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“Mr. Knight? We’ve got a bit of a situation.”
Billy and Stu drove to the coordinates that Bianca had told them to write down. It was a secluded road near Lake Toho, and when they arrived they were greeted by the sight of Tiffany sitting on the asphalt with her head in her hands. Her car was turned off, but Billy saw the blood on the front of it along with the cracks and dents. Bianca was in the grass, doing something with a large mass.
“They hit something,” Stu said. “Is that why she was so sketchy on the phone?”
“I think they hit some one , Stu.”
Billy parked the car in front of Tiffany’s. He turned the car off, bathing them in darkness. Tiffany hadn’t moved, but Bianca had straightened up when she noticed them. Billy could tell that her hands were covered in blood. She must have dragged the guy out from under the car all by herself. He was clearly heavy. Billy could tell he was a bigger guy, and she was wearing platform heels. Tiffany was in shock, leaving Bianca to do all the dirty work. Stu walked over to Tiffany and sat beside her, leaving Billy to help Bianca with the body.
He sighed and went to his trunk, popping it open and pulling out his big tarp and duffle bag. Bianca was looking down at her hands when Billy approached her. “Did rigor mortis set in?” He asked.
Bianca looked at him with wide eyes. “It’s only been an hour,” she said, shaking her head.
Billy nodded and took in the sight of the body on the ground. “We could chop him up and bury him, or we could wrap him in the tarp and drop him in the lake.”
“Next year, there’s gonna be some crazed fisherman chasing us with a hook,” Bianca said absently as she reached for the tarp.
Rolling his eyes, Billy unfolded the tarp. Together, they laid it flat on the grass. The tarp was meant for roofs, so it was big enough to wrap around the man several times. Billy rolled the man onto the tarp. Then he began rolling it up. “Get the ropes from the bag,” he said.
Without being asked again, Bianca got the ropes. She tied his legs, while Billy took care of the torso and head. He had more experience with it than she did, so he got more done in the same amount of time.
“Why didn’t you call the police?” Billy asked as he lifted the body into a bridal carry.
Bianca hurriedly stood up, looking at Tiffany. “I don’t want her to get in trouble,” she said. “It was an accident and I really care about her.”
Billy knew that it wasn’t guaranteed that Tiffany would have gotten away without consequences for the vehicular manslaughter, but hiding all the evidence just seemed too far for what he knew of her. Bianca, sure, she always had the potential of becoming either like him or like Sidney. “If you girls get caught, you’ll get in more trouble for covering this up than if you just went to the cops.”
Bianca grabbed Billy’s arm. Billy raised his brows at her, taking in the threatening look on her face. “You’re going to make sure we don’t get caught,” she said, daggers in her eyes. “That’s why I called you in the first place.”
“I could just go to the cops anyway,” Billy stated.
Bianca grinned, the anger leaving her eyes and being replaced by a hollowness. “Mutually assured destruction,” she shrugged before letting him go. She ran off to Tiffany.
Stu let her take his place, comforting Tiffany. He followed Billy to the trunk of her car. “Are we gonna dump her car along with the body?”
Billy nodded. “She’s gonna call her parents and the cops, report it stolen, and then they’ll get picked up.” He arranged the body so that it could fit in the small space. Luckily, Tiffany didn’t have anything in her trunk aside from a blanket. Stu grabbed it, looking it over. Billy slammed the trunk shut, then turned to Stu. “How’s she doing?”
Stu shrugged. “She’s worried her parents are gonna kill her since the car’s so expensive,” he tucked the blanket under his arm. “Not too torn up about the guy dying, but that might be the shock.”
When Billy explained the plan to Tiffany and Bianca, they took in every word. Bianca screamed when Stu punched Tiffany in the face and then the stomach. “What the fuck?!” She shouted.
“He’s making it look like you guys got jumped,” Billy supplied. Tiffany was crying, hunched over in pain. Then, Stu hit Bianca. He slammed her head against the car door behind her, causing a cut on her temple that slowly began to leak blood. “Give him the keys. He’s gonna go take care of it.”
Tiffany glared daggers at Stu, but she tossed him the keys. Stu handed her the blanket and smiled despite her unappreciative face. Billy led the girls to his car and then got into the driver's seat. Tiffany sat in the passenger, while Bianca climbed into the back. The drive was quiet - they were obviously seething at being hit, but they didn’t push their luck by complaining.
Billy dropped them off about a mile from the nearest gas station. He told them to call the police, and then he turned around and went back to meet Stu at the lake.
“Just how I wanted to spend my Sunday night,” Billy said as they began driving home, “helping two teenagers dispose of a body.”
Stu laughed. “It’s the circle of life, baby.”
Tiffany could hardly believe the week that she had. Her parents, surprisingly, weren’t pissed at her for “getting carjacked”. They even forgave her sneaking out to makeout with Bianca. The bruises really sold the story, to the cops and her parents. She had to admit, despite the initial anger they caused, that Mr. Knight was right.
She was allowed to skip school on Monday, since she stayed up most of the night talking to the cops about what happened. They believed her, which was a shock. They didn’t even separate her and Bianca for questioning. They took their statements together and let them add details to the others' story. It was weird, being believed when she was lying through her teeth.
A man was dead, and Tiffany’s parents were taking her to get a rental car. In a few weeks, if the car never gets found, they’ll definitely buy her a new one. With any luck, they’d never find out that Tiffany killed a man.
When was she supposed to start feeling bad? All she felt was grateful that she didn’t get caught. She didn’t want to hurt anyone, but she felt relieved that Bianca was so quick to think on her feet.
On Tuesday, when Tiffany walked into English class, things were normal. Mr. Knight was helping Tom with the outline for his essay since he already finished reading both his books. Bianca was sitting at her usual seat, attentively reading Jane Eyre. She had a big bandaid on her temple, right where her head had been slammed into the car door.
Despite their relationship, Tiffany hadn’t talked to Bianca since they parted ways after the police were done with them. Looking at the bandaid on her head made Tiffany feel bad for keeping her distance. She sat in her usual seat, the one at the table behind Bianca. After she arranged her stuff properly, she pulled a sticky note from her stationary pack. She wrote Bianca a quick note.
“Sorry I’ve been so weird. Sunday was A LOT.”
Bianca read the note, put her bookmark in her book, then began to fiddle with the note. Tiffany pulled out her laptop and began to set it up so she could read from the link Mr. Knight sent her. Bianca turned quickly, placing the sticky note beside Tiffany’s laptop. She had folded it onto the shape of a heart. Tiffany bit her bottom lip and grinned at the display. Bianca gave her a small smile, then turned back to her book.
Tiffany had already read Pride and Prejudice , which thankfully didn’t disqualify her from writing about it in her essay, but she had to finish Frankenstein before she could even begin to work on it. Bianca seemed to be taking the same, but opposite, approach. She already read Dracula, so she just had to read Jane Eyre. They were supposed to read together after school on Monday, but that obviously didn’t happen, so Tiffany was further behind than she anticipated.
She spent the entire period reading, even playing the audiobook at double speed to help her focus.
They stayed for lunch, like usual, when the bell rang. Bianca put her book away and turned her seat around so she was facing Tiffany. “Hi,” she said.
Tiffany minimized her tabs and focused on Bianca. “Hi,” she grinned.
Bianca rolled her eyes. “Nice shiner,” she pointed at her own face, where the bruise under Tiffany’s eye would be if it was on her instead. “Does your dad wanna kill the guy that did it?”
“What exactly happened?” Tom asked as he took his place in the seat next to Tiffany.
Tiffany stiffened at the question, but Bianca spoke up. “Some guy jumped us when we were on a date Sunday night. Stole her car and everything.”
The lie fell out of Bianca’s mouth so easily, and Tiffany found herself adding to it like she did when they spoke to the police. “We were stranded in the middle of nowhere, had to walk a mile and a half to find civilization.”
“Jesus,” Tom said with a grimace on his face. “That sucks.”
Tiffany looked at Mr. Knight. Billy Loomis, that was his real name. She had seen up close and personal what he and Stu were like. Billy had so easily disposed of a body, while Stu had gone from assuring her that things would be okay to punching her in the face. He had seemed so nice in all their prior interactions. Sure, his humor was off color, but he was more personable than Billy.
When he had sat next to her, he pulled the true story from her. She had seen him and she spilled her guts. He had chuckled when she said her parents would be so mad at her for what she had done.
“With the story you’re gonna tell them, I highly doubt they’ll be too mad.”
At the time, that hadn’t eased her worries. He was right, but she didn’t know then what they would tell her parents. When he realized she didn’t believe him, he started to tell her about that night in 1996. His realization that everything was crumbling around them, and the worry that his parents would disown him. Then, he explained that even though his parents knew the truth of him killing for fun, they still helped him become Jason Carter.
“If your folks really love you, they’ll help you get away with anything as long as it means you get to live and be happy.”