AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Well?” Bhodi eventually snaps. Should have known he’d cave first. I turn down the music.
“I followed Summer.”
“I thought we agreed—” Vance begins.
Yeah, we agreed to step back on the Summer detail. But my gut told me to follow Summer today and I’m not sorry that I did.
“I know what we said, but I had a feeling. You should be glad that I listened to it. Summer caught the ferry to the mainland, disappeared inside a mental hospital, came out a while later with Malia in tow.”
“What?” They all stare at me in astonishment.
“Yeah. She was an in-patient. I’d wager that she’s been there this whole time and wasn’t allowed any visitors. Hence Summer not going there before now. Malia’s been assigned to Summer’s care.”
“That’s odd.” The professor frowns.
“Yeah, I thought so too. But I saw the discharge papers poking out the top of Summer’s bag on the ferry home, so I had a quick look at them. Malia was being treated for substance-induced psychosis.”
“Psychosis?” The prof raises his brows.
“Yes.”
“Drug abuse?” His tone is incredulous.
“Apparently.”
“Bullshit.” His expression morphs to one of anger. It surprises me because he’s usually so good at schooling his emotions, but if Malia is discharged yet still under their care, it will cause us major setbacks.
“Yeah, my thoughts exactly.” I may not know Malia the best out of all of us but even I can tell she’s not the sort of girl to do drugs, and certainly not to the point that she suffers psychosis because of it.
I’m glad that the prof and I are on the same page with this. I’d been trying to figure out my arguments for Malia-Tarni’s defence on my way back here. Admittedly, I don’t have a lot to go on. We met once; I’m hardly a stellar character witness for her. And as much as the prof tells us to trust our gut with some things, I was sure he’d take some convincing to prove Malia’s diagnosis was bullshit.
“We need to get to the bottom of this,” he says, getting to his feet and looking over the others who still seem to be in various states of shock. He turns back to me. “Did you happen to see who her doctor was?”
“I didn’t. But there was a prescription made out for a shit-ton of meds. Like, more drugs than I’ve seen in a pharmacy.”
“So something isn’t right.”
“Exactly.” I wonder if I did the right thing coming here to report my findings. Maybe I should have stayed and kept an eye on Malia’s place. Or maybe even have approached her. But then, what would I say?
I shake myself out of my thoughts and turn my attention back to the conversation in the room. Bhodi says something about Malia seeming like a bit of a loner which reminds me there’s more to tell them.
“Also, the paperwork listed Summer’s parents as the first point of emergency contact, not Malia’s. That’s weird, right?” I ask for confirmation of the uneasy feeling in my gut.
“Definitely. Don’t both sets of parents live in the U.K?”
“I believe so. But Summer’s parents are SCU alumni,” I tell the prof.
“So they’re connected to the university. Supes?”
“Nothing in their records to suggest that.” I at least looked up that information while I was sitting on the boat with nothing better to do with my time.
“We need to dig deeper. Something isn’t adding up. Anything else you need to report, Reef?”
“Malia…wasn’t herself. She looked almost unrecognisable and she didn’t speak. Like, at all, for the entire hour-long journey, or all the way back to her room.”
“We have surveillance set up along her hall don’t we?”
“Yes. And in her room. But I’m wondering if it’s enough.”
