I’ll be quick, Vivienne promised.
But Hadley didn’t open the door. She kept it wedged like a barrier between them.
“Do you have any idea what you put me through?” she asked suddenly. “Frankie and I thought you’d beenkidnapped. Do you know terrifying that was? We talked to Hudson, and he says you planned that whole thing. All of it. It was just a prank.”
It wasn’t a prank, signed Vivienne, deflating slightly.
“So then, you weren’t the mastermind behind that paintball raid?”
Vivienne didn’t answer. What could she say that didn’t make her sound guilty? Shewasguilty. And her reasons why would only drive Hadley further away.
“That’s what I thought,” said Hadley, when she said nothing. “Your loser friends ruined my dress, by the way. Even the dry cleaners couldn’t fix it.”
I can pay for it, she signed.
“Don’t bother,” said Hadley. “Look, Viv, I love you, and I’m sorry if you’re going through something. I really am. But this has been a lot for me to deal with. I think it’s for the best if you go home.”
But I need to talk to your dad, signed Vivienne, and fished the file out of her bag. Tucking it under her arm, she added,I need to give him this. It’s important.
“Then you can give it to him at the police station,” said Hadley. “Tomorrow, when he’s at work. He’s off duty right now.”
The door swung shut in her face.
In the yard, the sprinklers clicked off. The porch light extinguished. Even the moths took flight, scattering into darkness as though they sensed a predator in their midst. Prying a pen loose from her bag, she jotted a note along the front of the file:Found these in Philip Farrow’s home office. Thought you might be interested.When she was done, she tucked it into the mailbox. She hoped that would be enough.
Coaxing the dogs to their feet, she headed down the driveway. The vast dome of starlight overhead no longer seemed wide and inviting. Now it seemed to mock her. She’d never felt so small. She’d never felt so alone.
She made it halfway down the driveway before a set of headlights clicked on.
A car idled several houses down, its lights pinning her in a spotlight. On the end of her leash, Molly went as still as a statue. She sniffed the air, her hackles raised. Judd let out a questioning woof.
The headlights clicked off.
With a tug, Vivienne urged Molly to walk faster. They picked up the pace, Thomas’s medallion swinging like a pendulum against her sternum. The strap of her bag cut into her shoulder. She didn’t know where she was going. Frankie’s house, maybe, though that was a far longer walk.
The car pulled out into the street. Headlights off, it began to tail her.
She walked faster, sticking to the sidewalk. When she turned, the car turned. When she exited the gated community, it followed. The land became a suburban sprawl, the lots unfolding around her in steep hills and sloping valleys, yellow-and-gray cookie-cutter homes stacked on artificially flattened parcels of grass.
Rounding a corner onto an older street, she drew up short. Another car idled in the middle of the road. She heard a car door click shut. In the gloom, the figure of a man materialized. Multiplied. Tripled. Suddenly, there were four of them.
Both dogs fell to barking.
“We’re looking for the girl responsible for the murder of Jesse Grayson,” said a man. The voice wasn’t one she recognized. “You match the description.”
“Don’t goad her into speaking,” said another. “Not unless you want to gouge out your own eyes.”
A serrated terror cut into her. She backed up, tugging the dogs with her as she went. The car behind her turned on its headlights. So did the car in front of her. She was pinned between spotlights, her heart thudding wildly in her chest.
To her right was a wide wall of rock, leftover from where workers had once blasted through the hillside to lay down road. To her left was a poured concrete sidewalk and then a gully, deep and dark. It pitched downward into a forested snag, thick with pine. She could lose them in there.
“The chairman has been looking for you,” said the man nearest her. “It’s time to come home.”
Directly in front of her, the car’s alarm began to sound. Lights flashed as the vehicle let out a shrill warble. The men whipped around, startled by the intrusion. Behind her, the second car followed suit. Judd began to bay along, his howl arcing high and clear.
Vivienne didn’t question her sudden stroke of luck. She seized the opportunity, throwing herself down the gully and tugging the dogs after her. They were far lither on their feet than she could ever hope to be, and in the dark, she’d misjudged the steepness. She plummeted down the hillside, hitting the ground with a bone-juddering impact. Her temple smashed against a rock. She saw stars. She tasted stars.
A wet nose snuffled at her hair. A second pushed into her ear with a snarl, teeth snapping.Get up, it seemed to say.Move.She drew herself unsteadily to her feet, her right leg crying out in pain, and launched into the trees at a limp. Above her, in the street, the alarms had gone silent. Now the night was full of shouting.
