A ploy to make me think I'm the one in control. "Might as well help each other with forming a well-rounded story."
"The kid's name was Jared Smith. He was seventeen years old. Several months ago, he started showing signs of aggression. You know, mood swings, getting into trouble, cussing his parents out, and other behavior that seemed out of character. Then he was expelled from school for breaking a teacher's finger."
Lou nodded. He knew everything she was telling him.
She continued, "The family's priest got involved roughly two months ago. He experienced some odd occurrences in the house and with the boy. Typical poltergeist–type stuff."
"Incidents that accompany possession."
"Yeah. I guess the thing that convinced the priest was an incident involving the sound of squealing pigs. What's more, allegedly Jared levitated off the floor while in a standing position."
Maintaining eye contact, he waited for her next bit of information, but she remained silent.
"That's it? That's everything you got?"
"Pretty much." She raised a wineglass to her lips as the waitress placed bruschetta, calamari, and antipasto salad onto the table. "You have anything to add?"
"Those are all great surface details," Lou said. "Dave and I pretty much knew everything you mentioned. But we also learned that the kid was a popular jock at school. He'd started turning away his friends about six months ago. Dave talked to one of the kids who posted the stuff online. He told us who Jared's closest friends were. So, that's a promising lead to follow up on."
"Any additional details regarding the kid's possession?"
"The parents had taken Jared to a psychologist, and after a few sessions the shrink stopped seeing him after she started to hear banging and other strange noises in her office. The parents were desperate, and that's when the priest got involved."
"Hmm." She nibbled a bite of bruschetta. "You're going to track down his friends?"
"Leave no stone unturned. You know how it is with these things. Get as much information as possible from every available source."
"I know." She smiled. "That's why Walter and I are interviewing the priest tomorrow."
* * *
Conner walked into Adam's house and headed straight for the living room, where Hailey, Jasmine, and Trevor sat. "Where's Adam?" he asked.
"Upstairs," Trevor said, "Getting dressed."
He contemplated going up to Adams' room, but he cozied up next to Hailey on the sofa. "I heard you had a crazy day at school."
"Yeah. But you know how Alex can be."
"An asshole."
"Uh. I was going to say jerk. But yeah, you're right. He can be a complete asshole."
Stunned into silence, Conner locked eyes with her as Jasmine and Trevor laughed like they'd heard the punchline to a hilarious joke.
Hailey smirked as though genuinely pleased with herself.
The front door opened and closed. Miguel and Levi walked into the living room with two six-packs of beer each and Kayla close to their side.
"The life of the party has arrived," Miguel announced.
Levi removed an electric-blue beanie from his head and ruffled his hair. Slumping onto the nearest chair, he said, "I'm starving."
"How'd the match go?" Trevor asked.
"Seth Daniels beat me ten to eight."
"Damn. Sorry," Conner said. "You've had a pretty good winning streak. Next time you'll kick ass."
"He was tough. He's been working on his technique, and it paid off. He seemed quicker and stronger."
At the sound of the doorbell, Adam bounded down the stairs. A minute later, he entered the room with three boxes of pizza. "Dinner!"
* * *
Stella wasn't willing to divulge how she'd persuaded the priest to agree to an interview. "I'll let you know how it goes."
"I'm reaching out to Jared's closest friends tomorrow. So, I'll let you know how that goes." Lou twirled puttanesca onto his fork. "I don't see any reason why we can't help each other out."
"You gotta admit, the priest is a damn good catch."
He paused his chewing long enough to mutter, "Yeah."
"That's a rather reserved response."
"Yeah, getting the priest to talk is fantastic. Hopefully he'll provide all the creepy details. Since he allegedly performed the exorcism, he should have a lot of important information."
"Well, I hope so." She pressed a cloth napkin to her lips. "I'm sure Jared's friends can give you some great information too."
"We both know it takes several sources to develop a story. While the priest can talk about the exorcism, Jared's friends can fill in the blanks concerning his behavior and circumstances that led up to the possession."
Lou would have done just about anything to sit down with the priest. He had to acknowledge the fact that Stella was damn good at her job. She'd convinced the priest to talk. Now he had to convince Jared's friends to discuss what they might know about the possession. They both knew their work on the case would merge at some point. They needed each other. And if he managed to secure an interview with Jared's parents, then she'd need to admit that's a damn good catch, Lou. Perhaps Jared's friends would be his ticket to Jared's parents. But in the meantime, he still had one thing that Stella didn't: a possible cable network series about to go into production—a tantalizing prospect that he could use to his advantage.
"I'm gonna step outside to smoke," he said. "Then we can order dessert and talk about the Hollywood deal."
"Great." She picked up her phone. "I need to call Tara and Owen."
* * *
Since earlier that afternoon, when Jasmine mentioned the get-together that night, Hailey had started working out a plan in her head. She was going to cut loose, go with the flow, let her hair down, allow herself to experience living on the edge, so to speak. She knew there would be alcohol, so she'd decided that she'd at least taste it. She knew conversation would turn inappropriate at some point, so she'd promised herself the freedom to participate, to some degree. And she knew that she and Conner would spend time focused on each other—him behaving more flirtatious as the night wore on—so she'd vowed not to be so
