her about the pornographic Web site and knew all too well how many “barely legal” sites there were out there. Imagining someone breaking Dani’s spirit to get her to comply and cooperate for poses used on sites like that made Kylie sick.
“No one talks on the phone,” Dani snapped. “You don’t get it. You act as though you’re all hip and everything, but for real you’re no different than Uncle Perry or Mom. I hope I don’t turn into a prude as quickly as you have.”
“Dani, wait,” Kylie yelled when Dani marched across the parking lot to her girlfriends.
“Talk to you later, Kylie,” Dani said, waving over her shoulder before forming a quick huddle with Mandy and Nancy.
For a moment Kylie was thrown back in time, the same age as the girls who’d just abandoned her, and feeling so alone the pain threatened to break her in two. She didn’t have anyone to turn to, no one to seek out for guidance. Alone in the world without her older sister, who’d been Kylie’s resource for all things wise and imperative to know in life, she was consumed with pain that made her eyes burn.
Both girls glanced in her direction before falling in line on either side of Dani and walking away from Kylie. She stared after the teenagers, knowing Dani’s indecision had made her snap more than irritation toward Kylie. Dani was smart and for the most part had a fair amount of common sense for a girl her age, proof she’d been raised well. Peer pressure tore at her right now, though. Kylie needed to keep an eye on her and make sure the girl didn’t make a very stupid move.
The painful memory of Kylie’s youth disappeared as quickly as it had surfaced and a more primal, demanding sensation washed over her.
“You’d better be a pimply-faced kid, Petrie,” she said under her breath as she unlocked her car. “Because if you’re not, I’m going to kick your perverted ass until you wished you’d never laid a hand on a teenage girl in your life.”