Chapter 26

CARA RAN STUMBLING THROUGH THE SILENT STREETS. Ethan’s gone, Alexis is dead, her mind droned over and over. Her chest heaved. Tears and snot dripped from her nose.

She burst through the front door of the house. “Zoe!” she shouted into the gloom. Her breath sobbed in and out of her lungs. She clenched her fists. “Zoe!” she screamed again. Her voice broke.

Zoe appeared at the top of the stairs. She’d changed out of the red lace nightgown and discarded Samson, God knows where. Now she was wearing jeans and a black turtleneck. She glided down the steps toward Cara. As she drew closer, Cara could see that she’d wiped the makeup from her face. It was perfectly bare and shone with cleanliness. Her hair looked freshly washed, hanging in a silken curtain on either side of her face. In spite of herself, Cara caught her breath. Zoe was as beautiful as the first day she’d arrived, sitting at the edge of Cara’s bed. The fetid smell was gone, Cara realized too. As if it had never existed. Only a faint scent of lavender soap wafted toward Cara.

“Yes?” Zoe smiled pleasantly, as if Cara were an unexpected visitor.

For a moment, Cara was thrown off-balance. She stood uncertainly as Zoe watched her, still smiling gently. “The police came and took Ethan away,” she finally said. The words sounded hollow.

“Oh?” Zoe nodded and raised her eyebrows, as if Cara had just told her she’d always hated cantaloupe. “That’s too bad.”

Cara blinked. “What?” Then she recovered. “Yes, it is too bad.” She stepped closer to her friend, the rage building in her chest again. “Alexis is dead, Zoe! She’s dead, and Ethan is being investigated.” She leaned in. “I know you did something to her. I know it!” Her voice rose to a hysterical scream.

“Yes.” Zoe smiled and nodded, still with that pleasant, polite smile on her lips.

Cara stopped. “Did you say ‘yes’?”

“Yes.” Zoe nodded. “I killed the bitch. And I stuffed her body in the rafters of that old barn you love so much.” She smiled pleasantly and sat down on a straight chair in the foyer, crossing her legs daintily. She stroked the upholstered cloth arm of the chair with her fingertips. “Took awhile, too. The killing, I mean. I’d forgotten how long it takes to strangle someone,” she said almost dreamily.

Cara’s breath caught in her throat. Zoe had killed Alexis. And it wasn’t the first time she’d strangled someone. Zoe’s own words echoed hauntingly in Cara’s head. I did something bad, Cara. But it’s not anything worse than what he did to me.

Zoe stared off into the distance for a minute, then seemed to snap back to reality. “Anyhow, once she was dead, it was pretty easy to drag her out to the woods. Getting her up into the rafters, now that was a chore.” She laughed, a bright, happy laugh. “Dead weight, Cara. Have you ever felt true dead weight?”

Numbly, Cara shook her head. Her eyes were locked on Zoe’s sweet, angelic face.

“Well, let me tell you, I could have used a hand.” Zoe’s voice changed. “Where were you, Cara?”

Cara stared at her, not sure she’d heard her right. “What do you mean? I was with Ethan that night.” Her lips were numb.

“Yeah, that’s right.” Zoe pinched the chair arm again, harder this time. “Out there, having fun with your new boyfriend. While I was out in the cold, shoving your worst enemy into the rafters. She got stuck halfway up, did you know that, Cara? She got stuck and almost fell all the way down to the floor.”

“Stop,” Cara whispered. Her stomach churned. An image of Alexis’s bright blond hair hanging down from the rafters flashed into her mind. A single white arm, dangling, the fingertips pointing at the floor. That day in the barn. The day after the party. The flash of white in the corner. Alexis had been there, hanging right above Cara’s very head, this entire time.

“Why, Cara? Why should I stop?” Zoe’s voice grew a little louder. “Why? I did it all for you. Everything’s been for you. All this time. And have you appreciated what I’ve done? First, that fat bitch Sydney—”

Cara backed away, her hands pressed to her mouth. “Sydney? You mean she didn’t . . . drown?” Her voice rose to a gaspy shriek. She stumbled over a pair of shoes on the floor, and almost fell.

“Then Alexis. I choked them—I thought that’d be fitting. A little payback for the girls who called you Choker. Besides, how could you be with Ethan with Alexis in the way? All for you, sweetheart, all for you.” Zoe suddenly ripped the arm of the chair out from the base savagely.

Cara jumped. Zoe stood up and walked toward her slowly. Her violet eyes blazed in her paper-white face. “And have you appreciated it? Have you said ‘Thank you, Zoe’ just once? No.” She stopped an inch from Cara’s face. “‘When are you leaving, Zoe?’” She mimicked Cara’s voice. “That’s all I get. Running around with Ethan, leaving me alone. You owe me, Cara. You owe me.” She was almost screaming.

Cara took another step back. She felt something solid behind her. The door. She pressed herself against it. “Sydney, too? You killed both of them? Zoe, you have to tell someone,” she whispered. “The police. You have to tell the police.”

Zoe snorted. “Sure, Cara. I’ll just waltz in there: ‘Hi, folks. Let that nice boy go. I’m your murderer—right here.’” She pointed to her chest, then flipped her hand at Cara dismissively. “You always did live in a dream world, Cara. Maybe it’s time to wake up.”

In her mind, Cara saw Ethan sitting at a metal table in a harshly lit little room. Two cops were standing over him, shouting. His face was streaked with tears. She shook her head. “No, Zoe.”

Zoe turned around, and Cara shrank back at the venom in her face. “What did you say?” Zoe asked. Her voice was dangerously quiet.

Cara trembled, but she forced herself to go on. “If you won’t go to the police, I will. I’ll tell them everything.” Her voice barely rose above a whisper. She pressed her palms to the door behind her. It felt cool to the touch.

Zoe studied Cara’s face, smiling a little. Then she shook her head. “You left me back with my stepfather, Cara. You were the only one who knew how bad it was, and you left me behind to rot. So you won’t go to the police. You can’t. You owe me, Cara.”

“I didn’t ask for this!” Cara suddenly screamed. She felt something loosen and burst inside of her. “I didn’t ask you for any of this! I don’t want it. I don’t want it.” She broke off suddenly, and feeling behind her with one hand, shakily lowered herself onto the straight chair. She bent over and hugged her chest to her knees, pressing her face into her jeans.

“We’re in this together, Cara. And you know it.” Zoe wrenched open the door, yanking it so hard, it smashed the plaster of the wall behind it. She flew down the steps, her black hair fanning out behind her like a pair of wings, and fled into the dimming afternoon light. Cara hugged her chilly upper arms, the only comfort left to her, and watched her go.