Elena doesn’t relent. “If Tom comes back, which he’s likely to do anyminute, and sees this sweatshirt missing, don’t you think he’ll be wondering where it is? No offense, but your little sleuthing hobby seems to have earned you a reputation around town. You’re the first person he’d suspect. And I’m not risking your life or mine for some child-killing psycho.”
“I think what Elena is trying to say,” says Sophie with a gentleness that only she could muster at a time like this, “is that this is insanely suspicious. I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I think you, or the whispering trees, were right about Tom.” She gestures in the direction of the table as if to prove her point.
Elena says, “Whether the trees really whispered to Joey is irrelevant. It does seem, though, that our friend Tom is trying to hide evidence in plain sight. And look at these holes. They’re so exact. Is it just me, or does this sweatshirt look less like she fell and more like…” She takes a breath. “Like someone stabbed her six times.”
“Seven,” says Joey. “There are seven holes.”
They all flinch, even Elena.
Sophie says, “If the sweatshirt looked like this when she died, imagine what her body looked like underneath. Oh god. I can’t imagine the pain.” She buries her face in her hands. When she looks up again, her eyes are red. She sniffles. “Is it at all possible that, when she fell, she actually did land on her front? That these slashes are from rocks?”
“No.” Joey is quick to reply. “Iknowshe was on her back when we found her. If she died on impact like they said, she couldn’t have just rolled over.”
“You’re right,” says Elena. “Look where they are. They’re clean. Intentional.” She points to the left side of the sweatshirt, right where Quinn’s heart would have been.
Joey closes her eyes. She’s tried to imagine what happened to Quinn so many times over the years, but for some reason seeing her actual clothes, this real piece of her, is so much harder.
“She was wearing a raincoat too,” says Sophie. “Remember? It could be the reason we didn’t see the blood then. It must have been covering it.”
“But the police would have seen it,” says Joey. “Why didn’t they say anything? How did we not know about this?”
Sophie shrugs. “Maybe Tom took it off her before they got there?”
“We should take this to the police,” Joey says, “test the blood—”
Elena grabs her arm. Her eyes are clear and determined as she slowly shakes her head. “We were never here.” Then she stands to take out her phone. She snaps several pictures. A series of vibrations from Joey’s pocket signals that she’s just sent the images to the group text. She snatches up the sweatshirt, bunches it up, and shoves it back behind the stuffed bunny.
“We have to go now.”
Sophie is nodding so much that stray hairs fall loose from her hair clip and swing over her face. “We’ve already been here too long.”
Joey takes a fraction of a second to decide, and then she nods too.
They run.
19Quinn
May 2011
Two weeks before the fall
I agree to go to the party but tell Joey I have to go to my dad’s right after.
We turn the corner from my house, on our way to Tanner’s. The weather is changing. I think there’s rain coming. For now, night settles in, resting on our shoulders. The trees are the first to go black. She makes a sound likehmm, and we walk on.
It’s a lie, of course. I don’t have to go to my dad’s. I wonder, momentarily, if she knows, if she is reading me. I twist my gold ring with its hefty black stone and raised droplet of gold around my middle finger. But she just says, “We have to go to the spell circle tomorrow. Will you be around?”
“Possibly.” I say. “What’s up?”
“We need to update the illusion spell to keep the trail hidden.” She sounds impatient. It’s my fault we’ve started to grow distant. This party is the first time we’ll all be together outside of school in I don’t even know how long. Weeks, I think. “It’s important,” she says. And she’s right. I nod.
Her hair is pulled tidily into a hair tie, not loose like mine, which picks up every tiny wisp of wind. I feel so weird lately, like a snakefolding out of my old skin and growing a new one underneath. With Joey and Sophie and Elena, it’s been a little awkward. That’s why I wanted to come tonight. To put in some face time and maybe see if things could be normal. I’ve been busy withhim, but truthfully, I’ve missed us a little.
I look over again and see that Joey is watching me carefully. She pulls her ponytail to the front of her shoulder. “What’s going on?”
I scuff my shoe against the dusty pavement. “What?”
“You can tell me.”
