Bodhi looked at his watch again and drummed his hands against his thighs. “I can tell you this; he didn’t get it from me. That’s a controlled substance; I wouldn’t be handing it out. And besides, Hutch hated that shit. Wouldn’t even take cough medicine anymore because he didn’t trust it. If he really wanted to kill himself, it wouldn’t have been with pills, let alone Oxy. But judging from the look on your face, you’ve figured that out already. Now I gotta go.” Bodhi started for the back door, then hesitated. “You know, the coroner is in town from Santa Cruz. He surfs. Maybe I’ll see him on the water.”
Devon smiled. “And maybe you’ll let me know if you find anything out?”
“Maybe,” Bodhi said back. “Yeah. Maybe I will.”
BY THE TIME DEVON finished her shopping, the Keaton Van was pulling out of the pharmacy parking lot. She waved after it, but the van didn’t stop. Great, I’ve got an hour to kill. She let her canvas shopping bags slip onto the ground. Maya’s Sprite cans clinked against each other.
Spotting a shady corner across the parking lot, she set up camp. She pulled a copy of Chekhov: The Essential Plays out of one of her bags. At least she could catch up on some homework while she waited. She’d only read a few lines when a car honked.
“Get in,” a hoarse voice commanded.
Devon looked up to see the beat-up red Volvo from earlier. The black-haired girl was smoking a rolled cigarette, her hand dangling out the window. She was still wearing her red bikini.
“You’re Raven, right?” Devon asked.
“Yeah, duh. Get in. My brother said I should give you a ride back up the hill. Saw you miss the van.” The girl started scrolling through an iPod.
Better than sitting on this curb for the next hour, Devon thought. “Cool, thanks. A ride would be great.” She stuffed herself and the bags into the passenger seat.
“Nice to meet you officially,” the girl said. She held out a hand for Devon to shake. A thick row of hemp bracelets dangled from her wrist.
“You, too. I’m Devon.”
“I wasn’t stalking you, I swear. Or was I?” Raven gave Devon a wide-eyed crazy look and then laughed. “I’m just screwing with you. Bodhi said you were a little uptight.” She plugged the iPod into a mini set of speakers precariously perched on either side of the dashboard. There seemed to be a thin layer of sand over everything in the car. Devon saw a pile of beach towels in the back seat. “You got the right one.”
“The right what?”
Raven pressed on the gas. The right speaker slid forward. Devon caught it just before it fell into her lap. She wedged it back in place onto a sticky spot on the dashboard. Ah, the right one.
She suddenly noticed Raven’s iPod sitting in a homemade-looking dock, with a tangle of wires attached to an outdated tape deck.
“You, ah, make your own iPod adapter thing?” Devon asked, amazed.
“Yeah, it’s easier than you think. Pretty basic wiring.” Raven kept driving.
Yeah, basic wiring for you, Devon thought. The most sophisticated wiring Devon had accomplished was a second-grade science experiment involving a battery and an anemic light bulb.
Raven turned onto Via Montana Road. Devon counted the bracelets on Raven’s right arm. One, two, three, four, five … hand-woven, wet, with frayed edges. One of them had a small shell looped through the string. It reminded Devon of the necklace Hutch had made for Isla. Guess hemp was the cool thing these days. She must have missed the memo, as Isla would have said. Raven’s hair was still wet, but the sticky smell of saltwater was inescapable.
“Bodhi said you wanted to know about Hutch,” Raven said. She kept her eyes on the road ahead.
“So, Bodhi’s your brother? Sorry, I didn’t see the family resemblance.” Devon tried to avert her eyes from the rat nest of hair. She saw that Raven was driving barefoot. At least she was wearing jean shorts.
“The black hair did it? Yeah, the whole family is scarily blond, had to rebel somehow, ya know.” She shrugged. But she did have the same piercing green eyes as Bodhi, and a batch of freckles dusted her cheeks and nose. “So, what’d you talk about?”
“I was asking if Bodhi had seen Hutch before he died. Sorry, this all must be a lot of boring talk about someone you didn’t even know. Crappy way to start your freshman year I’ll bet.…” Devon’s voice