“He was not—” I scoff, frustrated. I can’t believe Vanessa told him about that. “It was just a misunderstanding.”
“And you don’t find his timing a little peculiar?” He shifts uncomfortably, and my heartbeat immediately spikes again.
“What do you mean?”
“He first showed up at the Single Mingle.”
My fingers tingle, cold seeping through my bones. “And?”
“And what happened before that?”
My mouth opens, then closes, shock preventing me from forming words for a full minute. My birthday. The radio host talking about Catherine Blake, then theWillowbrook Whistlearticle. “You can’t be serious.”
“Then he vanished. And what happened the night before he reappeared?”
Mallory was killed.
“You think he’s amurderer?” I whisper-scream. “Theo,please.”
“Just think about it for a second.”
I turn on my heels, ready to return to the pub. Fuck Theo.
He comes to stand in front of me. “Scarlett, wait.”
“Why? Why would he do it?”
He looks around as if he’ll find his answer. “I don’t know. Sometimes there’s no reason.”
Wrong. “There’s always a reason—at the very least, a catalyst. A big event in someone’s life that leads them to lose control. A divorce, a job loss, financial troubles—”
“A death in the family.”
My mouth closes.
“That’s a catalyst, right? His father’s death could have pushed him over the edge.”
I stare at him, bile rising up my throat and leaving an acidic taste in my mouth. “That hardly proves anything.”
“You don’t know where he was Thursday night, do you?”
“I don’t know whereyouwere, and that doesn’t make you a killer!” I burst out. “Why would he move back into town and kill two women he hardly even knows? How would they—”
“I don’t know, Scarlett,” Theo says, his brow furrowing. “I have no idea. But I don’t trust him, and I don’t like him.”
“That doesnotmake him a murderer.”
There’s a movement in the corner of my eye, so I look back at the couple making out in the parking lot. I squint. Is that…Celeste?
“It’s not nothing! It’s—”
“I’m leaving,” I interrupt, walking around him and darting inside the pub. I veer for the bathroom and enter the first stall, then take a moment to calm down. Was that really Celeste I saw making out in the parking lot? What the hell is happening to the people in this town?
Theo has always been protective of me, but this is way over the line. Can nobody separate a rebellious teenager from the man he is today?
I step out of the bathroom, running a hand through my hair and trying to shake off the weird tension I’m carrying. As I look up, I see Theo sitting next to Rafael and facing Paige and Vanessa on the other side of the table. The moment Rafael notices me, he stands and makes his way toward me, his glass in his hand.
“Hey,” he says, stopping a few feet away and studying my face. “Everything okay?”
