Spencer widened her eyes. “Does my father agree with this strategy?”
“I haven’t spoken with him about it yet, but I have a feeling he will.”
Spencer shook her head. “No plea bargain. No sentence, period. We’re innocent.”
“You believe us, don’t you?” Hanna asked, tears in her eyes. “Will you fight for us?”
Goddard hesitated for a long time, spinning and spinning his wedding ring on his finger. “I believe you,” he said in a defeated voice. “But I’m going to tell you right now—it’s going to be tough.” He stood. “I’m sorry. Bail will be posted soon—you can wait here until they come for you. We’ll talk tomorrow.”
And then, just like that, he was gone.
19
NO LOVE
Everyone stared at one another around the conference table after the lawyer left the room. Hanna was trembling so hard, she was making the chair she was sitting on shake. Aria looked like she was going to pass out.
“How can this be happening?” Spencer whispered, looking around helplessly. “I mean, okay, I can buy that Team A routed every note back to our phones. They’re smart. Maybe it’s possible.”
“And we should have taken better precautions about the people in the A notes,” Emily added. “Isaac’s mom has had it out for me from the beginning. Of course Kelsey is going to rat out Spencer.”
Hanna tentatively touched her face. She could feel that her eyes were puffy, her hair was sticking out in a million directions, and she’d sprouted several zits on her chin. When she shifted in the chair, her abdomen pulsed with pain. She hadn’t peed since they’d arrived, too horrified that the police officers could be watching her on a hidden camera.
“But still,” Spencer said. “How did they make that surveillance video?”
There was a pause.
“Do you think Ali roofied us and made us do it?” Aria’s voice rang out.
“Guys, I remember every second of that day,” Hanna said. “We ran downstairs the moment Tabitha fell. I didn’t wake up in a daze a few hours later. Did you?”
“No,” Spencer’s voice called from far away.
“Maybe Helper A hired four girls who looked like us,” Emily suggested. “And then, I don’t know, dug up a Tabitha look-alike blow-up doll, and just . . .”
“. . . staged the whole thing?” Hanna finished. “How would she have gotten girls to do that?”
“Maybe he told them it was for a movie he was making,” Aria said. “Maybe he paid them tons of money, and that was it.”
Hanna sniffed. “So, what, we should look for an old ad on Craigslist that says Wanted: Four Girls to Reenact a Murder in Jamaica?” It didn’t sound very realistic, but who knew? Perhaps Team A killed the Hanna, Aria, Spencer, and Emily clones after the video had been made so they’d never talk. It was hard to tell the extent of their madness.
A door slammed somewhere down the hall. The air conditioner kicked back on, and the sharp smell of stale coffee suddenly wafted through the air.
“We should get someone to check out this Lychee Nut hotel,” Emily suggested. “Was this really their video footage? Why would they have had a murder on tape the whole time and not come forward with it?”
“It’s obvious the tape was planted,” Hanna said. “But who do we have on the outside to actually investigate this for us?” On the outside. She wasn’t even in prison yet and she was already using the lingo.
“Excuse me?”
Hanna jumped. Spencer’s father poked his head inside. “Your bail has been posted. You’re all free to go.”
“We are?” Emily didn’t get up.
“Your arraignment is in one month.” Mr. Hastings held the door open for them.
“And then what?” Aria asked nervously. “We come back here?”
Mr. Hastings gritted his teeth. “Don’t freak out, but we just found out that they want to extradite you to Jamaica.”
“What?” Spencer exploded.
Hanna pressed a hand to her chest. “Why?”
“That’s where you committed your crime. Your trial will be there, and you’ll serve your sentence there, too, if you’re convicted. That’s what they’re pushing for, anyway.” Mr. Hastings looked furious. “We’re doing everything we can to change it, though. It’s bullshit. They’re just trying to make an example of you.”
A bomb went off in Hanna’s brain. The prospect of spending the rest of her life in an American prison was bad enough, but spending it in a Jamaican one?
She followed the lawyer out of the conference room, her heart hammering. They walked down a long hallway. Mr. Hastings opened the door that led into the lobby. Hanna blinked in the brightness of the front room, then looked around at everyone waiting. When Mrs. Hastings saw Spencer in handcuffs, she burst into tears. To her left were Mr. and Mrs. Fields, looking shocked and pale. Next to them were Aria’s parents, though no Mike. Hanna’s mom was next to them. Hanna looked around for her dad but didn’t see him.