and they taught us about the chemicals and tests used in some basic crime scene investigations.” He slides his backpack off his shoulder and to the ground and pulls a couple of tubes from it. “You’re lucky Professor Drew liked me. He gave us the chemicals we need to run the test.”
One of the tubes has a long cotton swab in it, and he pulls it out and hands it to me. He crouches next to the bumper and points to the edge. “It’s still smeared with blood. No reason to scrub it off when you have to replace the whole part anyway. We’ll use this stuff called anti-human serum. You take the sample and put it in this solution. It’ll tell us whether it’s animal blood or human blood.”
“That’s a real thing?”
He laughs. “Pretty cool, huh? Go ahead and swab it.”
My stomach curdles. I’m not sure I want to know anymore. What happens if it turns out that it’s human blood on the bumper? Do we go to the police from here? And what about Sebastian? Could he live with turning in his coach?
“Calm down, Mia,” he says. “I promise it’s deer blood.”
With a shaking hand, I swipe the wet swab across the dried blood and then hand it to him.
He takes it and dips it into the other vial. “What will happen is that if it’s human blood, the solution will react, and if it’s not, it won’t.”
“That simple?”
“The best chemistry is, isn’t it?” We stare at the liquid in silence, and it doesn’t react. “See? Told you. Do you feel better now?”
I stare at the vial, half expecting it to change. It doesn’t. “Thanks, Sebastian.” Why was I so sure it was human? “I promise I don’t have a personal vendetta against the coach. I just saw his name and couldn’t get the idea out of my head that it was his car—that I saw that bumper sticker.”
“He hit a deer, Mia.”
I nod. Did Sebastian test it himself before he brought me here? Does it matter if he did? The results are what they are. “Okay. Got it. Thanks again for doing this.”
“And now you owe me dinner,” he says.
“Deer blood to dinner.” I laugh at his grimace. “It’s okay. That was our deal, and I’m actually pretty hungry.”
A few minutes later, we pull up to a casual hole-in-the wall that serves the best Lebanese food.
“This okay?” he asks when he stops the car.
“This is perfect,” I say.
We get a seat and both order iced tea and sampler platters, and they bring our food out quickly. I can’t get my stomach to settle down from the nervous tremors that started back at the shop, and even though this is probably my favorite place to eat, I just poke at my food.
“Did Bailey lie to me?” he asks.
“I’m sorry. What?”
He nods to my untouched food. “I asked her what kind of food you liked, and she suggested this place. You don’t seem very interested in your meal.”
“You asked Bailey where to take me for lunch?” Sebastian hasn’t been hiding his interest in me, but I thought it was more casual than that. I was convenient. But maybe Bailey was right, and he’s been interested for a while now.
He grins. “I wanted to impress you with more than my chemistry skills today.” His smile falls away then. “But seriously, are you doing okay?”
“I’m just thinking.” I shift and take a deep breath. He’s going to think I’m crazy. I should be able to drop this, but I can’t. “I have this big list of people who got body work done, but except for my crazy gut reaction about Coach, nothing’s jumping out at me. And I know you’re right and I should probably let it go, but I have this list and I feel like I should do something. What if one of those people is responsible for what happened?”
He puts down his fork and swallows his bite. “Why is it so important that you find out? You don’t strike me as an eye-for-an-eye type. Is it just about revenge? Justice?”
“Honestly?”
“Yeah. The truth.”
“I can’t stand everyone thinking my brother was responsible. He screwed up. He was a teenager and thought it’d be easier to take care of me and Dad if he was dealing. And I’m not saying it was right, and I’m not saying there aren’t other ways to get by, but he wasn’t the horrible, hardcore gangbanger the people in this town paint him as. After my