He jerks his head up and blinks, looking around. “What … what’s going on?” he asks, his hands coming up to the rope around his neck. He tries to jerk on it, but I wrapped it so many times, it’s restricting his air a little.
“You’re about to die,” Law states, not even looking up from Steve’s cell as he’s going through it.
“Wait … I can explain,” Steve rushes out.
“I bet you can,” Rellik growls, fisting his hands. “So start fucking talking,” he demands.
He licks his lips, pulling on the rope that binds him to the tree. We stripped him and Scout both down to their boxers.
“Start from the beginning,” Law adds, still scrolling through the cell phone in his hands, looking for anything that catches his eyes.
“The … Death Valley … Brenda …”
“Dear lord, man. You’re stuttering like an idiot.” Rellik rolls his eyes. “Take a breath and think before you speak.”
He licks his cracked lips from when I punched him the other night when we found him on top of Henley. “I saw Henley at Death Valley that night. She was walking in the hallway. I followed her into the chapel.” He takes in a deep breath. “And Scout was already in there. With Brenda.” I take a quick look over at Scout. He is tied to the tree opposite Steve, but he’s still passed out. “I put my hand over her mouth to silence her before she could draw attention to us being in there. By the time Scout was done, he had accidentally strangled Brenda to death. Henley witnessed all of it. Then I helped dispose of the body, and we left Henley there.”
“You just left her there?” I growl.
He nods quickly. “She was really fucked up and talking nonsense. Scout had called Derek, and he told Scout that she was on LSD and needed to be watched, but Scout said she’d be fine because Law had got him a fight and we needed to hurry.”
I look over at Law, and he’s no longer scrolling. Instead, he’s watching something. My eyes go back to Steve. “And then what?”
“We left. I went my own way, and Scout ended up doing two fights then left. I called him the next day and told him what I heard. You, raping and killing Brenda and how the cops took you in for questioning. I said we needed to go talk to Henley and the cops. He said he would go talk to her. Later that night, he called me and said it was taken care of.”
I frown. “In which way?”
“He had called his dad after he spoke to Henley, and he told him to come meet with him and the Founders. Scout confessed what happened, and they decided to go along with it.”
“Along with what?” Rellik snaps.
“That you did it.” Steve looks at me. “Because there was no evidence to convict you of a crime you didn’t commit. Word was already around town, and Henley was adamant about it being you. And they didn’t want Scout to get in trouble in case anything came about. So your dad …” He nods to me. “Paid them to continue with it. And his dad.” He nods to Scout. “Paid them off to keep the evidence they found on the property out of the reports.”
“They found a fucking body!” I snap, remembering what the paper said that Henley had found in my father’s study. “They hid an entire body?”
“So the Founders knew everything?” Rellik runs his hands through his hair.
He nods quickly to both of us. “Yes, the night after Nicholas and I drugged Henley, Scout called them, and Mr. Rellik went and dumped Brenda’s body that next morning.”
“Why the fuck would he do that?” Rellik snaps.
He swallows. “Scout was trying to convince everyone that Henley was crazy. Knowing that she was going to hallucinate due to how much LSD we gave her. He figured it would push her over the edge. We weren’t supposed to actually touch her after giving her the LSD, but Nicholas was pissed at what Scout and Law did to him.” He shrugs. “And was planning on doing whatever needed to be done. Then Law showed up …” He trails off.
Motherfucker! I run a hand through my hair and look over at Law to see how he’s taking all this information. He’s now standing with one hand fisted by his side. The other gripping the phone that his eyes are furiously watching. “Law, what is it?” I ask.
He doesn’t answer. I elbow Rellik to look over at him. “Hey, you okay, man?” Rellik notices.
Instead of Law answering, he turns his back and walks off in the direction we parked the G-Wagon. Rellik looks back at me, and I wave him off.
Rellik rubs his chin. “What about Nicholas? Why kill him and not you?”