You Are Not Alone(61)

Daphne gasps as her hand flies to her mouth.

“Shay admitted that’s why she came to the memorial service,” Cassandra continues.

“What the—” Stacey begins.

Beth cuts her off. “Now I know where I’ve seen her!” Beth turns to Jane. “She was at that CrossFit class the other night, the one we were supposed to go to together.”

Jane’s eyes widen. “Are you sure?”

Beth jabs her finger toward the picture. “She wasn’t wearing glasses and her hair is shorter. She had it pulled up in a ponytail. She didn’t look exactly like this, and she didn’t look exactly like Amanda. But she was sure somewhere in between.”

Cassandra leans back against the booth. So Beth had seen Shay after all. Everything is working beautifully. Even though Cassandra and Jane don’t enjoy deceiving the other women, it’s necessary to protect them. If they are ever questioned by the police about Shay—and if all goes well, they may be—their answers will be forthright and honest. They’d even pass a lie detector test if need be.

As for Shay, she must be sacrificed. She will be a necessary, though unfortunate, casualty.

“This is even creepier than we thought.” Cassandra’s voice is hushed. She leans forward, her gaze scanning the other women’s somber faces. “Shay has been trying to insinuate herself with us. We made the mistake of giving her our phone numbers the day we had tea. She seemed fragile, a little lost. She said she’d been really shaken up by what she’d witnessed that day in the subway. I guess we felt sorry for her. But now … she texts and calls, trying to come up with excuses to get together.”

“Why would she want to look like Amanda?” Beth asks. “Why is she stalking us?”

Cassandra shakes her head, simultaneously casting a discreet glance at her watch: 7:02 P.M. It’s time.

Precisely one minute later, the door opens and Shay walks in.

Jane gives Cassandra a quick, significant look. The Moore sisters are the only two women at the table who noticed Shay’s arrival.

It would be better if one of the others pointed out Shay’s presence.

Cassandra clears her throat. “I think we have to consider a few things. Let’s start with the facts: We know what Shay has told us, and we know how she has acted. We need to be wary of accepting her story. She could be lying about anything, or everything. Her actions, however, speak far louder than anything she has said, and these actions are documented.”

The others are nodding.

“So what do her actions tell us?” Daphne asks.

“I don’t say this lightly.” Cassandra looks around the table at her close friends, the women she considers her sisters. She would do anything for them. She has done things she would never have thought possible only a year ago. “Something is deeply wrong with her. She seems … unhinged.”

“I agree. If you saw someone commit suicide, why would you ever want to look like them and be around their friends?” Daphne says. “Nothing about this makes sense.”

The women continue discussing Shay and her possible motivations.

Then Stacey abruptly rises from her seat and points toward the bar. “Is that her?” Stacey cranes her neck and starts to push her way out of the booth, but Cassandra blocks her.

“Oh my God, it is her!” Daphne hisses.

“Stacey, calm down. We’ve got to think this through.” Cassandra puts a hand on Stacey’s arm. “If Shay truly is crazy, and that is her, we need to be careful.”

Jane reaches for her phone and quickly types a text beneath the cover of the table: They’ve seen Shay. She sends the message to Valerie, who is on the same block, but out of view. Although Cassandra and Jane created the fake profile for TedTalk and have been communicating with Shay on Cupid, tonight it will be Valerie who takes over Ted’s role.

Stacey is still on her feet, breathing hard. “She must have followed one of us here. She’s tracking us!”

“She isn’t even looking at us,” Daphne says. “It’s like she’s pretending she’s here for another reason.”

Just then Shay puts away her phone, slides off her stool, and grabs her coat and purse. She quickly exits the restaurant, never looking back. But as she turns to go out the door, everyone in the booth catches a quick glimpse of her face. She’s a few dozen yards away, and the lighting isn’t great, but it’s unmistakably Shay.

“We should follow her,” Stacey says. But she sinks back into her seat.

There’s silence for a moment.

“This is beyond strange,” Beth says. “I didn’t see it as clearly at the gym, but you’re right. She’s trying to look just like Amanda.”

Daphne shudders. “How worried should we be?”

“I don’t get the sense she’s violent,” Jane says. “Just … disturbed.”

“If she follows me again…” Stacey’s chin juts out.

Beth speaks up. “It seems like Shay keeps trying to step into Amanda’s life. Does she want to replace her somehow?”

Exactly, Cassandra thinks as her eyes meet Jane’s.

Shay will soon serve as a kind of replacement. Just not in the way the other women suspect.





CHAPTER FORTY-FOUR