“Yeah, I’m not sure what that proves,” Spencer said softly. “It probably doesn’t have any fingerprints on it.”
Emily glowered at all of them. “Don’t tell me she wasn’t here. I know you all smell the vanilla.”
“We do,” Hanna said, surprised by Emily’s aggressive tone. “But we can’t go to the cops with this. It’s not enough.”
“So what are we supposed to do?” Emily shrieked, her eyes wild. “Wait for her to come back? Because I will. I’ll sleep on this floor to make sure I catch her.”
“Em.” Spencer placed her hand on Emily’s shoulder. Emily was suddenly shaking. “You can’t do that. You have to calm down.”
Aria propped her hands on her hips and looked around. “Maybe we can watch this place somehow—without us getting hurt.”
Hanna didn’t like the sound of that. “What do you mean?”
Emily’s face lit up. “What about video surveillance?”
“That could work,” Spencer said cautiously. “My stepfather has cameras on all of his model homes. You can access them remotely, even on an iPad.”
Emily nodded hurriedly. “We could plant some here. Today.”
Spencer glanced at the others. Hanna wanted to say no—that would mean getting all the gear and then coming back here—but she feared what Emily would do if they didn’t agree. Sleep in the woods, maybe. Sit on the porch all night, waiting for Ali.
“I guess so,” Spencer said. She pulled out her phone. “I think Best Buy sells whole kits of stuff that’s easy to install.”
“And then . . . what? We watch from afar?” Aria asked.
“That’s right,” Spencer said. “We could take shifts, each of us watching the house at different times. If we see anything, we go to the police.”
Hanna ran her tongue over her teeth. It certainly seemed safer than facing Ali directly. And a video of Ali would be enough to prove to the police she was still alive.
“Let’s do it,” Emily said. “Let’s go now.”
She shone the flashlight on the door leading to the yard, and as it creaked open, Hanna braced herself again. She blinked in the silent, empty yard. The tree branches waved softly. The sun glittered high in the sky. The shadows Hanna thought she’d seen in the woods weren’t there anymore.
Maybe they’d never been there. Maybe Ali really didn’t know they were here.
And maybe, this time, they were really going to catch her.
18
THE STING OPERATION
Everyone spent the next few minutes pacing around the old pool house and deciding where to place the surveillance cameras once they bought them. The idea was that they’d come back here later with all the equipment and a ladder and mount everything, carefully concealing it with tree branches. Hopefully, by that night, they’d have a whole surveillance operation up and running.
But halfway through the strategizing, Aria padded back to the car and climbed inside. Moments later, Hanna joined her. The two of them silently passed a bottle of water back and forth, the only sounds the water sloshing in its container and the two of them noisily swallowing.
“Are we really doing this?” Hanna whispered.
Aria gulped. Hanna seemed as freaked as she was. “I guess so.”
“Do you actually think Ali’s staying there?”
Aria shut her eyes. “I don’t know. I want to believe it, for Em’s sake. And there was that smell of vanilla, I guess. . . .”
“I’m worried about her,” Hanna blurted.
Aria opened her eyes. Hanna looked like she was about to cry. “I can’t imagine what it must feel like to have the person you love most in the world die,” Hanna said haltingly.
“I know,” Aria said, tearing up just thinking about it.
“But, I mean, I’m afraid Emily’s going to do something . . . destructive. And I’m scared we won’t be able to help her this time.”
Aria swallowed hard. She had a feeling Hanna was talking about Emily’s suicide attempt. Aria would never be able to forget that day, seeing Emily on the edge of that bridge. The expression on her face had been haunting: It was like she’d just . . . given up, standing there, ready to plunge into the water. Thankfully, they’d been able to talk her down, and Emily promised she’d never do something like that again.
But that was three weeks ago, and now Emily seemed unhinged again. Except instead of throwing in the towel, she was acting kind of . . . crazy.
“We’ll keep an eye on her,” she said, touching Hanna’s hand. “And hopefully this will be over soon.”
She was about to say more, but then Spencer and Emily appeared around the side yard and climbed back into the car. Spencer looked frazzled, but Emily’s expression was still focused, charged, and alert. “Okay,” Emily said as she swung into the driver’s seat. “Off to Best Buy.”