“She is really dead, isn't she?”
Addison was kneeling down next to the smashed body, his forefingers pressed against her neck so he could officially check her non-existent vitals. “Yeah,” he said. “We need to call an ambulance.”
Cal reached into his pocket and pulled out his cell phone. He activated the screen with a swipe of his fingers and was preparing to dial 9-1-1 when Ian reached over and pulled the phone out of his hand.
“We can't,” Ian stammered. “We c-c-can't call the police.”
“What?” Cal stared at him, utterly dumbfounded.
“We have to,” Addison said. “She's dead, Ian.”
“She's d-dead. Yeah. I g-g-get that.” Ian's pale eyes were frantically flickering around the trail. “She's dead. W-w-we can't help her. She's not dying. She's dead.”
“Ian...” David was starting to wonder if Ian really had gotten some kind of concussion when he'd flipped the Dodge. The other boy had spent the last 20 minutes alternating between throwing up, crying and babbling incoherently.
“My m-mother is going to lose her m-m-mind,” Ian burst out. “My D-d-dad died in a drunk driving accident less than a year ago. Now I've gotten drunk and killed some girl with his truck. She's going to flip out. She'll never forgive me.”
“Shit,” Addison muttered under his breath. “Ian, we don't have a choice-.”
“What if we do?” Ian interrupted him mid-sentence. “W-w-what if we do have a choice?”
“You're losing me.”
“I don't know who that girl is. I don't think I've ever seen her before. Have you?” Ian asked.
“Um, no. I don't think so,” Addison admitted.
“How about y'all?” Ian turned to Cal and David. Desperation was shining in his glazed eyes. “Y'all know her?”
“You already know we don't,” David said flatly. “We've been over this. I've never seen her before. Cal's never seen her before. You've never seen her before. Addy's never seen her before. We don't know who she is.”
“Maybe she's not anybody,” Ian suggested, sounding halfway desperate and halfway thoughtful.
“She has to be somebody. Nobody can be no one.” Addy stared down at the girl's body with unmistakable misery and sympathy.
“Maybe she's not important enough for anyone to care about.” Ian took a deep breath and visibly gathered his nerve. “Y'all hear me out. If we call the cops, we're screwed. Our collective fucking gooses are cooked. And by cooked, I mean deep fried.”
“No matter what happens, we're still not as bad off as her.” David nodded down at the dead girl. He crossed his arms over his chest and frowned at his cousin. He didn't care for the turn this conversation was taking.
“Speak for yourself.” Ian practically spit the words at David. “You're not the one who was driving the truck that killed her. You're not the one who's going to be going to jail.”
“Ian, it was an accident. You're not-”
“No one is going to care that I hit her on accident!” Tears broke free of Ian's eyes. He was shaking as he sobbed. “The lady who killed Dad didn't mean to kill him neither. She drank a bottle of wine at her grandkid's baby shower and plowed through the damned median. She's in jail, David. She's going to be in jail for at least 10 years. Ain't no one cared that it was an accident. Ain't no one going to care now that this was an accident.” He slammed his sneaker into the ground near the dead girl's head. He was bawling now, snot and tears running down his impossibly young face.
Addison, David and Cal exchanged a solemn look. Addison broke gaze first, staring down at the ground. He took a deep breath. “Y'all know, I'm fucked too.”
“What?” Cal looked at Addy in surprise.
“Ian won't be the only one getting hauled off to jail. I'm going to get arrested too.”
“For what?” Cal demanded. His face was beginning to regain some color. “You tried to save her.”
“I don't exactly have a glowing personal record, Cal. I got kicked out of the Navy because I got shitfaced drunk and wrecked a forklift while I was supposed to be loading a boat. I should have been given a dishonorable discharge. I talked my way out of the dishonorable, but it won't be that hard for anyone real interested to find out what happened.” Addison rubbed both hands over his face and sighed. “Ian may be drunk, but I'm the one who bought the alcohol.”
“You're not 21 either.”
“Right. And since I'm under age too, Annabeth Hanley is going to catch her own charge for selling me liquor without I.D.” Addison looked guiltily down at the dead girl at his feet and then back up at his friends. “Y'all know I'll take the fall. If that's what I have to do, so be it. We should just tell Uncle Frank and the rest of the cops that I was the one driving Ian's truck when it rolled. Let all the blame fall on me. Y'all go sober up for a few hours, I'll call Uncle Frank after the sun sets and tell him I borrowed Ian's truck, flipped it and killed someone. Considering my track record, they'll buy it.”
“No. Hell no.” Cal shook his head viciously. “Just no.”
“You would do that for me?” Ian stared up at Addison, his face red and tear-streaked.
“No,” Cal repeated.
“It may be our best option,” Addison held his hand up to silence Cal. “Think about it, Cal. You're not exactly going to come out of this real great either. I can't imagine that you and David will be charged with anything more than underage consumption of alcohol, but it's still going to be a scandal because of who you are.”
“I don't care,” Cal said flatly. “I'd rather cause a scandal than watch you take the blame for everything.”
“I don't want to go to jail,” Ian whimpered.
David stared silently down at the crushed girl with her teal nails and bloody pink t-shirt. “We could get rid of her.”
“What?”
“We could get rid of her,” David repeated.
“You mean hide her body?”
“Bury her in the swamp,” David confirmed, the details still working themselves out in his own head. “Use my Dad's wrecker to tow Ian's truck out of here. We can clean it up at the shop.”
“Clean it up?” Addison's turquoise eyes sharpened thoughtfully. He pursed his lips. “You mean wash off all the blood and gore?”
“At the very least,” David confirmed. “My Dad's not in jail right now. He's pretty good at body work when he's sober. Maybe we can fix the truck up without having to report the wreck.”
“The truck is totaled,” Cal pointed out.
“Not legally,” David replied. He rubbed his own neck with the back of one hand.
“I can help with the body work,” Addison put in. “Not like I have a job right now anyways.”
“What about my Mom?” Ian asked. “She'll know I screwed something up when I don't bring my truck home.”
“Won't be the first time,” Cal commented bluntly.
“Hey-.” Ian frowned at Cal.
“He's right,” David said. “Won't be the first time. Tell her you were out playing in the woods and you wrecked. She ain't going to want to report teenage stupidity to her insurance. Tell her that me and Dad are going to fix it under the table. She'll go for that.”
“Your Dad really going to go along with all this?” Addison asked David.
“Of course he is,” David smiled bitterly. “My father may be a mean son-of-a-bitch but he does what I tell him to. I know where he buried all his skeletons.”
“Speaking of skeletons, y'all really you want to go through with this?” Addison swallowed unhappily and cast a sideways glance at the wrecked truck. “You do realize that if we fuck up, we'll be in a hell of a lot more trouble then we would be if we called the cops right now?”
“We're in a hell of a lot of trouble regardless,” Cal stated. “We killed a girl.”
“Accidentally.”
“Drunk.”
“Drunk,” Addison acknowledged with an unhappy nod. “I'm still buzzing. Doesn't seem like I should be. Every time something bad happens in a movie or something, everyone sobers right up. My head is still spinning. As usual.”
“You never sober up fast,” David reminded him calmly. “Maybe you should lay off the drinking.”
“You think?” Addison shot David a frustrated glare.
David nearly smiled. He needed Addison thinking on his feet. Pissing him off was usually the most effective way to get him there.
Addison blinked, clearly startled by the expression on David's face. He swallowed a visible lump in his throat and nodded. “We've got to get rid of the girl. Before we do anything else, we've got to get rid of the girl.”
“I agree,” David said with a nod. He looked down at Ian. His little cousin was on his knees. His own blood had run down his chin and stained his thick jacket. His jeans were torn and his arms were scraped. “Get up. It's going to be a long night. If you don't want to spend the next 20 years of your life in jail then you need to pull yourself together.”
“I can. I will.” Ian took a deep breath. The expression in his eyes was horrified but hopeful as he looked over at David. “Thank you, David. I knew you'd think of a way to save me. I can always count on you to save me.”
“Don't thank me,” David said with a shake of his head. “Please, don't thank me.”