Finn’s jaw clenches. “But not to me. What the fuck?”
“Because my relationship to Rose was strictly professional and had nothing to do with you.”
Finn moves fast, like a cat, and after watching him leap between houses, I have no doubt of his speed and agility. Ezra hops up and Ozzy and I share a quick, panicked glance before reaching for both of them.
“Stop!” I shout, wedging myself between the two of them. I press one hand flat on each of their chests. “There’s not enough room for you two to fight in here without some collateral damage. If you want to beat the shit out of each other, then do it outside. Leave me and Oz out of it.”
Finn’s chest heaves with anger, and I feel the pitter-pat of Ezra’s against my palm.
“Can you two calm down so we can look at what Ozzy is trying to show us?”
“If he stops being a lying douchebag,” Finn says though clenched teeth.
“I can do that if he can stop pretending to be the golden boy of Thistle Cove for five fucking minutes and just be real.”
“I never—”
“Stop!” I shout, glad we’re way out in the woods. I try to catch Finn’s angry, hurt eyes, but he looks to the side. “I didn’t know that Ezra was there that night either. Or about the drugs. We need to be happy he’s come forward so we can put some of these pieces together.”
He finally looks at me, and a thrill runs down my spine at the intensity of his glare. “Fine. But no more secrets.”
I glance at Ezra, whose chest is still puffed out. He nods.
Both boys move back to their seats. Ozzy and I exchange a relieved look. That was like taming two wild animals in a very small cage.
“Ezra, tell us everything you told the police,” I say, passing the list back to Ozzy, “and everything you didn’t.”
He laughs, because everyone in this room knows there’s an unedited version of events he’s holding close to the vest.
“She’d been buying weed from me for a while—honestly, man, I figured you knew about that.” He looks at Finn. “You guys went to all the parties—it’s not like she didn’t drink. Smoking weed is a pretty basic next step. Just a few ounces here and there. But the shit she asked me for the other night wasn’t weed, and it’s way above my pay scale. She wanted a few hits of Molly and I don’t mess with that shit. I have a cousin that OD’d last year. Fucked him up.”
Ozzy looks at Finn. “You really didn’t know?”
“I knew she smoked—mostly with Juliette. She was stressed out a lot of the time. Worried about grades and her parents' approval. Getting into a good college was big for her. I thought she was just smoking to relax. Anything harder is news to me.”
I lean over and take the list from Ozzy. “What’s this about her dad calling her while you were leaving? That’s the first I’ve heard of that.”
“I know,” Finn says. “Neither the Wallers or the police have mentioned a final phone call. You told them, right?”
“Yeah, I didn’t really think it was a big deal.”
“Normally it wouldn’t be,” I say, “but if Mr. Waller was the last person to talk to her before she vanished, that’s pretty important.”
“I agree,” Ozzy says, leaning back in his seat, “but remember how you two went to football camp in middle school and made fun of me for going to computer camp?”
Ezra and Finn share a laugh. “Yep.”
“Well, at night, after the counselors went to bed, the campers stayed up—”
“To what?” Ezra says, with an amused grin. “Circle jerk?”
Ozzy rolls his eyes. “To explore the underbelly of the internet, including how to hack into different programs.”
“You can hack into computers?” I ask, not exactly surprised, but it’s not like I’ve kept up with him the last few years.
“Yeah, I can, and today I decided to dig around into some of Rose’s accounts to see if I could find anything.”
Finn shifts forward. “Did you?”