Page 24 of The Sleeping Girls

His face reddened. “Some of the mean girls… they picked on Kelsey’s friends. But Kelsey stood up to them.”

“Do you think one of those girls would hurt her?”

“I d… don’t know,” he said, his voice breaking. “It was just stupid stuff. They filled Ruby Pruitt’s locker with tampons. And someone cut a hole in June Larson’s gym shorts. But it wasn’t like… violent.”

Definitely bullying. “Tell me what happened last night. Did you go to Kelsey’s house?”

He scrubbed his hands over his face then looked up at Ellie. “Last night she called, upset.”

Now they were getting somewhere. “What was she upset about?” Ellie asked, thinking of the Virgin Pact photo and the meme challenge Landrum had found.

Mitch’s gaze shot to the lawyer. “Do I have to say?”

Mr. Jenner leaned forward. “Is my client under arrest, Detective?”

“No,” Ellie said. “But if he’s hiding something or knows where Kelsey is and doesn’t tell us and I find out, I will charge him with interfering with a police investigation.” She fisted her hands to calm herself. “You don’t want anything bad to happen to Kelsey, do you, Mitch?”

“No,” he said earnestly. “And I didn’t do anything to her. I’d never hurt Kelsey.”

His statement held a ring of truth. Maybe he had liked Kelsey. Ellie showed Mitch the picture of the girls posted on social media and the Virgin Pact Challenge post.

“Is this what she was upset about?” Ellie asked.

Mitch’s bronzed skin turned a pasty white. For a long minute, he lowered his head and stared at the floor as if he didn’t want to look at the picture.

Mrs. Drummond clenched her husband’s arm.

“Tell me about this, Mitch,” Ellie said. “Did you post it?”

“God, no,” he said on a shaky breath.

“If you didn’t post the challenge, do you know who did?”

A pained sigh escaped him. “I… don’t know. It just showed up last night.”

“You had nothing to do with it?”

“No,” Mitch said gruffly. “I… wouldn’t do something like that.”

Tension stretched in the room as Ellie gave him a moment. “And you talked to Kelsey about it?”

The lawyer squeezed Mitch’s shoulder. “Go on, Mitch.”

Mitch exhaled. “Kelsey texted and was upset, said she’d meet me outside. She insisted she didn’t post those pics on social media. So I snuck out and walked over to her house and she climbed out the window.”

“Mitch,” the mother said, her voice pained.

“I’m sorry, Mom,” Mitch said, shooting her an apologetic look. “But when I saw that post, I was worried about her. She sounded hysterical.”

Ellie gave him a small smile of encouragement. “Then what happened?”

“We went into the woods so her mother couldn’t hear what we said or see us together. Then Kelsey got all mad and accused me of posting it,” he said. “Said she thought that was the reason I asked her to Homecoming.”

Mrs. Drummond buried her head in her hands, but Mr. Drummond simply shrugged. “Boys will be boys,” he said with a flash of something sinister in his eyes as if he’d probably done something similar as a teen.

Ellie stiffened. “Is that how it played out, Mitch? You wanted to break the virgin pact but Kelsey refused and the two of you argued and things spiraled out of control. Maybe you pushed her and she fell and hit her head.” She paused a second, watching his face as it contorted with emotions. “If something like that happened, Mitch, you need to tell me where she is.”

TWENTY-FOUR

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