Fontaine Five

TWO

          ILIANA GARCÍA'S HANDS are shaking me awake.

"What?" I snap, though it comes out groggy. My mother never wakes me up on weekends, and if for some reason she does, I usually ignore her.

This time, she doesn't stop. "Ellis' father is on the phone. He wants to talk to you."

"What?" I repeat in a different tone, but her words were clear as glass. I sit up, aware that my hair is still damp from the hot shower I took last night, after sneaking in past midnight.

She hands me the telephone, hand over the mic. Ellis' father doesn't make phone calls, not to our household, not to me. "What does he want?" I whisper.

"I don't know, Rory. He just asked for you."

I take the phone and gingerly press the speaker to my ear. My mother leaves. "Hello?"

"Aurora. Ellis isn't answering his phone. I've been calling all morning, since he didn't come home last night."

My own phone on my bedside table lights up, out of the corner of my eye. I lean over and read missed calls from Blair. Distant alarm bells start to sound in my head.

Daniel Grey continues. "Tell him to come home immediately. And tell him I've no interest in speaking to him until he does."

"Oh, I'm sorry, Mr Grey; he's not with me. He must have spent the night at Orlando's. We were all there yesterday - his phone's probably just dead."

I'm met with an uncomfortable silence. Static. "He's not with you?"

"No, I haven't seen him since last night. I came home alone."

"I don't understand. I just called the Venturi household, and was told he went home with you."

I feel myself shaking my head. "That's not true, sir, I -"

"Do you know where my son is?"

The ringing intensifies. "No, I don't."

An exasperated sigh. "Find him. And please, send him home when you do." He hangs up.

I stare at the phone in my hand. Surreality washes over me, and for a moment, everything feels out of place relative to my thoughts, the way a mirror looks when it's cracked all over. Whatever it reflects are broken, misconstrued pieces of what's really there.

As I begin to fathom how it came to be that Daniel Grey thought Ellis was with me, my mother swings by my door, putting on a blazer. Lawyers don't get days off, not really, which works out fine for everyone since she's a workaholic and I like the distance.

"What did he say?"

"He thought Ellis was with me because he didn't get home last night."

"So where is he? Don't you know?"

Instead of answering, I throw my sheets aside and grab a pair of jeans off the floor. "I'm going to Lan's."

V

My finger moves to the button on my left to roll my window down. The red unblinking camera light stares me down. "It's Rory," I tell whoever's behind it impatiently. "Rory Clarksen. Why don't you just remember my plate number for next time, huh?"

The gates slide open to let me onto the Venturis' driveway. Apparently unnecessary security measures are what happen when you have so much money you don't know what to do with it. I park haphazardly next to Lan's car and cross the gravel to the front doors.

Jude answers. He's wearing Lan's clothes, and there's something unreadable in his eyes. "Rory. Why haven't you been picking up your phone? We wanted to give you guys a heads up about Ellis' dad before he rang you." He glances behind me to my car. "Where is he? Where's Ellis?"