"Then do the right thing."
She nodded. It didn't make either of us feel better.
I turned, walked back around the side of the house, and headed toward home. Apollo trotted after me, his tags jingling.
By the time I reached my car in my driveway, my hands were shaking with adrenaline. I had a timeline now. Voices at 12:15. A scream at 12:40 a.m. Someone on the bluff at 3:30 a.m., climbing down and back up. Leah was already dead by then, pushed at 12:40 a.m. by someone.
I checked my phone. 3:47 p.m. Mia's afterschool Yearbook class ended at four.
I opened the back door of my car, and Apollo jumped inside. He loved car rides. I started the engine and drove toward the school, my mind already racing ahead to what came next.
Chapter Twenty-Three
I gripped the steering wheel as I drove toward Lakeshore Prep to pick up Mia. Apollo was curled in the backseat, snoring pleasantly.
I longed to call Detective King. To tell him everything. But I'd promised Zara she had until morning. And at Mia's interrogation Tuesday morning, the detectives had said DNA results would take seventy-two hours. That meant the earliest was Friday afternoon, maybe evening.
I had a small window. Not much, but enough to let Zara come forward first, to hand King something concrete instead of breadcrumbs that would just lead back to Mia.
The carpool line crawled along at a snail's pace. I drummed my fingers on the steering wheel, glancing at a cluster of middle school mothers chatting on the sidewalk. Their conversations hushed as I passed, eyes shifting toward me with a mix of curiosity and thinly veiled hostility.
I tried to ignore them. It didn't work.
My phone vibrated on the passenger seat. Another unknown number. Likely a reporter or another prank call. I let it go to voicemail, glimpsing the notification count: fifteen new messages. Threats, harassment, journalists circling. I left the phone where it was.
A minute later, Mia emerged from the school entrance, her backpack slung over one shoulder, head bowed, one of Marcus's old baseball caps pressed low over her face. She moved quickly, weaving through the throngs of students with practiced invisibility.
I grabbed my phone and moved it as she slid into the passenger seat and pulled the door shut.
"Hi, sweetheart."
Mia stared straight ahead.
I pulled away from the curb, the murmurs and stares of the other parents fading behind us. The silence in the car was heavy. Apollo uncurled himself and shoved his torso between the front seats. He nosed Mia's face until she gave in and scratched him between the ears.
"How was school?"
She let out a bitter laugh. "Fantastic."
"That bad?"
Mia's jaw tightened. "At lunch, I sat at the usual table. Peyton and Alexis got up and moved. Then the girls at the next table moved. Then the table behind them. Like I was radioactive." She swallowed. "I ate in the bathroom."
My heart ached. "I'm so sorry."
I checked the rearview mirror. A silver sedan had pulled out of the school parking lot and followed behind me, close to my bumper.
"Everyone stares at me like I did it. If I was a pariah before, I'm a piece of trash now."
"That's not true."
"That's how they act." She slouched lower in her seat. "Leah would've stood up to them. She was braver than me."
I twisted around, checking over my shoulder. The silver sedan was still there. Two car lengths back, matching every turn I made. Anxiety roiled through me.
"Mom? What are you looking at?" Mia followed my gaze and tensed. "Is that car following us?"
"It's fine." My knuckles whitened on the steering wheel. I sped up and took a sharp right as the stoplight turned yellow. The sedanpulled out right behind me. He was too close, right on my bumper. My heartrate accelerated.
