CHAPTER Thirty-One
Mattie taps the pink fingernails of one hand against her skirt as she holds the phone to her ear with the other. I hear a faint ringtone. Then there’s a clicking noise, and Mattie’s face lights up.
“Regina? Hello, Regina?”
Mattie squints and then puts the phone down. “It’s like she answered and then hung up.”
“Try again,” I say, irritated. We don’t have time for games.
Mattie dials Regina’s number again, and we all wait.
This time I hear a shriek on the other end of the line, and Mattie pulls the device away from her ear. Regina is yelling something, but I can’t make out the words. Cautiously, Mattie brings the phone closer. “Slow down, Regina. I don’t know what you’re saying. What’s wrong?”
Mattie listens for a moment.
Regina screams something else, and then there’s silence.
“Could you make out anything she said?” I ask.
Mattie shakes her head. “Something about Samantha, that we need to go to Samantha’s house. What do you think is going on?”
I yank my purple hoodie out of my closet and pull it on. “I don’t know. Rollins, can you drive?”
“Of course.”
I take a deep breath and zip up my jacket. “Let’s go.”
After I unlock my door, we move into the hallway. Mattie’s door is still closed. For a moment, I pause, listening to see if I can hear any movement in Mattie’s room, but there is nothing. I wonder if Lydia has gone to sleep, and start to feel relieved, but then I realize a closed door isn’t going to stop Lydia. If she can slide, all she needs is an item with an emotional imprint to get out of that room.
“Come on, we’ve got to hurry,” I say under my breath. I move quickly down the stairs, with Mattie and Rollins right behind me.
My father is in his study with the door open. He’s reading some medical article online.
“Hey, Dad?” Mattie says, entering the room. “We’re going to Samantha’s house, okay?”
“Be home by dinnertime,” he replies.
“Will do.”
I pull open the front door. The three of us run across the lawn and jump into Rollins’s car. As soon as Mattie and I are buckled in, he backs out of the driveway. Mattie directs him toward Samantha’s new house.
“What do you think is going on?” he asks.
I’ve been wondering the same thing. Samantha was unusually quiet last night after we got Regina’s text that Scotch had woken up. I know she’s furious at Regina for hanging around the hospital. I hope we get to her house before she does anything stupid.
We pull into the parking lot, and Rollins finds a spot not far from Samantha’s front door. As soon as Rollins kills the ignition, I rush out of the car. I try the doorknob, but it’s locked. I start pounding on the door. “Regina? Sam, are you in there?”
No one answers.
We hear glass breaking somewhere inside.
A girl screams.
“Get back, Vee,” Rollins says gruffly.
I take a step backward and stumble over a shrub. Mattie grabs my arm to steady me.
Rollins rams the door with his shoulder. It doesn’t give. He tries again, this time moving back enough to give himself a running start. There’s a huge crack, and the door flies open. He takes a step inside, and I follow.
There’s a flight of stairs leading up.
Someone is crying. I think it’s Sam, but that’s crazy. Sam never cries.
Rollins takes the steps two at a time. Mattie and I are close behind. When we reach the living room, we see Regina and Samantha. They’re both sobbing. Startled, Samantha turns toward us. That’s when I see the gun in her hands.
I freeze, stunned.
Samantha has a wild look in her eyes. She’s still in her pajamas, but she looks like she hasn’t slept in days. Her hands tremble, and I pray that she won’t accidentally pull the trigger.
“What the hell, Samantha?” I cry. “What’s going on?”
Rollins tries to stand in front of me and Mattie. I feel Mattie grab my arm and squeeze tightly. I reciprocate.
Regina collapses onto the floor. “Samantha killed Scotch,” Regina wails. “And now she’s going to kill me.”
“Shut up! Shut up!” Sam yells, swiveling and pointing the gun at Regina.
I take a step forward, hoping I can distract Samantha from whatever craziness she has going on in her head. “What’s Regina talking about?” I ask. “Is she telling the truth?”
Samantha looks in my direction. Her eyes are not the eyes of a cold-blooded killer. She wears the expression of a frightened child.
I know Samantha.
For the longest time, she was my best friend. Practically my only friend.
She’s not capable of murder.
Is she?
“What happened, Samantha?”
Not knowing where to point the gun, Samantha settles for a point between me and Regina. Rollins tries to pull me behind him, but I push his hand away.
Samantha shakes her head, tears and snot running down her face. “I had to do it,” she whispers.
“Do what?”
“He wasn’t supposed to wake up.”
I try to process her words. It’s hard to believe that Samantha was so afraid that Scotch would reveal our prank that she would kill him. “What did you think he would say, Samantha?”
“Oh, I knew he’d tell the police. He already told Regina.”
Regina moans. She tries to crawl behind the sofa, but Samantha turns the gun back toward her, and she stops in her tracks.
“Scotch told Regina what?” My heart is hammering in my chest.
“That I pushed him that night at Lookout Point,” Samantha says.
All is quiet as her confession washes over me.
“It was you?”
“Yes,” she replies, her voice cracking.
“But why?”
She looks up at me pleadingly. “I did it for you, Vee. When you didn’t come back right away, I started getting nervous. I wasn’t sure you’d be able to handle Scotch on your own. We both know what he was capable of. So I came to see what was going on. You and Scotch were wrestling with each other at the edge of the cliff. And . . . I pushed him.”
I stare at her with wide eyes.
She pushed Scotch? For me?
“I just kept thinking about Homecoming,” Samantha says. “How I stood there and watched him drag you away. And I didn’t do anything. I couldn’t let him hurt you again.”
“Samantha,” I say, reaching toward her. Rollins keeps me from going any farther.
“I’m so tired,” Samantha says, squeezing her eyes shut. Her head lolls against her chest. “I just want to go to sleep.”
While Samantha’s head is down, Rollins breaks away from me and Mattie and circles the room, moving closer to Samantha. His muscles tense, and I think he’s going to jump on her.
“Don’t,” I say.
Samantha’s head snaps up. When she sees that Rollins is only a few feet away from her, she raises the gun in his direction.
“No!” I scream.
Confused, she turns toward me.
Rollins uses that moment to lunge at her. He pushes her onto the floor. The gun flies out of her hand and bounces on the white carpet.
A deafening sound.
I crouch down, covering my ears with my hands.
Mattie screams.
I straighten up and see Mattie pointing at Rollins. He’s next to Samantha, who is crying quietly on the floor.
“Rollins? Rollins, are you okay?”
He doesn’t answer.
I kick the gun far away from Samantha and run to Rollins’s side. Grabbing his arm, I flip him over so he’s facing me. His eyes are open. He doesn’t look like he’s breathing.
“Rollins, talk to me.”
I throw open his leather jacket, looking for the wound. A red stain is blooming from the top of his right shoulder. There’s so much blood. I pull off my hoodie and press it to Rollins’s chest.
No, no. This can’t be happening.
Regina is on the phone. I hear her talking, but I can’t make sense of the words. Mattie has her hand over her mouth.
I drop my mouth to Rollins’s ear.
Two words.
“Don’t go.”