Black Orchid Girls (Detective Amanda Steele)

TWENTY-EIGHT

Amanda parked outside the townhouse and stared at the building. On the way over, she’d had time to think in silence. She was failing as a parent, and she hadn’t even assumed the legal role yet. After last night’s events, she should have booked Zoe with the shrink first thing this morning. But Amanda had let the severity of what had transpired fade into the background. Probably because she wanted to—for her own comfort. At times, it was hard to swallow how much healing the little girl still had ahead of her. Amanda was well aware, too, of survivor’s guilt and how it chewed away like acid. Zoe’s parents had been killed two months ago. Amanda’s life had been flipped for the better part of six years. She was, in a way, signing up for a version of that again. Would she survive it a second time? All these musings were likely brought on by reading Chloe’s journal. Some actions had long-lasting repercussions. Chloe had felt bad for her treatment of Ashton, even though she hadn’t seen him “in forever.” Crap had a way of clinging.

Amanda knocked on the door. Jayne answered and stepped back for her to come in, no questions asked.

“How are you doing?” Stupid, stupid,question, but at least Jayne would know Amanda cared.

“Dunno.” She shrugged her shoulders.

“Is Lauren home?”

“Nope. Just me.”

That would probably work out even better, as Jayne was really the one Amanda wanted to talk with anyway. She had a longer history with Chloe.

“Want to sit down?” Jayne gestured toward the living room.

“Sure.”

The two of them sat on the couch and turned to face each other.

“Have you ever heard of a guy named Ashton Chambers?”

“Ashton, Ashton,” she repeated. “Oh, yeah.” Her eyes went wide. “Haven’t heard the name in a long time. Knew him in high school. Talk about a loser.”

The girl’s wall was instantly up, trying to appear tough and impenetrable. “Why’s that?”

“He was just weird.”

“So, because someone’s different, they deserve to be mistreated?”

Jayne rubbed her cheek to her shoulder and didn’t respond.

So she feels justified… Wow.“We know Chloe bullied him back in high school.” She’d treat that as fact after seeing Jayne’s reaction to his name.

“So? Why do you care about Ashton?”

She couldn’t tell her they’d pulled him in for questioning. She went another route. “We have our hands on some of Chloe’s journals.”

Jayne pulled her legs up and folded them under her. “Okay…?” She chewed on that hangnail again like she had when she and Trent had first talked to her.

“What did you guys do to push him to key Chloe’s car? From the sounds of it, she felt pretty bad that she’d made him so upset.”

“We might have taken things a little far…”

“What did you do?”

“It wasn’t just Chloe and me. Josh was in on it too.”

Amanda didn’t have all night, but she’d sit there quietly until she heard the entire story.

“One day in the locker room, when Ashton was in the shower, Josh took all his clothes and his towel.”

“Stranded him there naked? Real nice.”

Jayne shrugged it off. “We were kids.”

Then it hit. Naked. Just like Chloe had been. Could it be that Ashton was repaying the favor after all these years? But she had a feeling things had progressed beyond limited humiliation for high-school Ashton. “What happened next?”

“Josh took video of him and shared it online.”

“Okay, and what was Chloe’s role in this?”

“She was more tech savvy. She modified the video to have overlaid text…” Now Jayne squirmed.

Amanda hesitated to ask. “What did it say?”

“‘Little pecker,’ with an animated arrow jabbing toward it.” Jayne mimed the motion with a pointed finger.

No wonder Ashton didn’t want to tell them about it. “Too embarrassing,” he had said. Anger heated her veins. She was biting her tongue because she had a lot she could say. How evil the group of them had been to do that to Ashton, how it honestly could have affected the trajectory of his life, how all of them should have been punished for their actions. But it was Ashton who ended up with a juvie record, even though criminal charges could have been laid against Chloe, Josh, Jayne, and any others for their role in bullying Ashton. Then again, did Chloe just get off with a keyed car or did this past act come back to kill her? And could good deeds make up for previous wrongs? Amanda had built up this saint-like image of Chloe, but finding out about the extent of her bullying past had tainted it. Then again, Chloe had sounded deeply sorry in her journal entries, and her life had been dedicated to noble pursuits in more recent days. There should be some forgiveness extended.