"I would say each of them had their own motives for doing it." "And I didn't put them under a spell or slip GHB into their Red Bull." "Put your shoulders back." "In fact, a lot of them came to me after they saw the shots I did." "That's great right there." "So they were so blown away by your photography that they came to you and they begged you to photograph them in the buff and then post their pictures on the Net?" "It's not a porn thing like you're making it out to be." "Did you have sex with these girls?" "There were rules." "Rules?" "Really?" "I would never shoot the same girl twice." "I would never post anything that would reveal their faces." "These were simple rules that I came up with so I wouldn't end up in a situation like this." "The most important rule was no sex." "Just pictures." "We found ten girls on the site." "Does that sound about right?" "Honey Delight." "Ruby Satin." "Sherry-licious." "Where'd you get these names?" "Lipsticks." "Your favorite shade?" "So, since we can't see their faces, why don't you just tell us who they really are?" "Their names were gonna remain out of this." "How many of them were underage again?" "None of them are underage." "They're all in my year." "Can you prove that?" "Stop, stop." "Are you gonna charge him with the crime or not?" "I'm trying to work that out." "What is there to work out?" "No one has leveled a charge against Jordan." "No one's come forward to admit that they're on the site." "So, the only thing you're gonna accomplish by letting this out of closed doors, is to tarnish Xavier's reputation." "And not to mention your family's good name." "I'm sure the press'll love it, but it's not in the best interest of Xavier." "Dean Mullen, it's your call." "If you want me to pursue this, I will." "I don't think that'll be necessary, Detective." "Jordan." "I think I speak for both your parents and myself when I say that you have placed us in an extremely precarious position." "Your father has rendered invaluable counsel service to this school over the years, not to mention our personal friendship." "And even so, after speaking to the headmaster and the trusties, the only solution we can come up with is expulsion." "Deep down I didn't care that the pictures got me kicked out." "Or that they landed me here." "Edgerton High." "Three miles from Xavier, but it felt more like a million." "My name is Jordan Wells." "A marketer's report on me would read something like this." "Rich, privileged." "Future doctor." "Future lawyer." "Future somebody." "It would be accurate but incomplete." "It probably wouldn't include confused, indecisive, lacks confidence." "Kids like me, our lives don't happen by accident." "They're scripted very tightly." "At Edgerton," "I thought I could loosen things up a bit." "The record will show that I started my new school on September 23rd." "I enrolled in some AP classes." "Joined the photo club." "Figured I'd just fly under the radar for a while." "Write my own story." "Jordan, Jordan." "Of course my dad had a few ideas of his own." "Mhmm." "Look at this." "Yeah, alright." "Keep me posted because I wanna close by next week." "Alright." "Bye-bye." "What do you think?" "It's an art school for troubled kids?" "Mhmm." "Whose funding is on the chopping block." "I'm considering chairing their foundation." "I was thinking you and I could co-chair." "I don't really know anything about chairing a foundation, Dad." "So what?" "Jordan." "Getting decent grades in chem lab and world studies might move your resume to the top of the stack if you're looking to make a career at some coffee bar, but if you aspire to greater heights, Jordan," "then you gotta distinguish yourself from the pack." "Fine." "Fine." "Your friend Desiree chaired the Chocolate Ball at the club last winter." "Why don't you give her a call?" "Maybe she could help us." "I'll think about it." "I wanna make sure it's worth my time." "How could it not be?" "We're talking about saving an art school for city kids." "Come on." "It's not the kids!" "If I'm gonna be putting in the hours," "I wanna make sure you're really in with this." "I'm a busy girl." "Are you still at your dad's office?" "Yeah." "I'm officially a New Visions Justice Professional." "Which is what?" "A glorified name for someone who delivers coffee to the assistant DAs?" "Ha!" "Lunches, too." "Yeah." "And I pick up their laundry." "There's a lot of aspects to fighting crime." "Which brings us back to you." "How did Ben talk you into this?" "This?" "Yeah, this." "Art project, museum kids." "I bet your sabotage effort really knocked him on his ass." "And don't bother telling me that's not what it was." "I know you." "Sometimes even better than you know yourself." "Then, I bet you know the answer, Des." "Jordan, they just want what's best for you." "Is that so bad?" "I guess not." "You get that shot, bitch?" "If you were at the game that night, you would've noticed her, too." "We all have ways of showing our defiance." "She flashed hers like a roadside attraction." "Daring you to drive by without taking a look." "Of course I wanted to shoot her the moment I saw her." "She had everything I looked for in a subject." "Loneliness." "Mystery." "You guys look miserable." "Okay?" "Yearbook's for a lifetime." "Let's smile." "A lot of kids hide who they really are." "They become masters at doing it." "Behind perfect GPAs." "Behind fixed smiles." "Designer clothes." "The kids they hang out with." "Some have been hiding so long, they don't know who they are anymore." "That's what I've tried to find with my camera." "Who they really are." "Any recommendation on a good read?" "By a woman, about a woman, but required reading for men." "The Awakening." "Hm." "Doesn't this end with a suicidal drowning?" "It's like the ultimate form of sleeping." "It's kind of a contrast, wouldn't you say?" "Edna awakened to the fact that in her society she was nothing more than chattel." "And her mentor, Mademoiselle Reisz, taught her that the artist must possess a courageous soul which dares and defies." "She felt like the only way she could courageously act in such a society was to refuse to live in it, to defy it by death." "That's a very fair assessment." "But wouldn't you say the ending's weak?" "You'd do it differently?" "Sure." "I'd fake my own death." "Set up a shop in some tropical island." "You'd run away." "I would live to fight another day." "And paint many, many more." "We're out." "Shay, you coming?" "No, I think I'm gonna stay and finish this." "Whatever." "What's your name?" "Jordan Wells." "Shay Bettencourt." "What are you doing after school today?" "Do you have a car?" "It's right here." "Thanks." "Thanks?" "That's all I get?" "Thought we were going get to hang out." "I'm sorry." "I have work." "Can you get someone to cover your shift?" "My boss doesn't like it when we do that." "Where's that?" "Oak Valley." "The country club?" "My father's a member." "I've done your brunches." "It's not really my scene." "You don't like the food?" "I don't like the cigar smoke." "Guess you haven't been in a while." "There's a new no smoking policy in the main dining room." "It's not the smoke that bothers me." "Thanks for the ride." "Good afternoon and welcome to MoKA." "This is some useful information you guys are gonna need tomorrow for the press release." "You're welcome." "Here you go." "Thank you, dear." "Okay." "Well, let's begin." "Desiree Thomas." "She fit perfectly in the scripted world." "Did everything with a natural grace." "Comfortable wherever she was." "Effortless." "Seems everything I did was calculated to get me somewhere else." "Took me twice as much energy for half the result." "We dated a few times but there was no mystery." "A good relationship needs mystery." "Yes?" "Hi." "Is Shay home?" "I'm sorry?" "Shay?" "We go to Edgerton together." "I think you have the wrong house." "Is this the Bettencourts?" "No." "I dropped my lipstick." "I noticed." "Aren't you gonna ask?" "What?" "Your real address?" "Nice fake." "You trying to throw me off balance?" "No, not really." "I just didn't wanna tell you where I live." "Why is that?" "Because it's not Ambassador Heights." "I'm sorry." "You think I'm so shallow that I would judge you by where you live?" "We can talk about my class inferiority complex later." "Wouldn't you prefer to discuss my favorite shade?" "I asked around." "I heard all about you and your little lipstick fetish." "You wanna add me to your collection." "Oh, come on." "Those other ones were like homework assignments." "And I'm like the final exam?" "Yeah." "And that's a good thing 'cause I always ace my finals." "So what exactly do I get if you "ace" me?" "Some unbelievable pictures of yourself?" "Yeah, but those are for you." "I guess I'm just cashed out then, huh?" "Maybe not." "She learned the cello taking night classes at Rutherford Music School." "Her mom's idea." "Thought it would add a little refinement to an otherwise shaky upbringing." "She told me her mom died a few years back." "Now she lived with her sister, who wasn't around very much." "How's this?" "I'll let you shoot a roll of pictures of me if you take some pictures for me first." "I'm sorry." "I'm kind of slow on the uptake here." "Can you" "Can you translate that for me?" "I'm in a bit of a situation." "A situation?" "Relationship." "Somebody at school?" "It's complicated." "How so?" "He is... older." "Married." "No, not married." "Not anymore." "But let's just say in his position he shouldn't be hooking up with me." "And what position is that?" "That would be in fact that I'm still in high school." "Okay." "I'm listening." "I'm not exactly sure where things are going right now, but it seems to be getting out of control." "How does my camera fit in to all this?" "I'd like you to follow us." "Capture a few moments, if you know what I mean." "Just in case something happens." "My advice, you should call a cop." "He made me a promise and I need to make sure that he keeps it." "So I take pictures for you and you let me take pictures of you?" "Exactly." "I don't know if I'm the right person for this." "I've got my own problems at the moment." "Okay." "There's the door." "It seemed like a reasonable deal." "Pictures for pictures." "But the more I shot the more intrigued I was by her." "And it made me realize how bored I'd been." "Every picture I took peeled away another layer." "And every time I peeled one away, it seemed like I discovered two more." "For the first time in a while" "I felt excited by a challenge." "His name's Wade Chandling." "He's a member at Oak Valley and a partner in a law firm downtown." "We had a recital last winter at Rutherford for supporting patrons and he was there." "And, um, he came up to me and said he remembered me from the club." "And he liked how I played." "And he promised to help me get into this program at Hartley." "A performance scholarship awarded to four students every year." "Full ride." "All expenses." "Do you know what Hartley means?" "That's one of the best music schools in the country." "It means freedom, Jordan." "Not being trapped." "Not having my options limited." "The fast lane into any philharmonic in the world." "And he's just going to set you up?" "He has some friends on the advisory committee." "Huh." "So, this beautiful young cellist who, uh, basically lives on her own, he takes this young artist under his wing." "It wasn't like that." "It just slowly developed into more." "And how many other musicians is he helping?" "Any overweight tuba players with club feet and bad cases of acne?" "You don't do jealous well." "Has anyone ever told you that?" "It feels very natural." "I'm glad you think you know everything." "Sorry." "You're the one who's having me take the pictures." "Clearly you're having doubts." "Can I see the pictures?" "Thanks." "Good." "Okay." "So, your place after school?" "Better make it yours." "It's been said a good photographer captures the subject." "But a good subject captures the photographer." "She had me." "There was no doubt about it." "She wasn't like the Xavier girls." "But that's what drew me to her." "Sit down." "Play." "Play Bach." "Look at me." "Her face spoke volumes." "I became addicted to her." "Her haunted eyes challenged me." "It's a strange thing that happens when an artist and a subject click." "A synergy is created." "Each senses that they're playing a role in something that's very powerful." "But it's unspoken." "Say that out loud and you might kill it." "Hey!" "You wanna shoot some more?" "Absolutely." "Meet me at my place after school." "I could take your picture every day." "How about this right here?" "Yeah, that's it." "Wanna change roles?" "No, I've got one more shot." "Cute." "What's it gonna be?" "You're out of film." "I know." "What is this shit?" "T?" "Why aren't you answering your cell?" "T, this is Jordan, from school." "Jordan, this is my sister, Tarra." "You should answer your cell." "I've been calling you since yesterday." "I haven't got any calls from you." "Are you dialing the right number?" "What the fuck are you trying to say?" "You should go now." "Are going to be okay?" "Shay, where the fuck is it?" "Where is what, Tarra?" "You fucking know what!" "Tarra, you have to be more specific." "Picasso once said that every child is an artist." "But that the secret is to remain one once you grow up." "The Museum of Kids Art, the reason why you're all here today, helps artistically inclined children do just that." "But MoKA's good intentions will remain, uh, intentions." "Without commitment, without action, without a few checkbooks behind them." "We started this foundation to let MoKA know that they do not stand alone in their efforts." "That there are a number of other people that will support them." "And he told me that if you get me $10 million," "I can retire." "And I never heard from him again." "Jordan!" "Someone I want you to meet." "This is Wade Chandling." "Mr. Chandler is a bankruptcy lawyer." "He's got a firm downtown." "Hopefully you'll never need our services." "You're cleaning up that High Falls mess." "Yeah, if I can get the federal auditors off my ass." "After what happened in Albany, those guys are gonna peel back every state-funded urban renewal project." "It's a dead end." "They're never gonna find anything on my guy." "I liked your speech." "Thank you." "Listen, if you ever need anything for your foundation, just give me a call." "I will." "Jesus, Jordan." "what are you doing?" "I'm abducting you." "If you scream, I'll be forced to cover your mouth." "No, Jordan." "I didn't know he was gonna be here." "What if he catches us?" "Let him." "What did you guys talk about?" "Some pictures that I was gonna show him." "Very funny." "I gotta go." "I gotta go!" "Kiss me." "I gotta go." "Shay." "Shay!" "# Tell me # Tell me true #" "# Do you speak With the spirit #" "# The way I do #" "# Do you dance The dance #" "# The hands on you # # Do you sleep at night #" "Alright." "Look right at me." "Perfect." "Perfect." "# I make a mistake #" "# Forgive me now I got something To say #" "# Do you see That monkey air #" "# Dance with me Take my hand #" "# I become a prison I don't know Where to stand #" "# With you I can Finally find a place to land #" "# If you dance with me #" "Magenta Madness." "No." "Cotton Candy?" "No." "Crimson Red." "No!" "You're not gonna tell me?" "Not until you tell me something first." "Okay." "What?" "I don't know." "Anything." "Something no one else in the world knows except you." "You scare me." "I already knew that." "I said tell me something that anyone knows." "You scare me and I like it." "You're such a charmer." "Oh, yeah?" "Her favorite shade was Cherry Crush." "It fit so perfectly that I didn't know whether to believe her or not." "One thing I did know." "There was something different about her." "I love you." "Have a good time." "She felt like something I needed." "More than I wanted." "That maybe I was crossing some line without realizing it." "That uniform would look great on the deck next to my hot tub." "Jordan Wells." "Mr. Chandling." "Call me Wade." "What are you drinking?" "A Coke." "Ooh, boy." "Bring this man a Coke, Gary." "That speech you made really impressed me." "Thanks." "Thanks, Gary." "Funny thing is, watching you that day" "really reminded me of myself at your age." "How is that?" "High-powered father." "Gives you a lot, but nothing without strings attached." "Am I close?" "Gotta give your father some credit, though." "He must have a lot of control." "After that Xavier business." "Can't keep a secret too long in the age of information, can you?" "Chairing the foundation, your father's idea?" "Yeah." "Got your eye on Cornell?" "That's the plan." "Look, very few kids grow up wanting to be lawyers." "I mean, growing up you wanna be a ball player, an astronaut, a rock star." "Not a lawyer." "Do you think I grew up wanting to be a bankruptcy attorney?" "Fuck, no!" "You know what lawyers are, Jordan?" "Lawyers are translators." "Translating the language of the land." "What is the language of the land?" "Money." "Money." "Fuck, yeah." "You got that right." "The question is, are you gonna speak the language of the land or are you going to have it spoken to you?" "Freud had it right." "Two most important things in this life." "Your work, your sex." "Don't need to make it complicated, Jordan." "Just don't let anyone fuck with your money or your pussy." "Drink your Coke." "I was so nervous watching you two." "He's fearless." "I mean, he's the kind of guy that just drives through red lights to let the world know they can't fuck with them." "You know how they catch monkeys in southeast Asia?" "No, I do not know how they catch monkeys in southeast Asia." "Would you like to know?" "With a basket." "They cut a little hole in the basket that's just big enough for the monkey to put his hand into." "Then they put fruit in it." "So, when the monkey puts his hand in and he grabs the fruit, his closed fist is too big to fit back through the hole." "So, instead of just letting the fruit go and running free, he just waits until the trappers come." "Is that true?" "Sucks for the monkey." "It's kinda like most guys I know." "Once they get a taste of it, they just can't help themselves." "Even though logic is telling them to just back off, they can't." "They just keep coming back for more." "Her life wasn't easy." "That much I was certain of." "There was something tragic and sad just under her skin." "A feeling which she had limited time." "And that at any moment her world might cave in." "Hey." "Jordan?" "What's wrong?" "I need to see you." "I called Hartley." "They said the letters went out two weeks ago." "Did you call him?" "I'm gonna show him the pictures, Jordan." "What?" "Shay!" "You gotta think this through." "No." "Fuck him!" "He's not getting away with this shit." "Fuck him!" "Treating me like I'm some fucking Barbie doll like he can just play with whenever he wants to?" "Fuck that!" "I'm gonna take these to the cops." "I'm gonna show his friends, a lawyer, I don't know." "I'm gonna show somebody 'cause someone's gonna fucking listen to me." "Shay, I don't think that's such a good idea." "It's too late." "We're meeting by the glen tonight." "I can't let you do that." "It's not up to you, Jordan." "I'm involved in this." "You made me a part of this, Shay." "Oh, I did?" "I did?" "I'm sorry." "You're excused." "How about that." "Is that better for you?" "One way or another he's gonna help me get into this program." "Without a scholarship?" "You think he's just gonna snap his fingers?" "Just wave a magic wand?" "No, they want me." "I know that they want me." "I just need the money." "And he's got the money." "Trust me." "He's got the money." "Did you know that he's been under investigation?" "Have you seen these?" "Yes." "And they haven't found anything." "There was a metal box bolted to the floor in his bedroom closet." "It's not really a safe, but one of those fireproof things that you put really important documents in." "I was at his place once and I could've sworn I saw Wade put cash into it." "A lot of cash." "What?" "Say it!" "Tell me what you're thinking." "Tell me how naive I am." "Tell me I'm really fucking stupid for thinking that he might actually care about me." "I think you should forget about him." "You should let it go." "That's easy for you to say, right?" "Easy for you to say 'cause you can hop back under your cozy silk covers whenever you need to." "It doesn't work like that for me." "The world doesn't work like that, okay?" "I needed this!" "I really needed it!" "Are you okay?" "I just wanted to hear you." "We should come up with a signal or something." "For?" "In case you have the feeling something bad is happening." "I'll deal with it." "Just open up the door and get out of the car." "Okay." "And then what?" "And then I'll come and save you." "Jordan?" "Yeah." "I'm glad you're here." "Right now." "Get off." "Shay!" "What the hell happened?" "I've been waiting for an hour!" "We were supposed to meet about the charity auction." "You totally blew me off!" "Jesus, what" "What happened to you?" "I'm okay." "Okay?" "No, you're not" "I'm okay, please." "Jordan, look at you." "You're not okay." "What happened?" "I've been waiting here an hour and you're not gonna give me the courtesy of an explanation?" "I'm sorry." "Whatever." "Just take it easy." "You're fucking in on this with her?" "What?" "You trying to take my fucking money!" "You wanna take my fucking money?" "I don't think you and I should be seen together for a few days." "Okay?" "Yeah." "Where are Wade's keys?" "I've got them." "Let me see." "One of these keys unlocks the box." "I know Wade's security code." "He left me the key that time I was there." "Look, I think the only thing you and I should be focused on right now is how to keep us breathing free air for the rest of our lives." "I've replayed it a thousand times in my mind, frame by frame." "And come up with a thousand things we should've done differently." "But life doesn't give you the chance to go back and edit." "Should we have come clean?" "Call the cops, call my dad, pleaded self-defense?" "Or should we have been more drastic?" "Driven his body hundreds of miles away?" "Dropped into a river or somewhere and hoped we weren't seen?" "A thousand things we should've done differently." "But all we're left with is what we did." "His assistant became concerned when no one heard from him Tuesday morning." "Police searched for signs of Chandling in places he frequented, but found no traces of him." "Early this morning his body was discovered in the woods near Corbetts Glen." "Sarah Cowen is at the scene." "They found Wade Chandling's body in the park." "Attorney Wade Chandling was discovered early this morning by hikers." "Really?" "He'd been missing for a couple of days." "A hiker found him near the glen beaten to death." "I'm Sarah Cowen." "Channel Six news." "That's mezzo forte in the second measure, Elena." "Help you?" "Shay's not here." "She didn't show up to practice today." "Elena, please, listen." "Is she sick?" "The office said there was no call." "Thanks." "Is Shay home?" "No, she's not home." "D'you know where she is?" "No, I thought you might know where she is." "Gordie, right?" "Gordon?" "Jordan." "What do you want with her anyway?" "Nothing." "We were just" " We were gonna meet up later." "Hey, this is Shay." "Leave me a message after the beep and I'll call you back." "Shay, it's Jordan." "I know I keep calling." "I'm just trying to track you down." "I'm on my cell." "If you can call me." "So the, uh, donations that we got for the action are several paintings and drawings from Elliot Damien, Gary Fine, Robert Walker." "And they're all estimated over a quarter of a million dollars." "We got very lucky!" "Jordan." "Put the phone away." "What's up?" "What do you mean?" "You didn't say two words in there." "There was not much to say." "Desiree's got a handle on it." "Who's co-chairing this with me, you or her?" "Besides, last I heard Desiree's already been accepted to Yale for the fall." "I swear, Jordan, sometimes I just wanna shake you out of your complacency." "You do your homework before the next meeting." "If you sit there with your thumb up your ass again," "I'm gonna break it off and leave it there permanently." "Put the phone away." "Remember me?" "Detective Griffin?" "We met when you had that little problem at Xavier." "Yeah." "D'you take these?" "Yes." "Not bad." "You're a regular Andy Warhol, huh?" "No, not really." "He was more of a painter." "You know, you're just the guy I wanna see." "I'm thinking about getting a digital camera." "Any suggestions?" "All that mega pixel stuff makes my head spin." "How much you looking to spend?" "Not a lot." "Well, I'll give it some thought." "I understand you're a friend of Shay Bettencourt's." "Yeah, that's right." "Any idea where she is?" "She's been out the last few days." "You know, I think she's sick." "I don't think so." "I checked her place." "She's not there." "You and Shay pretty tight?" "We hang out, yeah." "Does she like having her picture taken?" "What's this about?" "How much did you really know about her?" "What do you mean?" "You know about her mom, right?" "Yeah." "That she's dead." "Who told you that?" "Shay mentioned it." "Well." "No!" "Her mom's alive and well, and living in the Attica State Correctional Facility for Women." "How is that?" "She carved up Shay's step dad with a steak knife a couple of years back." "I think we're talking about two totally different people here." "Don't think so." "How long has she been seeing Wade Chandling?" "You know who he is, right?" "Never mentioned him." "I guess dating a guy that's old enough to be your dad, that's not something you wanna advertise." "How do you know this?" "Well, Wade Chandling is a- was a member of the Oak Valley Country Club." "Same place Shay works." "Some of the members had a problem with their cars being vandalized in the past few months, so they put a video camera in the parking lot to keep an eye on things." "We got a look at the tapes." "Lots of video of Shay climbing into Chandling's car after hours." "Yeah." "That's a real head-scratcher, isn't it?" "If you see Shay, it's important she contact me." "Take care, Warhol." "My office is getting up to speed on this case." "I've spoken to Chief Malley several timer over the past few hours and made it very clear to him that he has our full support." "In an investigation of this type" "This is Desiree." "D, it's me." "What are you doing?" "Watching my dad feed the media a few sound bites." "What's up?" "I need to see you." "Jordan Wells asking me for a favor." "What are the odds?" "Can you meet me in an hour?" "Are you gonna stand me up again?" "D, come on." "Yeah, okay." "Where?" "Hey." "With soy milk?" "Yeah." "Hm." "You must be desperate." "Thanks." "I want to talk to you about the other night." "And you've just gotta trust me when I tell you that it's okay." "And that I'm sorry." "Okay." "I wanted to get together and thank you for everything you've been doing for the foundation." "You're saving my ass." "Right." "How's everything going with you?" "How's everything going in your dad's office?" "Everything's fine." "You guys must be on this Chandling thing." "Not officially, but you know, they're moving kind of fast." "Do you have any suspects?" "I'm an intern, Jordan." "They don't really tell me anything." "That's never really stopped you before, though." "True." "Okay." "So off the record, it looks like they haven't been able to pull that much from the scene." "What do you mean?" "It means whoever did it, covered the tracks pretty well." "They are hoping to catch a break when the find Chandling's car." "What about this whole audit thing that everybody's been talking about?" "What about it?" "If he was shuffling around money for some of his clients, things could have gone bad." "Yeah." "Okay." "Okay, what's the deal?" "You trade in your camera for a pen and paper?" "Does the Edgerton Bugle have the whole staff working on the story?" "I'm interested in what you do." "I'm trying to keep up." "Okay." "I'm gonna go." "I don't really feel like hanging out with a stranger." "Especially when it's a stranger I've known my whole life." "Thanks for the chai." "What are you doing here?" "I freaked out." "We talked about not doing anything out of the ordinary." "Do you remember that?" "I'm just really confused right now." "Where have you been?" "I went to the abandoned house on the bluffs." "Huh." "I had to sort some things out in my head, you know." "I got a visit from the Police today." "They know about Wade and me, don't they?" "Yeah." "They have security cameras installed in the parking lot at the country club." "So yeah, they do." "Why didn't you tell me about your mother?" "My mother?" "You know what I mean." "Because I was afraid, Jordan." "You made it out like she was dead." "As far as I'm concerned, she is dead." "You didn't have to hide it from me." "Not that." "You have to go in there and you have to talk to them." "What if they put everything together?" "I just talked to my friend who interns in the DA's office." "They don't know anything." "What if they find his car and find my fingerprints inside?" "They know you were in the car." "They don't know you were in the car that night." "If you keep letting this hang out there, they're gonna get really suspicious about you." "And then they could become really suspicious about me." "What do I tell them?" "This is amazing." "Amazing." "I mean, in my wildest dreams when I first decided to enter into this with my father," "I did not think that we'd get this much support." "So many of you tonight have been given so much." "Not that I'm implying you haven't worked for what you have, but there is some money in here that is so old" "I don't think there's a carbon-dating test to trace its origins." "What we've all been giving." "What is worth more than money, though, is the invaluable blessings of our supportive families, respect for education, and belief in our hopes and dreams." "Shay walked into the Edgerton Police Department and lied her way out of it." "Later that day I put the finishing touches to my own story." "I completed my image transformation from prep school bad boy to a shining crusader for children's art." "Right back into the Ivy League and beyond." "Forty-five once." "Forty-five twice." "Sometimes it feels like a charmed life, doesn't it?" "Sold for $4,500." "There we go." "Hey, awesome job." "Awesome job." "Thanks." "Hey." "You got a good night tonight." "Probably made enough to keep MoKA running for years." "That should definitely turn a few heads at Cornell." "You sure know how to throw a great party, D." "What do you want me to say?" "I do." "It's in my blood." "The question is, though, is it in yours?" "What does that mean?" "They found Chandling's car today." "It was parked on the roof of a city garage." "They're sure that he didn't leave it there because they found some muddy footprints in a size ten." "He's a 12." "The mud matches the samples that they took from the woods near the glen." "They also found a few partial latents that, uh, someone didn't do a very good job wiping off." "The Police got a tip today, Jordan, that a blue Audi was parked at the glen for a few hours the night Chandling went missing." "Right about the same time you and I were supposed to get together." "You know the girl they interviewed today, right?" "Yeah." "Jesus, Jordan!" "That's what the Chai Latte was all about yesterday, huh?" "Oh, come on, don't!" "Don't you dare." "I saw you that night." "I saw the mud all over you, and I hoped to God I was the only one." "You know something." "Let's go to my dad right now!" "I know that she was involved with Wade Chandling." "But that's" "That's really just all I now, D." "They cleared me." "I'm free." "Hello?" "Hey, Warhol." "Griffin." "We gotta talk you and me." "I'm kind of in a little something right now." "I suggest you drop it and meet me at the ball field in 20 minutes." "This was my school, too." "You might not believe it but I was kind of a nobody back then." "During football games I'd sit on the hill over there by myself." "Observing life like it was being lived without me." "Football players on the field, cheerleaders on the sideline, guys like you." "Wade Chandling in the stands." "Smiles on their faces." "Not a care in the world." "I gotta get to class." "Hey." "I'll write you an excuse." "Your girl's off the hook, did she tell you?" "Yeah." "And, um, look what landed in my lap this morning." "You already know what's in there." "But open it anyway." "I wanna see your reaction." "Now, there's two ways we can play this." "One, I take those pictures to a judge and get a subpoena to check your shoe size and fingerprints." "Your previous history with photography should make that almost a lock." "Or two, you help me conduct a little experiment that just might save your ass." "I've never seen those pictures before in my life." "Right." "And your A4 wasn't at the glen the other night." "I've got you, Warhol." "And the thing is, I'm pretty sure it wasn't your idea." "It was all hers." "You know anything about meta-data files?" "It's the most amazing concept in digital photography." "You store a file with a photo on a disk." "All sorts of juicy stuff gets encoded in there." "Date, time, what kind of camera, serial number." "It's like a digital fingerprint." "It's the nail in your coffin if somebody decides to crosscheck those files against the number on your camera." "A scholarship." "He was gonna help her get a scholarship." "A scholarship?" "To Hartley." "Oh, man." "That's beautiful." "All for the advancement of art, eh?" "I don't think that was it, Warhol." "It's just a theory I'm working on." "I don't have it all put together, yet." "But it involves Chandling and a whole pile of money" "I think your girl was trying to get her hands on." "And I am not talking tuition money." "I'm talking about something in excess of one million bucks." "Come on." "See, I think Shay made you think that it was about the music." "But really Chandling was sitting on something big." "And she knew it." "So she tried to squeeze him to get him to pay her to keep her mouth shut." "Things went bad." "And then you came along and helped clean up the mess." "It was supposed to be about a scholarship." "Like I said, it's only a theory." "But we can test it." "I'm thinking, once I run your prints, they're gonna do a whole lot of talking." "Maybe not enough to put one of Ben Wells' kids in Attica for the rest of his days, but you think for one second that your life's gonna be the same?" "Which brings us back to our little experiment." "I want $1 million." "What?" "One million." "I don't have that." "But she does." "And maybe you already know that, Warhol." "Here's my number." "I wanna hear from you by the end of the day." "Now, get the fuck out of here." "Jordan?" "What happened to my house?" "You went back for the keys, Shay." "Why would you say that?" "I met with that cop Griffin earlier today." "What did he tell you?" "That he found the box in Wade's bedroom." "Empty." "Was this ever about the music?" "Of course it was!" "He's trying to get us against each other." "Can't you see that?" "I'm telling you the truth, Jordan." "What do you want me to do to prove that to you?" "Where's the money, Shay?" "It's not here." "I hid it someplace safe." "In a few hours, Griffin is gonna get a subpoena so they can check my prints." "If you wanna prove it, I need that money." "You pay him, and then what?" "He could arrest you." "He could even kill you!" "We have two options right now." "We can either get out of here as fast as we can, or we kill him." "And we're not killers." "We're not?" "No, we're not!" "I know a place where we can go where no one would ever find us." "And the cops couldn't touch us." "I can't live looking over my shoulder, Jordan." "I told her I'd go with her." "But it was a lie." "The only place I wanted to go was back." "Back to simple." "Back to scripted." "Shay could ad-lip." "She could make it up as she went along." "She'd been doing it her whole life." "And my whole life had been mapped out for me." "I wasn't going anywhere." "Griffin." "You'll have it in an hour." "The life everyone lives in their minds is so much better." "So much more appealing than the one they're actually living." "But almost always the moment they have to give up the real one for the imagined, the equation changes." "How much is there?" "A little over a million." "We're gonna be okay, Jordan." "Shay, I can't." "What do you mean?" "Sorry." "No!" "But everything was all set!" "I have to take this to Griffin." "Just wait." "Think this through." "I already have." "Where did you get that?" "It was in the box with the money." "What are you gonna do?" "Shoot at me?" "I'm sorry, but I can't let you go." "Do whatever you gotta do." "Jordan!" "Jordan." "Goddamn." "Got the pictures?" "We done?" "Yeah." "Well, maybe not quite." "Get on your knees." "What?" "I'm taking you down, kid." "And you can tell every cop in the station that I took this money from you because nobody's ever gonna believe you!" "I placed a call to Hartley to check out your girlfriend's story." "There was no scholarship, Warhol." "She never auditioned." "Hell, she never even filled out an application." "Nobody there knew anything about a Shay Bettencourt." "Get away from him." "I'll do it." "Let him go." "Shay, get out of here." "Shut up, Jordan." "Throw me your gun." "It's not gonna happen." "No, Shay!" "We gotta go." "I'm not going with you." "You don't have a choice, Jordan." "Who are you?" "Me?" "Who am I?" "I guess I'm just a girl who saw an opportunity and took it." "For the money?" "I only have two real talents, Jordan." "And the second one is that I know what the first one is." "That's why you needed me." "You knew just the right buttons to push." "You probably even have the fucking log picked out to crash his head in with!" "I lied about Hartley." "Okay, I did." "And I'm sorry." "Look at me." "I'm here, right?" "I saved you, didn't I?" "You saved" " You saved me or you saved the money?" "Believe whatever you want." "But the reality is if you stay here, they're gonna arrest you." "Okay?" "Jordan?" "Come on." "You do realize your life is over, don't you?" "A good photographer captures the subject." "But a good subject captures the photographer." "I'd been captured alright." "D?" "What the hell happened?" "How long have you been here?" "Not long." "Just got off the phone with my dad." "He's been out all night." "They found another body at the glen." "Detective Griffin from the Chandling case." "You know him?" "Yeah." "That's the right answer, Jordan." "They took a look at Griffin's phone records." "They saw you called him an hour before this happened." "Tell me." "Where you there?" "Mhmm." "And that's when I realized it." "What Shay meant." "My life, as I knew it was over." "You better get out of those clothes." "Jordan!" "Go!" "Where were you last night?" "I was right here." "We'll take it from here." "Jordan, would you have a seat?" "You know Detective Griffin, right?" "Yeah, um, I spoke to him last week." "Spoke to him last week." "Why did he come and see you?" "I'm friends with a girl who was involved with Mr. Chandling." "Who is this girl?" "It's just someone from school." "We found these images on Detective Griffin's computer." "I don't know anything about pictures like these." "Where you at the glen last night?" "Where were you last night, Jordan?" "I was here." "We'd like to help you, but you're crossing the line." "And I think you should leave." "You know, Mr. Wells, we will come back with that subpoena." "You don't have to get a subpoena." "Who's this?" "Desiree Thomas." "DA Thomas' daughter." "I was with Jordan last night." "We were right here." "Are there any other questions?" "Well, I guess that's it then." "You know what, Mr. Wells" "I think that's enough." "Thanks for your time." "I'll see you out." "That won't be necessary." "How well did you know this girl?" "I was just hanging out." "Jesus Christ, Jordan." "Tell me the truth." "Do not let them blindside me with something else." "There's nothing else." "There better not be." "D, I, uh" "I don't know what to say." "You know what, Jordan?" "Neither do I." "I just bought you two days, maybe three." "But this isn't over, Jordan." "It was the final gift she would ever give me." "Her last favor." "It's strange to think of your future in terms of days." "But it wasn't going to take those detectives any longer than that." "Money was her only way out." "And now it became mine." "And that's why I transferred most of the money to another bag before meeting Griffin." "The money was the only leverage I had left." "There's always a moment." "Sometimes more than one." "When you can walk away." "Choose not to play a role someone else may be writing for you." "Reality finally kicked in." "For my life," "it was time I started writing my own script." "My name's Jordan Wells." "A marketer's report on me would read something like this." "Rich, privileged, future doctor," "future lawyer, future somebody." "But you wouldn't expect an accessory to murder." "Twice." "With a million dollars to decide what to do next." "# She dances for you #" "# In the fading Sun light #" "# We're losing This battle #" "# From the start #" "# It's fatal within #" "# If she knows How to use it #" "# She could tear Your life apart #" "# Fatal beauty #" "# Fatal beauty #" "# Fatal beauty #" "# Fatal beauty #" "# Someone you Could find strange #" "# To walk away #" "# If only you Could clear Your twisted vision #" "# To see through victory #" "# Before there's Nothing left #" "# Just the paces on your life #" "# They crumbled In her hands As you fell #" "# To a fatal beauty #" "# Fatal beauty #" "# Fatal beauty #" "# Fatal beauty #" "# It's the killing now #" "# And tell if your Reasoning is dying #" "# How many times #" "# Must you get Yourself found #" "# Before you Stop beauty At the fire #" "# You're not the first To discover #" "# To her is just a game Laced with desire #" "# It was too late To escape #" "# When the poison Was flowing #" "# And she carved Out her name Across my heart #" "# Fatal beauty #" "# Fatal beauty #" "# Fatal beauty #" "# Fatal beauty #" "# Fatal beauty #" "# Fatal beauty #" "# It's a fatal beauty #" "# Fatal beauty #"