Page 51 of Make No Mistake

She shook her head and pointed at the back of her head. “One here.” Then she tried to angle her hand to her back but got twisted up in herself. “One on my back.”

I wrote that down. That was different. The other girls got three hits.

“Were you still in the dumpster area or did you make it out?”

She thought about it for a second. “I was stepping out, but I woke up still in it. I must have fallen back.”

I wrote that down as well. There was no need to ask if it was a dark area. I’d been freaked out to throw out the trash at night since we moved in. It had three, high walls and the fence to close it in. At night, everything but the front of the lids were blacked out completely. The person wouldn’t even have had to be behind the dumpster. He could have been right next to her and she wouldn’t have seen him.

“Is there anything else you remember?”

She shook her head and held up her hands, suddenly interested in examining them.

I fought back a smile. Whatever the hospital had given her was obviously still in effect.

“Can I get you anything before I go?”

She dropped her hands and looked around. She had water and a plate of crackers on the table, and the TV remote was next to her. She looked set, but I wanted to make sure.

“I’m okay.”

I nodded. “Okay, if you need anything, you have my number and I live just across the lawn at the next building, so please call me.”

Her smile grew wide. “Thank you.” She sounded blissfully grateful.

I put my laptop in my bag and stood. “Okay, I’ll see you later. Just relax and I’ll lock the door behind me.”

“Bye, Mckayla.”

“Bye, Kensie.”

By the time I reached the door and looked back, her eyes were closed. Good. That poor girl needed to sleep it off.

When I got back to my place, I combined all of the girls notes and debated the best way to get this information to the public. I could add it to the newspaper, but I was realistic enough to know that not everyone read it. Even the online version, which had more readers than the print, was only a small percentage of the school.

How else could I let people know?

I dropped back on the couch and stared at the ceiling. We could add a text alert to tomorrow’s edition of the paper. That usually increased the readership.

Maybe Jay would have a better idea.