Chapter 40: Chapter 40

It must’ve been a day for cleaning because that’s what her mother was doing, too. “There you are. Your phone has been ringing nonstop since you left. I really wish it wasn’t so loud.”

“Sorry,” Beth muttered wondering who was calling her now. She headed to the door to the stairs, her mother still talking behind her.

“Dinner will be ready in a few minutes. Your dad just got home from work. You really should go out in the back yard and play with him and the girls. You never do that anymore.”

“Okay,” Beth said, but her hand was on the door. How was she supposed to figure out who was calling so that they’d stop and also spend time outside with her family? Her mother continued to run a rag over the old piano in the corner of the room, the one no one knew how to play, and Beth headed upstairs, hoping whoever had been calling had good news.

She was glad her blinds were down so that there was no chance she’d accidentally see Ryan. It would take some adjustment, having him next-door but no longer to herself, or having any part of him at all, for that matter, but she’d have to figure that out since this whole situation with him and Halley wasn’t something she wanted to be a part of. With a heavy heart, she sunk down into her chair next to her phone and pushed the button to make her answering machine stop blinking and start talking.

“Hey, Beth. Sorry I’ve been calling for the last half hour or so, but I have something really important to tell you. Can you call me back? Oh, it’s Michael.” He left his number, and Beth shook her head—as if she didn’t recognize his voice. It was easy enough to remember the four digits he rattled off, so as soon as the answering machine stopped, she picked up the receiver and dialed. He answered right away.

“Hi, Michael. What’s up?” she asked, hearing the intensity in his voice even with his one word greeting. It was as if he somehow knew it was her calling.

“Beth! I’m so glad you called me back. You’re not going to believe what I found out.”

Beth felt her gut tighten. “Oh? What’s going on?”

“Well, last night, I decided to go do some investigating. I was thinking about what you said, about seeing Halley digging in the trash, and I wondered what in the world could possibly be so important that she’d be willing to get herself all gross putting her hands in who knows what, right?”

“Sure,” Beth replied impatiently, wishing he’d just hurry up already.

“So… I waited until it was really late, and I drove over to Phoebe’s house and took a couple of bags of her trash.”

“Seriously? Yuck, Michael!”

“I know, but I couldn’t risk going through it outside of her house.”

“You could’ve not taken her trash at all,” Beth reasoned.

“Yeah, but then I wouldn’t have found out what I found out.”

She decided maybe it was worth it after all if Michael knew something. “Okay, what is it?”

“There were a whole lot of prescription pill bottles in one of the bags, Beth. Most of them were empty, but a few of them had a couple of pills still in them.”

Beth felt her lungs restrict as she tried to breathe in. “Were they like the one you found in your truck?”

“Yeah. And a couple of them were in Craig’s name, some in the name of a woman named Olive Jenkins, too. So… it could’ve been either one of their names on that bottle I found in my truck. I knew it was a C or an O.”

“I remember you saying that. Okay—so if you stole this trash last night, why are you just now calling me?”

“Well, one of the bottles with Olive’s name on it had a few pills left in it, and I wanted to see what they were before I gave you a call. It’s taken me a while to figure it out. I tried doing some research at the library this afternoon, but that didn’t get me anywhere, so I finally ended up going to a pay phone and calling the pharmacy, pretending to be someone who needed to know what it was because I was taking care of my grandma.”

“Clever.” Beth wished he’d just get to the point. “And… what did the pharmacist say?”

“The bottle says termazapam, and I didn’t know what that was. I found out it is a benzodiazepine at the library and that it’s basically a very powerful sleep aid. But I wanted to know what the more common name was, and if this 30 mg pill is a typical dosage.”

“Yeah?” Beth asked, literally rolling her hand in hopes it would somehow make him hurry up.

“It’s Restoril, Beth.”

“Okay.” She had no idea why he expected her to know what that was, but she waited, assuming he’d keep talking.

“You know, the sleep aid? Kinda like valium.”

“Right. So?”

“So… usually the dosage is just 15 mg, but apparently Olive must really have a hard time sleeping because this doctor of hers in KC has prescribed her twice the normal dosage. Maybe they were messing with it, trying to figure out how much to give her, and that’s why there are still some left in this bottle. The date on this one is from May.”

“Michael, you’re saying that Halley was looking for drugs in the trash, right? We don’t know that this is exactly the one she was looking for, though, do we? I mean, maybe there are some uppers in there, too. Maybe she was just looking to get high.”

“Right. I did some research on some of the other pills I could find, too, but I don’t see a lot of other pills that would be something she’d want to take to get high. They’re mostly pain pills and heart meds. The only other thing I found was a bottle for an anti-depressant, but that was for Phoebe herself, and it was empty. It also wasn’t very strong. No, I definitely think it was the Restoril that Halley had in my car that night.”

“Let’s say it was. Why do you think she had it, Michael? Do you think she was having trouble sleeping?”

“No, Beth.” He sounded a little exasperated himself now. “Do you remember when Ryan pulled you out of Sammy’s car and your beers spilled down the front of my truck?”

“Yeah?” She definitely remembered Ryan coming to her rescue that night when Sammy got out of line.

“Well, I thought it was odd there were streaks of white in that beer when I cleaned it off the next day. Turns out Restoril isn’t very water soluble, and it dissolves even worse in alcohol or pop. And do you remember Sammy saying he felt really weird after he went off into the woods with Halley, even though he hardly drank anything that night? He looked like hell at the batting cages, remember?”

Now, he was going so fast, she could hardly keep up. “Are you saying you think she slipped this shit into my beer? And Sammy’s? Maybe more than once?”

“Yeah, I think she might have,” Michael answered quickly.

“But why would she do that?”

“Who knows? I think she’s one demented bitch, that’s all.”

Beth was quiet for a minute. Michael didn’t know what Zoey had told her earlier. If she told him that, he’d definitely lose it. He’d be calling the police or something else drastic, and she knew they didn’t have a case against Halley for slipping drugs into their beer. Besides, how could they even explain to the police why they had beer to begin with? She debated whether or not she should tell Michael everything she knew—about who Halley was, where she’d come from, and about Brock Hill. As Michael continued, saying how he thought maybe Halley was trying to ruin Beth’s reputation by making her look like she was plastered when she really wasn’t, Beth decided to keep the rest of the information to herself for now. “Listen, Michael, maybe you’re right, and she was just trying to make me look stupid. I don’t know. I definitely don’t trust her. But for now, let’s just keep an eye on her, okay? Maybe next time you catch her with the drugs, you can see exactly what they are.”

He didn’t seem to like that idea as he was silent for a long moment before he finally said, “Fine. But I think we should tell Ryan.”

Beth laughed. She didn’t mean to, but it just popped out of her mouth. There was absolutely nothing funny about the situation or the comment. “Good luck with that, Mike.”

“What do you mean?”

It would be hard to tell Michael about the conversation she’d just had with Ryan and not disclose the information she’d gotten from Zoey. “Nothing. It’s just—I went over to his house to try and talk him out of getting so attached to her. That’s where I was the first fifteen times you called.” He snickered, possibly embarrassed he’d called so many times. “Anyway, Ryan is infatuated with her right now, and I don’t think there’s anything we can say to change that. For now. I’m afraid if you try, too, or if I go over there again and try to tell him that she might be dangerous, he’ll just laugh in my face.” There was no way she could tell Michael she’d essentially just done that exact thing for different reasons.

“But he needs to know.”

“Well, if you can find a way to let him know, go for it. But calling him right now and telling him everything you said to me isn’t going to accomplish that. Believe me. I’ve been friends with Ryan for a really long time, and when he’s in a mood like this, the last thing he’s going to do is accept what you’re saying is the truth. Especially if doing so means that Halley isn’t the perfect little angel he’s made her out to be.”

Once again, he was quiet. When he did speak, he was brief. “Okay. I won’t then.”

“But we do need to keep an eye on her. I don’t trust her at all, Michael.”

“Me neither.”

Resolved that there was nothing else they could do for the moment, Beth took a deep breath and changed the subject. “So… I hear you’ve been hanging out with Lexy a lot recently.” She hoped her voice had that sappy, overly joyous tone to it, the one a person uses when they are very happy for their friend and also prying into business that isn’t there’s.

“Uh, yeah. I have.” She could almost hear him blushing. “She’s—great, Beth. She’s so funny. And nice. I had no idea. I just thought she was… well, it doesn’t matter. I really like her.”

Beth let out a loud sigh, glad to have some good news. “That makes my heart happy,” she said. “I knew the two of you would be great together if you got to know her.”

“Yeah. Thanks.” He cleared his throat. “What about Sammy? Have you decided you’re done with that whole situation?”

Her answer came out quickly. “Yeah. I was wrong about Sammy Burk. Totally wrong. And I don’t want to be with anyone who just likes me because he thinks I’m popular.”

“Well, there are other guys who liked you all along, you know? It’s too bad you couldn’t see them before.”

She knew he could include himself in that group, though obviously he had moved on now, which was just as well. Michael was a great friend, but she still didn’t have romantic feelings for him. The idea of romance had her eyes shifting to the closed blinds, and Beth’s stomach turned over. “I think I’ll just wait and see what happens with Halley. Ryan said she might be going home after the summer is over.”

“Really?” Michael seemed surprised. “That’ll break Ryan’s heart—I mean figuratively. I know it’s already not quite perfect.”

“Right.” Beth rolled her eyes, wondering why he thought he needed to clarify. “No, you’re right. It probably will.” And she’d be there to help him get over it—that is, if Ryan ever decided to speak to her again.

“Well, I’ve gotta go. Guess I’ll see you at the game tomorrow.”

“Yep. Thanks, Michael. Let me know if you find out anything else. What are you going to do with the pills you found? You can’t keep them.”

“No, I know. I already got rid of them. I kept the bottles, though.”

Beth wasn’t sure that was the best idea either, but something told her there was no point in trying to get him to toss them. “All right. Have a good night.” He hung up, and Beth did the same before tossing her head back in her chair and staring at the ceiling. Even Chris O’Donnell couldn’t make her feel better now. She heard her mother calling her for dinner and hoped she wouldn’t get yelled at for not going outside with her sisters. It was funny how her family just kept right on being normal when the world outside of her doors was shifting and rearranging itself in such an ugly way it almost resembled a monster.