Chapter Twenty #2
I had attended the Christmas party, but I hadn’t seen this incident. I pictured it. The immaculate kitchen. The Christmas lights twinkling, candles on the mantle, the towering Christmas tree. Brooke's smile, slipping like a mask, turning feral. "Leah walked in on it."
"Yeah. A Front row seat. My mom didn't know she was there. But I saw Leah hanging in the doorway, doing that innocent doe-eyed Bambi thing of hers."
"Did she threaten to tell?"
"Leah didn't say anything at first. But then a few days later, at school, she asked if I was okay. If I needed help. If she should tell someone."
"And you panicked."
"I might've freaked out, okay?" Alexis' mouth twisted.
"If anyone found out—CPS, the school, my dad—everything would blow up.
My whole life would get ripped apart. Falcon would end up in some facility.
I'd probably get stuck in some boarding school half-way across the country.
My dad sure doesn't want to pay attention to us. "
"You hurt her to keep her quiet."
"I cornered her in the bathroom during art. Told her to keep her big mouth shut. She said she was just trying to help, that she was worried about me. I grabbed the scissors I'd brought from the art room, and I just... I wanted to scare her. Make her understand how serious I was."
I felt sick. "You assaulted her."
"I needed her to know she couldn't just say and do whatever she wanted. And she didn't, after that, did she? So, it worked." The words came out flat. She was trying so hard to be tough, impenetrable.
"Is that why you sent threatening messages to Mia, too?" I asked.
Her pupils dilated. A flush crawled up her neck. "I don't know what you're talking about," she said too fast. Deflecting again.
"Alexis. I've seen the LakeshoreTea account. You had it open on your phone just a minute ago."
She swallowed and shifted her gaze to Falcon. He had lost the ball in the leaves and was circling, muttering to himself, hands patting the ground. Apollo danced around him.
"You told her to keep her mouth shut. Or she'd end up like Leah. Ring a bell?"
"I wasn't going to actually do anything. It was just—" She made a frustrated noise. "You don't get it."
"Then explain it to me."
She watched Falcon again. He was making Apollo sit before each throw. Apollo faked compliance, then lunged for the ball early. Falcon corrected him, voice low, patient.
Alexis sighed. "Mia was poking around in my stuff. In my toiletries bag. At the slumber party."
I stilled. Alexis was being honest, finally. "What did she find?"
"Just a vape and a couple of pre-rolls. For later. For after I got out of that Stepford sleepover." She flicked her gaze to me. "I wasn't going to smoke there."
"But Mia saw it. And you would've gotten into trouble."
"My mom. She goes nuclear about everything…" Her voice trailed off. "That's why I was walking in the rain the other day. Things just get really intense sometimes, and I need a break, okay? That's all."
"I get it," I said, and I did. It made sense why she happened to be outside our house in the rain, walking off the tension, escaping the stress of her home life. "You were afraid your weed use would get back to your mom."
She shrugged, attempting nonchalance. "I reminded Mia that if she opened her mouth, there would be consequences. That's all. To make sure she didn't say anything. But that was before the police said that Leah was… that she'd been…"
Before the homicide announcement. The space between the words pulsed.
Across the field, Apollo yelped triumphantly as he found the ball again. Falcon clapped his hands in approval.
"And the LakeshoreTea account, is that yours?"
Her eyes flicked away. "Nope. No one knows who runs it."
"But you took photos of us with your phone that day in the rain."
"It's an anonymous email account. People can send in photos, and whoever runs it posts them. I didn't send them in, though."
"But you were planning to?"
She shrugged. "I dunno why I did that, okay? I was maybe going to, but then I decided not to. "
A lie? Or a deflection out of guilt? I checked my phone. 7:55 a.m. I only had a few minutes before Alexis had to take her brother to the bus. Time to focus before I lost her. "Tell me about Friday night. Did you take Mia's camera?"
"Nope. I never saw it again after the photo shoot."
"What about her slippers? The pink ones with the sloths?"
Alexis frowned. "Why would I take her stupid slippers?"
"They were wet. Sandy. Like someone wore them down to the beach."
"Wasn't me." She sounded genuinely confused. "I brought my own shoes. Black Converse. Chloe was pissed I didn't wear heels with my dress. I've told her a million times that I don't do heels. And I definitely don't do furry animal slippers."
I studied her face. Her eyes were steady, no flinch or blink. Alexis wasn't lying about this. I could feel it. I believed her about this, anyway. "Did you see anyone else with the slippers?"
"I don't know. I don't think so. And none of us went down to the beach, anyway."
That corroborated Mia's story, too. "Mia said you were out of your sleeping bag in the middle of the night."
She exhaled, long and slow. The fight left her shoulders in increments.
"I couldn't sleep. I checked my phone when I slid out of the bag.
It was around 12:30 a.m. Something like that.
I remember because I thought, if my mom checks my location now and sees I'm outside, she's going to lose it.
But she was probably asleep. Or drunk. So, I slipped outside for a while. "
"Did you leave through the basement French doors?"
She shook her head. "I saw that a few of the sleeping bags were empty, and I didn't feel like talking to anyone, so I went upstairs and left through the side door beside the garage, off the kitchen."
"Whose sleeping bags were empty?"
"Mia's, for sure. I thought maybe Chloe, and maybe Leah, but it was dark. I wasn't sure."
"Where did you go?"
"The community gazebo." She jerked her chin toward the line of trees at the far side of the park, as if mapping the direction. The gazebo was located near the community stairs, close to Rowan's house, but out of sight. "I sat there. Vaped. Listened to music on my phone."
"Did you see or hear anyone else?"
"No."
"How long were you outside?"
Her mouth pressed flat again. "Twenty minutes? Half an hour? I wasn't timing every second."
"Anything else happen? Did you see anything?"
"I heard something." Her eyes went somewhere else. "I was on my way back. A scream."
The air itself seemed to shift around us. Even the swings seemed to go still.
"A scream?"
"Short. Cut off. Like someone got surprised. I thought maybe it was an animal at first."
"But you don't think it was an animal now."
She shook her head.
"What time was that?"
"I checked after." She shut her eyes for a second. "It was like 12:40, maybe 12:45. Something like that."
"So, you heard the scream around 12:40 a.m.," I said.
"Yeah."
"What did you do?"
"I stayed outside for a while. I stood there like an idiot. Smoked another joint to settle my nerves."
"When did you go back in?"
Her brows drew together. "I remember checking again. It was 1:05 a.m., 1:10 maybe. Around there."
"Who was awake when you got back?"
"Peyton was shifting around in her sleeping bag. I think she was asleep, but restless. Mia's bag was occupied. I could see the lump. And Chloe, I think, but it was dark."
"And Leah?"
"Her bag was facing the wall away from me. I assumed, but I didn't look."
"Who else?"
Alexis stiffened.
There was more. I could see it. "Alexis."
Alexis glanced at her phone. "Falcon! Three minutes to the bus. We've got to go!"
She slung her little brother's backpack over her shoulder and turned away from me.
I was about to lose her. And once she'd had time to think it over, to clam up, for Brooke to get her hooks into her again, I wouldn't get another chance. I took a step closer. "Just tell me."
Alexis crossed the grass to Falcon and Apollo. She grabbed Falcon's hand and made him drop the slobbery tennis ball. Over her shoulder, she said, "Zara. It was Zara."
Alexis and Falcon trudged toward the bus stop on the corner. Alexis didn't look back.
My mind raced. Zara Hayward. Camille's daughter.
My phone vibrated in my pocket. Three times in quick succession.
I pulled it out. Message requests from my Facebook account. The previews made my stomach lurch.
Your daughter is a killer. When she goes to prison, inmates will—
You are a monster. We know where you live. Someone should push YOU off that cliff and see how you—
Your daughter deserves everything coming to her. So do you.
I hit delete without opening any of them. My hand shook so badly I had to try twice. Another notification appeared immediately. I silenced the phone and shoved it back in my pocket. I couldn't think about what the rest of the world thought.
Zara. I needed to focus on Zara.