Frost

Chapter ONE

Damn this was a nice place. She tugged the hem of her skirt lower, considered her response, and then pulled it up higher than before. Her plan to snoop around without being noticed was a nonstarter. Although the sprawling house did not have a fence around the perimeter it was set apart from the other equally insane homes so there would be no pretending she was just walking around a neighborhood. They were all lined up along the ocean inlet, set back behind a metal gate and a stone wall which was pointless because even her unathletic ass scaled it without incident. Although she could see a dock at the end of a winding wooden staircase they had no boat, just a circular gazebo with iron furniture. There were vines and plants perfectly manicured to appear wild. The girl looked down at the package in her hands, her only idea for a ploy, seemed asinine now. But she was here and she had watched two separate cars leave to make sure the place was empty. While in the bushes. Like a total creep. She exhaled loudly and bounced on her toes to hype herself up. Just take a quick look.

It had taken her months to locate his house and she wasn't exactly sure what she expected to find. It wasn't like she was going to see Gabby held hostage in their living room through one of the giant windows. Although she could see most of the first floor- did they have a sky walk to their garage? Whatever. She slipped off the path and made her way around a row of tamed black berry bushes opening into a rolling trimmed grass yard that spilled out under an elevated patio. Of course they needed a pool right up against the ocean. At least she was getting a good idea for what kind of people she was dealing with. They had white carpet. Snow white. Gross. But up on the wall there was at least a confirmation that she was in the right place. A trio of kid's portraits stared back at her, lined up on the pure gray wall. She recognized the boy on the end although he looked distinctly younger and healthier in this photo. Library boy. She knew he had to be the key to why her best friend became so distant, so weird. Even before the bizarre phone call on her birthday promising she'd finally come clean about everything. And the strange letter anonymously dropped off at her dorm a month after she found out Gabby was missing.

Mrs. Parker had called, begging her to confirm Gabby was with her. It was now six months since she disappeared. According to the police who barely bothered to look for her, she was a 'runaway'. They didn't listen to her story about the kid at the library, so she didn't show them the letter. She'd only told Ted since he promised not to tell Mrs. Parker. Until she had hard proof she didn't want to put that woman through any more false hope. They'd suffered enough when a man's body was found on campus after an animal attack. She'd been terrified Gabby had been eaten which seemed silly at the time but after no sign of her started to seem possible.

The girl tried to act like she wasn't tiptoeing through the backyard but with all the windows it wasn't like she could scuttle between them. A sign of her friend or the boy was all she wanted. A door that seemed easy enough to get into for later. She'd never broken into anything before and these people seemed litigious but at this point she had to do something-

"Hey!"

She froze, slipping forward on the wet grass further into view of the window. She wished she'd carried a lighter box.

"Yeah I can see you. What are you doing?" The voice demanded.

She turned to see a girl was sitting in a plush chair halfway out the door. She was fighting to pull something off her face.

"I uh, I have a package." She held up the box like a shield.

"The front door is right off the drive. You couldn't have missed it. And packages are to be left at the gate." The girl stood up all the way and turned to toss her long curtain of black hair over her shoulder. She wore a completely pink sweat suit that somehow still looked expensive. She was tall already but seemed intent on making the other girl feel even smaller with her chin tipped up like that. Her russet eyes were rimmed with dark lashes. "You need to leave or I'll call security."