“No. Better. His shark lawyer.”
“Oh.” My brows rise. “Why? Do you know things they don’t want you to tell the police?”
She smirks and winks at me. “I have the right to remain silent. Gonna practice it right now.”
“Sorry. I’m just—The thought of talking to the police again makes me nervous. The first time it was all about what I’d seen, and honestly, I was kind of in shock. The second interview, though, they were trying to get background information on him and any conflicts he had with people, including me.”
“Did you mention me? Or my cousin?”
“No.”
“War? The party at the Ruins?”
I shake my head.
“Good girl. It wouldn’t lead anywhere if you had, but it could’ve become a hassle if the cops decided they wanted to talk about it.”
“That’s what I was thinking, too. I didn’t want to cloud the picture.” Blowing out a breath, I shrug. “I wonder if they could tell I wasn’t telling them everything.”
“Who cares?”
I blink.
“They will try anything to get people to spill everything they know, no matter how off-the-wall and unrelated it is. If you hesitate, they’ll put tons of pressure on you by acting annoyed or trying to guilt you. To hell with that. Karma did its work. Why would we try to undermine it?” She raises her index finger, half pointing at me, half holding it up in a “number one” style. “I doubt they will, but if the police show up and try to bully you into talking to them again, just text me. I’ll help you get rid of them.”
I feel immense relief at not being alone. “You’re a good friend, Ash.”
“That’s what I hear.” She smirks and winks again. “You okay now, Seesaw? Because the streaming platform logged me out for taking so long to restart the movie.”
“Tragic. How will you even cope?”
“I don’t know. Gonna be tough.” After putting her earbuds in, she raises her screen.
I finish my coffee and burrow down into my covers. The minute I start streaming a show myself though, I crash into a landscape of bloody nightmares.
Apparently, I’m not okay.
At least not yet.
41
SAWYER
The next day while I’m in class, I get a message from Clare Duffy asking me to come to the Briar Club at twelve-thirty. What the hell is this about?
Normally, a summons from her would make my heart kick into high gear, but I’ve been through too much lately for it to make an impact. Pushing my sweater’s sleeve up so it’s not draping over my knuckles onto my phone’s screen, I wonder whether there’s some way Clare could use Brad’s death against me. The police never said, but I’m sure she was one of the people he sent terrible messages about me to.
A cracking sound makes me jump, and I look around sharply. It’s not a gunshot, of course. Just a tablet dropped on a desktop.
Exhaling slowly, I grimace at myself.Come on,I think. The thing that happened to Brad happened because of something he did. Karma or revenge or whatever. Or if it wasn’t, then it was random, and the Florida sniper is thirteen hundred miles away.
Sniper.Sometimes, I can’t wrap my head around that. A sniper killed my brother.
I don’t answer Clare’s text.
She sends another, which I also ignore.
I will find out what she wants, but I’m not going to play the eager freshman inductee. My days of kissing Clare Duffy’s ass are over.
