Envy

Moira wanted to write it all down, but this disclosure was all off the record. She prayed right then that she’d remember everything Sava

“So the Ryan twins, Hayley and Taylor, were in the study?” she asked.

“Yes, Hayley and Taylor.” Sava

“It sounds like they were gifted,” Moira said, thinking of her sister Maizey, who was in the gifted program for six years and really wasn’t—as far as she could tell—any smarter than she.

“More than gifted,” Sava

“You said something was scary about them. That you weren’t surprised they survived the crash.”

Something resembling a smile crossed Sava

Moira leaned closer. She was going in for the kill. “You did. Yes, you did.”

Sava

“It has been fourteen years,” she said, her voice quiet. “I’ve never shown this to anyone.”

Sava

“I keep this relic only because it is the only way to play the tape,” she said. “It isn’t like I play it all the time, mind you. But I have watched it once or twice a year since I left the university.”

The VCR powered up and Sava

“I didn’t know they made tapes that big,” Moira said, reaching for her phone.

“Half-inch. The quality for major productions at the time. Calling someone?”

Moira shook her head no. “Silencing my phone,” she said.

Sava

The video predated HD and it had indeed degraded over the years. Not as bad as those old-timey movies they showed late at night, but there were gaps, scratches, and pops. The camera moved back and forth before finally landing on a pair of baby girls dressed in matching blue outfits. Their hair was faint, downy, and blonde. It was lunchtime, or maybe di

“That’s Hayley on the right. Taylor’s on the left,” she said, touching the screen to indicate which girl was sitting in which blue high chair. Sava

“Look at what they are doing,” Sava

“Eating pasta?” Moira leaned closer, but she still didn’t see what could possibly be the big deal.

Sava

“Yes, I see it. But I think if I had a twin sister I’d be battling her for more food all the time.” Moira was surprised by her disclosure because it was so very, very true.

“Hang on,” Sava

Someone nudged the camera and it went a little blurry before being refocused.

The girls were eating alphabet pasta in a light tomato sauce. Both were looking at the camera as it pa

Moira looked up, her eyes wide as she took it all in. “It has to be some kind of trick,” she said.

Sava

“It wasn’t and it isn’t,” she said, her eyes landing above the TV.

Moira looked up at several photographs. They were pictures of Sava

“Is that … ?” she asked.

Tears came to Sava

“My sister, Serena. Yes, that’s her.”

“What … what happened to her?”

Sava

Moira stood. She felt the air suck right out of the log house. It seemed to happen so fast. All of a sudden she felt like she was going to faint. But she didn’t. She couldn’t.

“Does anyone know about this?” she asked.

Sava

“You mean does anyone else know about it?” she asked.

A second or two passed and a ten-years-younger Valerie Ryan came into view.

“That’s the mother,” Sava

Moira knew that already. She’d seen her at the pizza place in Poulsbo, but she didn’t say so. “I see,” she said.

On the screen, Valerie picked up the plastic pasta bowls and paused, her eyes meeting the camera fleetingly. As she moved the bowls to take them to the kitchen, she dragged Hayley’s across the tray, leaving a red smear and a clump of pasta.

Moira had seen enough. Her heart was pounding. Hard. She started to leave, fumbling for her purse, her car keys.

“I quit the university after it happened,” Sava

Moira knew that the it referred to what happened to Serena, not the message on the tray.

“You won’t write about this, will you?”

“Are you serious? If this is real, this changes everything.”

“I’m not sure what you mean by everything, but, yes, it is real. But you can’t write about it.”

Moira didn’t even answer Sava

chapter 41

HAYLEY AND COLTON WERE SHARING a Portabello sandwich—her favorite—at the Port Gamble General Store after school. They’d been talking nonstop about missing Hedda and Taylor’s jealousy over the time they spent together. But mostly about Starla, what was on Katelyn’s computer, and who had sent her the messages. Before Katelyn died, they’d have talked about going to a movie in Silverdale, what they were reading, the merits of the Like It size at Cold Stone, or the latest lame musical trend.

Important stuff? No. Such topics, however, fueled the kind of conversation that allowed them to be critical, even snarky, about things that weren’t really important to anyone.

All of that changed when Katelyn Berkley was espressoed to death in her bathroom.

When Hayley’s phone buzzed, she reflexively reached for it.

It was a text message. Her eyes widened and she spun her phone around so Colton could read it.

BETH: JAKE GOT FIRED FROM BELLEVUE SCHOOLS 4 WHAT HE DID W/ A KID. WZ ASKING ABT STARLA’S FAMILY & HEARD IT FROM SOME1 WHO TOLD SOME1 ELSE WHOSE DAD USED 2 WORK W/HIM.

“Holy crap!” Colton’s eyes darted back to Hayley’s.

“No kidding,” she said.

Hayley remembered Starla once saying that Jake was a janitor before he became her mother’s personal handyman.

“What did Jake do with a student?” Colton asked.

“I have no idea,” she said.

“Something disgusting, probably. Guy’s a total creep.”

“I’m going to find out what Jake did,” Hayley said. “Google the number for the Bellevue School District.”

Bellevue was a suburb east of Seattle that was known for its gargantuan mall and an endless stream of luxury cars. It was also Jake’s home before he slithered over to Port Gamble.