After a moment, another message from Chase appeared. Two things: One, I’ve reached out to Billy Ford to see if he had any interaction with Alison before he was arrested.
Spencer almost dropped her bottle of coconut water. Billy Ford was the guy who’d been framed for murdering Their Ali—he’d been one of the guys who’d dug the hole where Ali’s body had been found. People thought he was A, too. The cops found pictures of Spencer and the others on the laptop in his truck. But Real Ali had planted them there.
Did he tell you anything interesting? Spencer asked. If she remembered correctly, Billy told the cops that the only time he’d seen Alison—or, rather, Courtney—was when he’d worked on her gazebo when the girls were in seventh grade. He had no idea how Real Ali had gotten those files onto his laptop.
He told me that a few days before all that stuff was found in his truck, someone from Geek Squad came to his door and offered to do a free security scan. Maybe that person helped frame him. Perhaps they were working with Alison.
Spencer’s eyes lit up. Was it a guy or girl?
He said it was a guy. But he barely remembers him. Couldn’t pick him out of a lineup.
Spencer laid her head on her mom’s desk. Another dead end.
There was another ping. Two, I just received some interesting photos of Ali and her sister when they were younger. Maybe they’ll spark a connection.
Spencer glanced over her shoulder in case Amelia was watching from the kitchen. Where did you find them? she typed.
The text box lit up again. You wouldn’t believe the sorts of people who come out of the woodwork when you run a conspiracy theory blog. I get all kinds of weird stuff about all sorts of topics. These I got anonymously, but I really think they’re legit. Exciting, right?
Spencer swished a gulp of coconut water in her mouth. Whenever anything was done anonymously, her first thought was that it was A. But why would A send DiLaurentis twin pictures to a conspiracy blog?
It is exciting, she wrote back—and she meant it. Not only finding new evidence, but also talking to someone who was just as jazzed about it as Spencer was. Not just someone, either, but a smart, interesting, funny, intriguing guy. Not that Spencer had a crush on him or anything.
Okay, maybe she did.
The idea of him was just so alluring. All the investigating he’d done on Ali, his tragic story about being stalked, even his choice of words in their chats. Last night, he’d used the phrase if I had my druthers, which was so adorably old-fashioned Spencer had squealed with delight. Chase was smart and funny . . . and they both wanted to bring Ali down. It sort of felt like they were a superhero duo, connected via Internet. Surely there was a picture of him online, right? But Spencer had spent hours last night searching all sorts of avenues. The work he’d done with the police. The stalking story. There wasn’t a single image of him anywhere—of course, it would help if she knew his last name.
She had to meet him.
She looked at the screen and took a deep breath. I really want to see them, she wrote. But I don’t want you sending them over the Internet. Do you think we could meet in person? It might be a risk to reveal who she really was, but she was willing to take the chance.
The cursor blinked . . . and blinked . . . and blinked. No new message appeared. Spencer’s cheeks burned. This felt just like the time in seventh grade when Spencer and Ali were competing over who could kiss the greatest number of older guys. Spencer had walked up to Oliver Nolan, the champion rower at St. Francis Prep, and asked him to kiss her, and he’d flat-out refused. Ali had been watching—she’d laughed her head off.
There was a knock on the front door. Spencer jumped up from her mom’s desk chair, ran through the kitchen and down the hall, and peered through the sidelight window. Emily stood on the porch. Her Volvo wagon chugged at the curb; Iris’s blond head could be seen in the passenger seat.
“What’s going on?” Spencer whispered as she opened the door.
Emily looked right and left. Then she pulled Spencer down the hall and into the powder room. She shut the door and turned on the overhead fan, which rattled noisily, and ran the faucet at full volume.
“What are you doing?” Spencer frowned at Emily’s reflection in the mirror. “What about Iris?”
“She’ll be okay,” Emily assured her. “I want to make sure no one hears. I just found out that Ali did have a special boyfriend, someone on the outside. The two of them met as soon as she was let out of The Preserve after Ian was arrested. There’s a carving at Keppler Creek State Park that says I love Ali D with last year’s date.”
“Keppler Park?” Spencer leaned against the pedestal sink. “That’s almost in Delaware.”
Emily chewed on her thumb. “I know. Maybe the boyfriend is from there. Ali said he was her best friend in the world. What if this friend is her helper?”