The Thrashers(28)
Hannah Mills’s file was still on the desk. Jodi jumped to her feet. She flipped backward through the file, finding Hannah’s middle school transcript, a request to test out of freshman computer science, and a note about Hannah not finishing her summer reading. Jodi stopped short when she found a photocopied page.
Sacramento Police Department
Incident Report
Date: May 11, 2024
Case No. 4512420
Response to 911 call at 633 35th Street. Caller reported murder, on-site shows suicide. Caller identified as Maureen Mills, mother to deceased Emily Mills, 16.
Why did Hannah Mills’s file include a copy of the police report? Her eyes flew over the typed text, finding a section highlighted in yellow on page two.
Sister to deceased discovered body. Hannah Mills, age 13. Interviewed with father present. Hannah tried knocking on shared bathroom door with no response from Emily. Around 9:35p. Opened door appr. 10 min later to find Emily Mills in bathtub, unconscious. Called for parents immediately.
I examined Emily Mills and found her without a pulse, body warm. I tried lifesaving measures …
Chills crested down her arms. Her mind filled out the scene, building the report around her as she read on. She could see Emily in the bathtub. She could see the paramedics. She felt herself out of her body. Jodi shook her head, coming back to present.
Miscellaneous information: Found in pink formal dress. Dress and body were damp. Did not assess leaking faucets in bathtub at time of inspection. No explanation for the water.
She heard footsteps. She closed up the folder, replaced it carefully on the desk, and stared into space with a bored expression as the door opened.
“I’m so sorry about that, Jodi! It ended up being a false alarm, thank god.”
Ms. George looked winded, and Jodi hoped her father’s Irish coloring wasn’t pulling blood into her face as she returned her smile.
“It’s okay. Um, I actually need to go grab lunch, but this was really nice, Ms. George. Could I maybe come see you again sometime?”
The older woman’s face broke out into a surprised grin. “Of course! I would love to spend more time with you.”
“Thanks. Well, good to meet you.”
Ms. George moved to the side and let her out of the office. Jodi tugged the back of her shirt down over her backside, hoping the outline of the folded session notes wasn’t obvious.
Oliver gave her a cool glance as he picked up a phone call. She nodded at him, and continued to the art building.
Her heart was fluttering in her chest. She tried to make sense of a few things. She supposed the guidance office having a copy of the police report made a kind of sense, seeing as Hannah had found a dead body three months ago.
Dress and body were damp. What did that mean? And was any of what was in Mrs. Needlemeyer’s notes true? Had Paige invited Emily just to humiliate her? That wasn’t like Paige.
Had Julian offered to get her a corsage, knowing Emily wasn’t invited with them? That did sound like Julian.
Had Zack promised to slow dance with Emily? A possibility, but not to torment Emily.
The air-conditioning blasted across her face as she entered the building for her next class. She’d need to ask Paige about it to make sure.
But one question circled in her mind.
Had she just derailed a police investigation?
Chapter Nine
Jodi went with her dad to see a moderately priced criminal defense lawyer on Friday after school. Miranda Perez was a thin woman with intense eyes and black curls peppered with gray. Jodi told her everything she knew—aside from the stolen page of Needlemeyer’s notes hidden in her bottom dresser drawer—and her dad agreed to set up the three-thousand-dollar retainer.
It was a quiet car ride home. Jodi knew that money wouldn’t just appear. It was going to be taken from somewhere else, and that somewhere was her meager college fund.
She sent Paige a Snapchat video that would automatically delete after being watched, asking if Paige thought she’d ever accidentally invited Emily in the limo. Paige sent back her own.
“No, definitely not,” Paige said, filming herself in the car, sunglasses on and focused on the road. “In hindsight, I really should have said, ‘Emily. Girl. You are not coming.’ But I tried so hard not to talk about that limo when she was around. As for Zack telling her he’d slow dance with her?” Paige put on her blinker and took a heavy breath. “Honestly, maybe? He’s terrible. I love him, but he’s oblivious.”
Jodi agreed. There was nothing Zack would have done cruelly. He didn’t like humiliating people. With Emily and the other classmates that had been Thrashed, he never laughed at them directly. He thought Emily’s oddness had been funny, but he hadn’t made fun of it. Zack was always ready for a practical joke, but never one at someone’s expense.
She texted him to ask how his first week went, and he got back to her after eight, which meant that Greg was keeping his phone hostage until after dinner now.
Weird. I cant tell whos being nice and whos just digging for gossip.
She tried to ask him about his class schedule, hoping to find a few breaks to meet him, but he didn’t respond. She even tried texting the group chat about how their weeks had been, but she got minimal responses there. It seemed like Jodi had instigated every Snap, every DM, every Discord thread. She felt too annoying, too clingy. She felt … she almost felt like Emily. Like no one wanted her around, but they were tolerating her.