Chapter 36

Chapter Thirty-Six

Just like after they found Brandi's body, the police call students into the principal's office one by one, searching for information that will help them locate Alison.

I am much higher up on the list this time.

When I get to the principal's office, Chief Driscoll is waiting for me there, just like last time. He's wearing a starched white dress shirt and a tie checked with several shades of brown. He has a grim expression on his broad face, and there's a deep crevice between his eyebrows. He is the chief of police in this town, and the fact that something bad happened to two girls in a short period of time doesn't look good for him. He wants to find Alison in one piece and return her to her family.

Unfortunately, that's not going to happen.

"Hello, Tom." He regards me without the slightest hint of a smile. "Please have a seat."

Like last time, I settle into one of the plastic chairs in front of the desk. Before my talk with him about Brandi, I had never even been in the principal's office. I'm not the kind of kid who gets in trouble like that.

"I'm sure you know what this is about," he says.

"I hear Alison is…missing."

"Yes." He scratches at the stubble on his chin. "Her parents saw her go to bed last night, and then she wasn't in her bed this morning."

"So…someone broke into the house?"

He shakes his head. "No signs of that. So it looks like she opened her door for somebody she knew, or else she left the house on her own."

I can read the message between the lines. He thinks one of the students is responsible, possibly the very same one who was supposed to meet Brandi the night she was killed.

"Is there any reason you know of that Alison might have left her house in the middle of the night last night?"

I hesitate for only a split second. "No."

"Are you sure, Tom?"

Damn, why did I hesitate? I bet Slug won't hesitate when Chief Driscoll asks him the same thing. "I'm sure."

"Because I'm very worried about Alison. I'd like to find her and bring her home as soon as we can. And anything you know, no matter how unimportant you might think it is, could be the thing that helps us find her."

I spread my arms apart. "I'm sorry. I don't know anything. I didn't know Alison that well."

"Tom." The chief's shrewd eyes zero in on me. "Why are you talking about her in the past tense?"

My heart sinks into my stomach. "Oh. I, uh…I mean, I don't know her that well." My face feels like it's on fire. "Sorry."

"She's your lab partner. And she's Daisy's best friend."

Damn, he's done his homework. "Yeah. I mean, I knew her— know her. But it's not like we were friends." Oh Christ, what's wrong with me? " Are friends, I mean."

I am definitely not impressing him. He looks at me for a long time, then finally he laces his fingers together and leans forward. "Why aren't you friends?"

Because she hated me. Because she was threatening me and blackmailing me. "I don't know. We're different people. Different interests."

"I see…" He leans back again, but there's a curious expression on his face. "So you and Alison don't get along…"

"I didn't say that. I just said that we weren't friends— aren't friends." Against my will, the volume of my voice is going up. I clear my throat, trying to get it back to normal. "We get along just fine."

Please, please let this be over soon.

"That's not what Alison's friends told me," he says.

My heart sinks. "Oh?"

"They told me Alison hated you. That she was trying to convince Daisy to break up with you."

"I, uh…" The palms of my hands have become sweaty, and I rub them on my jeans. "I didn't know that."

"No?"

My mouth is too dry to get out any words, so I can only shake my head. Still, this isn't that big a deal, is it? Yes, Alison hated me. But that's not proof that I killed her.

"One more question," he says. "Where were you last night?"

He's asking for an alibi. That's not good. "I was home."

"The whole night?"

"Yes."

"With your parents?"

"My mom is in Seattle visiting my aunt and uncle," I say. "So it was just my dad."

"Okay," he says thoughtfully. "I'll have to give your father a call then."

"Sure." Good luck with that. "Anything else?"

"Yes," he says. "You don't need to walk Daisy home from school anymore. I'm going to be picking her up myself."

His message is loud and clear. He doesn't trust me around his daughter anymore. To be fair, I doubt he trusts anyone, but definitely not me.