Poisonous: A Novel (35 page)

“Talk to Amanda about Madison Cross, just like we’d planned.” Max paused. “And we’ll have a conversation with Jenny Wallace about Tommy’s sleepwalking. Ask to look at their security system.” But she didn’t think Jenny would let them.

“Max, you can walk away,” David said.

“I’ve never walked away from an investigation. I’m not going to start now. The truth may be inconvenient, but it’s better than anything else. And that’s all I can do.”

*   *   *

Max and David drove the block up the hill to Jenny Wallace’s house. It was five in the evening, and Max was surprised to find Jenny home. She had hoped she wouldn’t be.

Jenny smiled at them, but her eyes were rimmed in red. “Come in,” she said. “Can I get you anything?”

“No, thank you,” Max said. “Do you have a few minutes?”

She nodded and closed the door behind them. They sat in the living room.

“Are you okay?” David asked. “You look upset.”

“I am. I’m sorry.” She squeezed her eyes shut and took a deep breath. “It’s Paula. She’s furious about the show last night. When I saw it, I thought it turned out so well—you showed Tommy as I see him, as a sweet, loving young man. You’ve been so kind to him, Ms. Revere. You listen to him. So many people don’t listen to kids like Tommy. Explaining all this to him has been … challenging.”

“I saw Tommy after school today,” Max said. “He told me about the restraining order.”

Fresh tears slid down her cheeks. “Paula called me last night and we argued. She said she was getting a restraining order. I didn’t believe her, but then she called me this morning at work and said Bill had agreed. I-I— It took me hours to reach him. We’re going to sit down with our lawyers on Monday and work it out. We have to work it out, for Tommy’s sake. Bill just can’t allow this to happen. He told me he didn’t agree to the restraining order, Paula told him about it on the phone just before he boarded a plane in New York. She lied to me because she didn’t think I’d be able to reach him.”

“I’m glad you’re going to talk,” Max said.

“I don’t know what to do—I thought the show went well. I didn’t know Ivy, but I was heartbroken when she died. Any mother would be. I went to Paula, but…” Her voice trailed off. “That was last year. And now, with someone like you taking an interest, I really thought it would mend fences. And for her to be so angry with me, with Tommy, with Austin. I don’t understand how she could possibly think Tommy would ever hurt anyone, especially a girl he considered his sister. No matter what she did, Tommy loved Ivy because she was his family.”

“I’m culpable,” Max said. “The situation with your ex-husband’s wife is partly my fault for continuing this investigation.”

“I don’t know why Paula is so upset,” Jenny said. “You showed Ivy in a much better light than most. Anyway, the really rotten thing is that Austin is good for Tommy. And honestly? Austin is a nicer kid when he’s around my son.”

David said, “She may be more upset that Austin broke the rules than about what he was actually doing.”

Max disagreed, but didn’t say it. “I hoped I could speak to Amanda.”

“Why?”

“Some of the leads we received on the hotline related to other people who were bullied by Ivy. One of them was Madison Cross, a friend of Amanda’s.”

“Maddie—she moved away two years ago, before high school. Her father got a job teaching in San Rafael.” Jenny looked from Max to David, then back to Max. “What does that have to do with Ivy?”

“Were you aware that Madison had been bullied by Ivy? That the family moved away because of her?”

Jenny shook her head, her eyes wide. “Amanda has never particularly liked Ivy, but I didn’t know why. Other than the obvious.”

“Obvious?”

“Amanda has expressed concern that her father spends more time with his stepdaughter than his own daughter. I tried to explain it to Bill, but he doesn’t look at things the same way. That he’s living in the house with his new family doesn’t apparently
count
in the time he spends with his new family—only the things he does outside of the house. And he keeps a log of the hours he spends doing things with Tommy and Amanda.”

“Without realizing,” David said, “that it’s the home life that Amanda is missing.”

“Exactly.” Jenny was pleased David understood. “Amanda is sixteen now, she’s adapted like most children of divorce do. It was harder when she was younger.”

“May we speak to her about Madison? I’d like to find out specifics on the incident that had the Cross family moving.”

“How will that help find who killed Ivy?”

“I don’t know, but it’s one more piece to the puzzle.” Max didn’t want to tell her about the call or the letter Madison claimed came from Ivy’s killer. “The more we know about how Ivy operated helps us retrace her steps the day she died.” That sounded lame, but Jenny nodded as if she understood.

“She’s in her room studying,” Jenny said. “I’ll get her.”

She left, and David turned to Max. “I’ll talk to Amanda alone.”

“Okay,” Max said.

“No argument?’

“You built a rapport with her the other day. She responded to you. I’ll check on Tommy, see how he’s doing.” Max paused. “In his letter, Tommy wrote that his sister thought Ivy’s best friend killed her. Maybe you can find out if she meant Bailey or someone else.”

Max waited until Jenny came out with Amanda.

The girl looked both curious and a little scared. “You want to know about Maddie? Why?”

Max said, “We’re putting together a timeline of everyone Ivy may have embarrassed or hurt with her social media postings. Madison’s name came up.”

“That was so long ago.”

“It seems that way,” Max said, “but she moved only a few months before Heather Brock committed suicide. It might be connected. And it might not—but until we can piece together Ivy’s life before she died, we won’t be able to solve the case.” Max glanced at her watch. “Jenny, would you mind if David talks to Amanda? I want to see Tommy before we have to leave.”

“Of course,” Jenny said. “He’s in the den watching his favorite movie. He was so confused about the restraining order today, I needed to distract him.”

*   *   *

Max left with Jenny, and David turned to Amanda. “How are you holding up?”

She shrugged. “Fine. Why wouldn’t I be?”

“You were on television last night. Sometimes at school things can get weird.”

Again, the shrug. David didn’t like when Emma shrugged her answers, it seemed elusive to him, like she was holding back. But Amanda had a lot she was holding back. He’d only caught a glimpse of it before.

“Sit down,” he said.

She sat. He hadn’t meant for it to come out as an order, but his voice was naturally commanding.

“Your mom told you we want to talk about Madison—it’s important, Amanda.”

“Why?”

“I’ll tell you something that isn’t public information. But you need to keep this between us.”

She nodded and leaned forward.

“Madison called the ‘Crime NET’ hotline last night. She didn’t say much, except that Ivy was the reason she left Corte Madera.”

Amanda’s eyes widened. “She called? She saw the show?”

David nodded. “She wouldn’t say why she left. But I think you know.”

“That was forever ago.”

David waited. He could see that Amanda was thinking—maybe she didn’t want to share Madison’s secret.

“Is it true that the police took down everything that Ivy wrote on the Internet?” she asked.

“They removed her social media profiles and archived the information. That’s important in case there’s a trial down the road. It’s not easy to find, but everything that’s been posted online is still out there somewhere. And the police have the original archive. Our tech people at NET are working on rebuilding her profile for Maxine’s story.”

“Story? I thought that’s what you did last night.”

“She’s looking at a bigger story, instances where social media was used to facilitate a crime. Meaning, it was one of the reasons behind a crime. Cyberbullying is only one part—people hurting other people online, usually because it’s anonymous.”

“Ivy was never anonymous,” Amanda said. “She seemed proud of what she was doing.”

“I’ve seen that in what I’ve put together. And Madison?”

Amanda frowned. She didn’t want to talk about it. David was about to push when she said, “Maddie moved two years ago, right before we were going to start high school. I’ve barely talked to her since. Her dad doesn’t let her go on social media, so I can’t keep in touch. She has an e-mail, but rarely checks it. Last summer we got together for a weekend, but…” her voice trailed off.

“Things weren’t the same.”

“Yeah.”

“What did Ivy say or do that was so awful that Madison had to leave town?”

It took Amanda a good two minutes of David remaining silent—and her fidgeting—before she said, “Maddie used to cut herself. Ivy found out when she caught her in the bathroom at school. Ivy was in eighth grade, we were in seventh. Ivy told everyone. At first, I didn’t think it was all that bad, because I knew what Maddie was doing, and I didn’t know how to make her stop, and I didn’t want to go to her dad, you know? Unless it got really bad. That would be like betraying your best friend. Maddie worked so hard to stop, and she did for a while, but then when Ivy went to high school and we thought she was done tormenting us, we went to a football game—and someone said something to Maddie. And she was horrified. That’s when she discovered that Ivy was still talking about her online.”

“Ivy was talking about what?”

“That Maddie was seeing a psychiatrist. She didn’t actually say Maddie, but she put in enough information that people who knew her even a little bit knew the post was about Maddie. Like, how many people have a mother who died in a car crash when they were little whose dad is also a teacher at the high school?” She rolled her eyes in frustration—there was pain and anger there. “People are mean, Mr. Kane. They teased Maddie about it. Her dad was worried about her because she started cutting again, so they moved, he said, to get her out of the ‘toxic environment.’” Amanda frowned.

“And?”

“And that’s it.”

“That’s not it, Amanda. You said that Ivy was tormenting ‘us,’ meaning both you and Maddie.”

“I didn’t.”

“You did.”

She fidgeted. “I guess—I don’t know. I feel like it’s my fault that Maddie moved. Ivy was my stepsister, and she hurt my best friend. I think Maddie blamed me for it. I mean, we talk sometimes, but it’s not the same. I never told Ivy anything about Maddie, I wouldn’t do that. I never talked to Ivy anyway. She wanted nothing to do with me, and that was fine. Her mom is a phony, and I didn’t like going over there anyway.”

“I’m sorry you had to go through all this.”

“Last time I talked to Maddie she sounded happy, so that’s good, right?”

“Yes, it is.”

“I have homework,” Amanda said, fidgeting.

“One more thing. When Tommy wrote to Max, he said you thought Ivy’s best friend killed her.”

Amanda frowned, clearly confused. “I never said that. And I don’t even know Ivy’s friends.”

“Perhaps Tommy thought that because of something you said?”

Amanda shrugged. “The only thing I can think of is that I was surprised to see Bailey Fairstein at the funeral because while they used to be friends, Bailey hated Ivy. Maybe Tommy thought that meant she had a reason to kill her. I don’t know.”

*   *   *

Tommy looked both happy and nervous when Max walked into the den. It had been turned into a media room, with a large screen TV, a computer on a desk, books, and at least a thousand movies and video games. He paused his movie and stood up politely. “Hey, Ms. Revere.”

“I said you can call me Max.”

He nodded and glanced at his mom.

Jenny went over and rubbed her son on his back and smiled. “Max came by to see how you’re doing, isn’t that nice?”

He nodded. “I’m watching
Shrek.
Have you seen
Shrek
?”

“No, but I heard it was good.”

“It’s the best. Or at least it’s in my top ten favorite movies. I keep a list. I moved it to number eight when I got
Guardians of the Galaxy
for Christmas. That’s number seven now. I had to take off
Star Wars.
I still like
Star Wars
a lot, but it’s not in the top ten anymore.”

“You like making lists?”

He nodded. “So I don’t forget anything.”

“I do the same thing.”

He beamed. “I can go back to the beginning if you want to watch
Shrek
with me.”

“I wish I had the time.” When was the last time Max had seen a movie? Some indie movie in New York with Ben. One of his friends had produced it. It was crap and she’d told Ben it was a waste of two hours and fifteen minutes of her life. That was a year ago. When she was in college, she, Karen, and Ben had gone to the Film Forum nearly every week to watch old movies, anything from spaghetti westerns to Hitchcock to classics like
Casablanca.

She hadn’t been to the Forum since Karen died.

“I don’t want to interrupt your movie,” Max told Tommy. “I just wanted to see how you’re doing, and make sure you didn’t have any questions. Like I told you this afternoon, just call me. You have my cell phone number.”

“I memorized it,” he said, then recited the number.

Jenny said, “Tommy has always been very good with numbers. We had to make sure when he was a little boy that he knew his address and phone number. Just in case.” She kissed his cheek and said, “Go back to your movie, sweetheart. I’ll call you when dinner’s ready.”

“Okay, Mom.” He sat back down and pressed the play button.

Max and Jenny stepped out and went back to the living room. There they found David and Amanda were laughing about something.

“Amanda is a smart kid,” David said.

“Straight As,” Jenny said. “She’s always done well in school. We’re taking a week next spring to tour colleges on the East Coast.”

“Can I go to Tanya’s house?” the teenager asked.

“Dinner will be ready in an hour.”

“I’ll be back by then.”

“Go ahead,” Jenny said.

After Amanda left, Jenny said, “This situation has been hard on both my kids. Amanda has always been a rock, though. It breaks my heart that her father is such a selfish ass. She’s going to go off to college in less than two years and he’s going to realize he’s done nothing to keep the relationship going. He can’t turn back the clock and make up for all the damage he’s done.”