Half an hour later there was a knock at my door. Alex let himself in, a phone clamped between his ear and his shoulder as he put down a sandwich and a glass of apple juice. “Yeah, she’s here right now,” he said into the phone.

My stomach dropped as I shook my head quickly, somehow knowing that it was one of my parents and they would want to talk about everything again. Would they blame me for Chester too?

“Yeah, see you then,” Alex stated before pulling the phone away from his ear and holding it out to me. “Dad for you.”

Groaning inwardly, I took the phone and waited for my brother to leave before I put the phone to my ear. “Hi.” I winced, waiting for the frantic scolding because we hadn’t called them earlier.

“Hi, sweetheart. How are you holding up?” Dad asked. The familiar sound of his voice made my eyes prickle with tears. I didn’t realise until now just how much I missed him and my mom being here.

“I’m fine,” I lied.

“Alex told me what’s been happening. I’m not going to get into the whole ‘you should have told me as soon as everything started happening’ thing, because I don’t think that’s going to help the situation at all.”

I smiled gratefully and looked up at my ceiling, willing my tears not to fall. I was already sick of crying over this. “Thanks, I appreciate that,” I muttered.

“I need you to promise to be careful. Don’t go to places on your own, take Alex or Luke with you, alright?”

Luke? So he’s forgiving Luke now? “I will,” I promised, nodding. Now that I knew it wasn’t Sandy the seriousness of the situation weighed down on me. It could have just as easily been me or Alex that had been poisoned, if the person had sprinkled that rat poison onto something in the fridge then maybe we would have unknowingly eaten it. It wasn’t as if they didn’t have access to the house and our food, they’d let themselves into my house for goodness sake. I knew I needed to be careful.

“How’s Grandad?” I asked, wanting to change the subject.

“He’s… he’s okay,” Dad answered, not seeming too sure about it.

A lump formed in my throat. “No he’s not.”

Dad sighed deeply, his breath crackling down the line. “He’s in a bad way, but he’ll be fine. He’s through the worst of it now,” he assured me. “So, I’d better go and tell Mom everything that’s been going on. I’ll be home tomorrow when you get home from school though so I’ll see you then.”

I closed my eyes; the nerves in my stomach seemed to settle as I thought about getting one of my dad’s hugs. They always made everything seem better. “You don’t have to come home. Stay with Grandad,” I protested, trying to make my voice sound like I wasn’t desperate for him to come home. “We’re fine here. You don’t need to come back.”

“Yeah I do, sweetheart. No arguing, I’m coming home. End of conversation.”

I smiled to myself at the finality of his tone. “Okay. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

“Love you.” His words made a warm fuzzy feeling settle over me. There was no denying I was a daddy’s girl.

“Love you too, Dad.”

After speaking to my dad and the knowledge that he was coming home tomorrow kind of made my mind settle a little and the worry recede marginally. Finally, after another hour of working on my assignments, I drifted to sleep listening to the rhythmic sounds of Alex hitting the punch bag down the garage below my bedroom.

When my alarm buzzed next to my bed in the morning I groaned loudly. I’d had a restless night sleep, my dreams plagued with a faceless person chasing me, every single time I’d ran into a room only to find it filled with lilies. Each time I’d woken, startled and sweating, only to go back to sleep and have the same dream over again. My whole body now ached from exhaustion. I really didn’t need another day at school today, especially if it was going to be a day like yesterday where everyone was whispering about me. And on top of that I had to face Sandy, now knowing that it wasn’t her that was sending me all of those nasty things. Did I have to apologise to her today for accusing her? Deep down I knew I should, but the thought of saying sorry to that boyfriend stealing hoe almost made me sick to my stomach.

After laying there for as long as I could without making myself and Alex late, I finally threw off the bed covers and headed for a quick shower. Alex was already dressed and ready by the time I made my way downstairs. He smiled sympathetically, silently pushing an empty bowl and a box of cereal towards me. I waved it off, turning my nose up at the thought of eating. My appetite was as non-existent as my will to apologise to Sandy.

“I’m not hungry. Shall we just go?” I mumbled tiredly.

“Yeah if you want. By the way, I called the animal hospital already and the guy said that Chester can definitely be collected today.” He slid his cell phone into his jeans pocket and picked up his keys.

I smiled at the news. At least one thing was going well today then. “Is he better today?”

Alex nodded, biting off another piece of the banana he was holding. “Apparently he’s good this morning. I could hear him barking in the background,” he answered.

“That’s great news.” I blew out a breath, letting out some of the stress that was pent up inside me. At least that was one less thing for me to worry about.

On the way to school Alex seemed like he was doing everything to try and keep my mind off of the police and the stalker I seemed to have gained. He sung badly to the music, told terrible jokes and was generally just his usual goofy self. It felt nice to just be normal after everything that had gone on recently.

By the time we pulled into the parking lot though, the normality seemed to evaporate immediately. I frowned as I looked around. People were crowding outside, huddled together in groups; some were hugging and seemed to be crying. Alex could barely get his car rough the gates of the parking lot because everyone was standing around.

“What the hell’s this?” Alex muttered, blasting his horn to get a couple of freshmen to move out of his way so he could pull in.

“No idea,” I muttered, shaking my head in confusion. People were normally inside by now, chatting in the hallways before classes, but instead it seemed that half of the school was standing or sitting in the parking lot. Across the sea of faces, some looked rather excitable, some were just standing there silently, their faces pale, but some were clutching Kleenex, hugging and shaking their heads in apparent horror.

As we both got out of the car some people turned to look at us. A hushed silence settled over the people closest to us as I swung my bag up onto my shoulder and weaved through the crowd with Alex at my side. Then, just like yesterday, the excited whispering started as I walked past. I rolled my eyes; silently wishing the ground would open up and swallow me. I fought the urge to turn and run back to the car just because people were turning to stare at me as I walked up to where I was hoping my friends would be waiting for me.

Charlotte and Beth were standing in the same place as yesterday. “Hey. What’s everyone standing around for?” I asked, stepping to their sides and waving my hand around at the crowd.

Charlotte’s mouth dropped open with an audible pop. “You haven’t heard?” she gasped. I raised one eyebrow in question, waiting for her to continue. “It’s been all over the news this morning,” she said, her hand reaching out and clutching at my forearm.

My confusion built. “What’s been on the news?” Alex interjected, looking at Charlotte quizzically, obviously as lost as I was. News wasn’t something that usually graced our TV in the morning; Alex usually opted for sports channel or SpongeBob SquarePants.

Charlotte’s grip tightened on my arm as her eyes widened even more. “It’s Sandy. She was murdered last night.”

Chapter 21

My breath seemed to catch in my throat, forming a lump that I had to swallow down before it choked me. Murdered. Sandy has been murdered? How, who, why, when? All of those questions sprang to my mind as I stood there, gaping at Charlotte like an idiot.

“What the actual fuck? Is that a joke?” Alex gasped, shaking his head in disbelief.

Charlotte’s grip tightened to the point of pain on my arm as she shook her head. “No, seriously. It’s been all over the news. The cops arrived a little while ago and are in speaking with Principal Bennett right now,” she said, nodding off to my right.

I gulped and looked in that direction, indeed seeing two squad cars parked there. They were partially obscured by the swarm of students converging around. A lot of people were leaning down, trying to get a look into the cars, probably to satisfy some sort of sick, morbid intrigue.

“I can’t believe this,” I muttered, shaking my head in disbelief.

“Have they arrested the person that did it?” Alex asked Charlotte.

She shrugged. “Don’t think so. The news said that she’d been stabbed and that she was found by a passer-by. She was stabbed and left in an alleyway. They’re ruling out a mugging because she still had her purse and cell phone,” Charlotte answered.

Even though I hated her, I still felt a pang of sorrow that she’d died. No one deserved that, and now her parents were going to have to deal with the loss of a child. “That’s so sad,” I croaked. “Her poor parents.” I imagined my parents and what they would be like if I’d been killed, they’d be in pieces. I couldn’t bear to think about what Sandy’s parents would be going through at this moment. I looked around again, seeing the cheerleaders, Sandy’s minions, all standing in a group off to the side. They were upset and most of them had even cried off their make-up, leaving black trails down their cheeks.

“I heard that the police are going to be interviewing her friends at school today so that they can try and ascertain who saw her last and piece together her last moments,” Beth chimed in.

I looked at her curiously. “How do you know that?”

She smiled guiltily. “I was talking to the receptionist earlier. You know how she likes to gossip. She was complaining that she had to clear Principal Bennett’s schedule so she could sit in on the meetings today.”

Gossipy receptionist, she never had been able to keep her opinions to herself. As we stood there talking about Sandy, a hand touched my arm. “Baby, I need to talk to you.” I turned looked up into Luke’s face. “It’s important, can we talk right now?”

I nodded, bemused as to what this would be about. He looked a little concerned as he glanced around before nodding at the front doors of the school, shifting awkwardly on his feet. His hand closed over mine, leading me in that direction before I even had a chance to ask him what was so urgent. Once we got into the hallway I noticed that the place was deserted. It seemed that the entire student body was outside still, talking about the events of last night. Luke pulled open the door to the old geology classroom that was now out of use. Once we were in the classroom he closed the door tightly behind me before taking my face in his hands. His eyes were blazing anguish as he looked down at me.

“Where were you last night?” he asked.

I frowned, taken aback by his question. “At home, why?”

He gulped, bending so that our faces were on the same level. “With Alex? Did he see you there?”

What the heck is this about? “Of course he saw me. What on earth are you asking that for?” I chuckled, pulling my face out of his hands, studying his face to see if he had actually gone insane.

“Maisie, Sandy was murdered last night. You remember the last thing you said to her yesterday morning?” he asked. I thought back but couldn’t really remember. We were fighting and screaming at each other, I could have said anything in the heat of the moment. “You said you’d kill her,” Luke said when I didn’t speak.

My mouth popped open in shock. “What the… I didn’t mean it! Jeez, are you asking me if it was me? Are you crazy?” I gasped, suddenly getting angry because maybe he didn’t know me at all. I glowered at him and shoved on his chest, trying to get him away from me, but he didn’t budge.

“No! Christ! I was just checking to make sure you had an alibi for last night. If someone tells the police that you said that then they’re going to have to look into it, they won’t be able to dismiss it as an offhand comment, they’ll have to look into it,” he explained, wrapping his arm around my waist and holding me in place as his words sank in.

A cold shiver worked over my body giving me goosebumps. I chaffed my hand on my arm, trying to warm myself up as all of a sudden the temperature in the room seemed to plummet. “I didn’t! I swear I didn’t. They won’t think it’s me, surely,” I muttered, shaking my head in disbelief.

“Baby, I know you wouldn’t have, I don’t think that,” Luke assured me, touching my cheek lightly. “You were at home with Alex, you spent the night with him downstairs, right?” he checked.

I chewed on my lip. I hadn’t really seen Alex that much last night. I’d stayed up in my room all night long, the only time I saw him was when he brought me the sandwich and phone. He’d gone into the garage after that, working out with the punch bag, I’d heard the familiar sounds of it vibrating as he hit it. “I didn’t really see him much. I was in my room studying, and he was working out in the garage,” I answered.

Luke closed his eyes, his arm tightening on my waist. “So the police could argue that you could have left the house without Alex knowing.”

“I hardly think they’re going to suggest that!” I scoffed, waving my hand dismissively.