The Perfectionists

Chapter 32

UMA DROVE FAST AND BLIND, running up on the curb as she took a quick right. No one seemed to be following them. She could just make out Audrey's face, ashen and streaked with mud, in the rearview mirror. She looked as if she was going to throw up.

She peeled out onto a main road and stepped on the gas. "Slow down," Evie said in a strangled voice. "The last thing you need right now is to get a ticket."

Uma relaxed her foot on the pedal a little, but her knuckles were still white on the steering wheel. They'd just broken into someone's house. They'd just watched their teacher practically have sex with Audrey. And the way she'd felt, hiding in the kitchen—well, she never wanted to feel that terrified again.

Once they'd gone through two stoplights, Audrey looked around cautiously and held up something between her fingers. It glinted under a streetlight as the car passed it. "I found this buried in his backyard."

"What is it?" Jane asked, squinting.

"A second flash drive," Audrey answered.

"Give it here." Evie grabbed it. Then she rummaged around in the backpack she'd brought and pulled out a laptop. It chimed as she turned it on and waited for it to boot up.

"Did you say he'd buried it?" Uma asked.

"That's right," Audrey said. "Chad saw him bury something." Her face fell when she said Chad's name. "I found a metal box, and this was the only thing in there."

"What do you think he has on here?" Uma wondered. "More pictures of girls?"

"It's got to be something bad enough to bury," Audrey posited. She squeezed her eyes shut. "I'm sure he realizes I just screwed him over. Maybe he even knows the drive is missing. If we can't bust him soon, he'll come after us."

"You guys."

They all looked at Evie. Her face shone blue in the light from her computer. "This isn't Jay's flash drive." She looked up, her eyes full of terror. "It's Ben's."

Everyone gasped. Uma clamped her mouth shut, her skin prickling. She pulled into an empty parking lot. A dingy brick building housing a plumbing supply store loomed in the distance. Across the street, the bright lights of a 7-Eleven cast an eerie pallor on the pavement.

"But that's good, right?" Uma broke the silence, twisting around and looking at Evie. "I mean, why would Jay have it buried in his yard? The fact that he had it will be incriminating."

"It would have been, if we'd left it in his yard." Evie started opening files, staring down at the screen. "Now, as far as anyone knows, we have it." She moved her finger on the trackpad. "His email is on here. The messages are current up to the day he died."

She turned the screen so that Uma and Jane in the front seat could get a good look. Uma watched as she opened the Sent folder. Uma leaned over to see better, her eyes widening. There were dozens of emails to Jay Maraj.

Evie opened the first. The subject line read only Extra Credit.

Hey Mr. M—I think that you may have made a mistake when you graded my paper on Jean Cocteau. I'm pretty sure it should have been an A.

Then Evie clicked on an attachment. It was a still shot of Mr. Maraj leaning toward Justine Williams. Audrey gasped.

Then Evie opened an email that said Field Trip. Uma squinted at the message.

You're a funny guy, Mr. M. Unfortunately I cannot provide all originals unless we double the amount we previously agreed on. My car got keyed again. Fixing that is expensive, you know?