You’re Next Read online

  Copyright

  The characters and events in this book are fictitious. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental and not intended by the author.

  Copyright © 2020 by Kylie Schachte

  Cover design by Liam Donnelly

  Cover art by Getty Images and Shutterstock

  Cover © 2020 by Hachette Book Group, Inc.

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  JIMMY Patterson Books / Little, Brown and Company

  Hachette Book Group

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  First ebook edition: July 2020

  JIMMY Patterson Books is an imprint of Little, Brown and Company, a division of Hachette Book Group, Inc. The Little, Brown name and logo are trademarks of Hachette Book Group, Inc. The JIMMY Patterson Books® name and logo are trademarks of JBP Business, LLC.

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  ISBN 978-0-316-49376-5

  E3-20200619-JV-NF-ORI

  Contents

  COVER

  TITLE PAGE

  COPYRIGHT

  DEDICATION

  CHAPTER 1

  CHAPTER 2

  CHAPTER 3

  CHAPTER 4

  CHAPTER 5

  CHAPTER 6

  CHAPTER 7

  CHAPTER 8

  CHAPTER 9

  CHAPTER 10

  CHAPTER 11

  CHAPTER 12

  CHAPTER 13

  CHAPTER 14

  CHAPTER 15

  CHAPTER 16

  CHAPTER 17

  CHAPTER 18

  CHAPTER 19

  CHAPTER 20

  CHAPTER 21

  CHAPTER 22

  CHAPTER 23

  CHAPTER 24

  CHAPTER 25

  CHAPTER 26

  CHAPTER 27

  CHAPTER 28

  CHAPTER 29

  CHAPTER 30

  CHAPTER 31

  CHAPTER 32

  ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  JIMMY PATTERSON BOOKS FOR YOUNG ADULT READERS

  NEWSLETTERS

  For Grace, Izzy, Kashish, Devon, and all the badass students who have inspired me. Flora would not exist without you.

  Dear Reader,

  Here’s something I’ve learned over the years as a writer: the good guys and the bad guys come out best when they’re written first as people. The good guys might rescue kids from a burning building… but also kick puppies. The bad guys might rob banks… but call their grannies every night. The best and most relatable characters are the ones that seem most human, with all the flaws and virtues that involves. That’s what makes them come alive in our minds.

  When I first read Kylie Schachte’s You’re Next, I found that this intriguing murder mystery was elevated to a remarkable level by her unflinchingly honest protagonist, Flora Calhoun. Flora’s past and present are littered with bad decisions, and there are times when you want to scream at her to not do what she’s about to do. Though you believe deeply in her search for justice, there are enough faults in Flora—her lies, her secrets, her refusal to open up—to make her feel extraordinarily real.

  To me, it’s this kind of true-to-life writing that makes me a reader. I hope you feel the same.

  James Patterson

  Founder

  JIMMY Patterson Books

  Greg Garcy leers at me from his mug shot: bastard doesn’t know I’ve nailed him yet. I clutch his WANTED flyer in my hand and race down the hall, but I can’t look away from his crushed, sneering nose and bleary eyes.

  You can’t run from me.

  The bell rings. Damn. I’m so going to be late for chem.

  I spent my free period in the parking lot listening to the police scanner on my phone and lost track of time. It was worth it. Garcy is wanted for a string of serial rapes upstate. He’s attacked dozens of women, and he was allowed to get away with it for years. Until now. The hot pulse of adrenaline zips through me as I dash through the halls. I got him. I really got him. I need to run a plate, but—

  I slam into someone. The Garcy flyer, my bag, pens, and various notebooks scatter across the hallway. There’s a brief tangle of sharp elbows, and I yelp when the corner of my chem textbook lands on my toe. Of course this is the day I didn’t wear my steel-toed boots.

  “Balls! Fuck! Ow! Shit!” I yell.

  “Flora Calhoun, you kiss your mother with that mouth?”

  I squint through the red haze of stubbed-toe agony.

  Ava McQueen gathers up my papers, pens, and the lone tampon I dropped. One corner of her plum-painted mouth tugs up in a troublemaker’s smile, and a fizzy feeling climbs the back of my neck. It’s been seven months and four days since the last time I kissed her, but I still remember exactly how her lips felt against mine.

  “H-hey, Ava.” I drop down to help her.

  “How you been? Haven’t seen you around much.”

  Yeah. We haven’t talked a whole lot since you started avoiding me. “Um, good. You know, same old bullshit.”

  She picks Garcy’s WANTED flyer up off the ground and stands. “Clearly.”

  I blush, which is basically the most annoying thing in the world when you’re a redhead. Ava always makes me feel like I’ve just missed the last step in the staircase.

  Ava is a year older than me, but we took the same elective on the history of political activism during my freshman year. One day, she shut down this Young Conservatives idiot who called the Black Panthers a terrorist organization. Everyone clapped, Mr. Young Con crapped his khakis, and I fell in love. Of course, it doesn’t hurt that she plays bass guitar, or that she’s bananas hot. I mean, with her curls done up in adorable space buns, and the lipstick, and that funny little smile she’s still giving me?

  Which is super confusing, since she hasn’t smiled at me like that in a long time.

  Seven months and four days.

  Can’t be thinking about that. I focus on shoving my stuff back into my bag. “Oh, uh. You know me. Can’t keep myself out of trouble.”

  She does know. I’ve always suspected that’s why she stopped talking to me—stopped kissing me—in the first place.

  Ava stares at the flyer in her hand. When she glances up at me, the teasing smile has vanished, and something dark flickers in her expression. She looks down again, trying to hide it.

  If there’s one thing I know, it’s what fear looks like.

  I take a half step forward, any weirdness between us forgotten. “Ava? Are you okay?”

  She fingers the edge of the paper. “You ever do something stupid? I mean, like, really, really stupid? Can’t-take-it-back stupid?”

  “Almost every day.” My face heats again. Why did I say that?

  “You know”—Ava’s eyes flick from Garcy’s face to mine—“I believe that.”

  That stings, but I ignore it. “Ava, if you’re in trouble, I can help you.”

  She opens her mouth, but her eyes catch on something over my sh
oulder. She stills.

  I glance behind me. Nothing but the usual throng of people trying to get to their lockers. No one looks this way.

  Ava folds the Garcy flyer in half, then quarters. “No worries. I have it under control.”

  I take another step toward her. “Seriously, I do this kind of stuff all the time. I know we haven’t, um, talked much lately, but I can—”

  Ava’s smile is cold, nothing like before. Shit. I shouldn’t have brought up the her-and-me stuff.

  “I got it. Just being dumb, right? Nothing I can’t handle. You take care of yourself, Flora.” She tucks the flyer back into my bag. For a second, she’s close enough that I smell her warm, woodsy perfume, but she walks away before I can get another word out.

  I’m being dumb, right? She just remembered that she doesn’t want to talk to me, that’s all.

  So why is my chest suddenly tight with dread?

  I shake off my confusion and chase after her, but by the time I round the corner, she’s already gone.

  I tap my pen on the worksheet in front of me.

  Balance the equation: C5H8O2 + NaH + HCl → C5H12O2 + NaCl

  I usually like the tidiness of balancing equations, but today I can’t focus.

  Was Ava worried, or am I manufacturing an excuse to talk to her? Or maybe she was scared, but she didn’t want to talk to me about it?

  “Dude, please. You have to listen.” Two tables away, Damian Rivera scribbles on a slip of paper and slides it across the desk to his best friend, Penn Williams. My pen pauses halfway through rewriting the equation.

  Penn knocks the note to the floor without looking up. The space beneath his desk is littered with scraps of paper. I lean forward in my seat. Is that a bruise on his cheek? It’s a faint yellowy-purple, like he tried to cover it with makeup.

  That’s not sketchy at all.

  “Please,” Damian hisses. “Let me explain.”

  Penn’s chair scrapes against the linoleum as he stands. He grabs the bathroom pass off its hook and stalks out of the room. Is it me, or is he limping a little?

  Mrs. Varner calls out, “Ten more minutes, people, then we’ll discuss.”

  I’m only on question two. Between Garcy and Ava, I have enough intrigue in my life for one day. I drag my attention back to the double displacement reaction on my paper.

  Balance the equation…

  Penn never returns to class.

  When the bell finally rings, Damian races out the door. Rushing to hunt down his friend, maybe?

  Those abandoned scraps of paper are still on the floor.

  I shouldn’t. The last thing I need is to get sucked into the breakup of Penn and Damian’s bromance.

  I bend down and scoop the notes up. The first one says: I’m sorry, I had to do it. Please talk to me. The second: You have to understand. And the third: You don’t know what she’ll do to me.

  Huh. I pocket the scraps of paper and leave the classroom.

  “I have so much to tell you.” Cassidy Yang, my best and only friend, waits for me in the hall. She’s kind of impossible to miss in her oversize safety-orange sweater. Straw-like blond hair peeks out from under her gray beanie. She bleached her hair months ago, and now the black is making a comeback. When I try stuff like that, I look like an idiot. When Cass does, she looks like she’s in some magazine spread on street style.

  “What’s up?” I ask, my mind still half stuck on Ava’s terrified face.

  Cass and I make our way down the hall. She’s practically vibrating with enthusiasm. One kid winces as he passes, like he’s blinded by her sweater.

  “They did it!” she says. “They finally approved the funds for rock ensemble.”

  “Seriously? That’s awesome.” For the first time this afternoon, my anxiety about Ava fades a little.

  “I know!” Cass does a gleeful little shimmy. “There are only seven spots in the class, though, so I have to do some intense practice this weekend. Auditions are Monday.”

  “You should bring some of your original songs.”

  Cass stops dancing. “Maybe.”

  I roll my eyes. I was a little surprised a year ago when Cass bought a guitar and started teaching herself to play from YouTube videos. She’d never expressed any kind of interest in it before, but she’s already really good. She still gets shy about her own songwriting, though.

  I don’t push it. “Hey, you’re in history with Penn Williams, right? Have you noticed anything weird lately?”

  Cass considers it. “Not really, but that’s normal. Penn’s so quiet.”

  I tell her what I saw in chem class.

  “You think he’s in trouble?” she asks.

  “Maybe. Or maybe I’m sticking my nose in where it doesn’t belong.”

  “Well, you wouldn’t be you if you didn’t,” she says dryly. “Should we try some good old-fashioned internet stalking? If Penn’s got issues, bet you it’s all over Instagram.”

  We spend the rest of the walk to her car discussing post frequency, content, and filter choices as possible clues of distress. A few times, I almost tell Cass about the strange, tense conversation I had with Ava, but then I don’t. Maybe I was imagining it. Maybe it was just the same old awkwardness between Ava and me, left over from last summer. If I bring her up now, Cass will want to talk about it. It might have been seven months and four days, but I’d still rather launch myself into the blazing sun than deal with all those feelings.

  Cass drops me off, and I promise to call later to help her prep for the audition.

  “I’m home!” I call out, dumping my stuff in the doorway.

  “Yes, I was able to deduce that from the sound of the door opening at precisely the same time you come home every day.” My grandfather appears in the doorway. I’m about 99 percent certain he’s ex-CIA from the golden years when they had free rein to deal with those pesky Russians. William Calhoun has been retired for years, but he still wears a custom-tailored suit every day.

  “You know, most parental guardians open with a ‘Hello, honey, how was your day?’ when their progeny return from the battlefield of high school education.”

  “How quaint.” He retrieves my bag from the floor and throws me a pointed look as he hangs it neatly on its hook.

  The scents of butter and cinnamon draw me into the kitchen. “Did you make cookies?”

  “Yes, I thought you might appreciate a post-battle snickerdoodle.”

  “Forget those other loser grandfathers, you’re the best,” I call back. I’ve always wondered if he learned to bake when he was undercover. He’s a little too good at it.

  Gramps hums to himself as he dons oven mitts and pulls out a fresh batch of cookies. He’s downright cheerful today.

  I guess it’s as good a time as any to ask. “So, I need a favor.”

  He ignores me and grabs a spatula. Maybe some buttering up is in order.

  “I have a new theory about you,” I tell him. “You were attempting to unveil a Soviet spy stationed within the French government. You went undercover as a baker’s apprentice at the patisserie where the pinko went every morning for his petit déjeuner, and that’s where you learned this delicious sorcery.” I brandish my cookie in the air for emphasis.

  “Inventive.” He scrapes dried batter off the tray.

  “So, this favor…”

  No one sighs like William Calhoun. So soft, and yet weighted with such vexation.

  He begins transferring cookies from the baking sheet to the cooling rack. “In case I have not mentioned it yet today, I must tell you that your tenacity is a rather ugly character flaw. What can I do for you this time? Plant listening devices in the home of a Venezuelan dignitary? Order the assassination of your physical education teacher?”

  “Nah, I’m saving that one for a graduation present. I was hoping one of your old buddies could run a plate for me?”

  “I thought we had finally realized that potential love interests seldom appreciate stalking as a precursor to courtship.”

&nbs
p; “Yeah, well, if I never have a serious relationship, we’ll know who’s to blame. No crush. It’s Greg Garcy.” I pull the WANTED flyer from my bag. “The case has been cold for months, but I heard on the tip line he’s been spotted a few times in the area. I’ve got a lead on the car.”

  “Flora, we’ve discussed this.” He scoops fresh cookie dough onto the baking sheet. “I do not mind you illegally tapping into the police phone system; I simply don’t wish to hear about it.”

  “Yeah, yeah, I get it. You’ll call some of your friends in Virginia?”

  He blinks. “I have no idea what you mean. I was nothing but a humble midlevel diplomat.”

  “Is that why there’s a framed photo of you and William J. Donovan, founder of the CIA, on your desk?” I ask through a mouthful of cookie.

  “Has anyone mentioned how off-putting it is for young ladies to be so observant?”

  “Yes. You. Frequently.”

  “Well, all right, then. I will call up some of the old boys for you.”

  “I love you, and not because you’re my affable and genteel grandfather, but because of the goods and services I can extort from you.”

  “I would expect no less.”

  Olive walks into the kitchen. She’s dressed for ballet class, every strand of her hair pulled up tight in a perfect bun. I finger the ends of my own sloppy braid. Olive is only thirteen, but she has her shit way more together than me.

  “Mom called.” She grabs a banana from the fruit bowl to put in her bag. “You just missed her.”

  Yeah, I bet.

  My mother has lived in Germany for the last two and a half years. She’s a painter at this artist-in-residence thing in Berlin. She was only supposed to be gone for six months, but here we are.

  She knows my school schedule, and yet somehow she always calls about fifteen minutes before I get home. It’s a convenient way for her to pretend to be my mother without having to, you know, mother me.

  “Hmm,” is all I can think to say. Gramps watches me, but I avoid his eyes.

  “She’s good, if you were wondering. Her gallery show is next weekend.” Olive’s spine has gone very straight. She does that when she’s annoyed—practices her dance posture.

  “That’s great.” I try to sound sincere, but it mostly comes out exhausted. I don’t even know how I’m supposed to feel about my mom anymore. Olive rolls her eyes. My attempts to appease her only piss her off.