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“We know the society’s secrets, but we don’t know the names of every single third-degree member, because they keep their identities so tightly under-wraps. Even to lower-level society members like you two,” I said. “There’s also all the people who bought babies from them. Shouldn’t we have all those names before we post anything online? That way the cops or FBI will know exactly who to go after.”
“Good point,” Jensen said. “If we don’t post every single member and buyer’s name right away, they’ll see the case in the news and have time to figure out an escape plan.”
“And we want all of them to go down,” Piper added. “Not just a few.”
“Well, we know your parents are members. I think mine are too. Oh, and there’s also Dr. Carmichael,” Jensen said, typing out the names. “I think we can safely assume that your friends’ parents are all members too, seeing as they were roped into the scheme to drive Amerie insane.”
Piper nodded and started listing off names on her hand. Jensen followed along, typing rapidly. “Who else can you think of?” he said when he was finished.
“Julian’s parents,” I said. “They’re definitely involved, right? Because he knew the society’s secrets. He had to have heard it all from someone close to him.”
“Good point,” Jensen said, adding the names.
“Addy’s parents, too. Actually, her entire family. She told us she overheard her parents saying that she was the first Macintosh to fail to gain a society invitation in over three hundred years.”
“That’s right,” he replied, nodding slowly. “I think we can also safely assume that my friend August’s parents are involved too, because we know he’s a member from all the drunk bragging he’s done.”
Piper’s lips flattened, and she shook her head. “It’s not enough. There’s probably still a hundred members we don’t know about. Not to mention all the buyers.”
“I know.” Jensen let out a sigh and leaned back against the couch, hands lacing behind his head. “But how the hell are we going to find all of them?”
Piper’s brows furrowed in contemplation. Then her face brightened. “I might have an idea.”
“What?”
“You know how my house used to belong to my grandpa?”
I nodded. “Uh-huh.”
“He had a secret room he always used to let me play in. It was behind a bookshelf in the third-floor study,” she said. “I liked to play in there because of the novelty of it being hidden, but it was actually pretty boring apart from that. All it had was a bunch of shelves, books, and files. He told me it was a records room. So… I don’t know this for sure, but they could’ve been society records, right?”
“Yeah, that sounds possible,” I said. “He was a really prominent member, right?”
Piper nodded. “Yes. He was practically the leader at one point. Mom told me that.”
“Your mom and dad could still be using that records room,” Jensen mused, scratching his jaw. “There might be a current list of society members and buyers in there.”
“Maybe, yeah.” Piper’s eyes tightened at the corners. “There’s one major issue, though. I can’t go back there, because by now, they’ve probably realized what I did at the Playground.”
“Fuck. That’s true. None of us can go there,” Jensen said, brows lowering into a deep frown. “But we need to get in there somehow.”
“Addy,” I blurted out. “She might be able to help us.”
Jensen straightened his shoulders. “Good idea,” he said. “But we’ll have to be careful. Her parents are keeping a close eye on her, so they’re probably still monitoring her texts and calls.”
“You could text her from the burner phone. Make it sound like a normal message, but also make it clear that it’s us, and that we need her to call us. She can go to a payphone, or something like that.”
Jensen nodded and tapped out a message on the burner. “How’s this?” he finally said, handing the phone to me.
I peered at the text he’d composed. Hey Addy, it’s J. Could you call me when you get a chance? Need to talk about some school paper stuff. In private though. I don’t want to do it at school because you know what the other staffers are like… they think everything should revolve around their assignments, so if they overhear us talking, I bet they’ll derail the convo and make it all about them. Anyway, it’s about that idea we were talking about the other day when we were cleaning out the filing room. I think I know a good way we could fit it into next week’s schedule. Also, I think it might even have the potential to go viral on our socials, which is always a bonus, haha. So yeah, call me ASAP so we can discuss. Talk soon!
I nodded and passed the phone back to Jensen. “It’s perfect. She’ll know exactly what you mean with the filing room stuff, but anyone else who reads it will think it’s just a normal message from a Mill staffer.”
“I hope you know her number off by heart,” he said, forehead creasing. “I forgot to add it to the burner contacts.”
I rattled off Addy’s number, and he hit send a moment later. “Done. Now we wait.”
We didn’t have to wait for long. The burner phone lit up almost right away.
