Emma shakes her head. “No one knows. It’sanonymous.” She looks at Gracie. “I wanted to show it to you when you interviewed me, but the posts were all deleted when he disappeared.”
I make a note in my black notebook to do a more detailed search for Birdwatcher on all social media. “What did they post on Instagram? Pictures of Jay?” I ask.
Emma shakes her head. “No. The grid was just, like, random pictures of birds, but the captions were full of all the horrible things that Jay did. Did you know he paid some Indian guy to do his final projects for him last year? Someone even said heforgedhis high school transcripts.”
I frown. This is the same stuff Jay said was on Tumblr. He said none of it was true, and I believe him. I barely know Jay at all, but I don’t think he’s the type to do stuff like that.
Or is he?
Hedidask me to ask his future self what would be on his engineering exam. And he did want to bet on sports to make millions.
“You told me Birdwatchers were girls who he cheated on. Not people accusing him of cheating at school,” Gracie says.
Emma nods. “Yeah, they do both. So, like, in October they had this story up that said girls could DM them about things Jay did, and they’d post them anonymously. Lots of girls wrote in about what an ass he was to them. I wrote in too.”
“Okay,” I say. “Do I have this straight? Last school year there was a Tumblr blog about how terrible Jay was. Then it was taken down. But then this year, an Instagram account appeared under the same name saying the same stuff from Tumblr but also posting stuff girls sent in anonymously.”
Emma nods, grinning. “I told you he was an ass.”
“No, you told me that anonymous social media accounts said he was an ass,” I say. “You do know that not everything online is true, don’t you?”
Aster snort laughs at that, then grins at me. “I like you,” she says.
Emma’s forehead creases, but she doesn’t say anything.
“When did the Instagram start?” I ask.
“Like, early this year. I saw it in September.”
“Did anyone tell the police about it when they were searching for him?” I ask. “It’s cyberbullying.”
Emma shrugs. “I don’t know. I assume someone said something. But is it bullying? Everyone knew he was bad news—”
Gracie interrupts again. “If you knew he was trouble, why did you date him?”
“I told you. He was, like ...chiseled. Plus, you know.” She looks at Aster. “His friends all still hung out with him, so I thought he wasokay. But then I saw his true colors. He was always sosecretive, disappearing every weekend. He said it was to see his family, but he never talked about them.”
“How did you find out about the Instagram in the first place?” Gracie asks.
“Bailey Cressman showed it to me.” I detect a touch of pride when Emma says that name. And for some reason, Aster snorts again.
“Who’s that?” I ask.
Emma raises a brow. “You don’t know Bailey? I thoughteveryoneknew Bailey. I was at a party with her, and she showed me the whole thing.” She giggles. “Bailey gets chatty when she’s drunk. We’re good friends, you know.”
“Can you give me Bailey’s contact info?”
Emma looks at me like I asked for her firstborn.
Aster waves her hand. “I can connect you to Bailey Cressman. We don’t need Emma.”
Emma looks at Aster, then frowns. “I can come when you talk to her. I mean, in case you want to ask me—”
“I really don’t think that’s necessary,” Gracie says. “Aleeza, I think we’re done with Emma. What do you think?”
“One more question,” I say. “You said you saw Jay before he disappeared. Where and when?”
“It was, like ... the day before, I think. He was being super creepy ... like, hiding behind a tree in front of West Hall, staring at the door. When he saw me, he turned away. Like, he didn’t even say hi. I told you he was super paranoid—it was like he didn’t want anyone to know he was there.”
