Chapter 26

My eyes immediately search for Atlas. He does the same, looking over to me with an identical expression of shock.

“D-d-dead?” Ms.Mabel splutters. “How do you know that?”

With a trembling hand, Carina turns the screen around. “She was found on the ground outside her house, her bedroom window wide open,” Carina says, tears spilling down her cheeks. “I need to leave.”

“Of course,” Ms.Mabel says. “If any of Ruthie’s friends, or any of you, need to talk, please let me know.”

The classroom explodes with conversations all about the same thing. I watch as everyone gets their phones. Rhett does the same.

I look over at him, and my stomach drops. “Rhett…”

He cuts me a look. “Don’t even ask me. You know I didn’t do anything to her.”

“She wouldn’t do that to herself,” I say. “Would she?”

“No. She has a place at her dream college. Had. God, she had a place.” He takes a deep breath.

“I’m sorry,” I say. “Are you okay?”

“I…No…. I can’t believe she’s gone. I mean, I’m all right, but it’s a shock. We weren’t together, you know, it was just…”

“I get it. Do you want to leave?”

“I’m going to have to. Her parents are cool, and I need to checkin.”

“Yeah, of course.”

He grabs his bag. “Rhett, someone did this to her. Did you see anyone else last night?”

“No,” he replies. “But it’s not like I was there late or for long.”

“What does it say about her online?”

He holds his phone up again. “?‘The body of eighteen-year-old Ruthie Marx was found outside her home in the early hours of Tuesday morning. Police are treating the death as unexplained.’?”

Unexplained because she wouldn’t have jumped. An accident is a stretch. Why would she be leaning out there?

“I’ll be back after lunch, and we can go through Luce’s and Ruthie’s lockers.”

“Don’t worry about that today.”

“Feels like we’re running out of time, Marley. I don’t have a choice.”

“Yeah,” I whisper, avoiding his eyes. His ex, or whatever she was, has just been found dead, and we’re still talking about how to help me out.

What the hell has Jesse done now?

I glance over at Atlas and wonder if he knows, if he was part of it, or if he was only told that Jesse had sorted it out. How far are they willing to go to cover up what we did? With Ruthie out of the way and them setting me up—allegedly—they could potentially walk free.

No one else knows. Except that Rhett does…and Atlas is becoming suspicious of him all over again.

If Jesse is behind Ruthie’s death, what’s to stop him from trying the same with Rhett?

I mean, Rhett’s family’s money might. They’d use their wealth as a weapon to find Rhett’s killer.

Atlas stands and moves past the table. Ms.Mabel is talking to a few students who’ve gathered around her desk. She doesn’t care that we’re all up and moving around.

He takes Rhett’s seat. “Ruthie’s dead,” he mutters as if I don’t know.

Yeah, did you do it?

“What do you want, Atlas?”

“Don’t be like that. We need to discuss this.”

“Why?”

“Come on,” he whispers, leaning in. “You don’t think this has something to do with us? Or Rhett freaking Wilder?”

“Why would it have anything to do with us?”

What I really want to ask is why Rhett would be involved, but I’m supposed to hate him. I don’t want Atlas to know that I’ve thawed to the middle Wilder.

“Sh-sh-she knew,” he splutters, as if he can’t believe I’d ask something so stupid. My question was more rhetorical than anything, but I also want him to acknowledge that Jesse has totally lost it. He’s helping to protect the wrong person, because Jesse would sell every one of us out to save himself.

“We don’t know that.”

“You still think it might be Rhett sending the messages? He and Ruthie could’ve been in on it. You looked pretty cozy with him.”

I turn my nose up. “Are you joking? He was being his usual arrogant self, telling me he’ll give me another dare if he wants to.”

“What?”

“I can’t wait to get the hell out of here and never see anyone from this town again.”

“Wow.”

I huff. “Like you don’t feel the same. You broke up with me because you do.”

“So we’re both going after graduation?”

“I haven’t made solid plans yet, but there’s no way I’m staying for the whole summer.”

If I could leave now, I would. This town used to be safe. It was home, a place I would always return to. Now it’s tainted with death and horror. I don’t want to be here for a second longer than I have to.

He nods, frowning, and I wish I could read his mind. Something is going on in there. He’s calculated, thinking several steps ahead. I’m late to the scheming party, never believing that I would have to protect myself from my friends.

I guess we were doomed from the second we all agreed to cover up what we’d done.

“That’s probably a good idea. You should leave, Marley. Straight after graduation.” He stands, throwing his bag over his shoulder. “I can’t sit in here any longer.”

I watch him walk out of the room without a backward glance. I’m already forgotten.

Whatever.

Ms.Mabel opens her mouth but decides against challenging him. She was the one who said we could go if we wanted.

His words are etched into my mind the way our initials are carved into the wall of the girls’ bathroom.

You should leave, Marley. Straight after graduation.

Whatever they have planned is happening right after graduation. That’s on Saturday, so I don’t have much time left to counter whatever they’re doing.

After the quiz, I had gym, and then it was crafts instead of English. I couldn’t focus on any of it.

When the bell rings, I walk, dazed and angry, to the lunch hall. There are other people I could sit with, but I’m not good company, so I grab a wrap and head outside. I want to leave and go home, but I need to be here for when Rhett gets back.

I also need to speak to Luce to see what she thinks about Ruthie’s death. She hasn’t “broken up” with me yet, so I have no problem hunting her down.

I walk across the quad and around the side of the school. The large field is buzzing with action. People walking from group to group, all of them talking about Ruthie. As I walk, I hear a few theories. After Arthur too, there’s a murderer on the loose.

They’re not wrong.

His injuries from the crash might have presented the same as a fall from that bridge, and perhaps dropping him helped cover up what really happened, but that theory can only last so long now that Ruthie is dead.

I wonder what the cops think. You couldn’t get two more different victims. An old man, a recluse who barely speaks to anyone. Then a teen girl who demanded attention wherever she went.

There’s no relation, no way their lives cross over.

I won’t let that happen.

Luce comes into view as I pass a crowd of freshmen, looking at her phone and laughing at something. Kind of insensitive, but she might not know about Ruthie.

“Hi,” I say, reaching where she’s sitting under a tree.

She startles and tucks her phone away. “Oh, hi, Marley.”

I sit down. “You good?”

“Ruthie’s dead, so no,” Luce replies. “Are you okay?”

So she does know.

“Not really.”

“No, I mean, like, emotionally and all that,” she replies, watching me as if she’s looking at a bomb.

“I’m not following. What do you mean by that?” I ask.

She shuffles awkwardly and picks at a blade of grass. “You’ve been really weird recently, Marley. We’re worried and, to be honest, a little scared.”

“Scared of what? And you surely understand why I haven’t been myself!”

“You pushing everyone away is a concern. You’re snappy and don’t seem to want to hang out with us anymore.”

“What I don’t want to do is pretend when we’re all alone together! And you’re the ones who have been weird with me, stopping talking when I approach. Is it too much to ask that we support each other?”

Luce shakes her head. “This is what I’m talking about. Why do you constantly want to discuss murder and death?”

What the hell is happening here? She’s being beyond weird, and I can’t figure out where this is coming from.

“I don’t want to, but I can’t ignore it. You’re asking me to take this to my grave, and I will, but I can’t pretend that it never happened.”

She pinches the bridge of her nose. “The rest of us don’t want to talk. We agreed to move on.”

“It’s not even over,” I breathe.

“Babe, I am here for you.”

“Am I the only one getting mixed signals? You’re here for me, but you want me to be silent. Luce, come on, this must be killing you too. You want to be a nurse! Jesse doesn’t seem to be struggling at all.”

“Hey. You don’t know what he’s going through,” she says, her back straightening and eyes shooting daggers at me.

“I’m not saying he’s happy about this, Luce, but he’s—”

“Just stop. I don’t want to hear what you have to say about him.” She gets to her feet, grabbing her phone and backpack as she goes. “Keep your head down until graduation and stop talking about Jesse.”

I clench my fist and watch her walk away from me.

There’s no going back.

They’re the ones going down.