Chapter 30

I sit opposite Sam and another cop, Officer Ricky. She has a harsh pointed face and a sharp bob.

Sam’s the opposite with his soft smile.

They’ve gone through my rights and told me I’m here because they’ve had an accusation.

It’s game time.

“I’m sorry, who’s accusing my daughter of murder? Tell me this is a joke,” Mom demands.

“I can’t say, but Marley is not under arrest here. These are just questions,” Officer Ricky says.

Sam sits forward, his forearms on the table, fingers locked together. “Look, this person claims that you hit Arthur Nelson on the bridge and pushed his body over.”

“What?” I say, widening my eyes. “What the hell?”

“Ridiculous,” Mom mutters beside me.

“This person claims the damage to your car was due to the accident, and they only kept quiet because you threatened them and have since broken into their house,” Officer Ricky says.

So “they” is Luce.

But it couldn’t be more perfect, because there’s something my friends don’t know about the damage on my car. I didn’t realize they’d even noticed it. God, this is so perfect.

I frown. “I’m sorry, this is a total waste of time. Sam, you literally watched me hit that pole on the bridge.”

“I know, and that’s why this is just a chat. But we’d like to get to the bottom of why this person is accusing you. I’m sure you appreciate how serious this is.”

I curl my hands together and chew on my lip, making myself appear nervous.

“I don’t know who would do this. I mean, senior pranks have been going on, and you know they’re kinda escalating.”

Sam scratches the stubble on his chin. “Do you think this is a prank? Because I have two dead people, one of them eighteen yearsold.”

“Ruthie,” I whisper. “Are they connected? Because everyone at school is saying there’s a killer in town.”

“We can’t speculate.” Sam moves a fraction closer. “But, Marley, is everything okay?”

I shrug, blinking back tears that I’m not sure I can make shed, so I have to be careful. “Someone’s just made up that I killed a person, so not really.”

Mom pats my arm. “Sam, can you just tell us who’s making up such awful stories about my daughter?”

He’s already said that they can’t. I want to roll my eyes at my mom’s stupidity.

“I’m sorry.”

“But you know it’s a lie, right? You saw me. I don’t know what happened to Arthur, but it was nothing to do with me.”

Sam nods. “As I said, I’m just trying to get to the bottom of why someone might accuse you.”

“I—I think it might’ve been my friends.”

Mom gasps. “Marley! No. You have good friends.”

“We’re not talking much anymore.”

“What happened with your friends?” Sam asks. If he’s irritated by my mom’s comments, he doesn’t let it show.

Neither do I.

If I’m going to get through this, I have to keep my cool.

“Well, there was this thing that happened that I didn’t agree with. A dare.” I wring my hands together. “We had to let ourselves into Arthur’s house and take a watch.”

“Marley!” Mom gasps.

“I know! It was stupid, and I didn’t want to.”

“I think you’d better start from the beginning,” Officer Ricky says.

“They’ll be…mad that I told you. We took a watch to prove that we’d done it, but we took it back. Well, Jesse did.”

Sam leans forward again. “Slow down, Marley. Start with the dare.”

I blow out a breath. “Okay. It was dumb, incredibly dumb, but we got this senior dare to break into Arthur’s and take a gold watch.”

“From Rhett Wilder?” Officer Ricky asks.

I nod. “Yeah. We had to show him and then take it back. It was horrible.”

“Who broke into his house?” Sam asks.

“Me, Atlas, Jesse, and Luce. The door was unlocked, we just let ourselves in. Went up to his bedroom and took a watch. Luce dropped her pin badge down a vent in his floor and freaked out. After showing Rhett the watch, Jesse said he’d take it back.”

Officer Ricky tilts her head. “Why did only Jesse return the watch?”

“Well, I wasn’t going back in there, was I? Totally hated it, wasn’t the rush that the others thought it would be, at least not for me. Luce wasn’t going back after thinking her badge would be found and she’d be arrested. I told Rhett that he had to keep me out of crap like that. I got involved in some stuff at school like moving Fuller’s office, putting chickens on the field, and planting glitter balloons, but that was it.”

“Okay, and when did your friendships begin breaking down?” Officer Ricky asks.

“After that, we hung out still, but it was different. I always felt like they didn’t want me around. I’d catch them whispering and stop when they noticed me. I think we’d been growing apart a bit for a little while, but I didn’t really see it until recently. They still wanted to do the dumb stuff. You heard about the fire at school, right? Well, I wanted no part of it.” A tear rolls down my cheek. “I want to go to college!”

Sam nods. “Okay, so what dares have you turned down?”

I shrug and then bite my lip before saying, “Setting off fire extinguishers. There was talk about switching out senior staff cars in the middle of the night, but I don’t think that happened.”

“Right,” Sam says, glancing at Officer Ricky. He knows I’m worried and hiding something. Good. “I think that one would have been reported.”

Beside me, I can feel Mom’s anger.

“Is that it, Marley? Because you look scared. If someone has done something and you know about it, you need to come forward,” Officer Ricky says, reading exactly what I want her to from my mannerisms.

“Nothing,” I say, a little too fast. “I don’t know what happened with Arthur.”

“Or George. There have been fire-related dares, and you’re now telling me you broke into Arthur’s house,” Sam says.

“Not that night, I swear. Arthur was home when we took the watch. The dares have been to set off alarms and extinguishers, not set fire to someone’s house.”

“You haven’t heard anything about the fire at Arthur’s?”

“No, and George is my friend. About the only one right now too. I would tell you if I had.”

“What about Atlas, honey?” Mom asks.

“He broke up with me. He’s going to Ohio State and didn’t tell me until yesterday.”

“What?” Mom says, her voice higher each time she speaks.

“Sorry I didn’t tell you,” I say. “But I didn’t want to talk about it.”

“I can’t believe any of this.”

“They’re acting different. I keep telling myself that I’m better off without them if this is how they’re going to treat me…but it hurts.”

Mom opens her mouth to say something else, but Sam gets there faster, trying to keep this “informal chat” on track.

“Marley, how well did you know Ruthie Marx?”

“Not well. We’ve had classes together for four years, but we’ve never hung out. I don’t think she likes me much.” I frown. “Liked, I guess.”

“Why do you say that?”

“Well, to be fair, we were never on each other’s radar until she started seeing Rhett. Sam, you know Rhett and I used to be close in middle school. I don’t think Ruthie liked that we had a past, despite me and Rhett not even talking since before we started high school. She had a few arguments with Luce. Jesse and Atlas too, when Rhett got QB over them; she sure stood up for her man. Why are you asking me that? Is it true that there’s a killer in town?”

“Let’s not get ahead of ourselves,” Officer Ricky says.

“I’m not, but Arthur and Ruthie are dead. George almost was.”

“We’re investigating a number of possibilities.”

“That’s not a no. Are we safe?”

Sam raises his palms and smiles. “Breathe, Marley. There is nothing to suggest that anyone else is in danger.”

I can see him connecting dots in his head. My friends shutting me out, their behavior changes, the dares. If he just gets there a little quicker, I can build on this, weaving my clues and evidence in as I go. Maybe they’ll find the footprint before it rains again.

“Marley, do you think your friends are capable of hurting Ruthie?”

“What?” I splutter, like it’s the most outrageous thing I’ve ever heard. “No. No, they couldn’t…. They…”

“Are you sure?” Officer Ricky asks. “Because you don’t seem it.”

“I spent four years of my life with them. I can’t even think aboutthat.”

Sam and Officer Ricky exchange a look, and I know things are about to get very real for my ex-friends very fast.