“And you think it’s me?”
“I don’t know. I wouldn’t have thought you capable of it, but the accident changed everything for all of us.” Jane took another sip of the coffee.
“You’d have to be unbalanced to burn down the house of a woman who saved your life, Jane.”
“True. I wouldn’t. So if it’s you or Mr. Hall doing this, then stop it.”
“Us?” The shock went through her like a knife. “Us? You can’t be serious.”
“Mr. Hall being nice to me aside, you two have the greatest motive for revenge.”
“But this isn’t revenge.” Perri shook her head. “Shiloh loses an engagement; this Brenda Hobson loses her home. Both are terrible. Neither equals losing a child. I have no quarrel with either of them. That’s a petty revenge.”
“You take what you can get. Not telling everyone that suicide note I wrote was old isn’t really a revenge either, but it seems to have worked for you.”
Perri’s mouth worked. “Maybe you shouldn’t have lied about the crash. The deer.”
“We were desperate. You were turning the whole town against us.”
“Why don’t you take some responsibility for what you did?”
“I do, every single day,” Jane said. “It will never be enough for you.”
“If you know your mother is behind this, I will go with you to the police,” Perri said. “I will hold your hand while you tell them everything you know. I will stand by you.”
The only sound was the odd tick of an antique clock in Laurel’s office.
“Take your coffee and go,” Jane said, her voice shaking.
“I know about Liv Danger. You know where the name came from, Jane. You told your mother. Fine, whatever. But now you’ve got this thug Shiloh angry. I know arson is a serious charge, but your mental history, they’d have to take that into account. Your mother made you do it. Her highly dramatic nature is all over this. Has she written her blog post yet about it all, painting herself as the victim? Did you pay off that driver to make the video? It was all staged, wasn’t it?”
“Get out of my house,” Jane said.
“There isn’t going to be another chance.”
Jane slapped her hand, sending the coffee flying. The mug shattered on the tile, the java sprayed the floor and the walls and Perri. She cried out in shock.
“Get out of my house,” Jane said. “I saw what ‘Liv’ posted to you. You know something from that night. I don’t know anything. I couldn’t know anything. So ‘Liv’ isn’t me. She’s you.” She jabbed a finger in Perri’s face.
“It’s beyond amnesia. You are truly crazy.” Perri started to collect her broken mug.
“It’s broken, you can’t fix it. You can’t fix what’s broken! Get out! Get out!”
“I wonder what people will say when they arrest you and your mother both for this,” Perri said. She turned and stumbled out the door. She started to say something else, but Jane shoved her off the porch and down the steps.
“If you come near me again,” Jane said, “you will regret it. Oh, and by the way? Your husband believes me. He knows it was an accident. He told me so. He’s lucky you’re divorcing him. Because you’re the one who’s crazy.”
And she went back inside and slammed the door.
Perri got up from the steps. She hadn’t fallen far and there was just a slight scrape on her palm. But she thought maybe the eyes of her neighbors were on her, and she shivered as she went back to the house.
Matteo Vasquez, she thought. I could get him to write about her. But how do I explain knowing who Liv Danger is? How? What if Maggie comes forward and talks about my computer being linked to the postings?
It was not her proudest moment, but she began to think of a plan.
Her phone went off. She glanced at the screen.
A text from her boss, Mike: GET TO THE OFFICE. NOW.
28
THE DVD FROM Happy Taco was playing when Adam Kessler followed Jane into her living room. The television was a large one, and as Adam walked in the video version of Adam was walking into Happy Taco, trailing Trevor Blinn.
“What’s that?” he asked, his eyes turning to the screen.
“The night David died. You were at Happy Taco right after we were.”
He turned to her in shock. “Where did you get that?”
“That’s the first thing you say to me, Adam?”
He didn’t answer, he looked back at the video.
“The police and the investigators weren’t interested once David and I left. I was. You know how I always stay at the movies until the credits play.”
His handsome face twisted into a helpless smile. “Well, so, I was there. It’s a popular place.”
“You could have mentioned to me that you were there right after I was.”
“What difference does it make?”
She pointed at the screen. “You come in with Trevor. You look around. You don’t order. You’re looking for someone. Is it me?”
Adam sat down on the couch. Staring at his sneakers. Then he looked up at her. “Yes.”
“Why?”
“I stopped by your house. You weren’t there. Your mom asked me to find you. She didn’t believe your texts that you were studying with a friend.”
“Why didn’t she come looking for me herself?”
“I don’t know.” Adam put his face in his hands. “I don’t know.”
She sat next to him. “So, what, you and Trevor were both looking for me?”
“I don’t know why he was there. We both arrived separately, I said hi to him, he almost ignored me. Then we walked in together.”
She thought of Trevor, watching her and David’s exchange in the parking lot. “Was Trevor looking for me, too? Or for David?”
“You’d have to ask him.”
“So, all this time, after the crash when I was trying to piece together my memories, you never felt you should tell me this?”
He tried to take her hand and she pulled away from him. He folded his hands back in his lap. “What was the point? I never saw you that night. You didn’t even remember me as a friend. I was a stranger to you in those early weeks.”
Then she wondered if he was lying. It was only a matter of minutes between her departure and his arrival. Did he see her leaving with David? Did they encounter each other in the parking lot? If so, why would he still have entered the restaurant?
“OK, you never saw me. You still could have mentioned it.”
“I don’t know what the point would be, we didn’t see each other. And any mention of that night seemed to upset you.”
“I mean you could have told me,” she said, her voice tight with anger, “that my mother had you out searching for me. Is that what you harboring me in your room is? Do you report back to my mom on my moods, what nights I stay, how crazy I am?”
“Yes, Jane,” he said, “I spy on you. That’s why I risk getting thrown off campus so you can sleep there at night, or risk getting into trouble for hacking your dining-plan card, and why I spend nights away from my room so you can have privacy. All so I can spy on you for your mother.”