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“Please just tell me one thing,” I said. I took it as a good sign that he didn’t slam the door in my face. “What was Laina’s favorite thing in the world?”
His face contorted with pain. “Easy,” he said. “Me.”
I sneaked in the front door, shutting it an inch at a time and keeping my hand against it tensely until the lock clicked into place. Then I crept down the hall and into my room.
Lydia was sitting on my bed.
“Were you there?” I asked.
“No, I was watching Leno with your parents,” she said.
I sighed.
“I’m kidding. Yeah, I was there. And I gotta say, Alexis, he clearly loved her.” She nodded thoughtfully. “Way more than he likes you.”
“Thanks a lot,” I said.
“You know what I mean. He luuuurrved her. He likes you all right. Mostly because you do whatever he says, in my opinion, but whatevs.”
“Do you have anything helpful to contribute?” I asked.
“I guess not,” she said. “Just that it’s weird that he locks his closet.”
“I know, right?” I said. “What’s up with that? Couldn’t you look inside?”
She gave me an exasperated look. “I’m a ghost, Alexis, not a magical see-in-the-dark cat.”
I rolled my eyes.
“But he’s clearly in denial,” she said. “It has to be her. The dress, the funeral home, the roses, targeting you out of jealousy that you’re moving in on her man…It all adds up.”
“But what did Kendra and Ashleen do?” I asked.
“You tell me.” She shrugged. “I wasn’t there.”
I remembered Kendra fluffing her hair in front of Jared at the nature preserve. And Ashleen simpering over him at her house.
“They flirted with him?” I said. “That was enough to get them a death sentence? Then how bad is what I’ve been doing?”
“I’m not sure I want to know,” Lydia said. “Anyway, it seems clear that we’re dealing with the most psycho of psycho ex-girlfriends.”
“Yeah,” I said. “And the only way to get rid of her…”
“Is what?” Lydia asked.
So she hadn’t been at the front door when Jared told me he was Laina’s favorite thing.
Lydia didn’t know…
That the only way to stop Laina was to destroy Jared.
I SLEPT SURPRISINGLY WELL once I managed to fall asleep, and awoke to see Lydia snoozing lightly above my dresser. I felt energized by the discoveries of the previous night, no matter how dark they were. At least now we had information. A place to begin.
“Look alive!” I said, patting Lydia on the head. My fingers turned to ice.
She woke with a start, looking around. I headed out to the kitchen, where my parents and Kasey were staring at a breaking news report on the TV.
I stopped at the end of the hall, goose bumps erupting all over my body. “What now?”
“Another local teen is missing,” the female reporter said. “Her parents say they last saw her when she went to her bedroom to study after di
I took a step forward.
“Wait, Lexi—” Kasey said.
A photograph came onscreen—a smiling girl with a sharp jaw, black eyeglasses, and short curly hair.
Elliot.
“No,” I said. “No.”
Mom rushed to my side. “Alexis? Honey. It’s okay.” Her voice sounded like it was coming through water.
I began to feel faint, like my legs might give out. Kasey hurried over with a chair from the di
She doesn’t fit the pattern, said the voice inside my head. I shook my head, banishing the voice. I didn’t have the strength to deal with it right now.
“I’m sure she’ll be all right,” Mom said. “The police will find her.”
Like they found Ashleen?
“Alexis, are you all right?” Mom backed away, leaving Kasey to pat my hand. “Let me call the office and tell them I’m not going to make it in.”
“No.” My voice echoed in the room, as though someone else were speaking. “I need to go to school.”
“Lexi!” Kasey said. “You don’t have to!”
“I want to,” I said. “I need to be with my yearbook friends.”
“I don’t know,” Mom said, but she was disarmed by the word friends. “Maybe you should stay here and—”
“Stare at my hands? Cry all day?” I asked. “No. I’m going to school. They’ll have counselors there. Besides…you have your board meeting.”
Mom looked hurt. “Oh, honey. That means nothing. Not if you need me.”
A couple of years ago, I would never have believed I’d hear my mother speak that way about a board meeting, the holiest of holies.
Now, as much as I appreciated it, all I wanted was for her and Dad to go to work, and for Kasey to go to school and surround herself with popular kids.
Because I needed them all out of my way.
My parents were so used to seeing me take my camera to school that when I came out of my bedroom ten minutes later with my backpack over one shoulder and my camera bag over the other, they didn’t even notice.
Kasey did, though. She looked up at me incredulously. “You’re shooting today?”
“Just candids,” I said, even though it felt like a steady electrical current was traveling through my body. It had been there since the moment I’d grasped that Elliot was actually missing—and that I was her only hope of survival.
“Of what?”
“People,” I said. “Being candid.”
“Alexis,” Mom said, “are you sure you don’t want us to drive you to school? Or you can stay home if you want. I know how worried you must be.”
“I’m fine.” I felt as stiff as the Tin Man before he got oiled. “I want to be there.”
Kasey had been pla
My sister shot a wary look at me and then grabbed her bag from the couch. “Are you sure you’re okay? Why don’t you just ride with us?”
I nodded. “I’m fine.”
Keaton stood in the doorway, wide-eyed and earnest. “We have plenty of room.”
“No,” I said. “Thank you.”
I watched them pull away from the house, then went back to my room and shut off the light.
Lydia appeared. “Why can’t you find a non-drama boyfriend like your sister’s?”
I felt like I was made of porcelain and might crack up at any moment—and not in a laughing way. “I can’t do this today, Lyd.”
“I’m just saying. Carter flipped out, Jared’s Mr. Gloomypants—”
In spite of myself, my spine went rigid. “Carter did not flip out. That was Aralt’s fault.”
She made a face. “Whatever. Who dumps their girlfriend because she dyed her hair?”
“Stop. Please.”
“All right, whatever.” She gave a little jump and sort of floated to the bed, like a piece of paper in a breeze.
“Forget it.” My nerves couldn’t take any more arguing. “Just forget it.”
“Let’s go,” she said. “We’re doing the past perfect tense in French class and I don’t want to be late.”
“You’ll have to get yourself there,” I said, picking up my backpack and camera bag. “I’m not going to school today.”
“Where are you going?” she asked.
“For a hike,” I said. “Want to come?”
“Have you ever thought about writing all of your bad ideas down and selling a book of them? It could be called, like, Alexis Warren’s Surefire Ways to Die Young. Hey, I could be your spokesperson.”
I didn’t answer, but not out of stubbor
“And why do you think she would be here?” Lydia asked.
“Because she hikes here. It’s her favorite trail. She always talks about it.” I stopped, pretending to be looking off into the distance but really just trying to catch my breath so I could talk. “And the other girls ended up in places they knew. Outside of town.”