10:53:Parking now! Coming up in a sec!
10:54:Umm hello where are you? And why did you leave the door unlocked? Hope one of those hunters didn’t get you lol. JK, am assuming you’ve gone down to that vending machine we saw earlier? I’ll come down now. I could really use a Mars bar tbh, need the sugar after that long-ass drive…
10:57:Okay seriously, where are you? And why aren’t you replying to anything? I know you aren’t freaked out by any of this Selection hunt stuff, but I am... so please just let me know you’re okay
10:59:This isn’t funny, Cal. Seriously. Please just tell me you went down to the beach for some air??
11:02:Okay I’m really getting scared now. PLEASE ANSWER!!!
I turned the screen to show Roman and Julian. “Look at the timestamps compared to the times on the tracking data,” I said. “The data shows her arriving in Crescent Bay at 10:24. She was there until 10:29, and then we can see that she started heading back to BHU again. She was back there by 10:47.”
“And she never went to Port Engel,” Julian said, eyes widening.
“Nope. But in these messages, she said she did. And she also acted like she was up at the motel looking for Calista until at least 11:02.”
“But we know from the tracking data that she was actually at BHU at that time.”
“It’s like she was trying to establish an alibi for herself,” Roman interjected. “In case anyone ever checked Cal’s messages after what happened.”
“Exactly.” I nodded grimly. “I think Cherry went to Crescent Bay and convinced Cal to leave with her pretty much right away. Then she brought her back to BHU and somehow convinced her to go up to the top of the clock tower. And the whole time, she was sending sporadic texts to Cal’s burner phone to make it look like she was still up in Crescent Bay looking for her. She probably took the phone from Cal so she wouldn’t notice the texts and wonder why she was sending them.”
“And she made up the Port Engel story to give her an excuse for supposedly being up north for so long,” Julian added. “Which made it look like shewasn’tat BHU, and therefore couldn’t possibly have killed Calista.”
“Yup.” I jabbed my finger toward the tracking data on the screen, my hand shaking. “This proves it. She lied about the whole thing. And not only that… sheplannedit.”
As the words left my mouth, the room suddenly felt like it was tilting slightly. Cherry—the same sweet, helpful Cherry who'd cried about Cal with me—had methodically planned her murder. It was so cold, soevil,that I could barely comprehend it.
“That’s true,” Roman muttered. “The whole thing was premeditated. Why else would she send those alibi texts?”
The three of us sat in silence for a long moment, too shocked by the revelation to say anything else.
Julian finally broke the heavy silence. “We know who did it now,” he said in a low voice. He was watching me carefully, like he was worried I might shatter. “That's huge, Violet. We actually figured it out.”
“Yeah,” I whispered, but I didn't feel triumphant. I felt sick.
I thought about the first night I'd met Cherry. How welcoming she'd been. How she'd cried when talking aboutlosing her best friend. How she’d told me she’d do anything to help me find her killer.
All of it had been a lie. I understood that now. But one glaring question still remained.
Why?
41
Violet
“So what now?”
Julian’s voice cut through the heavy silence that had settled over us like a shroud. He was staring at me, brows knitted with concern.
Roman made a sound that was half laugh, half growl. “Well, I've never killed a woman before,” he said, his voice low and dangerous. “But right now, I'm tempted to do it.”
The words hung in the air, and I didn't doubt he meant them. The rage radiating off him was palpable, barely contained.
Julian turned to him. “I understand. Believe me, I do,” he said. “But whatever happens to Cherry in the end... I think that should be Violet’s call. Calista was her sister. Her blood.”
Roman was quiet for a long moment, his jaw working. Then he nodded slowly. “Yeah. You're right,” he muttered. He looked at me, and I saw the effort it took for him to rein himself in. “What do you want to do with her?”
The question he really intended sat heavy on my chest. Did I want Cherry dead? Did I want to watch her suffer the way she'd made Cal suffer in those final moments?
