“Okay,” he said, and pushed the closed folder away from us.
I handed him back the paper with Amber’s apparent suicide note. Playing devil’s advocate, I said, “If Amber didn’t kill herself or Ben, then why would she write this note and leave it for her parents to find?”
“I don’t know…Maybe she somehow knew it was coming?” Cole said.
My eyes widened. “She knew she was going to be murdered?”
“I know, it sounds crazy, but if someone had told us a month ago that we might be reincarnated…”
“Okay, good point.” I frowned. “But she’s clearly taking the blame here. See? She says, ‘Don’t blame Spence. It wasn’t his fault. It was me. All me.’”
“I don’t get it, either,” Cole said. “But that’s part of the reason we need to dig into this. We have to find out what really happened.”
“Okay,” I said. “So now what?”
“Now we investigate.” He stood up with an excited glint in his eye.
“That internship with the FBI really put the bug in you, huh?” I said, getting up, too.
“Hey, don’t knock the FAIT, Lily,” he said. “It taught me mad skills.”
“Okay, Mr. Mad Skills, so where do we start?”
“With Ben and Amber’s friends,” he said. “Somebody in their inner circle had to know something.”
“You know who their friends were?”
“I know where to look,” he replied, pointing across the room to a low bookshelf. “Their yearbooks.”
I squinted at the shelf and the three large leather-bound books there: one blue, one white, one black. “Those are their yearbooks?” I asked.
“Uh, no. Those are mine. But my gram still has Ben’s yearbooks at her house. I looked through them once.”
“Was it weird?” I asked, wondering if he’d felt any overwhelming bond to Ben.
“Kinda. He wasn’t that different from me. I don’t know. I didn’t have any déjà vu or anything, but there was this…connection I guess. You know?”
I smiled. “I do.”
He smiled, too, and motioned with his chin. “Come on. Grams works on Saturdays, so we can sneak in and out without her knowing, then we can grab something to eat, look over the yearbooks, and decide who to talk to first.”
I hesitated to follow him to the door. “We’re sneaking in?”
“Yeah. I don’t want her to know that I’m taking them.”
“Uh…why?”
“My grandma is a little weird about her stuff,” he explained. “Especially Ben’s stuff. And, honestly, she’s a little weird in general. Don’t get me wrong—I love her, but she’s not like most grandmas who want their grandkids around a lot. She keeps to herself mostly. I think it’s because of my uncle. Mom says she’s never been the same since Ben died.”
“That’s so sad,” I said, thinking of my mom’s mom, who’d died three years ago from cancer. She’d lived in Connecticut and would’ve given me the world if I’d asked for it. And then I realized I hadn’t even thought of my dad’s mom. Which reminded me that she’d be expecting me to show up whenever she got around to summoning me. I’d have to give Mom a heads-up. I wasn’t going to give up my Saturday afternoon for her any more than I was going to give up my dreams of becoming a veterinarian and behavioral scientist for her.
I followed Cole to his car, and as we pulled out of the drive, I texted Mom. She called my phone almost right away.
“Lily?” she said. “How was it at Amber’s gravesite?”
I bit my lip. What to tell her? I decided to fib a little. “It was good, Mom. I think it helped.”
“Oh, that’s great, honey!” Mom said, her relief shining through her words. “I’m so happy. I want you to take a nap today, all right? You’ve got quite a bit of sleep to catch up on.”
“I really want to,” I said, choosing my words carefully, “but Grandmother wants me to spend the afternoon with her. And, Mom, I’m so tired. All I want to do is hang out in my room and try to get some sleep.”
There was a pause then, “I’ll take care of it, sweetheart. You rest. If your grandmother sends for you, don’t answer the door. Just stay in bed. I’ll be home tomorrow morning, but check in with me between now and then, you hear?”
I sighed with relief. “I will.”
“There’s lasagna in the fridge,” Mom added. “Don’t forget to eat, okay, lovey?”
“I won’t,” I promised.
We clicked off, and I sat back in satisfaction. That’d been easier than I thought.
“Everything cool?” Cole asked.
“Perfect,” I said. At that moment my phone pinged, and I lifted it to see an incoming text from Sophie:
Tanner and I broke up. He’s an asshole, and I miss you. I’ve been crying all morning. You’re my best friend, Lily. Please, please forgive me and come home.
I read the text with a hammering heart, and then I promptly burst into tears.
“OH, BRITT,” I SAID, HUGGING my best friend and rubbing her back as she cried onto my shoulder. “I’m so sorry he broke your heart.”