"Whatever, this is pointless. I'll speak to you later, Zak," I say.
He gives me an apologetic smile.
"You won't speak to him later. Stay away, Lylah. I mean it!"
Officer Grey puts his hand across my stomach. "Let's go. Now, Lylah."
"Ignore her," Zak calls. "I'm sorry," he says more quietly to me.
"It's fine," I reply. Officer Grey steps forward, making me move back. "All right, I get it. We're going home now," I tell him and turn on my heel. He's right behind me, keeping close.
I can't blame Sarah for being angry, but we're all getting gossiped about, so you'd think she would keep a low profile.
"Yeah, run along. Jake didn't need friends like you, and neither does Zak. Stay away from us, or you'll be sorry," she shouts after me.
I turn back to her and narrow my eyes. "That sounds a lot like a threat, Sarah."
"Enough!" Zak snaps. He takes her elbow and guides her in the other direction.
"Lylah," Officer Grey says again. "You're not doing yourself any favors here."
I watch them go. They're clearly having a hushed argument by the way she's waving her free hand around and scowling at him. Zak doesn't look at her or back at me. He walks like he's on a mission.
Officer Grey stares after them, tense.
What is he thinking? Does he think she could know more than what she's told the cops?
Would she conceal Jake's whereabouts and let him get away with murder?
11
Monday
February 5
My attempt at doing something normal was a bust. I slam the front door, chuck my bag on the floor by the side table, and look around for my housemates. No one spends a lot of time in his or her room, so if no one is in the living room or kitchen, it's likely I'm home alone.
Before Sonny died, I loved coming home to an empty house and getting a bit of time to myself. Now, I have a knot of stress in my stomach at the thought of being on my own, despite having Officer Grey outside to keep watch.
"Hey?" Chace says from the living room.
"It's me," I reply, my shoulders lowering with relief. He's sitting on the sofa watching an early episode of Game of Thrones.
"You weren't at the library long," he states.
I shake my head, then flop down on the sofa beside him. I feel like a failure. All I wanted was to get back to a routine, but I ended up freaking out. When Mom and Dad died, Riley and I got a lot of unwanted attention. People were only trying show their concern and help, but for me, it made losing my parents feel even worse.
Frowning, he shifts on the sofa until he's facing me, muting the volume on the television. "What happened?"
"You know when you walk into a room and everyone turns to look at you?"
"Ah. People were talking about you, about Sonny...all of us."
My palms itch. "I don't like being the center of attention like that. I'd rather be ignored."
"That's not going to happen with all that's going on, Lylah. You're going to have to learn to ignore them."
"Yeah, that's pretty much what Officer Grey said."
That's also what Riley told me after I had my second panic attack when my parents died. But right now, ignoring stares from strangers is like asking a fish to breathe in the desert.
"You've never cared what people said about you before," Chace reminds me.
"This is different. And what do people usually say about me?"
Chace laughs. The sound is deep and gravelly. It does things to my insides that make me forget about everything else.
"No one is saying anything bad. I promise."
"That you've heard," I say with a frown. "Where is everyone else?"
"Sienna and Isaac went to the gym before class, and Charlotte was going to meet a friend to get some notes for class."
"They all have someone with them?"
His head tilts to the side. "Yeah..."
"Just checking."
He pauses and gazes into my eyes. "Are you okay, Lylah?"
Chace sounds like my brother.
"I worry about them," I say.
"They're safe," he assures me. "Did something else happen?"
"I ran into Zak, who was really nice, and Sarah, who wasn't so nice. She told me to stay away or else."
"Like brother like sister," he scoffs. "She's as intense as Jake."
"You would compare her to a killer?"
He shrugs and opens his mouth, but is silenced quickly by sirens screaming down the road. Chace and I leap to our feet and dash toward the front door and out onto the front step.
The vehicles pull to a stop outside a house two doors down from ours where a few people are gathered on the sidewalk.
He looks at me. "Well, at least the crowd isn't gathering outside where we live."
"Yeah, but what's going on?" I instantly think the worst.
Gatherings of people used to mean parties. Now they mean death.
Detective Alexander is the officer who was home with Chace. He is on his phone and walking toward us. He touches Chace's arm and gestures for us to go back inside the house and stay there. Officer Grey runs toward the commotion.
This isn't good.
I duck back into our foyer with my hand covering my thumping heart. "What's going on?" I demand of Detective Alexander. Chace shuts the door and folds his arms.
Hanging up the phone, the detective says, "There's been an incident."
"What kind of incident?" I ask.
"Do either of you know a Nora Wilson?"
"Yeah. Well, kind of," I reply.
He frowns. "Kind of?"
"She's also a student at the university. I know her enough to say hi or exchange small talk. We've gone out in a group with other friends, but we're not close. I don't think any of us really know her."
"I don't think I've ever spoken to her," Chace says in agreement.
"Is she okay?" I ask.
He clears his throat. "She's been murdered."
Overwhelmed with emotion, I lean against Chace. "That's terrible..."
"Do you think Sonny knew her?" the detective asks.
"Potentially, but she's not really the type of girl that Sonny would go for," I say through the lump in my throat.
"Why's that?"
"I think she's very into her studies. I always see her in the library. Like Charlotte, Nora doesn't go to parties much. I wouldn't think she'd have been on Sonny's radar."
"That's helpful," the detective replies, nodding.
Chace speaks up. "What happened to her?"
What he's really asking is Was this the same person who killed Sonny? Was it Jake?
Detective Alexander clears his throat. "She was stabbed, but I don't know any more than that."
"Does she have her heart?" The words are out of my mouth before I remember that is restricted information we are not supposed to know.
The detective's eyes widen, either shocked that I know this detail or at my bluntness. Yeah, I don't want to be asking these questions either, but here we are.
"I'll take that silence as a no, she doesn't have her heart anymore," I reply. "Nora must have been killed by Jake too."
Chace shakes his head. "But that doesn't make any sense."
Detective Alexander tries to calm us. "We're not jumping to any conclusions."
"What's going on?" Isaac shouts, coming in the back door.
"We're in the foyer," I call back.
He and Sienna join us, their security detail trailing behind them. Isaac drops his bag with a thud. "What happened out there? No one would tell us anything, and part of the road is blocked off."
"Has Jake been found?" Sienna asks.
"No, it sounds like Jake has killed someone else. Nora," I say.
The detectives all glance knowingly at one another.
"What? I thought he wanted me next," Isaac says.
I shrug. "We all thought that, but..."
Sienna's perfectly shaped eyebrows leap. "Nora? Nora wasn't exactly our fri
end, though she was a bit obsessed with you, Lylah. She really wanted you to like her. But we never spent much time with her. Why would Jake hurt her?"
Alexander listens to our conversation intently, no doubt making mental notes.
I shrug. "Maybe we got it wrong. Maybe Jake has a longer hit list than we originally thought."
"Just putting this out there," Isaac says. "What if it's not actually Jake? I mean, did he even know Nora?"
Chace scoffs. "I think Jake's proved that we never really knew him, so he could have known her."
"That's true," I say in agreement with Chace. For all we know, Jake could have had a relationship with Nora. "I wonder what she could have done to make him so angry."
I wonder if that is why Nora always tried to hang out with me--because she saw me with Jake. Maybe the two of them had a thing, he cut her loose, and she couldn't accept it? So she tried to get him back by being friends with me? Nora lived in a different dorm than us last year, so Jake could have slept with her, and we would never have known.
"Yeah, but Jake was hung up on you, so it doesn't make sense for him to have been with her," Sienna says. "Especially since we never saw them together, and she didn't mention him whenever she was around you."
"Great, let's keep bringing up my relationship with Jake." I feel bad enough already. To think that I was a catalyst for so much hate makes me ill.
Alexander clears his throat. "Let's not get ahead of ourselves. Detective Lina will be here in a minute, and we'll have some questions for everyone."
I really don't know how much help we'll be. I didn't know Nora well enough to know about her personal life. The times we hung out together were rare and included other people, and our conversations didn't delve that deep. And Jake didn't exactly put himself out there with many people outside of our group or his class. So I can't see the connection. But someone needs to figure it out before someone else ends up dead.
*
Two hours later, I'm exhausted. Detective Lina had us all go down to the station, where she got us thinking of possible links between Nora, me, my friends, and Jake. Now my head is pounding. There is absolutely no tie that any of us can think of.
We've been over every detail, from first meetings to a week-by-week rundown of our time in college. It was especially challenging since the first year was a total blur.
However, I'm confident I can remember every nanosecond of my time with Chace.
I'm pathetic.
I haven't seen my housemates for ages, as they are being questioned separately.
I'm in the waiting room, watching the clock tick by. It's only been fifteen minutes since I was released from the interview room, but the fact that they're all still being questioned makes me nervous. Why did mine go so quick?
Chace and I were called in first--probably because we found Sonny--so I expected him out at the same time as me.
Across the hall, the door to an interview room clicks open, and I leap to my feet.
It's Chace. He looks tired. His usually light eyes are dark with stress. He rolls his shoulder and closes the door. "You okay?" he asks, dipping his head.
"Yeah. That was intense. She seemed to repeat questions a lot or ask them in a different way, like she thought I was lying."
He comes closer. "She doesn't think that, Lylah. The police have to make sure they're thorough."
"Could you think of anything?"
"Nope. I think Detective Alexander hates me though."
"Why is that? What did you do?"
"Nothing...but thanks for your heartwarming confidence," he says with a hint of sarcasm. "I wasn't able to tell him anything he didn't already know. He's frustrated. Kids are being killed, and they have no leads on Jake. Detective Alexander has a nineteen-year-old daughter, so he's extra concerned."
"Maybe the killings are more random than we thought. That's something we all need to fear."
It's heart-stopping knowing Jake is out there. I think I would rather not know the suspected killer, that way I wouldn't see Jake's face everywhere.
He's out there, free, and it's only a matter of time before he strikes again.
The note said Isaac is the next target, but he diverted from his plan.
I'm not sure what that says about the killer's mental state, but I know it petrifies me.
12
Tuesday
February 6
Since Nora died, we've heard nothing from the killer. There have been no notes, no flowers, and no graffiti. Nothing. Jake is either doing a wicked job at hide-and-seek or he's laying low to plan his next move.
I've barely slept. I'm starting to feel the fatigue that plagued me for months after my parents died. My body aches and my eyes sting from lack of sleep. When I do drift off, I have nightmares, only this time it's not my parents' death I see in my dreams--it's Sonny's and Nora's.
Since Jake has seemingly vanished from contact, the cops want us to provoke him into making a move so they can catch him. They're not sure if Nora's death threw him off course and made him go into hiding, but they're determined to catch him before he can kill again.
Detective Alexander seems to approve of his partner's plan to draw out the killer, but I'm scared. What if that there is another murder?
But if we refuse to help, it could mean that the killer gets away.
So I'm in my room getting ready. I'm not willing to sit by and do nothing if there is a chance I can help. I owe it to Sonny and Nora to try. In an hour, we're heading to a club that the cops have already scoped out. Officers went there before it opened to speak to the manager and staff and get their teams ready for tonight.
I pull the brush through my long hair and stare at my reflection in the mirror. When I left home and came to college, I was determined to be a different person. I wasn't going to stress over the little things to the point of making myself ill. I was going to think positively and not always see the worst-case scenario.
For a year and four months, I've managed to do that pretty well. Until now. I look like the scared, anxiety-crippled girl I was desperate to leave behind. Looking away from the mirror, I put down the brush.
It's amazing how quickly you can revert back to old habits. My stomach churns with disgust that I've allowed myself to go to this place again--even with the circumstances.
Vibrations on my wooden bedside table make my heart leap. It's a text message. I peer over, already knowing who it'll be.
Riley. Rolling my eyes, I unlock the phone and open the message.
What's going on, Lylah?
I can't tell him what I'm about to do. He'll blow up my phone trying to get in touch with me and show up wherever I am. I already feel like I'm weakening, so having Riley here will only make that worse. I'm crap at being strong around him.
I tap out a reply: Not much. Still no word from Jake. Cops outside the house and everywhere we go. Stop worrying so much. I'm fine. Love you.
That's not good enough. Then, Have you thought more about coming home for a while?
I let out a frustrated sigh. I'm okay. No need.
I bite my lip in anticipation of his reply. He's been trying to convince me to come home more frequently for a while, but there are too many memories that I'm trying to escape. And I can't fall into bad habits.
"Are you almost ready?" Sienna asks, letting herself into my room and sitting on my bed. "Are you nervous?" she continues.
Putting my phone down, I tell her, "I'm in this one hundred percent. Honestly. But it's a bad idea, isn't it?"
She laughs. "We're absolutely insane for doing it. Despite Sonny's shortcomings, I believe he would do the same for us though."
"He definitely would," I agree. We may not have gotten along the whole time, but if anyone dared mess with us, he would have gotten in their face, I'm sure of that.
Our little household is like a family: we argue and get frustrated with one another, but we always have everyone's backs. So we're going to help Sonny get the justice he deserves by trying to force the killer
out of hiding.
"How do I look?" Sienna asks, doing a twirl in the middle of my bedroom. She's wearing a short navy-blue dress that looks painted on. If anyone has the figure for it, it's her. She has her black hair pinned in a messy yet glamorous bun.
"You look amazing."
She grins. "So do you. Chace will love the dress."
I glare at her. Sienna is forever telling me to go for it with Chace, but I'm far too scared to make the first move. It would be unbelievably awkward if he turned me down, though from how he's acted recently, I don't think he would.
Chace is a big part of my new life and helping me become the person I want to be, so potentially jeopardizing our friendship by kissing him feels far too risky.
I sigh. "Let's get tonight over with first."
Her shoulders slump. "Do you think he will turn up?"
"It's worth a try, I guess. If the police think the killer is still watching us, then hopefully he'll follow us to the club where the police can nab him."
Except I have this nagging feeling it won't go as planned. Jake was always intelligent, probably more intelligent than the rest of us combined. Will he be able to see through the ambush?
Sienna shakes her head. "I really hate him. I still can't get my mind around how someone could do that to another person. I mean, cutting them open and removing their heart? God, it makes me feel sick just thinking about it. And I've been trying really hard not to think about it."
This is the first time since I told them about the heart thing that it has come up. No one wants to discuss it. "Yeah, I'm at a loss here too. I know people are capable of evil, but I never thought we'd know one of them."
"Let's focus on doing everything we can to draw the killer out of hiding," she says. "For Sonny."
I nod. "For Sonny. And Nora."
We go downstairs and find Charlotte, Isaac, and Chace in the living room. Their faces are solemn, obviously as nervous as me and Sienna.
"Shall we get this over with?" I ask, turning out of the room and grabbing my coat by the door. The detectives stand in the hallway looking serious.
Charlotte has decided to stay home, and the closer we get to leaving, the more I'd love to stay with her. I'm torn between wanting to find justice and us all being safe until that happens.
We all gather for our last instructions.
"Remember, there will be eyes on you the whole time. There is no need to worry, but please try to stick together as much as possible. No one goes anywhere alone," Detective Lina says.
Gritting my teeth, I fold my arms and try to feel brave.