“I see you’ve kept my name on your list.” His eyes are flat.
I shift uncomfortably. “Guilty until proven innocent.” I study the rest of the names without looking up. “The only other people who overlap are Reva, Tyrone, and Kirsten.”
Marcus fiddles with the spoon in his mug. “I only included Kirsten because they fought. I’m not sure she could’ve done it.”
“I heard she stayed to hook up with some freshman at the party.” I feel guilty bringing this up, but there’ve been too many rumors.
He presses his lips together. “A couple people thought she left, but yeah, I heard mostly the same thing.”
“You don’t sound very sure of that.”
He shrugs. “The kid she was with was pretty convincing.”
I curl my lip, making a note to ask Kirsten about it myself.
“So that leaves Reva, Tyrone, and your ‘person unknown,’” Marcus says.
“Reva hated Gretchen more than any—”
“But she was working that night.”
I hesitate. “Are you sure?”
“She says she was cleaning First Union Bank with her mom. I haven’t verified it yet.”
I exhale, getting frustrated. I’d been counting on Reva as a possibility to contend with Kip. “Well, it would’ve been hard for Tyrone to get inside my locker.”
Marcus frowns. “But not so hard to attack you and murder Gretchen.”
“I thought you were sure the killer was behind the photo.”
“It would make sense.” He steeples his fingers, touching them to his lips. “But I can’t really be sure, no.”
I flip the page of his sketchbook, trying not to feel overwhelmed, but as soon as I do, my thoughts derail completely. There’s a girl I recognize on the next page. Or rather, a character. She wears a cropped hoodie, cargo pants, and black boots. Her pink hair is in pigtails, there’s a crossbow over her shoulder and a smirk on her lips.
“You play UltaShock?”
He hesitates, scratches his head, and takes the sketchbook out of my hands. “Not so much lately, but I like it. I’m just not very good.”
I raise my eyebrows. “Summer Wentworth is my favorite character . . . you captured her perfectly.”
Gretchen loved to make fun of Summer’s hair or outfit, saying she lacked sex appeal. I’d never really paid attention to it. You can’t win the game without this girl. Everyone underestimates her and she knows it. She never goes in guns blazing, but her crossbow takedowns are works of art.
Marcus closes the cover and I watch her coy expression disappear between the pages. “Thanks. I’m better at drawing her than playing her, I guess.”
“Badass drawing either way,” I say.
When he looks up, his face is a deep shade of red.
Silence hangs awkwardly between us and I reopen my own notebook to get back on task. “How about we work on your timeline. Maybe it’ll help to write out where people were the night Gretchen died and when.”
I spend a few minutes jotting down the events I’ve collected and gone over in my head a million times:
~10:00 p.m. Sonia, Gretchen, and Kirsten arrived at Brianne’s party. Kirsten got drunk. Marcus and Gretchen hooked up.
~10:50 p.m. Gretchen and Kirsten fought. Gretchen left the party with Sonia, telling Kirsten to get her own ride. (Kirsten likely stayed behind at the party.)
~11:00 p.m. Sonia and Gretchen arrived at Gretchen’s house. Gretchen went inside and Sonia briefly spoke with Haley Jacobs, out walking her dog. From there, Sonia walked home through Hidden Falls Park.
~11:04 p.m. Gretchen called her own house from her cell phone.
~11:05 p.m. Sonia was attacked in the woods.
~11:30 p.m. The sheriff was called to the diner after Sonia’s attack.
-Mr. and Mrs. Meyer arrived home, but Gretchen wasn’t there.
-Kip Peterson saw Gretchen sitting by herself near the top of the falls (the last person to see her alive).
-Marcus went for a walk in the park.
~11:45 p.m. Gretchen’s father discovered a male intruder in Gretchen’s bedroom. The intruder escaped over the balcony. Gretchen’s parents called the sheriff.
~11:50 p.m. Aisha Wallace heard a commotion outside her house, looked outside, and saw Marcus leaving Hidden Falls Park.
~11:55 p.m. Police arrived at the Meyer home in response to the break-in.
~12:30 a.m. Kirsten came home, very drunk.
~6:15 a.m. Gretchen’s body was spotted floating in the pool at the base of Hidden Falls. Her Mercedes is still unaccounted for.
Marcus studies the page a long time after I finish. I expect him to amend it somehow, maybe fill in a few blanks, but he just nods and hands it back to me.
“That’s it?” I say. “You have nothing to add?”
He shrugs. “I didn’t know about the phone call. Everything else looks about right.”
“Really.” I fold my hands in my lap. “Well, there’s something I’ve been wondering. You hooked up with Gretchen at the party, then she and Kirsten got into that huge fight. What exactly was that about?”