People Like Us(74)

“Sounds like Spencer, either way.”

“Says his biggest fan.” I straighten up. “I’m sorry. Everything that’s happened in the past month has been kind of larger than life.”

“Fair enough.” Brie looks across the aisle at a train rushing by in the opposite direction, a faint blur of colors and faces behind frosted windows. It’s early afternoon, but the sky is so overcast that it appears much later. “I’m sorry I didn’t say anything about Maddy and Spencer. Justine told me and I didn’t want it to be true. And if it was, I didn’t want you to find out. It was just once, right after you and Spencer broke up, but I knew how hard it would hit you. Then Tai made it worse with that stupid Notorious R.B.G. thing and I was sure you were going to figure it out. She’s obviously been in love with him forever.”

“Consider me clueless.”

“I always have.” She tries at a smile. “And you kept asking why I was acting weird around her and I lied. I’m sorry. She was sweet. I’d feel so horrible if she thought I hated her.” Her eyes brim, and I lean in and press my face against hers.

“She would’ve known exactly why. She wouldn’t have blamed you. She had me to do that.” I poke my shoulder into hers, and she rubs her face against it and sighs.

“No more. No more killing. No more lies.”

I hesitate. “There was one more thing. Greg told me you and Jess used to be friends, and that turned into a serious grudge. Something about you blowing her off and her forwarding your personal emails to your parents or something.”

Her lips twitch and she shifts her gaze. “I don’t talk about it for a reason, Kay,” she says softly. “We were friends. It didn’t work out. I don’t feel comfortable talking shit about her now.”

“But it’s true?”

She straightens up. “Yes, it’s true. And it’s my business. And the extremely private information she stole from me and showed my parents before I was ready to tell them was my business, too. I’m sorry she died. But I don’t need to talk about what went down between us. With anyone. It was painful and it’s in the past.”

I lay my hand palm up on the armrest between us as a peace offering. “Okay. You don’t. I’m sorry.”

She closes her hand around mine. “Being away from everyone the past few days has been really helpful. I feel like everything is finally coming into focus.”

“You didn’t seem to care before.”

“How would you know? You weren’t answering my calls. I think I know who the killer is. But before I say it, you tell me. Who do you think killed Jessica?”

“Santa Claus!” a high-pitched voice cries from somewhere above.

I let out a shriek. There’s a small, sticky child dangling over my head from the seat behind me. An annoyed-looking woman yanks him up and away and hisses at me, “Can you talk about your adult shows in indoor voices, please?”

I look down at my notebook. “The police have narrowed it down to me and Spencer.”

“I think they’re wrong,” Brie says.

“I never thought I’d see the day when Brie Matthews offered to defend Spencer Morrow pro bono.”

“We’ll see about that.”

I eye the paper curiously. “What have you got?”

She unfolds the piece of paper she placed on my notebook and I look down at it. It’s a list of evidence, like the one I made, but much neater, arranged in sections of notes in a nexus around a central word, all pointing to a name written in large, black, all-capital letters: NOLA.

Brie’s face glows in the overhead reading light. “It all makes sense.”

I roll my eyes. “Of course it does. Because you don’t like her.”

“She’s not one of us.”

I turn away from her and draw a heart on the frosty window as we pass a series of abandoned buildings. I’m not sure why a heart. It stings to hear words like that coming from Brie’s mouth, especially after I’ve just come from my little leprechaun house and she’s waltzing back from her precious mansion. Because I’m the one who’s not one of us.

“Just look.” Brie points to her paper. “It’s all here.”

“Do you have any idea what I’ve been going through? I’ve been getting phone calls in the middle of the night physically threatening me. I’ve tried calling campus police to file a report, but they won’t help me. I know you’ve at least seen my Facebook wall. I’ve been going through hell, and Nola’s been a real friend.”

Brie’s eyes fill up, and when she speaks again, her voice sounds thick. “I can never apologize enough for abandoning you.”

“And I said okay. But you’re not going to throw Nola under the bus for killing Jessica.” I push my hair back from my face. I’m starting to regret cutting it. It’s harder to get out of the way now.

Brie takes her headband out and hands it to me. “I have a million of these.”

“Thanks.” With my hair out of my face I feel a little more in control, a tiny bit less chaotic. “What about Spencer?”

“He’s a possibility. But I have a feeling about Nola.”

I cock my head. “A feeling. Then let’s go straight to the cops, shall we?”