The Rules They Broke

Chapter 24: The Plan

OLIVIA

Thursday morning, Olivia walked into the kitchen and sat next to Blake at the dining table.

"Blake, can I borrow your bike today?"

Blake had just shoved the last few bites of his peanut butter and banana sandwich in his mouth all in one go. Through half chewed food he mumbled, "Sure, what for?"

"Blake, stop talking with all that food in your mouth," Elijah scolded, putting things in a brown bag. He handed Olivia her lunch. "What do you want the bike for, Olivia?"

Olivia had already practiced her lie. "Me and Melanie are going to go biking after school today."

"Honey, it's forty five degrees outside," Elijah cut in. "You're going to catch-"

"Eh, she'll be fine, right, Liv?" Blake grinned and leaned an elbow on her shoulder, using her as armrest. Olivia rolled her eyes and pushed him away.

"Yeah, I'll be fine," she said.

Elijah didn't let it go. "Do you have a hat? Gloves? Scarf?"

Olivia didn't, but she wasn't going to tell him that. "Come on, Elijah, it's not even freezing-"

Blake jammed his own hat on her head, pulling it down over her eyes, and proceeded to wrap her face up like a mummy with his gray scarf until she couldn't see. "There. All done. She can go now, Elijah, can't she?"

"Blake!" she protested through the layers of fabric as she tried to pull it off.

"What?" Olivia felt him put his cheek next to hers. "Sorry, your voice was all muffled, you think you could repeat that?"

Olivia managed to pull the scarf away and glared at him. He was laughing so hard he was snorting and turning red in the face. The way his laughter rang in the room made her hurl the scarf at him, but she couldn't stop herself from smiling either.

Blake finally gained control of himself and leaned down and kissed her cheek. "Have fun biking. Don't get a cold or Elijah's going to kill me." He looped the scarf gently around her neck and wandered down the hall to get ready for school.

Phase one of her plan was complete.

After she biked to school and locked Blake's bike to the stand, she put phase two into action.

She took out Detective Julian Herrera's business card from her pocket and dialled the number on the back.

He picked up on the second ring. "Detective Julian Herrera," his voice came through.

She cleared her throat and swallowed at the thought of what she was going to say next. "Hi, Detective, it's Olivia. You know, Olivia Jones?"

His voice changed to more genial and easy. "Hey, Olivia, how're you doing?"

"I'm doing fine. I called because I remembered something about my mom, a few days before she died."

She heard shuffling on the other end of the line, papers flipping. "Really?" His voice was genuinely interested now. Olivia took a breath and tried to keep down the nauseous feeling in her throat.

"Yeah, but I don't want to talk about it over the phone. Do you mind meeting me after school?"

"After school?"

"Yeah, just in the office like before."

"Why don't we meet at lunchtime instead?"

"I can't," she lied. Her plan wasn't going to work if he came at lunchtime. "I have to meet with a teacher about my math grade during lunchtime. She said I needed to meet her by today."