“She said they were going to Mexico for spring break. That she was okay and just needed to get away.”

“Did you know her family was planning to go on a trip?”

“Not until after the party. She said her dad decided at the last minute.”

“Did she text you from Mexico?”

Harper shook her head.

Keller decided that Harper had calmed down enough to return to questions about the party. “Did you tell anyone—your parents or a teacher or anyone—about what had happened at the party?”

“She didn’t want her dad to know. She said he didn’t … She made me promise.”

“Who’s the boy?” Keller asked. She wanted to shake the name out of Harper, but she needed to be patient.

“Eric Hutchinson,” Harper said. “He’s telling people he didn’t do anything, that she just freaked out and kicked him in the balls for no reason, but that’s not Mags.”

All the kids knew something had happened, but not one had talked to an adult.

“Anything else you can remember about the party? Or anything unusual about Maggie before she left for Mexico?”

Harper chewed on her lower lip. “There is one thing.”

“What’s that?”

“After we heard about the accident, Toby Lee came to find me. He said Mags had asked him for help before she left for Mexico.”

“Toby’s a classmate?”

“Yeah. He said she was trying to track down someone’s phone. Toby’s a computer guy.”

Tracking a phone? That was unusual. “Did he help her?”

“I think so. He can give you the details. But he thought it was weird.”

Keller wanted to shout, So why didn’t either of you tell anyone? But such was the teenage brain.

Keller thanked Harper for her help, asked her not to tell anyone what they’d discussed, and sent her back to class.

Alone for a moment, Keller felt her jaw clench as she realized that one of the last experiences a seventeen-year-old girl had on this planet was an upsetting incident with a boy. Harper said his name was Eric Hutchinson. Keller checked her watch. She needed to talk to Toby Lee about this phone-tracking business. But there was no way she was going to let what happened at that party die with Maggie Pine.

The principal returned to the office.

“I’d like to speak with Toby Lee,” Keller said. “But first, bring me Eric Hutchinson.”

CHAPTER 34

Eric sat up straight, arms folded, a scowl on his handsome face. He wore a shirt that had a picture of crossing lacrosse sticks and read EAST COAST DYES. His father—a ruddy-faced man with the build of a former athlete—sat next to him in a similar pose, chewing gum and glowering at Keller.