Chapter 21: Janet

As the school day passed I avoided Caspian like he was a bee who had left his hive just to sting me. It suddenly hit me that although he was a Stinger, I was the one who had stung him. The only time I saw him was during lunch, when I passed by the cafeteria window. He only looked at me for a second, before he firmly pressed his lips to Amber's; she was sitting on his lap. I know he did it to hurt me, because he glanced at me when he was done. The familiar ache resurfaced, but this time I was the one who had put the ache there. I had dumped Caspian and there was no going back. At least I had the double date tomorrow night to take my mind off Caspian.

"I broke up with Caspian," I told my mother.

"You two were together?" she fumed, smoke dispersing from both her ears.

Oops. I should have just kept my mouth shut. "Well, not anymore." I tried breathing normally, but my breath came out jagged and uneven. When you tell someone else about your breakup, that's when it's made official. "Can I have a sleepover at Chrissie's tomorrow night?" I asked.

My mother sighed. "If I say 'no' you're going to go anyway."

I opened my mouth to argue, but my mother resumed talking too quickly.

"So, I'll say 'yes'." She looked at me in the review mirror. "But no more associating with the Stingers." I almost jumped out of the car seat with glee. My passage to the double date was set!

Back in my room, I threw the phone on my bed. Of course Janet's phone would have a password. I picked up the phone and realised there was a thin crack that started at the top right corner and stopped somewhere close to the middle of the screen. Had I done that? Who manages to break a phone by throwing it on a bed? I should really be in the Guinness Book of World Records. 'Madelyn Cote of Sunset Coast found the quickest way to break a Samsung: throw it on a bed,' or even better, 'Madelyn Cote dumped her boyfriend of two seconds, a time never before achieved.'

I sighed and smoothed my finger over the crack, only to realise that it wasn't a crack at all, but a line of dirt. I made another feeble attempt to guess Janet's password, but had no luck. Maybe James could help me now that I already had the phone.

I decided to make one last attempt before involving James again. I couldn't remember when Janet's birthday was, but I knew Asher's birth date. People often put their loved one's birthdays as their passwords. To my surprise the phone unlocked. Huh, she hadn't gotten a chance to change her password after she broke up with Asher. Or maybe she was feeling guilty for dumping him, since she still thought he had committed suicide.

I opened Janet's chat with Asher. Well, whoever she was talking to now. Luck was on my side: she hadn't deleted any of the messages.

I scrolled up until I got to the day Asher was murdered.

The first message was from Janet. 'The Cotes don't know anything.' The Cotes don't know what? That Asher was murdered? Janet was talking to the person responsible for my brother's death. I forced my eyes to keep reading. The rest of the messages were things like 'I love you', 'I'm missing you'. Nothing really stood out.

I was about to give up, when the acronym NY caught my eye.

'When are you joining me in NY?'

'Soon,' Janet replied.

NY was Asher's dream. I needed to know who Janet was meeting there. There was only one way to find out: go to New York. Or maybe I could just speak to Janet, probably a more realistic approach.

I walked over to my window and that's when I saw the iron bars that ran from the top of my window down to the very bottom. I had expected that my parents would want to put burglar guards, but I hadn't known they would really do it. I wrapped my fingers around the bars and pulled. Nothing. I always expected to be able to escape out through my window. Now what?

I slid the phone in my pocket, waiting for the next message. I tiptoed downstairs and offered to help my mother cut onions.

"Mom?" I asked.

She looked at me, while pressing the button on the blender. The blender made a loud sound as it squashed and cut the different types of fruits that had been placed in it.

"Why don't we invite Janet over for dinner? I mean, she must also be really upset about Asher."

"I thought she was the cause of Asher's death," my mother quoted me, looking at me with her eyebrows raised.

"She dumped him, but that doesn't mean she doesn't care about him," I mumbled. "Feelings aren't erased after a breakup." I swallowed a lump that formed in my throat when I thought about Caspian and me.

My mother nodded her head. "I'll ring her up."

Janet's phone was in my pocket. "You don't need to call her now." I said.

"She can come tonight." My mother dried her hands and picked up her phone.

I turned away from her and fumbled with the buttons on the phone, trying to put it off. I had no idea how a Samsung worked. I ran to my room, just as the phone started ringing. I slid it under my pillow, to muffle the sound. Phew, just in time.

I pushed food around on my plate, pretending to eat. I had lost my appetite. The pieces of meat looked less appetizing than mud.

I couldn't wait until I was able to talk to Janet, except I had no clue what to say. 'Do you know who murdered my brother?' seemed like a good place to start.

"How have you been, Janet?" My mother was an expert at small talk.

Janet was dressed in a knee-length pink dress, with sequins that dotted each sleeve. Her long black hair was tied up in a bun at the nape of her neck. Her silver eyeshadow was immaculate, and it curved into what looked like a cat-eye, if I wore make-up like that it would be smudged before I moved away from my vanity.

"Mostly good. I mean someone stole my phone, so all my pictures of Asher are gone," Janet moped, probably more for the loss of her expensive phone than the loss of Asher's memories.

"How do you know it was stolen?" I enquired. "You could have lost it." I fake smiled and shuffled a piece of meat into my mouth and forced my teeth to grind, so that it could move down my throat.

My mother shot me a warning glance. "You poor thing." She put her hand on Janet's. "People these days take what they want." She shook her head. "No wonder I couldn't reach you. Good thing I had your mother's number."

"Madelyn will send you some pictures," my father chimed in, looking at me. He was the kind of man that it was impossible to argue with. Not because he always pressed his point, but because he had a calmness about him that made everyone want to agree with whatever he said; everyone expect my mother. She had known him long enough to look past his calmness, and somehow managed to argue with him. I was mostly happy to do what he said, except when it came to things like this.

I nodded my head, with no intention of sending pictures to Janet.

I carried my full plate to the sink, while my mother cleared the table.

"Can I talk to you?" I asked Janet, trying to act like a broken girl who had just lost her brother.

"Sure." Janet smiled and followed me to my room.

Janet plopped her cat-like body onto my bed, while I stood against the wall, blocking my murder board from her. Her sequined clothes were beginning to blind me, but I ignored the distraction as best I could. She waited for me to start the conversation. I took a deep breath before beginning my interrogation.

"You know Asher was murdered, right?" I asked.

"Madelyn, I know this is hard, but..."

I cut her off before she could finish. "Do you know where Asher's phone is?"

"No," she stated, not meeting my eye.

"Well, I hacked the phone. You've been communicating with the holder of that phone," I accused. I couldn't tell her I had her phone. This was the first time I had ever done anything like this, so I thought it best to lead with something that I knew would make her uncomfortable. If she was constantly squirming in her seat, she was bound to trip up.

Her face went a shade paler. "One of our friends has the phone."

"I thought you didn't know where it is," I smiled at her.

"I forgot." She was a pathetic liar.

"This is the friend you're meeting in New York?"

She nodded her head, not bothering to hide the fact that she was planning a trip to NY.

"Why didn't we get his phone with the rest of his belongings?"

She muttered something too low to hear, but I think I heard 'Herim'. I was going to ask her to repeat herself, but I didn't get the chance.

"I'm leaving." She bolted upright and made her way towards the door, confirming my suspicions that she had something to hide. I let her go; it's not like I could force her to tell me what knew. Plus, she had given me plenty to work with. 

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