“So when he told me that he wanted to get into UCLA, but didn’t have the SAT scores to do it, I confessed to him that I’d found a way to ace the test. One of the freshman math teachers—Bishop—had connections to the SAT organization. He approached me when he overheard me complaining to some girl about how badly I needed a good score: I was under an immense amount of pressure to follow the family line into Yale, and the temptation to cheat was too much for me to resist. When I relayed to Spence that Bishop could get me an answer key for two grand, and that I’d get the corresponding test to that key on test day, Spence was in, too, but only if I let him split the fee with me. The money was no easy thing for Spence to raise, but he did it.
“I’ve always wondered how Bishop obtained the answers—they’re normally kept under lock and key—but he assured us that he was very well connected and could provide it to us and, on the day of the exam, Spence and I knew that our two thousand dollars had secured us each an entry into our respective schools. The key was a perfect match to the test. It was actually easy.
“Everything was perfect until the day Spence’s house was broken into and some money and his answer key was stolen. He never told me why he kept the key—I destroyed my copy—but the same person who broke into his house must’ve made the anonymous call that got his scholarship revoked.
“At the time, Spence was also up for a scholarship funded in large part by my mother. She had been willing to pay for part of his tuition and room and board once he got to UCLA, but then she heard about the inflated test scores and withdrew that scholarship, too.
“Ben was so desperate to go with Amber out to California that he confronted Mother and threatened to let everybody know that I’d cheated, too. I think he thought it was the only way to stay with Amber, because he was convinced he’d eventually lose her if he didn’t go to California with her.
“But you don’t threaten Maureen Bennett and get away with it. First, she strung Spence along, telling him that she’d give him the money, but it was just a ploy to keep him quiet long enough to investigate it on her own. She called Bishop and demanded an audience with him. He had a feeling what it was about and went to Spence’s house to threaten him, but Bishop met with Mother anyway. They worked out a deal to secure Bishop’s silence. Living in a lake house year-round, rent free, will keep a man’s mouth shut like not much else. After all, Mother wasn’t about to let me get kicked out of Yale. The scandal alone would’ve discredited our entire family, and my father’s name and reputation meant everything to both my parents.
“Mother then quietly made a few phone calls and found out who Spence’s mom was cleaning houses for before she began spreading rumors that Trudy Spencer was stealing from her clients. Mrs. Spencer was fired from three jobs within a week, and, as this terrible shock was hitting the Spencer household, Mother called Spence up and said that she had no intention of funding his education. She told him that if he even whispered my name in connection to the cheating scandal, she’d break him and his family with a snap of her fingers. He backed off fast.
“Once she was sure he wouldn’t talk, Mother turned her sights on me, forcing me to confess and then threatening to disinherit me once I did. Only my father’s intervention saved me from getting tossed out on the street. Still, after that I was on a very short leash with my parents, something I still resent, I suppose.
“At the time, however, I was most furious at Spence for betraying our friendship, and we got into it a couple of times and beat each other black-and-blue. We didn’t speak for weeks. Then, at prom, we fought again—just words that time, but after I went to cool off, Spence found me and we talked. I forgave him, and he forgave me. He told me that he’d never speak a word to anybody about me having also cheated, if I’d do him a favor.”
“What?” Cole asked when my father paused.
Dad let out a sad sigh. “He wanted me to find Amber and tell her that he was breaking up with her. He said that he was tired of pretending that their relationship could survive her moving to LA. He wanted her to go to college a free woman. He gave me a note to give to her and I found her a little later, wandering the halls, looking for Spence. I gave her the note, and said what he wanted me to say to her. She read the letter, fell apart, and ran off to find him. Twenty minutes later, we all heard he’d been murdered.”
I shook my head. “But that doesn’t mean she killed him! I mean, Dad! Where’d she even get the gun?” I realized suddenly that Cole and I had never even discussed that, because I’d been so convinced of Amber’s innocence.
Dad looked down into the bottom of his drinking glass. “She got it from Ben’s car, Lily. And I know that because I’d seen for myself that Ben carried his dad’s gun with him in the glove box. He rode around with it because once a week he mowed this big industrial field next to a sketchy neighborhood. He’d been mugged there his junior year, and after the breakin at his house he made sure the gun was close by at all times.
“When I heard that Spence had been shot, the memory of the gun sparked in my mind, and I ran to his car to check the glove box. The gun was gone, but there was an open box of ammo there, and one of the bullets had even fallen on the floor mat. I knew immediately that Amber had gone to Spence’s car and gotten the gun. I felt so guilty for my role in her coming unhinged, so I scooped up the ammo and the bullet and got rid of them.