“Yeah, Page,” Skye says. “Didyou?”
I don’t answer. I wonder why Gareth is so grumpy. And why Skye is in such a bad mood if all her dreams of media attention are coming true.Have her LikeMe numbers plateaued? Have people started turning to other sources of information, like the @findhopehanover account? Has she found herself threatened by the force of Hope Hanover’s presence, even in her absence?
Because Hopeisa force to be reckoned with. I knew that the very first time I met her.
“I looked at the log, and you’re the one who checked her in when she got here,” Skye says.
“Hope Hanover used her real name?” Addie sounds skeptical.
“No,” Skye says. “She used a weird one. Chastity Bentley. But Page was the one working when she checked in. And even Page would recognize Hope Hanover. Right?” She takes a couple of steps closer. I keep my mouth shut and don’t move.
“Come on,” Addie says. “Why are you being so weird about this, Skye?”
“I’mnot the one who’s being weird,” Skye says airily.
I’m so tired. I haven’t slept well in days—or maybe it’s been weeks, or years. I haven’t been eating great, either, grabbing what I can find on my way from one problem to the next.
“Did you creep around her tent spying on her like you did Colby?” Skye asks.
The shot hits home.She knows aboutthat?
“She was staying in an Airstream,” I say, and I immediately want to bite my own tongue off.What the hell, Page?I want to ask myself.You know better than to respond. You’ve gone all summer without letting Skye get to you. Why are you allowing it to happen now?
“For all we know, Page murdered Colby,” Skye says. “No one’s seen him in days.”
I have to hand it to Skye. I didn’t think she’d come tothatconclusion. But maybe I should have. I shoulder my bag in one quick motion, trying not to give any indication of how heavy it is and how much food I’ve stashed inside.Don’t give them what they want. Don’t respond.That’s the advice. It doesn’t work.
There are some people who will always hound and hunt out the weak. You can’t stop them. It’s how they feed.
But sometimes they make mistakes. I’m bone-weary, but I’m not weak at all.
“Skye, come on,” Mal says. “Shut up.” He catches my eye. “Skye’s talking out of her ass,” he says. “None of us think that you murdered Colby. We know he’s out of town and you’re covering for him.”
Skye’s pissed now because Mal is taking my side. “Ido,” she says. “I think that. Why’d he leave all of a sudden? Why isn’t he answering any of our texts?”
“You’re being a jerk, Skye,” Addie says. “Stop.”
I stand there, for one more moment, looking at them. I think,I don’t want to be here anymore.
And that makes me sad, because, for a while, Sonnet was the closest thing to home that I’ve had in years.
I open the door and slip through. But as it’s closing behind me, I pause to hear a little more of what they say.
“I still think it’s weird that Colby disappeared and one of our guests disappeared and Page was one of the last people to see them both,” Skye says.
“If anything, Colby would be the one to kill Page,” Addie says, and my heart almost stops. “They were so close. And he’s so much older than she is. Didn’t it feel kind of, like, inappropriate? Like he was grooming her?” I hear her slam the fridge door shut.
I feel like throwing up. I like Addie. We’ve been friendly. Is this what she thinks was going on?
“What about these?” I hear Skye rustling around, and I move closer to listen better. “These freaky pictures that someone keeps taking and putting up on the photo board with the other normal ones?”
A chill runs through me.I thought I was the only one.
“What’s creepy about these?” Addie says. “They’re just, like, candid photos of you around the resort and on hikes.”
“They’re likestalkerphotos of me,” Skye says. “I don’t know who’s taking them.”
“Before you say anything, Addie, it’s not me,” Mal says. “I didn’t take any of these.”
