by Sara Shepard
“And go on the cruise,” Aria added. “All of that takes money.”
“She has to have someone bankrolling her,” Hanna concluded. “It’s the only thing that makes sense—not just for the money aspect, but because of other stuff, too. She can’t be everywhere at once. It’s just not possible.”
“So she has a helper, then,” Spencer said. “Just like we thought.”
Hanna nodded. “Honestly, who’s to say Ali has ever been working alone? Maybe she had someone help her drag Ian’s body out of the woods that night after we found him. Remember how quickly he was gone?”
She shivered, thinking back to that cold, creepy night. They’d come upon Ian’s bloated, blue body and had run back to get Officer Wilden, only to find a matted patch of grass when they’d returned. The mechanics of it had always bothered Hanna. Ali was tough, but she wasn’t strong enough to drag a six-two, one-hundred-eighty-pound guy away from a crime scene in under ten minutes.
Spencer sat down on the couch. “Someone could have helped her carry Ian up the stairs and put him in the closet at the Poconos house, too. That same someone could have been the one to kidnap Melissa.”
“And kill Jenna Cavanaugh,” Hanna said, shifting to the edge of the couch excitedly.
“And set that fire in Spencer’s backyard,” Aria added.
Everyone stared at each other. It seemed so obvious now. Ali wasn’t superhuman. Of course she had help. But who was crazy enough to help her?
“It has to be someone who loves her, obviously,” Aria said faintly.
Spencer wrote love on the paper. “Like a friend or a boyfriend, right?”
“Sure.” Emily sounded a little pained. “But that could be anyone.”
Hanna sat back to think. “Well, Real Ali was in The Preserve for a long time. So maybe it was someone she met while she was there.”
“Like Graham?” Emily asked, looking at Aria.
Aria hunched her shoulders. “Graham seemed more into Tabitha than Ali, and he told me he never visited The Preserve. And I’m not sure he’s A—he’s been in a coma since before the latest notes came in.”
“But maybe Ali wrote the most recent notes,” Spencer suggested, writing down Graham’s name anyway.
“And potentially bugged our houses? I don’t know about that.” Aria tucked her feet under her butt. “And anyway, A is threatening to frame us for hurting Graham. My money is on Graham seeing Ali’s helper. I bet that’s what he was trying to tell me in the boiler room.”
Hanna perked up. “Ali did have some good friends at The Preserve, though. Remember Iris, Ali’s roommate? When I was there, she talked about Ali—well, she called her Courtney—all the time.”
“Ooh, that’s good.” Spencer wrote Iris beneath Graham’s name.
Then Hanna tapped her lips. “Although I’m not sure Iris could be Ali’s henchman. She was at The Preserve when Ian was killed. I don’t know how she could have snuck out to haul Ian’s body to the Poconos, either. We’ll have to figure out a way to see if she was there when we were in Jamaica, too.”
“Still, she could know something.” Spencer turned back to their list. “Who else?”
“We can’t leave off Jason,” Aria volunteered.
Hanna frowned. “Ali’s brother? Do you really think he’d help her?”
“Who knows?” Aria shrugged. “That family is beyond weird.”
Hanna raised an eyebrow as Spencer wrote it down. That was big of Aria to suggest it—she’d had a crush on Jason forever.
“What about Cassie, Ali’s field hockey friend?” Spencer asked. “Remember, before Ali died, how she bragged about Cassie nonstop? How she was going to high school parties. How Cassie was the coolest. How Cassie was going to be her new BFF.”
Emily didn’t look convinced. “I ran into Cassie last Christmas, and she seemed okay. And anyway, that was our Ali’s friend, not Real Ali.”
Spencer smacked her forehead. “Right. God. It’s hard to keep track.”
They wrote down a few more names, including Darren Wilden and Melissa, only because the two of them had been involved in Ali’s case from start to finish. But they didn’t seem like very likely suspects. Spencer scratched her chin. “I still feel like we’re missing something huge. Maybe Ali’s helper is right in front of us and we don’t see it. Is there anyone besides the four of us who has been around this whole time? During Ian’s death, Jenna’s death, the fires, Jamaica, that summer, all of it?”
Hanna cleared her throat. “Well, I can think of two people, but I don’t think either of them would be Ali’s helper.”
“Who?” Spencer’s eyes widened.
“Mike.” Hanna looked guiltily at Aria. “ . . . and Noel.”
Aria burst out laughing. “Never in a million years.”
Spencer’s marker hovered over the paper. “We can’t rule anyone out, though.”
She wrote Noel’s name at the bottom, then capped the marker once more. Aria glowered at her. “Why aren’t you writing Mike’s name?”
Spencer sank into one hip. “Do you seriously think your brother would do that to you?”
Aria pressed her lips together. “Well, maybe not. Besides, Mike’s an idiot.”
Hanna let out a small squeak. “Hey! He’s my boyfriend!”
“Well, Noel’s my boyfriend.” Aria peered at everyone anxiously. “You guys, this is crazy. Just because Noel was everywhere with us doesn’t make him guilty—it’s just a terrible coincidence.”
“We know,” Spencer assured her. “We just have to write down everyone, okay? That’s the point of this meeting. We’ll probably be crossing him off the list in days.” She turned back to the list. “This is a good start, don’t you think? We should investigate some of these people. Graham, Iris—there are some good leads here.”
Emily looked at Hanna. “You should take Graham. You’ve volunteered at the Bill Beach before—maybe you could get your job back.”
Hanna shot up straight. “I don’t want to go there again!”
“Em’s right, Hanna,” Spencer said. “You make the most sense. You want to figure this out, right?”
A foul taste welled up in Hanna’s mouth. She thought of the clinic’s horrible antiseptic smell. The yellow pee in the bedpans. Dealing with Sean, her ex. Then again, it was a better option than going to The Preserve. It would be just her luck that they’d readmit her or something.
“I’ll do it,” Hanna mumbled.
“And I’ll talk to Iris,” Emily volunteered. She looked at Hanna. “Do you think she’s still at The Preserve?”
Hanna closed her eyes, remembering the last time they’d all been to the mental hospital to question Kelsey Pierce, the girl Spencer had framed for drug possession who then almost hurled herself off Floating Man Quarry. “I don’t remember seeing her,” she murmured.
Spencer peered at the video cameras. The lawn was still empty. “I’ll go after Real Ali herself. Maybe there’s a way to find her. Maybe we’re missing something. If we found her, we could end this even faster.”
“Who should I investigate?” Aria asked, winding a piece of hair around her finger.
Spencer shifted awkwardly. “Well, you could look into Noel. Just to get him off the list.”
Aria’s eyes blazed. “A isn’t Noel!”
“I know,” Spencer said. “But you could peek around his room. Make sure he doesn’t have a second cell phone or a secret e-mail account. Not that he ever would, of course.”
Aria looked miserable. “If my relationship ends because of this, it’s your fault.”
They talked through a few more possibilities, solidifying their plans. After another fifteen minutes, they felt like they had worked through as much as they could. Spencer stood and stretched.
Hanna turned to the cameras once more. The picture was in black and white, and something at the very edge of the back lawn flickered into view. She inhaled sharply. Had someone just moved behind a tree?
She shot up, staring at the fuzzy image
. It was difficult to tell whether it was a person, an animal, or nothing at all. She looked at her new phone’s screen. No alerts had come in.
Aria, Spencer, and Emily were peeking at their phones, too. It was as if they were waiting for A to write, saying Gotcha! Or, Did you really think you could outsmart me? One minute passed. Then another. Finally, Spencer breathed out. “I think we’re good.”
Hanna shut her eyes. All her life, she’d fought to not be invisible, to not be a nobody. But right now, it was the best feeling in the world.
7
Emily’s New Houseguest
Even though Emily had been to The Preserve at Addison-Stevens only once before, she felt an uneasy sense of familiarity as she drove up the long road. The building’s gray brickwork had definitely shown up in her dreams. She’d doodled the Gothic windows in the margins of her notebook without knowing why.
She parked in the visitors’ lot and tried to slow her breaths. It was the following afternoon; she’d skipped her last period of the day, a free study, to make the drive to The Preserve. But just knowing that Real Ali had spent years here, masterminding ways to kill them, made her stomach seize. What if Ali’s helper had also been imprisoned behind these walls? What if the two of them had huddled in the dreary dayroom together, plotting how they were going to ruin Emily, Hanna, Spencer, and Aria? Emily peered at the figures passing through a glass-walled hallway. If the next person who walks by is a woman, this will go okay, she wagered silently.
A tall man in a tweed jacket with patches on the elbows walked by next. That wasn’t encouraging.
But she had to go through with this. Rolling her shoulders, she stepped out of the car and started toward the double doors. Earlier today, she’d called the hospital asking if she could visit Iris Taylor. The nurse had said that Iris could have visitors in the afternoon, so Emily knew that Iris was still a patient. But when Emily pressed to see how long Iris had been at The Preserve—she wanted to rule her out as Ali’s helper—the nurse wouldn’t give her any information.
A gust of wind slithered down Emily’s back and lifted her coattails. Before she went inside, she picked up her new phone and, after a pause, logged onto Twitter. Yeah, it was breaking the no-Internet rule, but she had to check. There was her prom invitation and note, but no one had responded or retweeted. What made Emily think Jordan had even seen it?
She shut her eyes and tried to imagine what Jordan was doing right now. Sitting at an Italian café in big sunglasses? Lounging on a deserted beach in the tropics? She longed to be stirring her coffee next to her or splashing her with sea foam. The desire was so strong, it physically hurt.
Sighing heavily, she trudged inside the marble lobby. A woman in a white lab coat greeted her with a big smile. “I’m here to see Iris Taylor,” Emily said. “I’m Heather Murphy.” It was her default name; she’d used it when she was a waitress at the seafood restaurant on Penn’s Landing the summer she was pregnant. Gayle Riggs, the woman she’d almost given her baby to, only knew her as Heather . . . until A got involved, that was.
The woman smiled. “I’ll let her know.”
With a gesture of her arm, she directed Emily toward the patient area. Emily walked slowly, bracing herself, and shuddered at the heavy click of the bolt on the door that separated the lobby from the ward. The hallway was quiet, had stained beige carpet, and smelled of hot dogs. A chilling laugh pealed from one of the rooms. A wild-haired girl passed, going the other direction. When she caught Emily watching, she stared back at her blankly. “Boo!” she shouted. Emily jumped, and the girl laughed.
Emily pulled open the double doors to the dayroom. The same faux-cheerful construction-paper balloons and stars were on the walls from when the girls had visited Kelsey. Worn jigsaw puzzles were stacked on a shelf, and there were a few books on an industrial-looking metal bookcase. A sign on top of the TV read NO CABLE.
When Emily pulled the door shut, a few girls, all dressed in white pajamas, turned excitedly, perhaps hoping that Emily was here for them. An overweight girl who had a visible bald spot attempted a smile, but it looked more like a grimace. A frail-looking ashen girl lowered her head and muttered. Emily looked around for Kelsey, but she didn’t see her anywhere. She’d been too nervous to ask the nurse if Kelsey was still here.
Then Emily spied a girl with ice-blond hair in the corner. She matched the description Hanna had given her of Iris. Clearing her throat, Emily called out Iris’s name. The girl, who couldn’t have weighed more than ninety pounds, whipped around and gave Emily a long, knowing look.
“Your name isn’t Heather Murphy,” she said in a dry, craggy, tough voice. Her white pajama bottoms inched down her hips when she stood. “You were one of her friends, weren’t you?” She moved closer. Her breath smelled like sour candy. “That bitch who stole Alison’s life.”
Emily flinched. She could feel everyone in the dayroom staring at her, but she didn’t want to give them the satisfaction of seeming uncomfortable. “That’s right, I’m Emily,” she said. “I was Courtney’s friend.” It was still weird to call Their Ali Courtney. “And I heard you were Ali’s friend—and roommate. I have a couple of questions about her. Is there somewhere we could talk in private?”
Iris crossed her arms over her chest. For a moment, Emily was sure she would refuse, but then she shrugged. “I don’t know what I can tell you about her, but sure. Let’s talk.”
Then she turned on her heel and headed for the door. Emily followed her, trying to ignore the prying eyes on her back. She wondered if they were even allowed to leave the dayroom, but there were no nurses around, no one to stop them.
Iris padded down a hall and opened a door near the fire exit. Inside were two unmade twin beds. One side had posters of teen bands on the wall—Justin Bieber and a few Disney Channel stars—and an assortment of pink stuffed animals on the bed. The other side was bare and impersonal, like a hotel room. Iris flopped down on the generic side and glanced disdainfully at the Bieber posters. “My new roommate is such a loser.” Then her bright green eyes turned back to Emily. “So? Why do you want to know about Ali?”
Emily perched on a scratchy corduroy chair. “I think she’s still alive.”
Iris snorted. “Bullshit. She was trapped inside an exploding house.”
“Maybe not.”
Iris crossed her legs. Her bony knees poked through the fabric of the pajamas. “Do the cops know this?”
Emily shook her head. “We wanted to try to find her ourselves.”
“Why?”
Emily stared fixedly at the digital clock across the room. How could she make this sound innocuous? Iris didn’t seem like an idiot; if she’d heard about Real Ali dying inside that house, then she’d probably also heard that Real Ali had tormented them as A. Why else would they want to find her except to stop her forever? This was Iris’s friend Emily was talking about. She wouldn’t want to sell her out.
“Forget it, I don’t really care,” Iris said, as if sensing the reason for Emily’s hesitation. And then a light came on in her eyes. She inched closer to Emily’s side. Her sudden proximity made Emily flinch. Though Iris was small, she radiated with angry energy.
“So what do you want to know?” Iris asked. “I could tell you all sorts of things about her.”
“Really?” Emily sat up straighter.
“Uh-huh. But there’s only one way I’m going to do that. You’re getting me out of here.”
Emily laughed nervously. “Out of here?”
Iris nodded. “I’ve already told the nurses that I have an ailing grandmother in the hospital. That’s the only way they let you out for a few days, you know—to see sick relatives or go to funerals. Really happy, huh?” She rolled her eyes. “I was just waiting for the right opportunity—and guess what? You’re it. Now, go back to the front desk and explain to them that you’re my cousin and you’ve come to sign me out so we can see Nana together.”
“Nana?”
“We have to make it convincing!” Iris sounded
exasperated.
“And then what?” It was slowly dawning on Emily that Iris was serious. “Do you want to go home?”
“Actually, I was thinking I could stay with you.”
“Me?”
Iris crossed her arms over her chest. “No questions, okay? I’ve been cooped up in this hellhole for four years with no break. You can’t even imagine what that feels like. I have really good stuff on Ali, but you’re not going to hear a word of it if you don’t help me. Are you in or out?”
Emily bit her thumbnail. “Wait. You’ve been here for four years straight?”
Iris pointed at a folder hanging from a plastic slot on the door. “Check my records if you want.”
Her gaze remained on Emily. After a pause, Emily marched over to the door, ripped out the file, and leafed through it. Sure enough, there were patient records for Iris dating back four years ago. Nowhere were there signs that she’d ever been released, not even for a weekend. Iris was telling the truth.
Emily dropped the file back into the slot. If Iris had been here for four years without a break, that meant she couldn’t be Ali’s helper, killing all those people last winter and murdering Tabitha in Jamaica last spring. Feeling better, she cleared her throat. “You don’t have a vendetta against anyone on the outside, do you? You’re not going to go on some sort of rampage if I check you out?”
Iris scoffed. “They don’t allow people like that out ever. Why do you think Alison never went home?”
Emily had never thought of that. “Okay,” she said quietly. So Iris would stay with Emily for a few days. If it meant finding out more about Ali—about A—it would be worth it.
But her legs were still shaking as she walked back down the hall toward the lobby. The same woman who’d checked her in smiled from behind the desk. “Um, I forgot to mention,” Emily began, her voice trembling, “I’m Iris’s cousin. I’m taking her to see our grandma.”
She figured the receptionist wouldn’t buy it, but after a few quick checks with some nurses and Iris’s case manager, Iris was cleared to leave. When she appeared in the lobby, she’d changed into a pair of jeans that were slightly too short, as if she’d bought them a few years back. Coupled with a pink parka and a lumpy leather purse, she looked sort of . . . dorky, like a girl who sat alone in the cafeteria.