Detective Peters stood in the lobby, scratching his pointy chin, a serious look on his face. He had deep bags under his eyes and fast-food crumbs on his shirt. He looked haggard, like he’d been pulling all-nighters ever since Nolan died.
The other girls huddled together nearby, looking as confused and worried as Julie felt. Julie was relieved to see Parker there, her hoodie pulled down over her face. She seemed less upset than she had been in the school parking lot the day before, after Ashley had pranked Julie, but Julie could tell from the way she shifted from one foot to the other and clenched her jaw that she was tense. Julie met her friend’s eye, and Parker looked back. Julie wondered where Parker had spent last night—she hadn’t ever shown up at Julie’s. In fact, Julie hadn’t spoken to her since the kitty-litter prank outside school. Parker had turned her phone off again. It was beginning to get pretty frustrating.
Then Julie cast her eyes around at the others. What’s going on? she mouthed, raising her eyebrows. Caitlin shrugged. Mac frowned.
“Now that you’re all here,” Peters said gruffly, “let’s go on back.”
He led them through the same maze of desks and cubicles they’d passed through the other day, into the same interrogation room with the same one-way mirror. “Have a seat, ladies.”
Parker sat closest to the door, and Julie sat down next to her. Peters dropped into a chair at the opposite end of the table. His scalp was visible through his thinning hair as he flipped through a stuffed manila folder on the table. Then he looked up and slowly moved his gaze around their half circle, studying them one by one.
Finally he spoke. “Alex Cohen has been released from custody.”
Ava let out a gasp. “That’s wonderful! What happened?”
Peters’s expression was blank, a perfect poker face. “What you girls should really be worried about is all the evidence that’s pointing at you.”
Parker’s head shot up, and Julie put a cool hand on her wrist to calm her. Caitlin and Mac audibly gulped. Ava’s face fell. Julie’s heart began a steady beat against her ribs, and her head spun a little. She’d been expecting this, though. Hadn’t she?
“After forensics finished their investigation, your involvement in the crime seems clearer than ever,” the detective went on. “Your prints are all over that house.” He paused for a moment, letting his words sink in. “If you killed Hotchkiss, then maybe Granger was on to you. Then you needed to get rid of him so he wouldn’t talk.” He tapped his pen on the table, clicking and unclicking the button on the end. “Now,” the detective finished, “does anyone want to tell me the truth, once and for all? If you talk now, things will be much easier for you. I highly suggest you tell us what you know.”
Julie didn’t dare look at any of the other girls. She could feel Parker practically vibrating with anger and frustration in the seat next to her. Don’t say anything, she willed to the other girls. Because what could they say? Everything they’d done made them look guilty. She was dying to know if the cops had found the note on the yellow legal pad, the one that described how they’d kill Nolan and all those other people. She prayed they hadn’t.
Peters turned back toward Julie. Their eyes connected for a moment before he looked down to her hand patting Parker’s arm. His expression was quizzical for a moment, then he jotted down a quick note in the folder. After another minute of silence, he breathed out. “All right, ladies. We’ll do things the hard way.”
He rose from his chair, stepped across the room, and motioned at someone outside the door. A middle-aged woman in thick glasses, a terrible pantsuit, and mid-height heeled loafers stepped in briskly, her lips pressed together, and nodded in the girls’ direction.
“This is Dr. Rose,” Peters said. “She’s a psychological profiler, and she’s going to speak to each of you one by one. Then we’ll see if your stories match.” He looked carefully at all of them. “I know you’re putting up a unified front, but you don’t know everything about one another. And trust is a tricky thing.”
Ava frowned. “What are you implying? That one of us did it and isn’t telling the others?”
Peters shrugged his shoulders and grinned. “You said it, not me.”
He turned to leave the room. Just before he reached the door, he spun back around and looked straight at Julie. “We’ll start with you,” he said matter-of-factly, with a nod to Dr. Rose. Then he pulled the door shut firmly behind him.
Julie could feel the other girls’ eyes on her, but she said nothing. She clutched Parker’s arm and stared at the table.
“Julie Redding, right?” Dr. Rose said crisply, fixing her steady gaze on Julie. Her eyes looked huge behind her glasses, like she was holding a magnifying glass up to her face. “Let’s go into my office. The rest of you, I’ll call to schedule.”
Ava’s hand shot up. “Will our parents know about this?”