Page 74 of The Monster I Am
“That idiot nearly pissed himself when he saw me. I’ve never seen someone scamper away like a drunk octopus. Legs shouldn’t flex that way. Oh, hey! Bex, I have the funniest story to tell you.”
Tai throws himself into the seat next to me, leaning over to kiss my cheek. I smile at him then turn to see Ry, baby blues scanning my face knowingly as he hovers next to the table.
“What happened?” he asks without hesitation, eyes locked on me.
“My father,” Hunter answers. “Apparently inspired by Max and decided to drag Bexley into his office.”
Tai stiffens next to me. “He did what? Are you okay?”
“I’m fine,” I murmur awkwardly. “He just got under my skin a bit.”
Ry’s eyes harden, like he’s contemplating questioning the shit out of me. But he must read my pleading expression, slipping into the empty seat next to Hunter instead.
“Maybe this will help cheer you up,” he says, reaching down to dig into his bag. “I did some snooping in the beloved mayor’s office. Found some blueprints.” He pulls out a roll of paper, removing the elastic band.
The library door opens again and I glance over, giving Arch and Parker a small wave.
“I ran into Parker after class,” Arch tells me casually as they reach the table. “Figured he should come too.”
I nod. “Pull up a chair. Ry has some news.”
We scan over the blueprints as Ry talks us through what we are looking at. The blueprints of Ridgeview Valley and Cedar Heights academy look like a jumbled mess to me, but as his finger directs me to certain lines, it starts to make sense.
“These are the tunnels,” he informs everyone, tracing the line to the center of town. “Unmarked but clearly visible if you know to look for them.”
Arch’s eyebrows furrow. “Unmarked? That’s not suspicious at all.”
“Almost as if they are deliberately trying to hide them,” Parker grumbles. “Surprise, surprise.”
Ry nods slowly. “Here’s the best part.” He digs into his bag, retrieving a second blueprint. I wait as he unrolls it, laying it over the top of the first. “This blueprint was drawn up five years ago, around the time they were talking about doing maintenance on that stupid crater.”
My eyes dart across the collection of lines and markings as I try to find my bearings. “Where are they on this one? Which building is Cedar Heights?”
He glances over at Hunter knowingly, tapping a section. “This is Cedar.”
“The tunnels aren’t there,” Hunter interjects suddenly. “It’s just standard pipelines.”
“What?” I mumble quickly, leaning forward to get a closer inspection. “Are you sure?”
“Positive,” Hunter answers.
Tai lifts the edge of the blueprint. “When was the other blueprint drawn up? The onewiththe tunnels.”
“Twelve months ago,” Rylan replies. “Well before the fire.”
I stiffen, glancing over at Arch. “Wait—weren’t they doing improvements at Cedar around that time? I remember your dad had to postpone your summer vacation because he was called in for work.”
“Shit, that’s right. He was assisting with building reports, checking the structural integrity before the improvements commenced.”
“Improvements?” Tai asks slowly. “What kind of improvements?”
Leaning back, I try to remember. It was all very basic stuff, nothing of significance. I had completely forgotten about it, since most of the work happened over summer break. Nothing was noticeable when I returned for senior year, other than we were told minor work had been done.
“It was just state funded repairs,” I tell him. “Minor stuff like fresh coats of paint, repairing cracks—that kind of thing.”
“Or that’s what they wanted you to believe,” Hunter points out. “Minor work to cover up the installation of random tunnels.”
Parker scowls. “And they used them to start the fire. Why now, though? They have been there for months by the look of this.”
