Jessie Humphries - Killing Ruby Rose

“She’s not answering.” My mom’s voice sliced through my spinning frenzy. Why couldn’t I involve her? “I’ll leave a message.”

As she waited to leave a voicemail on a phone that would probably never be found, my mind raced.

Wait, Dr. T’s phone wasn’t off. It rang before it went to voicemail. That meant it could be tracked. If I called the phone, the nearby towers would ping her location—and we might find her before he turned it off and demolished it. I had to act fast.

If there was ever a time I needed my mom, it was now. She had the resources to track the phone, and she cared about Dr. T, too. Surely, she’d pull out all the stops to find her. But a flashback of the blonde girl on Ninth Street stung my mind. Silver didn’t bluff. I couldn’t risk Dr. T’s life by involving Jane. I’d have to find another way.

Suddenly, I knew where I needed to go. To the only person I trusted.

As my mom left Dr. T a voicemail, I escaped. Even when she yelled after me to come back, I kept running to Big Black.

“Slow down,” Liam said, grabbing me by the wrists after I told him about the key. “Ruby, everything is going to be OK.”

“No, it’s not,” I argued. “You don’t understand. This can’t happen to her. Not Dr. T.”

Looking over his shoulder at half the football team and most of the cheer squad staring at us, he pulled me deeper under the bleachers for privacy. Even though Alana’s back was firmly facing me, I wondered if it hurt her that I’d come running to Liam and not her.

“Ruby, just breathe for a second.” Liam still wore his pads with his helmet pulled back on his head. He looked so normal, so All-American. And here I was, drawing him into my dark world, trying to fight a serial killer.

“So, what do you want to do?” he asked quietly

“I need someone with access to cell phone tower information,” I said, knowing it was a ridiculous game plan. A Hail Mary.

“Well, who would have that kind of access?”

“A detective, I guess.” I thought out loud. “Someone who could get a quick warrant.”

“Well, how many detectives do you know who could help with that?” he asked, as if he already knew the answer.

I knew it, too, and the answer was “one”: Detective “I’m Gonna Take You Down” Martinez. I put my face in my hands. I couldn’t believe it had finally come to this. But if it meant Dr. T might live, I would willingly place myself at the mercy of a man I wasn’t sure I could trust.

“It looks to me like you don’t have a choice,” he said, pulling my hands away from my face and nudging my chin so I’d look up at him. “Do you still have his card?”

“I think so,” I said, fumbling through my backpack. “Yeah, here it is.”

“Good. Let me just tell Coach I gotta go. I’ll be right back, OK?”

I wanted to stop him. Tell him I could do this on my own. Tell him I’d go to Detective Martinez first and then call him. But the truth was, I needed him. Or maybe I just wanted him so badly that it felt like need at this point.

Maybe if Liam had been with me when Father Michael died, I wouldn’t have fled the scene and lost the body. Maybe it would have prevented the whole thing. And maybe if Liam came with me now it would throw off some part of Silver’s plan, and we could get the upper hand.

I gripped the rusty key until it left marks in my skin. I would never let go of it until I found her. How many other loved ones had the same thought about their key before the police took it away as evidence? The thought made a bad taste come to my mouth, as if the key was firmly lodged in my throat.

“I just have to go change,” Liam said, suddenly in front of me again. “I’ll meet you at your car, and we’ll call Martinez together, OK?”

“Sure,” I responded, feeling nearly defeated already. I was about to cross over the point of no return—go to the cops, hand myself over to the Detective my mom had told me to stay away from, the man who’d betrayed my father—without any certainty we would ever find Dr. T. I panicked at the thought of where she might be. If she was scared or confused—or even alive.

“Hey,” he said, doubling back and reaching out to squeeze my hand. “It’ll be all right. We’ll find her. Remember, this guy keeps drawing you in. He wants you to save her, and he wants you to kill her abductor.”

Of course. I wasn’t thinking logically. I’d forgotten Silver’s game. This wasn’t the Key Killer acting alone, in which case Dr. T would never be found. This was Silver pulling the strings, and Dr. T was just bait. Not only would I find her, but I would have to kill another human being to save her.

I pulled away from Liam. I would kill again if it meant Dr. T would live. I didn’t like it. I didn’t want it. But I would do it if I had to.

Liam leaned against the hood of Detective Martinez’s unmarked police car while I paced next to it. Martinez sat in his driver’s seat with his door open, silently staring at his computer screen. He held his cell phone like a hand grenade.

If anyone from school saw us right now, they’d think that Liam and I had just been pulled over by an undercover cop. But asking Martinez to meet us outside Starbucks on Main Street was the first plan that crossed my mind. The location was public (which made me feel better), close to the precinct (yet far enough away that I couldn’t be thrown inside a detention cell), and near the Pacific Coast Highway (for a quick getaway to Dr. T). Too bad it was also busy. I could tell that a few people inside the café had recognized me. I turned my back to them and stopped pacing next to Liam.

“The warrant was issued at least forty-five minutes ago,” Martinez grumbled. “Damn it, this shouldn’t take so long.”

Liam and I looked at each other, wordlessly communicating our confusion at his being mad at anyone but us.

Minutes felt like hours while we waited for a shred of hope. It made little sense that Martinez wasn’t pounding me for answers, grilling me on the details. He’d simply taken my word for it that the Key Killer had pounced again and, without blinking, he’d requested the warrant to access the cell phone information. I’d even shown him the key with the messages attached. All he did he was sit there steaming, texting up a storm.

I was about to ask Martinez if there was anything else I could be doing, when the two-way radio in his car rumbled to life with a staticky voice. The only words I caught from a few feet away were “last known ping,” “Pasadena,” and “Rose Bowl Stadium.”

“Ten-four,” Martinez said, staring into the distance. He typed another text into his phone.

“What are you doing? Is everything OK?” I asked. Was there something I’d missed over the radio?

Sweat beads ran down his cheeks despite the cool dusk air. He ignored me and continued texting. I didn’t like it. As I was about to grab the car door, Liam blocked me with his arm, but I shoved him away.

“Detective, what’s going on?” I asked, standing directly next to the open car door. “If you don’t tell me, I’m going alone. I heard Rose Bowl Stadium. I’ll just go—”

“I warned them,” he said sharply. “None of this should’ve happened. None of it!”

“Who? Warned who?”

When Martinez wouldn’t answer, I spun to Liam. “Screw this. Let’s go. I don’t have to wait for a police escort.”

“Wait,” Martinez said, getting out of his car. “Ruby, you’re not going anywhere without me. Do you hear me, young lady?”

I ground my teeth. Young lady was better than sweetie or honey, but not by much.

“Well, I’m not going to sit around here listening to you spout off to yourself about who knows what!” I raised my voice. “Dr. Teresa could be dying right this second.”