“Two nights.”
“And then?”
Ellie shrugs. “I came home and she was gone.”
“No note, no nothing?”
“Nothing.”
“And since then?”
“More nothing. I haven’t seen her or heard from her since.”
Something isn’t adding up. “Wait, when did you learn about Leo’s and Diana’s deaths?”
“I heard about it the day after they were found. I called Diana’s house and asked for her and”—I see her eyes water up again—“her mom . . . God, her voice.”
“Audrey Styles told you over the phone?”
“No. She asked me to come over. But I could hear it. I ran the whole way. She sat me down. In the kitchen. When she finished, I went home to ask Maura. But she was gone.”
Still not adding up. “But . . . I mean, you had to figure it was connected, right?”
She didn’t reply.
“Maura comes to you the night Leo and Diana die,” I say. “You had to think there was some link.”
Ellie nods slowly. “I figured it couldn’t be a coincidence, that’s right.”
“And yet you didn’t tell anyone?”
“I made a promise, Nap.”
“Your best friend had just been killed,” I say. “How could you not tell anyone?”
Ellie lowers her head. I stop for a second.
“You were the most responsible girl in the school,” I say. “I could see you keeping a promise. That makes sense. But once you found out Diana was dead—”
“We all thought it was an accident, remember? Or maybe a weird double suicide, though I never believed that. But I didn’t think Maura had anything to do with it.”
“Come on, Ellie, you can’t be that na?ve. How could you not tell someone?”
She lowers her head again. I know it now. She’s hiding something.
“Ellie?”
“I did tell someone.”
“Who?”
“But that was part of Maura’s genius, when I look back at it. What could I tell anyone? I had no idea where she was.”
“Who did you tell?”
“Diana’s parents.”
I freeze. “You told Augie and Audrey?”
“Yes.”
“Augie . . .” I think I can’t be stunned anew, yet here I am. “He knew that Maura had stayed at your house?”
She nods, and I’m reeling again. Can you trust anyone in this world, Leo? Ellie lied to me. Augie lied to me. Who else? Mom, of course. When she said she was coming right back.
Did Dad lie too?
Did you?
“What did Augie say to you?” I ask.
“He thanked me. Then he told me to keep my promise.”
I need to see Augie. I need to go over to his house and figure out what the hell is going on here. But then I remember something else Ellie told me.
“You said before and after.”
“What?”
“I asked you if you saw Maura before or after Leo and Diana died. You said both.”
Ellie nods.
“You told me about the after. What about the before?”
She looks off.
“What is it?” I ask.
“This is the part,” Ellie says, “you’re not going to like.”
Chapter Twenty-two
She stands across the street from the Armstrong Diner and watches them through a window.