Ava knew that if Leslie died, she wouldn’t be hit with the same grief—it would be guilt instead. But she did recognize how hard this probably was for her father. However bizarre it seemed to her, Leslie had been the second love of his life—and Ava had taken that away. She stroked his arm, feeling the need to comfort him. “We have each other. We always have. It’ll be okay.”
“You’re such a good girl,” Mr. Jalali whispered, which gave Ava a guilty pang. Then he looked at her. “Don’t you have a Halloween party tonight?”
Ava shook her head. “I’m not leaving you alone.” Especially with Mrs. Shields.
“Oh, Ava.” He sighed. “You should go, have some fun. I know how much you love costume parties. Is Alex going?”
Ava shook her head. “He has to work late.”
She couldn’t help but smile, though. Now that Alex had been cleared of all charges in Granger’s death, her dad was suddenly a huge Alex fan again.
“What about your friends?” Mr. Jalali asked. “Those girls you’ve been hanging around with?”
Ava had received a few texts from Caitlin and Mac earlier, asking whether they should go to Nyssa’s or not. Mac had decided to go, to keep track of Claire—she was the only person left on that list, after all. Caitlin had said she would go, too. Ava felt suddenly guilty—she should go with them, they’d have strength in numbers.
She nodded. “Okay. I’ll go for a little bit. But Dad, if you need me, or if anything at all happens, you’ll call me, right?”
“Of course.” He smiled at her kindly. Mrs. Shields, however, looked at Ava as if she’d just said she was going to go out into the parking lot to smoke some meth.
She turned to leave, thinking about how she didn’t have a costume and would have to shower if she didn’t want to smell like hospital. Just as she reached the door, her father called out to her again. “Oh, Ava?” He reached into his pants pocket and pulled out something small and delicate. “I forgot. I found this—I think it’s yours, yes?”
She crossed the room and held out her hand. He dropped it into her palm, and she studied it for a moment. It was a pretty chandelier earring of silver wire and shiny amber beads. She shook her head. “It’s not mine.”
Her dad looked confused. “Are you sure? It’s not Leslie’s, and I found it upstairs on my bedroom floor . . .”
Ava blinked hard. All at once, she got a flash of recognition—she’d seen those earrings before. Her heart stopped. Her eyes widened.
“You found this in your bedroom?” she cried.
He nodded, cocking his head. “Why?”
Another thought hung on Ava’s lips, but she didn’t dare say it aloud. The bedroom with the balcony Leslie fell from?
“What is it?” her father asked, leaning forward.
“N-nothing. I’ll see you later. Love you.” She turned and bolted for the door, her mind suddenly spinning. She needed to get to the party and find the others as quickly as possible.
The earring was Julie’s.
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
ON FRIDAY EVENING, A SIX-FOOT-TWO-INCH fuzzy white bear slammed into Mac and clumsily swiped at the spilled beer on her shirt with a giant paw. “Oops, sorry!” he crowed with a muffled giggle. Mac could tell it was Sander Dennis, who was in her chem class. His girlfriend, a junior named Penelope Steward, cackled in her pink tutu, then sauntered around the DJ table toward the keg.
“Where’s your costume?”
Mac looked up. Thad Kelly, a senior, was wearing a blue bird costume and a sash with “Insert 140 characters here” printed on it. He stared at Mac drunkenly, even though the party had started, like, five minutes ago.
Mac looked down at her boyfriend jeans, rolled up at the cuffs, and her thick cable-knit sweater. “I didn’t really have time to think one up,” she said.
“Lame!” He laughed and boogied away.
She sighed and scanned the room again. If only she could tell him she wasn’t here to celebrate Halloween—she was here to save a life. A horrible premonition told her that tonight was going to be the night that the killer was planning on hurting Claire. It was the perfect environment: a loud, chaotic party, lots of alcohol, lots of suspects.
The exact thing they’d said when they were planning to prank Nolan at his party.
Mac shuddered. She had to find Claire. She was definitely coming to this: Earlier today, she’d posted on Facebook about her top-secret costume. Mac had also noticed a post about her from Claire on Facebook—a picture of her and Oliver, kissing, with a nasty caption—but she’d quietly deleted it from her page and decided not to dwell on it or on the fact that Claire had apparently snuck out of the restaurant that night and spied on her and Oliver while they were kissing. It couldn’t get in the way of Mac trying to save her.
Mac had checked other people’s sites, too. Ashley Ferguson’s Facebook was still silent, though a lot of people had posted that they were praying for her. People had posted to Ava’s account offering their condolences for Ava’s stepmom, though Ava hadn’t added anything in a long time.