Aftermath(91)

“Chris Landry is a —”

“I’m sure you figured out he questioned the official story. He wasn’t digging, though. But if I came back? That might change his mind. So you counseled me to stay away from him. Stay away from Jesse, too. Bad, bad boys. Dangerous boys.”

“You’re crazy.”

“No, but you tried to drive me there, and when that failed, well, making me look crazy should do the job just as well. Between you, Owen and Vicki, you covered all the bases.”

“Owen? Owen kidnapped me —”

“The fried chicken says otherwise.”

Her face screws up. “What?”

“You said Owen came home in a panic. And then he made fried chicken?”

“I had to eat.”

“Nice that he cooked for you. I saw the plates in the sink. Two full settings. Lunch dishes, too, which is odd, since he’d have been at school.”

“He came home.”

“And he let you eat off the china? All you had to do was break a plate and attack him. But there was broken glass, wasn’t there? In the living room. Glass with blood spray on the wall. According to you, he threw that tumbler in a rage. And then picked up a few pieces, cut himself, and then stormed out? Weird.”

“I don’t know what you’re implying —”

“I’m guessing it was a fight. A falling-out between partners in crime. Were you just partners in crime? You said he had a crush on you.”

“It doesn’t matter —”

“So you guys were a couple. Okay. He came home for dinner and said he wanted to quit your crazy plan. You fought, and he ran.”

“You found me tied up —”

“Partially tied up. Not that well, either. I bet it’s really hard to bind your own hands behind your back. Luckily, I was too freaked out about Jesse’s fall to notice. You were staging your escape, and then we showed up. Do you know what’s the worst of it, Tiffany? If you hadn’t launched your campaign to drive me off, I’d never have investigated the shooting.”

“That’s bullshit. You can’t leave well enough alone. Just like your brother. Always have to be the hero. Always have to do the right thing.”

“Which Luka did, when he tried to foil your plan.”

“He didn’t even know what the plan was, the idiot. I told Isaac to keep Luka out of it, but he gave him a gun. Gave it to him and didn’t tell him why – just ‘Hey, here’s a gun’ – in case he decided to join the shooting on his own. And what does Luka do? Calls the police to turn over the weapon. If Luka had any balls, he’d have refused to take the weapon. But no…”

That rage sparks again. I listen to her mocking my brother, and I realize – really understand – that she was behind it all. That she is the reason my brother is dead, and it takes everything I have to swallow my fury and give a measured response. I must stay calm. I must survive this so I can tell the truth. So I can clear my brother’s name.

So I say, “Luka took the gun because he knew it was safer in his hands. And he probably suspected something else was going on. That’s why he called the police. So what was the plan? You shoot up the school and go down in a blaze of glory?”

Her lip curls. “I wasn’t going down. Ever. We were going to be legends. Kill as many kids as we could, and then run to Mexico.”

“What movie did you swipe that plot from?”

“I got Isaac out of the school. Did you know that? I rescued him. And then what does he do? Panics. Loses his nerve and loses his mind. Starts saying that the only real way out is to kill ourselves. Kill myself? I hadn’t done anything. I was not putting a gun to my head.”

“But you agreed to, didn’t you?”

“Of course I did. He would have turned on me the first chance he got. I just let him go first. The moron.”

“Then, after he was dead, you went back to the school, where you hid and faked hurting your ankle. They found you in the final sweep and took you to the hospital. What did you say to Harley while you were ‘sitting’ with him? No, you didn’t say anything, did you? You wanted to see if he’d say anything to you. If he knew you’d been behind it all. He didn’t, so —”

“Enough. You’ve done a very good job of stalling, Skye, but it’s time to kill your aunt.”

“Wh-what?”

She laughs. “Did you think this was a nice girl-to-girl chat? Air our differences and go our separate ways, having come to a better understanding of each other?”

“I can’t prove anything. No one has believed me so far. Just go. Run, like you planned to before.”

“I’m no longer the dumb fifteen-year-old who thought life on the run with her boyfriend would be so romantic. Why do you think I didn’t take off with Owen? I’m not running; I’m fixing this.”

“How is this fixing it?”

“Because once you kill your aunt, you’re free to tell the cops any story you want. They won’t believe you. You’ll be the bad seed who snapped. Murdered your aunt. Started ranting that the girl who befriended you – who got kidnapped because she tried to help you – is actually the mastermind behind the North Hampton shooting.”

“They’ll investigate —”