“Love you, G,” she whispered into my hair. “You’ve always been my favorite. Don’t tell the others.”
CHAPTER 55
Now
The morning after songfest, the campers are exhausted, drained from having to battle one another with their voices, and are delighted to be free from their teams, back on the same side, the side ofcamp. But I can’t focus on their chatter, not even as I braid Bianca’s hair, because all I can think about is the fact that Meg killed Heller.
“Breakfast!” Meg calls from the bathroom, shouldering her backpack. She shoos everyone out the door and my chest tightens as I hang back in the counselor room.
Now’s the time, I think.I need to confront her.
The final kid rushes out to the lawn and when it’s the two of us, I reach for her arm.
“What are you waiting for?” she asks. “Come on!”
I stare at her, bewildered at how she can be so... normal. How someone I thought I knew could be an actual killer. I want to ask so many questions, yell until my lungs give out. Instead, I say the one word I know she’ll understand.
“Sally.”
I hold my breath, waiting for her to say something, to acknowledge the truth. She squeezes her eyes shut and presses her clipboard tight to her side. For a second, she looks so young, like she did whenshe first became our counselor. A baby-faced eighteen-year-old, the same age I am now. A child in so many ways. Now... I don’t know who she is.
Meg blinks open her eyes and turns on her heel. She pastes a big smile across her face and yanks her arm out of my grasp. “Race you to the dining hall, Jordie!” I watch her jog behind the girls, the perfect Alpine Lake counselor for one more day.
---
Ava, Imogen, and I are preparing for another session of free swim, lathering suntan lotion up and down our arms, bronzed from eight weeks in the sun. But there’s a silent tension between us. I know we’re all wonderingwhat do we do now?
I bite the bullet.
“Meg is Sally Burke. The woman from the clerk’s office.”
Ava and Imo freeze. Sunscreen slips through Imogen’s fingers, plopping on the sand in a big white blob. Ava opens her mouth like she’s going to say something but she doesn’t.
“What the hell are you talking about?” Imo asks.
I nod. “Cal found a photo of Sally in the local paper. It was Meg.”
Ava leans in. “Are you sure?”
“One hundred percent positive. It tracks with what she was saying last night, too. How she came up to Roxwood after she lost her work visa. Stu and Mellie must have helped her get a job.”
“But why would she change her name?” Imogen asks.
“I have no idea.” I shake my head. “But I confronted her this morning. I called her Sally.”
Imogen’s shoulders tense. “And?”
“She freaked out,” I say. “Ran off to breakfast.” I squeeze my eyes shut and duck my head toward them. “She’s guilty. I know it.”
“Wait a second,” Ava says, pumping her hands up and down. “You think she was in the winter cabin the night Heller died and saw him on that bootleg receiver thing? Used that moment to come down to the waterfront and do it?”
I shake my head. “It sure looks that way.”
“Why?” Imo asks. “What was her beef with Heller?”
“I’ve been trying to piece it together and the only thing that makes sense was that theyweretogether. They must have been. She must have wanted to keep it quiet so Levin wouldn’t find out. She was desperate to get him back.” I fight the pain building in my chest. If that’s true it means theybothbetrayed me in more ways that I realized.
Ava clears her throat. “What if... what if she knew about my dad?”
