It's One of Us(71)
The man comes to the door, moving quickly, then disappears inside.
“The alarm was disengaged at 11:29 p.m.”
Olivia feels faint when Park looks up in horror.
“Oh my God. He has a key to the house and knows our alarm codes.”
33
THE DAUGHTER
Scarlett’s cell phone has been pinging, notification after notification, the Facebook group blowing up as Peyton’s name gets out, and she’s tuning it all out, watching her mother talk to the detectives.
The cops were waiting at the house when they got back from Murfreesboro. As she expertly slid the car into the drive, Darby had admonished Scarlett—“You do not say a word, do you understand me? I will handle this”—and so far, Scarlett has stayed out of it.
They’re both still in shock. But Darby is surprisingly composed, considering. Scarlett is totally rattled, screaming inside, has been since they’d been standing at the apartment door, face to face with the yoga power couple, realizing Peyton wasn’t living there anymore.
Peyton lied. He lied to them. He lied to her. He might as well have shoved a knife into her heart.
She texts him again.
Where are you? The police are here. They are taking things from your bathroom to test. Tell me you didn’t do this. Tell me this is just a big misunderstanding.
A text, almost immediately...but it’s not from Peyton. It’s from Chastain.
I always knew he was a creep, this is why you have no friends. Your brother is a murderer.
Check your socials, freak.
She does, already cringing at what she will see. It is as bad, and worse, as she can expect. She has been tagged in a number of posts, but the entry, from the school’s darling, Chastain, her former friend, her former confidante, is the one that breaks her. The post is long, and detailed, but the part that leaps out makes Scarlett want to crawl into a hole and die.
...so after that, I went to a sleepover at their house once. Once. Her creepy brother showed up and was all slick and charming, offered to get us some beer later if we wanted. That was cool and everything, but later that night, when I went to the bathroom, I saw him sitting in the hallway outside her room with his hand down his pants. He was listening to all of us in there, sleeping, breathing, and getting off to it. The way he looked at me, I was sure he was going to leap off the floor and attack me, but he just smiled and patted the floor next to him, like, an invitation or something. He said “why don’t you come here and let’s chat.”
I was totally weirded out and went to the bathroom. I locked the door but I didn’t realize that it was a Jack and Jill, so he came in the other door. I was trapped in there. He came up beside me and started playing with my hair. I was so scared I couldn’t even scream. I just wanted him to go away. He leaned over and smelled my neck and kissed my cheek. “Don’t you want to come back to my room and have some fun?” he asked and when I shook my head, he shoved me, hard, against the bathroom counter. I thought he was going to hurt me but he left then. There was something in his eyes, something terrifying. I practically ran back to the bedroom and I made sure to lock the door but I couldn’t sleep knowing he was out there. I stayed awake all night to make sure we were all safe. And didn’t EVER go back. I knew something was wrong in that house. Very wrong.
I feel sorry for Scarlett, I really do. I can only imagine what was happening behind closed doors when people weren’t around, if you know what I mean.
Scarlett swallows down her tears. God, that’s why they’d all abandoned her? Because of Peyton? And what was Chastain insinuating, that Peyton would lay hands on Scarlett? That he had done something to her?
She gets through five more horrific comments before she logs out. The girls of Bromley West, piling on. It seems everyone has a Peyton story. All are similar. So similar Scarlett thinks she might legitimately be sick. My God, how could she have been so blind?
And now the most traitorous thought. Could he have killed that woman? And kidnapped another?
None of this jibes with the brother she knows, who’s always been chivalrous and kind, but now, she is confused enough to worry if it might be true. She feels terrible and disloyal at the thought, but if the schoolgirls she’s friends with are leading the way into this fray, and the police themselves are pretty convinced Peyton did something wrong, something very, very bad. What else is she supposed to think?
They’re all arranged in the living room—her shattered mom, the disapproving cops. The man is grilling her mom.
“Does your son have any history of violence?”
Darby shakes her head. “No. I mean...”
“Mrs. Flynn—”
“Ms.,” Darby snaps. “I am not married.”
The detective doesn’t miss a beat. “Ms. Flynn, I get the sense you are holding something back. Trust me, we only want to find him. There’s probably an explanation, like you said, for why his DNA was in Beverly Cooke’s car. Maybe even an innocent thing.”
His voice hardens, and Scarlett is suddenly afraid.
“But if there is any chance at all that Peyton did hurt Beverly, and if he has taken Jillian Kemp, both women you know, both women you have a very intimate tie to, then we need to find him. We need to know everything we can about him. I get how hard this is. He’s your baby. If I was in your position, I would be torn to pieces right now. But if he didn’t do it, that will also come out. If he’s just a bystander, and it’s circumstantial, we will not press any kind of charges against him. We aren’t in the business of railroading suspects. That’s not how Detective Moore and I work. We are only interested in one thing—making sure Jillian doesn’t end up like Beverly. With Peyton’s background, we have to look at this very seriously. Obviously, we can get a warrant for the records, but it would be much easier if you’d just tell us what happened.”