AT DAY’S END the crew gathered at Rainey’s to get the full story on Tasha Aziz. Present along with Leith were Dion, Niko, JD, Doug, and Jim. Everyone knew much of what Robbie Clark had done, but not the full story. It was up to Leith to pull the details together and fill in the gaps.
He told them about Clark heading to the school grounds to pick up his dime bag of weed from the hidey-hole, as arranged with Kyler Hartshorne. Clark had parked in the back, not in the front as he’d originally said. He had a cover story for his pot-buying trips, taking a folder with him, actually stepping into his office and shuffling papers around, before heading back to his car. There he’d seen Kyler prowling in the shadows, and it turned out Kyler had spotted him, too.
“There’s some guesswork on Clark’s part,” Leith said. “But he thinks Kyler slashed Tasha’s tire. Tasha told him she’d given Kyler the finger one day, after Kyler made overtures to her.”
“The kind of overtures that deserve the finger,” Shiomi guessed.
“Clark figures after jabbing her tire, Hartshorne hung around so he could see the look on her face when she discovered the flat. Clark comes upon Tasha as she finds her tire slashed. He’s had his eye on her for a while, and here’s his chance to swoop in and save the day. He offers to change her tire, and things seem to go well. She sets off her car alarm by mistake, and they have a laugh about that. She asks Clark what he teaches, and he tells her he’s actually a counsellor. He seems to think this is a good segue into offering her counselling for the trauma of finding her tire flattened, and places a hand on her arm. He admits his timing was bad, and his hand might have been overly firm. She’s startled, jerks back, fumbles with her keys, drops them. He realizes she’s getting ready to sound the alarm again, this time for real. Which pisses him off.”
JD said, “Women just don’t know how to not give off the wrong signals, do they?”
“So he’s pissed off,” Leith repeated. “He apologizes, but she makes it clear she just wants to get in her car and go. He teases her by putting his boot on her keys as she tries to pick them up. He thinks he’s being funny, and she thinks he’s being a threat. She leaves the keys and begins to walk back toward the school. He goes after her — to apologize, he says — steps on her keys on the way and sees he’s damaged them. He’s getting angrier and more worried by the moment. He gives the keys a furious kick and sends them under the car. Sees Tasha is rummaging in her bag as she walks away. For her phone, he realizes. He races after her.”
Leith paused. Robbie Clark’s story was pathetic and probably true. He tried to be a charmer and ended up a menace, a killer, a source of untold sorrow.
“He catches up with her at the fence and again grabs her by the arm. He wants to talk and explain himself, but ends up shouting. She pushes him. He pushes back. She goes down, and he sees his career flushed down the toilet, maybe worse. Jail time. He starts to walk away but turns back as she’s trying to get to her feet and gives her a kick in the stomach. Then leaves her there.”
“One kick?” Paley asked.
“The autopsy confirms it. Clark says he couldn’t believe it when he found out she had died from one kick. Maybe if he hadn’t been wearing steel toe caps it would have ended better. But he ruptured her spleen, and she was too injured to get at her phone. She died within the hour.”
Leith moved on to part two of the Tasha Aziz tragedy. “Kyler Hartshorne witnessed the attack. Instead of rushing to help Aziz, he used his knowledge to blackmail Robbie Clark. And that’s where it got tangled. Hartshorne knew there’s strength in numbers, and when he approached Clark with his first demand for cash, he lied and said he wasn’t alone that night, that Tiago Garland had been with him. Which he wasn’t, we know, because Tia had been at Oliver Walsh’s place.”
Dion added, “Walsh was able to confirm it through his journal.”
Paley squinted. “Teen boy documents his day and who he’s with? Sounds fishy to me. Can we trust this nerd?”
“He didn’t write down that Tia was with him,” Dion said. “But says he extrapolated from his notes that he and Tia had been hanging out on February first.”
“Extrapolated,” Jimmy Torr echoed. “Who says extrapolated?”
“Oliver Walsh, for one,” Dion told him. “Just because your vocabulary —”
“Quiet,” Leith said. “You want to hear this or not?”
JD said she didn’t, really, but Leith finished anyway. “Robbie Clark was puzzled that Kyler and Tia were hanging around together, since he didn’t think they were buddies, but he believed Kyler’s lie that they were in it together. And was doubly convinced when Tia passed him in the hall and did this.” He demonstrated the I’m watching you hand signal, pointing across the table at Dion.
Shiomi said, “I see where this is going. Robbie Clark killed both boys?”
“Unlikely. We’re still pretty sure Tia died of an overdose. Maybe on purpose. Maybe the hundred bucks he gave Oliver was a going-away present. We may never know. The theory is Kyler bribed Tia to give Clark the warning. Tia likely wondered what it was all about, but everyone agrees he wouldn’t have done it if he’d known it was linked with a serious crime. Is it the cause of his depression? I’m not sure.”
JD said, “So Kyler invented a ghost accomplice.”
“For backup,” Leith agreed. “And to up the ante. And it worked. Clark felt trapped, knowing there were two witnesses, two blackmailers. He says he paid Kyler two thousand dollars for his silence.”
“This’ll end in tears,” Shiomi said.
“It sure did. Tia’s death was good news to Clark. Now he only had one blackmailer to deal with. And turns out Kyler was right to worry. When he approached Clark for a second installment — maybe Kyler wasn’t even aware that Tia was dead at that point — Clark decided this had to end. He agreed to meet him, and chose the rock where Tia had died.”
“I have a theory about that,” JD said. “It was Clark’s way of giving his blackmailers the finger, having them both die on the same spot.”
“Could be,” Leith agreed. “What we know is Clark drove past the Hartshorne home, intending to park farther along to avoid being seen, but Kyler had seen him cruise by and rushed out to join him. That was unlucky for Clark, as Kyler’s mom saw the meet up and was able to identify Clark’s vehicle. Clark agrees it was a mistake, using his own distinctive car. As he told me, he should have rented a damned Toyota. But he didn’t. He took precautions, though. Parked some distance from the jumping rock, and insisted he and Kyler walk there separately. They met on the rock, as planned. Met by the flowers someone had put down in memory of Tia. They were supposed to talk about the terms and do the payoff. From that point it was easy for Clark. He gave Kyler a shove, planted the note, and took off.”
And Kyler had fallen in the worst way, headfirst into the rocky shallows. Knocked out, he had drowned. Unlike Dion, who had landed feet first in the depths of the pool. Leith wrapped up the sordid tale. “Clark’s forgery is going to help put him away, but really it’s Millie who won the day for us.”
“Three cheers for Millie,” JD exclaimed, glass raised.
Everyone at the table except Leith raised a toast to Millie. He had sympathy for the woman, but wasn’t ready to give her any medals. She’d raised Kyler to be the type of guy who’d watch a woman die instead of helping her. For that, Millie Hartshorne had to take some blame. It was just another layer of sadness to this case.
“Millie’s been charged for assaulting Clark, by the way,” he said. “I’m not sure it’ll be a bad thing, for her. Crown says she’ll plead. She won’t get much of a rap, but she will get help. Which she needs.”
“So Tia Garland is the only outstanding question,” JD said. “Why did he do it?”
There would be no clear answer to that one, but the rumours circulating around the school about Tia kidnapping his own sister didn’t help. But there was maybe a bigger picture, a global-sized depression. In looking through boxes of documents for evidence in the Luna Garland kidnapping, back when Tiago had been a suspect, Leith had come across an English essay the boy had submitted. It spoke of where the world was headed, which was down the tubes. The planet was dying, and the leaders weren’t leading his generation to a better place. As far as Tia could see, the end was near.
If he’d listened to some classic rock songs, it might have given him some perspective on the world ending, Leith thought. Or maybe not. But Tia was getting negativity from all sides. The stress of Luna’s disappearance. Parents too busy with their own skirmishes to notice his troubles. Pile that on top of the usual conflicts that come with growing up. Boy oh boy, the kid had plenty reasons to be blue, Leith reflected. A whole world full of reasons.
* * *
The conversation lightened around Dion. A live band was setting up, which was new to Rainey’s. The pub was celebrating some kind of anniversary, and chairs were cleared from around the karaoke stage for anybody who wanted to dance. He watched the band hooking up amps and adjusting mics, and reflected on Robbie Clark’s crime, how it mirrored his own, in ways. Clark had been living in fear of two witnesses, just as he was. Clark’s witnesses were both dead, but at least one of Dion’s was still out there, a girl with pink hair, the loose end without a name. The other was Brooke, and she was still missing.
Dion knew why Brooke was missing. His guardian angel had offed her, that’s why. Poole hadn’t said so, but what else could it be? He and Poole hadn’t spoken since confession day at the Quay, but their conversation played in a loop in his mind, winding his nerves tighter with every pass. He and Kate were officially split up again. So much for that parachute. Now there were warnings in the air, like Leith sending the I’m watching you signal his way tonight. Coincidence? Hardly.
The band started to play. They were into upbeat new-age rock and roll, and the set started off with a popular Imagine Dragons cover. A few couples got up to dance. The light show rigged by the pub was small-scale but effective, splashing and twirling mutating colours over the bodies in motion. Between songs a free round of drinks was announced to celebrate Rainey’s new direction.
Happy hour.
Niko Shiomi, sitting next to Dion, bumped his thigh with hers. “Wanna?” she said.
Dance, she meant, and that probably wasn’t all. Looking at her, he recalled the rabbit-face comment she’d made to JD, and was suddenly so angry he forgot to breathe. He was angry at everybody. Even dead friends, like Looch and Brooke. He was angry at himself most of all.
There was only one person he wasn’t angry at. Rabbit Face. And she was angry with him, and didn’t have the good grace to tell him why.
He turned down Shiomi’s offer and stood to say good night to the crew. Shiomi said, “Aw, Cal, don’t be a sad sack. Stick around and keep me company. I’ll buy you a drink. I’ll buy you two.”
JD had been watching them, and now leaned forward and made a show of lapping her tongue at something invisible clutched in her hand. A lollipop, ice cream cone, or somehting cruder. She looked ridiculous. “Guess what’s for dessert,” she hooted.
“Bitch,” Shiomi said. She stood and leaned toward Dion, affixing the top button of her blouse. She left her coat hooked on her chair, evidence that she was coming back, and murmured to Dion as she brushed past him, “Hope you’ll be here in thirty seconds.”
He wouldn’t be. He carried on with his plan to leave then, saying good night to everyone, and everyone wished him a good night in return, except JD. He wanted her to say good night most of all, and instead she turned away.
Out on the sidewalk under the awning he stood wondering how to catch some oblivion. Meds, alcohol, sex. Nothing worked. He was walking up Lonsdale wondering if opiates were the answer when he heard footfalls behind him, the clip-clop of heels. He turned to see Niko Shiomi shadowing him.
“I don’t give up that easily,” she called, grinning.
She wore a dark satiny coat and sparkling earrings. She camouflaged well against the glitter of city lights. His anger didn’t blow off, but shifted into a different kind of energy. He needed Niko right now like morphine, and this time he wasn’t going to say no. He held out his hand, and she ran to catch up.