RUN!

34. Money & Power

Song: Money Power Glory by Lana Del Rey

   The police found the bike used to chase us down. It's registered under Conrad Jones' name. Declan's father. Mum, Dad and I stare at Detective Shawn and the report in front of him. We'd been called this morning to get to the station ASAP and Shawn made it clear that I could get late to school for this. It's been more than a minute since the detective broke the news to us and the office has been silent since.

"So you're saying my son was attacked by the Jones?" Dad finally speaks.

"We can't say. This bike was primarily used by Declan Jones, his son but further investigation shows that Declan was nowhere near the scene at that time," Shawn replies.

"Yeah, he played a game that day," I confirm.

"Then who? Who has access to his bike other than him?" Mum frowns at the detective.

"That is under investigation."

"Can we press charges?"

"Dad," I stare at my father. He glares back at me.

"You and another innocent girl could have died that day," he seethes.

"It's still under investigation, besides, this could be connected to Avery."

Both of my parents simultaneously grunt and roll their eyes at the sound of her name but Detective Shawn perks up.

"About that, earlier you had said that someone was trying to threaten you because of Avery. Do you have any reason to believe that person could be Declan?"

"Well...i don't know. Declan did lie about not knowing Avery. Other than that I don't have anything else."

"He lied? When giving his statement he made it pretty clear that Avery was nothing more than a classmate."

"Yeah other people confirmed otherwise. I don't know why he's trying to keep it a secret."

"Is there anything else you know that could be vital?" Shawn peers straight into my eyes and for a moment my heart stops.

"No sir." He knows I'm lying. It's so obvious, but he says nothing.

"Thank you for your time Mr King. I'll be sure to inform you if anything comes up."

  They shake hands and we walk out of the office and make our way to dad's SUV. When we get in mom turns to me.

"You should have told him about the diary," she reprimands me. Dad asks her what diary she's talking about but we both keep quiet. I pull out my ear plugs and zone out of their conversation.

I need to talk to Declan.

||

  I get to school 10 minutes into third period. This is the class I have with only Damien in it. Usually he keeps a seat for me but today Quinn is sitting next to him. When I walk past him after asking for permission from the teacher I nod at him but he looks straight ahead like I never even entered the room. I take a seat behind him and stare at the back of his head.

Damien's been acting weird for some time, what's his problem? I'm caught between wondering about Declan and wondering about Damien for the entire class and when the bell rings I spring up like my seat caught on fire.

"Dude, what's up with you?" I ask him before he can walk away. He turns around and gives me a look that says you finally noticed but he doesn't say anything. He just turns back around and starts walking towards the door.