“Now it’s my turn to keep you safe.”
Ed wanted to strangle him. “And how are you going to do that?” he asked, unable to keep the sarcasm out of his voice.
“For starters,” Logan said, squeezing Margot’s hand, “I’m not letting her out of my sight ever again.”
“I’m sure Mr. and Mrs. Mejia will have something to say about that,” Ed replied.
“What’s your damage, dude?” Logan asked. “You’ve been on my case all freaking day.”
“I—”
“You have got to be kidding me!”
Kitty’s head whipped around to the doorway, now occupied by the scowling figure of Sergeant Callahan. He wasn’t in uniform, instead comically out of place in dress slacks, a striped button-down shirt, and a sports jacket.
“You guys again?” he said.
“Sergeant Callahan.” Ed raised his hand for a high five. “Long time, no arrest!”
Sergeant Callahan glared at him. “Don’t tempt me.”
Ed grinned. “That is a nice business-casual look you’ve got going on.”
“It was date night with Mrs. Callahan,” he said, then added under his breath, “who is going to kill me.” Then he turned to Kitty. “You want to explain to me what you’re doing here?”
“We were here helping a friend,” Logan answered. “When we heard Margot was awake.”
“Well, now I’m going to need you all to vacate,” Sergeant Callahan said sternly. “I have some important questions to ask Margot.”
“Will do, sir,” Ed said. He grabbed Kitty and yanked her toward the door.
“Sergeant Callahan,” Kitty said, shaking Ed off. She looked to Margot, who nodded her head quickly, decisively. She seemed to know exactly what she was thinking: spill everything to Sergeant Callahan once and for all before someone else gets killed.
Sergeant Callahan sighed impatiently. “Yes?”
“We need to talk to you about the murders.”
“For chrissakes!” Sergeant Callahan planted his hands on his hips. “What did I tell you guys about interfering? I’ve got three unsolved murders, four missing persons, and as we speak the FBI has taken over my office at the station. So the last thing I need is you guys coming to me with crazy theories.”
“But we know who the killer is!” Kitty cried.
“Kitty,” Ed said with a forced chuckle. “I’m not sure we should be bothering the nice police officer with this.”
Sergeant Callahan arched an eyebrow. “Really? What’s his name? A description of what he looks like? Home address? Maybe the kind of car he drives? Do you have any of that information?”
“Er, no,” Kitty said. “But we know—” She paused. Something on his wrist glittered in the harsh overhead lights, drawing her eye. It appeared to be a very expensive watch. Like the one Amber Stevens might have given to Ronny DeStefano.
If I was the killer, you’d be the next victim on my list.
“Yes?” Sergeant Callahan said. “I’m waiting. What is it you know?”
“Nothing,” Kitty said, forcing a smile. “You know, you’re right. We’re way out of our league here.” She grabbed Ed by the arm and hustled him toward the door. “I’m sorry we wasted your time.”
“It’s okay,” he said, clearly taken aback by the radical shift in the conversation. “I suggest you kids go home, go to sleep, and keep your noses out of this before you wind up in custody on federal charges. Do you understand me?”
“Can Logan stay?” Margot asked. “He was there that night, you know. In the theater.”
“Mr. Blaine has already answered my questions,” Sergeant Callahan said with a softer tone than he’d used since his arrival. “And I do think we should be alone.”
“It’s okay,” Logan said, standing up. He leaned down and kissed her tenderly on the cheek. “I won’t go far.”
Kitty felt Ed’s arm tense up.
“Promise?” Margot asked.
Logan smiled. “From now on, I’ll always be right by your side.”
“Why didn’t you tell him?” Logan asked, hurrying down the hall after him.
Kitty paused in front of the elevator and released her grip on Ed’s arm. “He’s not going to listen to us.”
“He might have,” Logan said, “if you showed him the photo and the note. They need to know about Sunday.”
Kitty shook her head. “Sergeant Callahan isn’t going to do anything about Sunday.”
“Why not?” Ed asked tentatively.
“Because he’s wearing Amber’s dad’s Rolex.”
“The sergeant is the killer?” Logan asked, clearly confused.
“Oh, come on,” Ed said with a nervous laugh. “You can’t really believe Sergeant Callahan is behind all this. That’s ridiculous.”
“Is it?” Kitty’s mind raced. “Amber was right at the station today. We’ve done more productive research than the entire police department. Why? Because someone on the inside is thwarting the investigation.” Without even realizing it, she’d begun to pace. “If he’s not the killer, then he’s protecting someone. Either way, he’s involved.”
“Who are we going to tell?” Logan asked. “Should we go to his boss?”
“No!” Ed cried.
Kitty arched an eyebrow. “Why not?”
“I just meant that his captain isn’t going to listen to us,” Ed said. He cleared his throat. “And if Sergeant Callahan finds out we’re on to him, it would be a disaster.”
Kitty nodded. “Good point.” Every once in a while, it was good to have Ed around.
“We can’t do nothing!” Logan cried.
Kitty stopped abruptly and glanced down the hallway toward Margot’s room. Going up against Sergeant Callahan was dangerous, but for once they had the upper hand. If they struck now, they could catch him in the act. But they were going to need reinforcements.
“What?” Logan asked, sensing her excitement. “What are you planning?”
Kitty slowly turned back to them. “Time to call in the cavalry.”
UNCORRECTED E-PROOF—NOT FOR SALE
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FORTY
KITTY SAT IN HER CAR OUTSIDE DONTÉ’S HOUSE, A TEXT TYPED into her phone but not sent. She reread it for the billionth time: I’m out front. Need to talk to you. Really important.
It was dry, to the point, and revealed none of the emotions currently spinning around inside her like an emo whirlpool. Even with the bombshell she was about to drop on Donté, she wasn’t sure if she’d blown her chance with him. His texts that afternoon had escalated from worried to concerned to frantic, but her only response had been “I’m fine” followed by radio silence as she switched off her phone. How did he interpret that? As a rejection? Did he think she’d gone completely cold?
Probably. It’s what Kitty would have thought if the roles were reversed. Still, she hoped that he’d at least be curious enough to hear her out.
She hit Send, then shivered. A thick layer of fog had rolled down from the bay, and the whole neighborhood felt damp and cold.
She wasn’t sure how long she’d have to wait: Donté wasn’t much of a late-night person, but at midnight on a Friday, he should still be awake.
She was right. As she stared at the screen, she saw the telltale dots indicating that Donté was typing a response. She held her breath as her phone vibrated.
Be right down.
Thirty seconds later she saw the front porch bathed in warm, yellow light as Donté stepped outside. He wore a pair of blue and green plaid flannel pajama pants, a black T-shirt, and slippers. He must have been getting ready for bed, and as she watched, he lifted the hem of his shirt to wipe his face, exposing a rock-hard eight pack that disappeared into his PJ bottoms.
Kitty’s stomach did a backflip as she remembered those abs pressed up against her own. Focus, she said to herself. You’re here on business. She took a deep breath, and let it out in three short bursts, then
swung the door open and stepped out of the car.
As soon as Donté saw her, he jumped off the porch and raced down the driveway. She didn’t even get a word out before he wrapped his arms tightly around her.
“Baby,” he said, his breath tickling her ear. “I’m so sorry. I was a total asshole and I don’t know if you can forgive me but—”
Kitty giggled. She couldn’t help herself. The happiness inside bubbled over, and she felt herself shaking with the futile effort to keep from laughing.
“What’s so funny?” Donté asked. He sounded hurt.
She broke away and looked up at him. “I’ll forgive you if you’ll forgive me.”
Donté shrugged. “There’s nothing to forgive. You didn’t do anything wrong.”
“Neither did you.”
He reached out and ran his fingers through her hair, his eyes tracing the lines of her face. “Not true. There’s been something going on, something big, and I let it get in the way of us. I wanted to tell you, but it might put you in danger, so I had to keep it a secret.”
Kitty nodded. “I know.”
“No, you don’t.”
A wicked smile broke the corners of Kitty’s mouth. “I know that you’re a part of the new DGM,” she said softly.
Donté’s eyes grew so wide Kitty thought they might pop out of his head. “How—?”
“Because I’ve been keeping the same secret from you.” She waited and let the meaning of her words sink in. She could actually see the moment when Donté realized what she was saying. His jaw fell open and his shoulders sagged.
“You?”
“Yes”
“DGM?”
Kitty laughed again. “Yes.”
Donté ran a hand over his closely shaved head. “But . . . but you’re the student body vice president. You joined the freaking ’Maine Men!”
“I had to. We were trying to figure out who’d been carrying on in our name. They were a resource.”
“We?”
Oh, this was going to blow his mind. “Bree Deringer,” she began.
“We assumed.”
“Margot Mejia.”
“Also assumed.”
“And Olivia Hayes.”
Donté inclined his head. “You’re kidding me.”
“Nope.”
Donté took a step back, then walked in a tight circle, processing what he’d just heard.
“And now it’s you,” Kitty continued, bringing it all back home. “And Mika. Peanut Dumbrowski and . . . Theo?”
Donté stopped walking and looked up. “Are you a mind reader or something? How the hell could you know that?”
Where was she supposed to start? It was a ridiculously long story, one that she and the girls only partially understood. And there was one thing she needed to know first.
“How did you decide to take over for DGM?” Kitty asked. “How did the four of you come together?”
Donté arched his left eyebrow. “You don’t know?”
Uh-oh. Was she supposed to? “No.”
“You aren’t the one who recruited us?”
Kitty slowly shook her head.
“Oh.” He pulled his head back, his lips pressed together. “It was the morning after the assembly where Bree turned herself in. We all found notes on our doorsteps.”
Kitty’s stomach tightened. “In plain manila envelopes?”
“Yeah!” Donté gasped, then tilted his head to the side. “Wait, how did you know that?”
“I’ll explain later.” Her mind raced as she slowly realized the killer’s plan. “What did they say?”
“That it was time for a new team to step up and take over where the first DGM had left off. And that if I was interested, to meet on the tennis courts that night at eight o’clock. It was signed ‘DGM.’ When I got there I found Mika, Theo, and Peanut, and we just kind of jumped in.”
Kitty stared blankly at Donté’s house. The killer recruited a new version of DGM. I will destroy everything you love.
The photo, the anonymous invitation to be the new DGM. There was only one reason the killer would have involved their friends. “I think you guys are in a lot of danger.”
Donté gripped her shoulders, his worried eyes fixed on hers. “Tell me what’s going on. Please.”
“We need to get everyone together,” Kitty said. There was no time to lose. “First thing tomorrow morning. Your team and mine.”
“Okay. Why?”
She took his hands in his and squeezed them tightly. She wasn’t going to let anything happen to him. “Because I think someone’s going to try and frame you for murder.”
UNCORRECTED E-PROOF—NOT FOR SALE
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FORTY-ONE
KITTY ADJUSTED HER LAPTOP SO THE CAMERA CAPTURED THE entire corner of the patio next to the Dumbrowskis’ pool, then backed away. “Can you see everyone?”
Bree nodded. Her face pixilated, and jerked slightly as the stream buffered. “I think so.” She pointed at the screen, moving her finger around the semicircle. “Damn, this is a lot of people for a secret DGM meeting.”
“I know.” Kitty glanced back over her shoulder. Bree was right. Olivia, Ed the Head, Peanut, Theo, Mika, Donté, John, and herself. Plus Bree via the internet. So much for their tightly kept secret.
“I’ve got kale chips, tofu cheese puffs, and savory quinoa cakes,” Peanut said, placing a tray of snacks down on a metal table beneath a large umbrella.
Ed leaned in to Olivia. “Is that food or a science experiment?”
Theo dove into the quinoa cakes, munching happily. “These are awesome. Did you make these?”
“I helped,” Peanut said, blushing.
“Where’s Margot?” Bree asked.
“Still at the hospital,” Kitty said. “But Logan’s with her.”
“He’s pretty much refusing to leave her side,” John added, “until this psycho is behind bars.”
Ed grunted. “Isn’t that sweet.”
“Good,” Bree said, ignoring Ed. “If the killer finds out she’s awake, he might try and take her down.”
Theo froze midbite and exchanged an uneasy glance with Peanut, while Mika squirmed in her chair. Kitty winced. She, Olivia, Bree, and Margot had been living with the threat of their anonymous stalker for over a month, but today was the first time the newbies learned that their lives might be in danger, and she didn’t want to completely freak them out.
“You guys are going to be okay,” Kitty said firmly. “No one’s going down.”
Ed the Head elbowed John in the arm. “That’s not what I heard.”
“Ew?” Olivia and Peanut said in unison, then smiled at each other.
Oh well. At least the mood was still on the light side. “I know this has all come as kind of a shock to you guys,” Kitty said, looking at the new DGM members in turn. “It’s a lot to process.”
Peanut stared blankly at Kitty. “I don’t understand.”
Ed reached across Olivia and patted her hand. “We know.”
“If you didn’t ask us to take over as DGM,” she said, “then who did?”
Kitty tapped the side of her nose with her finger. “That’s exactly why you’re here this morning.”
Mika smiled broadly. “I should have known you were involved,” she said. “I can’t believe I didn’t see it!”
Kitty preened a little. “I’m pretty good at keeping a secret.”
Ed rolled his eyes. “You’re not the only one. The killer seems to be pretty good at it too.”
Great. Bree was usually enough of a smart-ass for the group; now they had two. “You’re not wrong,” she said, using his one-liner to drive home the gravity of their situation. Donté, Mika, Theo, and Peanut needed to understand the danger.
“This guy we’re dealing with,” Olivia said, inching to the edge of her lawn chair, “is deadly.”
“Three murders already,” Kitty said.
“And five former DGM targets have gone missing.”
“He’s been one step ahead of us all along,” Bree added.
Kitty picked up the manila envelope that had been left for her boyfriend. “Even in recruiting you guys.”
“Why would he get us involved?” Mika asked.
“It’s not enough just to destroy our lives,” Olivia explained. “He wants to destroy everything we love, too.”
“Which means us,” Donté said, addressing his team. “Kitty thinks he might try and frame us for something.”
“For what?” Theo asked, his eyes wide. “Rex’s murder?”
Ugh. Kitty wasn’t going to suggest Rex’s murder—and certainly not Sergeant Callahan’s involvement—until they had more information. She didn’t want anyone to panic. “Not necessarily. It might—”
“Oh my God!” Peanut cried. Her hands flew to her face. “We’ll go to juvie. I can’t go to juvie. Do you know what happens to girls like me there?”
“Damn,” Bree said with a shake of her head. “Do you and Olivia share a brain or something?”
“Just half of one,” Ed mumbled.
Olivia stuck out her tongue at him.
“No one’s going to juvie!” Kitty cried.
“I’ve heard that before,” Bree said.
Kitty sighed. Wrangling her own team was hard enough. This was like herding cats.
“Guys,” Donté said, pushing himself to his feet. He strode to Kitty’s side. “We need to stay calm. We don’t know anything for sure, other than that the killer is planning something for tomorrow.”
“Planning what?” Theo asked, his face white as a sheet.
Kitty took a deep breath. “We don’t know, but we think it has something to do with the volleyball tournament.”
“Like, dude might go full Heathers on Bishop DuMaine,” Bree said.
Donté set his jaw. “We have to stop him.”
“We should tell the police,” Peanut said.
Kitty cringed. This was going to send them over the edge. “That might be a problem.”
“Why?” Mika asked.
“Because we think Sergeant Callahan is involved.” Kitty took a deep breath. “He might be the killer.”
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