Six Little Secrets(39)

‘If you need help remembering,’ Megan said, ‘I spoke with your cousin, Declan. He remembered a “young kid” asking for money from the both of you. But do you recall what you said to Jacob?’

‘No,’ Teddy said, shaking his head.

‘Exactly. You said no. You refused someone who needed help. He only needed a couple of dollars for the bus. You couldn’t even spare that,’ Megan said.

Teddy hung his head. ‘I barely remember him at all.’

Cece gasped, now fully sobbing even though her part of the tale was over. Megan was on a roll now, and there was no stopping her.

‘That’s when we come to you, Q,’ Megan said. She couldn’t linger on the fine details any longer. She was done with them and wanted to move onto the finale. ‘Jacob saw your garbage can. The one you soaked with gasoline and lit up. Did you even see him? Did you see the way his hands moved over the flames because he was freezing? And how the fire exploded shortly after, throwing my brother to the ground? At that point, the coroner mentioned that Jacob suffered from second-degree burns on his hands. And the flames burned his eyes. Enough for him to not see the car coming straight at him as he stumbled into the road.’

Q cursed then said, ‘This is all circumstantial. You’re crazy, Holly—Megan, whoever the hell you are!’

‘I have proof of every instance,’ Megan said. ‘I did my homework months before coming to this school. It makes me sick to see people like you go on living your lives when you could have been nicer to someone who needed help. One act of kindness and my brother would be with me today. I wouldn’t be here and neither would all of you.’

‘Did you set us up to come to detention?’ Jackie asked.

‘Of course,’ Megan said. ‘It was easy enough to get into your locker, Teddy.’ Megan was unable to hide her smile. Getting them all into detention the same week had been her favorite part of all this. ‘I tipped Principal Killian about Cece skipping school. During the fake fire alarm fiasco that Q took the blame for, it was incredibly simple to swap your test for one that looked like you cheated, Jackie.’

‘I could get kicked out of school!’ Jackie exclaimed.

‘You didn’t set off the fire alarm?’ Cece said to Q.

Q didn’t defend himself. Megan knew he’d take the blame for it, especially when it had to do with fire.

‘What did you do to Zoe?’ Teddy asked.

Zoe’s eyes widened with fear.

Megan looked at Zoe. ‘We’re getting there. The driver of the car is up next. I never blamed him for hitting Jacob. It was dark, and Jacob fell into the street after being burned and blinded. At least that’s what the coroner said.’ She shot a look in Q’s direction. ‘The running away is what gets me. What motivates someone to fatally injure someone else and then flee the scene? You must be thinking alcohol, but you’re wrong. It’s much worse than that.’

Megan smirked and lifted her chin, indicating the doorway. ‘And here comes lucky number five, right on time.’





CHAPTER NINETEEN




ZOE



Saturday


Zoe swallowed the lump in her throat as Mr. Curtis entered the room. A thin sheen of sweat covered his face, and his eyes were wild.

Mr. Curtis was the one who killed Jacob? That wasn’t true. It couldn’t be, could it? No matter what Holly said about the rest of them, Mr. Curtis would never hurt a child like that and just leave him in the road to die.

They all rushed over to him, and he backed away, holding his hands out in front of him as if he were scared of them.

‘Mr. Curtis,’ Cece said. ‘Holly has done terrible things to us today.’

‘Slow down,’ Mr. Curtis said, shaking his head. ‘What’s going on here?’

‘She set me up in the theater,’ Q said, raising his bandaged hands for emphasis.

‘She’s crazy!’ Jackie added.

‘You need to call the police,’ Cece said, whirling around to accuse Holly.

Zoe’s heart dropped when they all turned to see that Holly was gone.

‘Where is she?’ Q asked, rushing over to her seat. His eyes darted across the room.

Zoe’s stomach dropped. How had Holly disappeared that quickly?

‘Her timing is impeccable,’ Teddy noted, sounding a little impressed.

‘Shut up!’ Jackie said. ‘Mr. Curtis, she made it look like I was cheating and did this to my face.’ She lifted the hat, revealing the skin rash.

‘I-I don’t have time for this,’ Mr. Curtis said, barely looking Jackie in the eyes. ‘I have to go.’

Had he heard what they were saying? He had a stake in this whole situation, but Holly must not have told him all of them were involved too. Well, at least the rest of them. Zoe had no idea what she’d done to be roped into the group.

‘Listen, uh, I need to go home. It’s a family emergency,’ Mr. Curtis said, rubbing his hands against his shirt. Dark circles stained the fabric under his armpits.

Zoe blinked. All of his strange behavior that day made sense. While Zoe thought the phone rang for the librarian, it was for him. Was that his task? She thought he was just as upset as she was about spending detention with all of her classmates, but he had suffered at Holly’s hand, and she completely missed it.