Dirty Little Liars (11 page)

Her phone buzzed just as she was pacing back and forth in front of the entrance to Courtney’s apartment. Now that she was here, she had absolutely no idea what to say. How did she explain the odd hour of her visit? How did she keep Courtney from checking her email? Or even better, how could she get rid of it before Courtney even discovered it in her inbox?

“Hello?”

Tyler’s concerned voice greeted her. “What’s wrong? Are you okay?” He genuinely sounded worried. About her. Though it could have been about the fact that her voicemail had said she was headed to Courtney’s apartment.

“I’m fine. For the moment. Things might take a turn for the worse in a few minutes.”

“I don’t understand. What are you doing at Courtney’s place? She’s downtown with me.”

The immediate tension drained from her chest and shoulders. At least now she didn’t have to deal with Courtney face-to-face.

“I did something stupid, Ty, and now I need your help.”

He paused for a moment. “Anything.”

“I need you to distract Courtney.”

“She’s still sleeping, so that shouldn’t be a problem.”

“Perfect. Grab her phone and hide your computer. If she wakes up I need you to keep her offline and away from any email.”

“I don’t understand. What’s happened?”

“Look, if you want to save your fake engagement you need to do exactly as I say. Right now.”

Tyler was quiet at her verbal threat, but eventually promised to follow her instructions. She hung up before he could ask any more questions. And now that Juliette was certain Courtney’s apartment was empty, she needed to find a way inside.

She walked up to the call box and entered the key code to the lobby. Thank God Courtney was too lazy to care about things like security. She was one of those girls who used her pin in front of total strangers, not even aware of who might be looking over her shoulder.

As she stepped into the ritzy, remodeled apartment building she knew why it was so easy for Courtney to be lax about such things. The $4,000 monthly rent tended to keep out the riffraff. And the Archestone did boast claims of round the clock security. Though the night guard at the desk barely glanced at her as she walked by. Who could blame him? There were at least a hundred tenants, maybe more. He probably assumed Juliette belonged here.

Juliette took the elevator to the 12th floor and then headed for Courtney’s apartment, 1203. She glanced quickly for any cameras and once satisfied pulled out her tools. She’d been picking locks since she was thirteen and found most entry locks a piece of cake. Slowly she twisted each of the thin rods into the doorknob until she felt the one in her right hand catch. She pulled at the trigger and the lock released. The door crept open. Juliette quickly slipped inside and shut it behind her.

Then she hesitated.
What if Ty was lying and Courtney was here, asleep in her own bed?
But she heard no signs of living, so she stepped farther into the apartment and began searching for Courtney’s laptop.

The apartment was impeccable; not a hair was out of place. She moved past the kitchen and dining room into the living room, but there was no sign of the laptop. She headed to the office, secretly wondering what kind of college student had enough money to live in a place with a spare bedroom. Apparently the rich kind with daddy governors who lie and steal and cheat their way to the top.

She didn’t have any problem with lying and stealing, clearly. But at least she wasn’t trying to hide what she was. Politicians are just crooks with fancy suits and bad hair.

But Ty has great hair.

Yeah, well there’s an exception to every rule.

There was no sign of the computer in the office so she headed for Courtney’s bedroom. She was just pushing open the door when she heard the front door open.

Juliette froze in mid-step, which in hindsight was stupid.

Then the familiar voice called out her name. “Jules?”

It was Ty. “What are you doing here?” she demanded. “Where is Courtney?”

“Relax. She’s sleep and this sounded urgent.”

“It will be even more urgent if she walks in on the two of us breaking into her apartment.”

“We’re not breaking in. Or at least I’m not. I have a key.” Ty continued into the bedroom leaving Juliette to follow. As soon as she entered she immediately spotted the MacBook Pro on the nightstand. It was closed but she could see the small white light that indicated it was still on.

I hope she doesn’t use a password protection for the main user account.

Juliette reached for the computer. If she was lucky maybe Courtney was still logged into her email and Juliette wouldn’t even have to bother with testing out a billion unique password combinations.
They
should have an app for hacking into your best friend’s computer.

Juliette peered down at the computer screen. The last internet browser was still open with at least a dozen or so different tabbed web pages. Unfortunately, Courtney’s email account wasn’t one of them.

“What are you doing?” Ty leaned against the closet door.

“I did something really, really stupid.”

“To her laptop?”

“No.” Juliette buried her head in her hands. She couldn’t bear to look at him as she admitted what a ridiculously stupid mistake she had made.

He came closer and sat on the other side of the bed. “Look, it can’t be that bad. You’re probably just overreacting.”

“I made a video confession about our sleeping together and emailed it to your fiancée at three in the morning.”

Chapter 24: Ticking Time Bomb

Ty’s legs nearly gave out and he slipped off the bed. She reached out to steady him, her hand gripping his toned biceps.

“Why would you do that?” he asked.

The look on his face was enough to make her heart break. “I was angry,” she pleaded. “And drunk. Very, very drunk. So I took some rather questionable advice and dealt with the issue head-on. It felt good, at least until I passed out.”

“Christ.” He pulled his arm away and stood to face her. “What the hell is wrong with you? Why couldn’t you just leave it alone?”

“I’m sorry, but yelling at me now isn’t going to get the damn video back.”

“And you lurking about over her computer is?”

Juliette slammed the laptop closed and stormed out into the living room. She couldn’t think in the bedroom, with pictures of Courtney staring her down at her, calling them both out as dirty little liars.

“You’re wasting your time.” Ty brushed past her, his cell phone already glued to his ear.

“Unless you have got a better idea…shut the hell up.”

He spun around and shot a furious glare her way. “It just so happens, I do.”

He turned his attention back to the phone. “Winston, it’s me.” He spoke into the phone. “I have a little situation. Call me. Now.” He clicked “end” and shoved the phone back into his coat pocket.

“Unless Winston is a computer hacker, we’re screwed.”

Ty was silent.

“Oh my God. He
is
a computer hacker.”

“I didn’t say that.”

“Yeah, but you didn’t deny it either.” She thought for a moment. “Is that how the two of you managed to find my home address?”

“No. Your address is in the student directory. Publicly available and everything.”

“No, Margaret’s address is in the directory. Mine is anonymous.”

His phone rang and he immediately began explaining the situation to whom Juliette could only hope was Winston. After a few minutes the two men hung up and Ty pulled the laptop away from Juliette and tucked it under his arm.

“He’s expecting us. The sooner he gets this computer the better.”

“If he’s such a good computer hacker, why do we need to go to him? Can’t he break into her email remotely?”

“Sure, if we had hours. But we don’t. The fastest way into anything is always direct, through the source.”

“You sound like you do this for a living,” Juliette said.

He smiled. “And you sound like you’re intrigued.”

“I am.”

Ty opened the door and they headed into the hallway. Once he had locked the front door they started for the elevator.

“Hacking is one of those things that seems like magic, to me. I mean, I get that it’s a science; everything is basically a series of zeroes and ones, right? So it’s only a matter of being smarter than the person who designed the program.”

“Something like that,” he said. The elevator doors opened into the lobby and Juliette headed towards the front entrance. Ty grabbed her arm and spun her in the opposite direction. They moved behind the bay of elevators and into a hallway.

She followed him. “Where are we going?”

“I drove here. My car’s in the garage.”

He pushed the door open and headed for the illegally parked Mercedes with chrome detailing. He clicked off the alarm and opened her door, but just as she turned to step inside she heard the sound of shattering glass.

Ty fell to the ground and Juliette jumped inside the car without thinking. She dropped the laptop on the floor and reached for the door behind her. The attacker grabbed for her but he was too slow. She smashed his hand between the door and when it bounced open he fell backward, crying out in pain. She slammed the car door shut a second time, only before she could click the locks the driver’s side door opened.
Oh God! Someone else is climbing inside!

Juliette panicked. Where the hell was her purse? She always, always, always had a weapon in her purse.

She grabbed the bag and was immediately grateful it didn’t have a zipper. She dumped the contents all over the floor and found what she needed. Her fingers clasped around the worn leather handle of Jean’s knife. Sure, most girls carried pepper spray, but she found the threat of the knife was a more effective deterrent. It only took one swing for her attacker to realize that she actually knew what she was doing.

The man crawled over her. Juliette waited until he was within arm’s distance and swung. The knife slashed across his face. A thick line of blood swelled over his cheek.

“You stupid little bitch.” He threw a heavy punch at her and the knife slipped from her fingers.

He took another swing at her and she tried to scramble out of the way but with the car door closed there was nowhere to go. His fist collided with her stomach, knocking all the air out of her lungs. The pain was excruciating and for a moment it was all she could think about. Then she felt his hands crawling up her legs. He gripped her tightly as he pulled her body toward him. She threw her hands above her head, searching for anything she could grab on to.

Her nails scratched at the leather interior of the door. Just as she managed to wrap her left hand on a door handle the attacker disappeared.

She pulled herself up to see Ty dragging the guy out by his waist. The guy remained immobile, caught by surprise, at least until he was able to clutch at the ground with his feet and get his bearing. He swung at Ty, but Ty was ready. Tyler grabbed a fistful of greasy black curls, and slammed the man’s head into the edge of the car. This time the man dropped to the ground and didn’t budge. Ty kicked him aside and climbed back into the Mercedes.

“What the hell just happened?” Juliette asked.

“Looks like someone just tried to carjack us.” Ty pulled down the mirror and wiped the blood from his forehead. He had a pretty nasty cut near his hairline. “Are you okay?”

Juliette ignored his question. “We should get you to a hospital, you might need stitches.”

“Not a chance in hell.” He reached into the backseat and grabbed a towel from his gym bag. Then he began tending to the wound. “If we go to a hospital it will be all over the news in a matter of minutes. I don’t want the extra attention.”

“I thought all press was good press.”

“It is, most of the time,” he said. “But the key is to know what the story is before you alert the press. I can’t do that until I know who attacked me and why.”

“How do you know it wasn’t a random attack? Did you make some deal with a mob boss or something?”

He grinned. “In my line of work, you never can tell.”

There was a knock on the door and the both of them jumped. It wasn’t the apartment manager, or the night guard, both of whom had reason to be monitoring the security feed in the parking garage. Rather it was a little old woman still dressed in her pajamas, a fuzzy red robe covering her blue and white nightgown. She had a pair of heavy boots on her feet, which looked extremely out of place.

Ty rolled down the window.

“I called the cops the moment I heard the screaming. Are you two okay?”

And just like that their plans to keep the attack quiet evaporated into thin air.

Chapter 25: Media Frenzy Take One

Within ten minutes a half dozen police cars arrived, along with two TV crews from local stations and Winston, who apparently also monitored the police scanners in his free time. “You’d be amazed at all the relevant breaking news we pick up simply by monitoring a few key channels.” He told her jokingly as he climbed out of his own car.

Actually, she wasn’t. She knew it was the same trick that the news crews used to get the drop on breaking news.

Winston strolled over to the small crowd of detectives and paramedics now doting over Ty and Juliette in tandem. “Sorry, guys. I need to speak with the senator in private for second. I promise it won’t take long.”

“We’re not finished questioning him,” the first detective said. He was a tall, heavyset man with a bald spot on the dead center of his head. He was dressed in a wrinkled gray suit that paled in comparison to anything that Ty or Winston would ever wear. But then again, the detective was at a much lower pay grade. Or he just didn’t give a damn.

Winston gave one of those charming smiles and then nudged Ty away from the group. They made it all the way to the garage elevator before he stopped and the two began exchanging words. Juliette could tell by the look in Ty’s eyes that he was concerned about something Winston had just said. For a split second his shoulders tensed and his brow creased. But as soon as he spotted Juliette watching him it vanished.