Then her shoulders rise. And fall. “I have no idea, Detectives.”
My eyes stretch wide open and I jump out of my seat. “Laura, tell the truth!” I turn back to Detective Sawyer. “She’s lying. Look at the text.”
“Honestly, it’s a bit odd,” she says, examining the message again. “And vague. It doesn’t say what Laura is supposed to keep quiet about.”
I glare at Laura again, and her lips twitch. At least, I think they do. Was this a setup? Did she purposefully not answer her phone in order to mess with me? “Someone is just trying to make me look crazy,” I say as the room spins around me. “Laura, please don’t do this. You’re letting the real killer go free. Seth—your boyfriend—is going to jail for the rest of his life.”
Laura flinches and looks to the detectives for help. “My boyfriend? Gross. Seth wasn’t my boyfriend.”
Or maybe I am crazy.
“Detectives,” Laura continues, “I don’t know what’s going on here. Cassidy, as you may be aware, has a pretty sketchy past, so—”
“Shut up, Laura,” I growl. “You told me not two hours ago that you were with Seth on the day of Melody’s murder. That he was your secret boyfriend.” At the words secret boyfriend, Sheriff Henderson lifts a skeptical brow. “But you couldn’t tell anyone else because you were threatened! Show them the cards!”
Laura’s doe eyes divert back to the detectives.
I look at Gideon. “Tell them about the cards.”
“I didn’t see the cards, Cass,” he says, wincing. “You told me about them.” I fall back into my chair with a thud. Gideon wasn’t there when Laura told me about Seth.
I blink to find the white ceiling beneath me and the cream-colored carpet above. “I don’t know why she’s lying.” I blink again, looking up to find Sheriff Henderson’s eyes drifting. I can’t even look at Laura, or I’ll tear her to pieces right in front of the law.
“Okay, okay, Miss Pratt,” Detective Reyes says, standing up. “You girls obviously don’t get along, but this is a murder investigation.”
“But it’s—” I lob another panicked glance Gideon’s way, but his eyes are on the carpet. He thinks I imagined it all.
And he might be right.
I stand up, fist curled. “This is wrong, Laura, and you know it. You really are a coward if you keep quiet now. You’re letting the real killer go free.”
Detective Reyes takes a few careful steps and places a hand on my shoulder. “Miss Pratt, I think you should go home and get some rest. We’re confident we’ve got the guy who did this.”
“You’re wrong,” I say. But my voice is timid because I’m not sure he is. I hasten out the front door and down the porch steps, Gideon close behind. At the bottom of the steps, I pause, twisting around to view the Gellman residence one last time.
No, I’m not sure anymore. The only thing I’m really sure of is an itching in my fingers. It’s a familiar sensation. I rub my fingers together, but it’s still there. That itch to feel the click of the lighter. The sensation squirms up through my veins, all the way to my eyes. My eyeballs are actually itching.
They’re itching to see this place go up in flames.
* * *
Gideon and I get back into the car and begin the drive to my house in silence. He stares straight ahead, hands rigid over the steering wheel.
“Cass—”
“You don’t have to say it,” I interrupt. “I am now officially crazy.”
“That’s not what I was going to say. But, I do think you need to let all of this go. I don’t know what’s going on—”
“Come on, Gideon. Everyone else in this town gets it. My entire life I’ve been Fire Girl. The girl who killed Sara Leeds and almost killed her own brother. Everyone loves talking about how it wasn’t really an accident. That I started the fire on purpose and I’ll do it again.” I breathe in, allowing my fingernails to dig into my palms. “And deep down, they were right. I might as well have killed Melody Davenport myself. I’m dangerous.”
Gideon is silent.
My face crumples. My entire body crumples. “You see it now too.”
He shakes his head. “No. This is Laura, like always. She’s messing with you. The text message, the cards. She’s having one more round of fun at your expense.” One of his hands lifts from the wheel. “It’s not fair that everyone targets you, Cass. This Fire Girl, I don’t know her. I know you.” He turns to me, narrowing his eyes. “But I’m worried you’re letting this other girl take over your life. It’s like you’re becoming her.”
Gideon parks in the driveway. He leans over, pressing his lips to my head and peering down at me. “Let’s get you inside so you can rest. Tomorrow, we’ll put all of this behind us.”
I let him walk me up the porch steps and through the door. He grips my hand like I’m a small child crossing the street. Like I can’t be trusted not to run into oncoming traffic.
Inside, I bat away the tears as he runs a hand over my shoulder. “I can stay if you want, but you should probably rest.”
I shrug. I should try to sleep all of this off. Maybe I’ll wake up to find Laura laughing with the rest of the team about how I spouted off a bunch of insane nonsense in front of two detectives and a sheriff.
“Cass, look at me.” I try, but looking him in the eyes is physically painful. It makes me feel like I could just collapse onto the foyer floor and never get up again. He gives my hand a squeeze, then nudges my back. “I’ve known you since second grade—more than half of our lives—and you’re not crazy. Get to bed. I’ll tell your mom you’re not feeling well. We’ll sort this Laura stuff out tomorrow. If she lied to you, I won’t let her get away with it.”
“Thanks,” I mumble, trying and failing to smile. I walk down the hall, closing my bedroom door behind me. I dive into bed and pull the covers all the way past my head. There, in the suffocating darkness, the confusion and guilt envelop me.
I rack my brain for one thing I know for certain. Any one thing I can hold on to with confidence. But there’s nothing. All I have is a scenario disturbingly similar to the one written in the notebook I handed to Brandon Alvarez. And a muffled voice.
Even that has faded over time. I know the words, but the trace of a voice is gone. I hear the rushing water, the rustling leaves, the birds.
If Laura was messing with me, then Seth is the killer. He’s behind bars where he should be, and Maribel is safe.
But if she got scared off and lied to the detectives, it only means one thing.