Open House(44)

Haley’s hands flew to cover her face, and then she couldn’t stop herself from shrieking at Josie. “How could you not have gone to the police with this?” She leaned toward Josie, and then Chris lunged forward to restrain her, which infuriated her further because obviously she wasn’t going to hurt Josie. “Stay away from me!” Haley hissed at Chris as he raised his hands to grab her arms.

“Get your hands off her,” Dean said to Chris, his voice low.

Chris backed off, and Noah said, “Haley, listen, we all loved your sister, don’t you see that?”

“And we were kids back then,” Chris said, sounding so slick and sure of himself, like any of this was even close to excusable.

“So what?” Haley growled. “You’re not kids now. You could have told the police any time during the past decade what you knew about my sister sleeping with a teacher who was engaged, and Emma being pregnant!”

Josie cried harder. Haley didn’t care. “Tell me you didn’t know anything about my sister being pregnant,” Haley said to Dean.

“Not until a few minutes before you did,” Dean said, calmer now. His gaze seemed surer, as though the ground was getting steadier.

“Your sister was my best friend,” Josie said, but she sounded like she was trying to convince herself. She swiped at a piece of blond hair flecked with blood. “Why would I ever tell anyone her secrets?”

“Because they make her death seem suspicious,” Haley said. “And you said nothing.”

Dean stood there, his face changing again. Haley was pretty sure she’d never seen him look like this, his expression so anguished and tortured.

“Josie’s coming forward with it now, and it’s better late than never,” Chris said. Haley looked at Josie, at the way her normally olive skin looked yellow, her eyes bloodshot. Keep it together, Haley. “Do you think Brad or Priya killed my sister?” she asked Josie.

Josie nodded, and said, “I do, Haley. I think Brad did.” Haley tried to swallow, but she felt like she was being choked. The hospital air was too hot, too thick.

“Brad and Priya aren’t our clients,” Chris said, his fingers working at a small tear on the arm of his flannel shirt. “We’ve never worked with them on a house.”

“But couldn’t they have been there to see an open house like anyone else?” Haley asked.

“It’s a small town,” Noah said, agitated as he moved a hand over his face. “We have no records of them ever coming to see one of our properties. It’s too much of a coincidence.”

“And who else could it be?” Josie asked, still crying. “Who would have attacked me if not Brad, or even Priya could have attacked me if she were trying to shut me up about what Brad did. I’ve talked to Priya over the past years about everything, and I’ve always really liked her, and I don’t think she would ever try to hurt me, but I also feel like I don’t know anything anymore. If Brad and Priya heard the cops were reopening the case—and people talk in this town—then they have all the motive in the world to shut me up. They both know that I know Brad was sleeping with Emma before she disappeared.”

Dean’s dark eyes were wide and hollow. Noah looked down into his hands. Haley stared at all three of them, and as her gaze settled on Chris, a chill passed over her skin. Something wasn’t right.

“Do you have proof?” Haley asked.

“Proof?” Noah asked. “You don’t believe her?”

“I believe her,” Haley said. Her toes scrunched against the insides of her boots as she tried to ground herself. “But I also want the cops to.”

“There’s a pregnancy test,” Josie said.

“And you have it?” Dean asked, barely able to mask how horrified he was.

“Where is it, Josie?” Haley asked. “We need to give it to the police.”

“I already did,” Josie said. “Well, I mean, I didn’t exactly hand it over, but I told them where it was in our house. They searched our house today after everything that happened this morning. Noah says it looks like its own crime scene.”

“But as far as the cops know, couldn’t it just be your pregnancy test?” Dean asked.

“It’ll have Emma’s DNA all over it,” Haley said. She swallowed hard, trying to stop her imagination from picturing her sister all alone, taking a pregnancy test and finding out she was pregnant. Why hadn’t she told Haley what was happening to her? “Did she tell you back then, Josie?” Haley asked, trying to will herself not to cry again. “Or did you find the test after she disappeared?”

“She told me,” Josie said, and jealousy flashed through Haley with such fury it was hard to hide it. Her fingertips tapped her legs in an erratic rhythm. She wanted to ask how Josie got hold of the test and why, but the whole thing felt so macabre. “How do you know the baby was Brad’s?” she asked instead, the tapping growing so wild she knew the others saw it.

Noah averted his eyes from her. “I don’t!” Josie said. “That’s part of the reason I never turned in the pregnancy test, because the last thing I wanted was for her to be known as the girl who was pregnant and didn’t even know who the father was, the girl who plunged to her death to escape it all.” Josie sobbed harder, and Noah jumped in, saying, “That’s enough, Haley. For God’s sake, you’re studying to become a doctor. I’m pretty sure this kind of stress isn’t good for anyone in her condition.”