Tell Me No Secret

By Brandon Ellrich

Can you keep a secret? High school student Joe wishes he’d never been asked that question. In the small town of New Haven, Missouri, murder is not a common occurrence, so when Joe kills his “best bud” Brad, a tidal wave of shock washes over the community. It makes no sense that Joe killed Brad. However, among teens, you never know what evil lurks beneath the surface.

Take a journey inside Joe’s mind as he reveals the details, planning, and tumultuous emotions that went into murdering his best friend. It’s no mystery that Joe is guilty; he admits that on page one. The question is why? What causes a nice young man to commit a murder? The answer isn’t as clear as it initially seems.

Details slowly float to the surface as time moves from the present into the past. Joe might admit guilt, but who is truly to blame for Brad’s murder? Will those responsible for heinous acts be brought to justice? Keeping a secret can be risky, but in Tell Me No Secret, a group of teen friends discovers just how dangerous it can be.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Archway Publishing
• Release date: Feb 23, 2021
• ISBN: 9781480898271

Brandon Ellrich

Brandon Ellrich grew up in rural Missouri and currently lives just outside of Kansas City. He earned his Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Central Missouri and loves to take his readers inside the minds of his characters. He is also the author of Like a Mousetrap. Learn more at brandonellrich.com.

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Copyright © 2021 Brandon Ellrich.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by

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without the written permission of the author except in the case of

brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, names, incidents,

organizations, and dialogue in this novel are either the products

of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.

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ISBN: 978-1-4808-9828-8 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4808-9826-4 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-4808-9827-1 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2020920966

Archway Publishing rev. date: 2/10/2021

T o

Brent, Shelli, Devin, Scott, Drew, and Kerri

CONTENTS

PART I

The Burden

PART II

In The Eye Of The Beholder

PART III

Lost And Found

PART I

THE BURDEN

1

THE DAY AFTER

C an you keep a secret? This isn’t just any secret; this is big. Just don’t freak out when I tell you, okay?

Brad is dead.

There is no doubt about it. Dead as a doornail. I don’t know where that saying came from. Anything that’s not alive is dead, right? Why a doornail? Anyway, I got away with it—at least for now. He’s not going to bother me anymore. That arrogant prick ruined my life for long enough. He’s not going to have control of me anymore. If anyone ever finds out that I did it, they’ll say it was because my parents got divorced, that my dad didn’t love me, or because I played Tomb Raider too often. Don’t believe any of that shit. I wanted to kill him. I had to. He deserved it. If you knew everything that had happened, you’d agree.

And why shouldn’t I get away with it? As far as everyone else knows, we’re still best friends—unless he told anyone about what’d been going on between us recently, which I doubt. It’s true we’d grown apart lately, but for me to murder him … No one would believe that.

People show you all the time on TV how to commit murder. On TV, though, the murderer always does something stupid that gets himself caught eventually. It’s like a recipe: all you have to do is follow the directions and just substitute that one stupid mistake for a good alibi. And I did that. I even took care of his car. I did that guy a great favor. He came and got it this morning. I just hope he drives somewhere far away, as he said he would. He probably deserved that car a lot more than Brad did. I only wish he were around to watch his precious brand-new car handed over to a bum.

As if it weren’t enough that I killed him, I gouged his eyes out too. Don’t ask me why. He actually had nice eyes, for a guy. Maybe I wanted to make sure he was dead. Maybe it was jealousy. Maybe it was all the hatred that had been building up. I don’t know. Ironically, I’m not really a violent person. I don’t like to hunt or even run over a stupid cat that wanders into the road. Hate can really change a person. But now that he’s gone, I don’t have to hate him anymore.

It didn’t bring me the satisfaction that I thought it would, though. I mean, after I killed him, I was relieved. Brad was like a cancer spreading more and more every day, and I finally got up the nerve to cut out the intrusive tumor. It was as if a giant weight had been lifted.

Even now that he’s dead, even after I buried him, there is a new weight, a new burden, to carry. I’m still not exactly sure what it is. Remorse? Sadness? I don’t think so. I didn’t like him. I would even go so far as to say that I hated him toward the end. And as I said before, he deserved it. I’m not sorry that he’s gone. Guilt? Maybe. I mean, I took someone’s life. He had his entire future ahead of him. Now that’s gone forever, and he can never get it back. Even though I’m glad he’s gone, just the action of murder is a big thing. It’s something I’d like to forget, but I never will.

That’s what sucks about the mind. Whatever you say, whatever you hear or do, it’s trapped in your mind. You can’t forget it, no matter how much you want to. And I have the entire remainder of my life to think about it.

Since I had to leave Brad’s car behind, I had a long walk home, so it gave me a chance to practice my I don’t know what could’ve happened to him speech. Oh, and the I can’t believe he’s gone and I miss him so much speeches. I’ll tell everyone how he had been acting differently lately and how we had grown apart. And people will believe me because it was true. And I would know, wouldn’t I? I was close to him. Other people had noticed the change in him. But I don’t think Linda, his mom, ever did. She was too naive. She always saw him as her little angel. That’s going to be the hard part—facing her when she asks me where he could have gone. Then I started to think about Jake Hanley again. But that was over. I can’t do anything about that now.

I was halfway home before I realized what was in my hand. Shit! I’d meant to bury it with him. It’s okay, I said aloud. Anyone walking or driving by might be a little curious, but they probably wouldn’t be suspicious—unless they looked at it closely. I’d clean it off and no one would know. As long as there was no body, they wouldn’t be looking for a weapon, right? It’s fine. It’s fine, I assured myself.

It took me a while to dig the hole, so I almost didn’t make it home before sunrise. No one will notice that he’s gone today—not even his parents. They’ll think he left early to lift weights or something. Tomorrow, though—that’s when it will start. They’ll look for him for a while, but they won’t find him, and eventually they’ll stop looking. It will be pointless. They’ll assume he ran away or killed himself somewhere, and I’ll do my best to help them believe that theory. I’ll act depressed for a while and tell people how I wish I had done more to help him. And after this is over, I won’t talk about it again. I just have to get it off my mind.

Oh, by the way, don’t tell anyone.

2

THAT DAY

I was nervous all day. Even after all the careful planning, you can truly never emotionally prepare for something like this, ya know? I don’t think anyone noticed, though. I’m a good actor. Not even Stephanie knew what I was about to do. I confide in her more than anyone else now that Brad and I aren’t best friends anymore, but not even my girlfriend knows everything about me.

I went to my locker as usual and guess who came swaggering up. Why did our lockers have to be right next to each other? Calloway, Carroll, Carver … I would’ve been next to Andy Carroll, but he and Brad had switched at the beginning of the year so we best buds could be next to each other.

’Sup, Joseph?

I hated when he called me Joseph. My mom always calls me Joseph, but I don’t mind that. She says it out of affection. But when he says it …

Nothin’, I murmured, trying to hide my contempt. Are you ready for the civics test? I was trying to act as if everything was fine between us.

Ah, fatal! He used that word way too much. He was a prep but thought he was cool like the rest of the skaters and emo crowd.

I can’t believe you forgot about it. Mr. Harper has been reminding us about it for the last two weeks.

Brad used to be a straight-A student. School always seemed to come easily for him. But now he thought he could get away with anything—including not studying for tests.

Yeah, but, dude, I was up late last night. We were downtown at the library, and I was doin’ a nose-grind on the front stair rail and fell right on my ass. Fatal! It was freakin’ hilarious.

I gave an obligatory smile and a little chuckle as if I gave a damn about his stupid escapades. The cops had already warned him about skateboarding at the public library. A year ago, he would’ve been scared shitless if a cop approached him. He always used to be a wuss. He hated roller coasters and never tried anything dangerous. He even cried when he was hit hard at football practice. Now he thought he was invincible, that nothing or nobody could stop him from doing whatever the hell he wanted. They still don’t know that he was the one who broke into the school last