“My bet is that this plan of yours has a flaw,” Hannah said. “Just like the plan with the video. It got bigger than you expected, didn’t it?”
“Sure,” Suze said. “I mean, all those hits on the internet? Neither of us could have predicted that. Not to mention the hours of analysis, forcing me to bond with all of the girls. Every whiny, insufferable moment I spent with them made me even more proud of what I’d done—dragging each of them down. But by then, I needed another accomplice.”
“Emily,” JJ said. “You chose Emily because she was the weakest of us all.”
“Wrong,” Suze said. “I chose Emily because she hated her step-father.”
“We set him up,” Emily said with a giggle.
“He never even touched you?” I asked. “And you set him up for rape, kidnapping, and murder?”
“He’s a class-A asshole. Trust me, you don’t need to feel bad for him.” Suze waved a hand in the air, dismissively. “I have to admit, planting clues to frame him for the disappearances of the girls was a stroke of genius. We needed the diversion for the cops, and everything fell into place so smoothly. But we still needed Jude.”
“Your new plan,” I said, my stomach churning at the thought. “The kidnappings.”
“Yes!” Suze snapped her fingers. “You people were getting on my last nerve, so I decided to take a few of you out of play.”
“But she needed my help,” Jude said, circling back to the center of the circle. “No way they could have pulled this off without me.”
“Thing was,” Suze said, kneeling in front of me. “I was pretty sure Jude wouldn’t be down with the kidnappings or my plan for this scavenger hunt. That is until I saw you and Wes sneaking away from the Christmas party. Together.”
“You were there?” I asked. “I didn’t see you—”
“No, I don’t believe you saw anyone that night except for Wes. But I saw you. I followed you upstairs and hid out in the bathroom connected to the hall and Wes’s room. I was worried you’d hear when I jimmied the lock with a hairpin, but I shouldn’t have been. By then, you two were full-on—”
“I felt horrible,” I said, looking right at Jude. “So guilty. I’ve been planning to come clean, to share everything, and—Wait. When did she tell you?”
“Oh, sweetie, I didn’t tell him,” Suze said. “I streamed video to him. Live. It’s like he was right there with me. That’s all it took; Jude snapped. He was in. But he had two conditions.”
It hit me then. How deeply demented Jude really was. “You picked me?” I asked. “For the hunt?”
“Yup.” Jude smiled. “I also picked Wes to take the fall.”
“The rest was cake,” Suze said. “We were three strong with at least one person to stay here at the cabin and guard the girls as we took them, and at least one person to keep an eye on things in town who could report back here once Emily and I were ‘missing’ and couldn’t risk being seen.”
“Your secret rendezvous was perfectly timed,” Emily said. “We couldn’t have done any of this without Jude. He brought us food and all the other stuff we needed. And, of course, he planted the important game pieces—the clues, the bodies, the—”
“I still don’t get it,” Hannah said, her words a challenge.
“What’s there not to get?” Suze asked, waving the gun in the air like it was a lollipop she’d grown bored with. “We just spelled the entire thing out for you.”
“You didn’t. You told us what you did, and how you did it, but not why.” Hannah bit her lip, shaking her head. “I don’t buy it. There’s more than that.”
“The kidnappings,” JJ said. “They staged Emily on a roadside at night, bait for the next person on the list. It worked every time. Leena, Becca, me—we all stopped without thinking, jumping out of our cars to pull her to safety.”
“But they got a little surprise,” Jude said.
“Sure did.” Emily laughed. “I didn’t need saving. They did.”
“One second, I think I’m bringing someone back from the dead,” JJ said, her voice like sandpaper, “the next thing I know, my head feels like it’s been cracked open. Then I’m waking up here, shackled like some animal.”
“Ugh!” Suze spun on her heel and strutted toward the center of the circle, the chains she stepped across rattling as she pointed the gun toward JJ. “You deserve to be treated like an animal with the crap-ass music you and that loser band of yours plays.”
“You’re doing this to me because you don’t like my music?” JJ asked, her mouth dropping open.
“No,” Hannah said. “She’s jealous of your recording contract.”
“As if I have anything to be jealous of?” Suze paced in front of us, the star of the show.
I watched her feet navigate the tangled web of chains crisscrossing the floor, an idea forming as Suze swiveled in front of the fireplace and retraced her steps through the center of the circle.
I tapped my fingernail on the chair, the same rhythm that Hannah had used earlier. She looked at me, her cheek red and swollen from her chin all the way up to her eye. I hated Jude for that. And I would make sure he paid.
I pointed at Suze’s feet as she passed in front of Jude, then thrust my chin toward the chains. Hannah’s eyes narrowed with confusion. I sighed, lifting one foot several inches off the floor. JJ caught the movement, looking from me to Hannah and back again, her eyes popping wide open.
No, JJ mouthed. No-no-no.
Get ready, I mouthed. One shot.
Hannah gave me a single nod, then turned her attention back to Suze.
“You shouldn’t have anything to be jealous of,” Hannah said. “You have everything you ever wanted, just like the rest of the girls.”
“Exactly right,” Suze said, glancing toward Emily, who was now standing halfway between the wall and the circle of chairs, as though she wasn’t quite sure where she belonged.
“And you’re risking it all to prove some point about . . . what again?”
“You need to shut the hell up before you piss me off,” Suze said.
“I don’t think so.” Hannah gave Suze a knowing smirk. “I’m calling you out.”
“You sure?” Suze asked, holding the gun up and pointing it directly between Hannah’s eyes.
Hannah’s body tensed, just slightly, like she finally realized that she was in danger, but she didn’t back down. “The only reason you’re telling us any of this is because you plan to kill us, right? Pin the whole thing on Wes so you can play the victim when the media vultures come calling offering you all kinds of deals. If I’m as good as dead, I might as well say what I think while I still can.”
Suze looked down at Jude, who had propped a foot on the chair next to Wes. “Do you believe this?”
He shrugged. “She’s always been a little feisty.”
“There had to be a trigger,” Hannah said, her voice stronger, louder. “Maybe not for the stupid video. That could have been a serious case of mean girl syndrome. But the rest of it—everything that happened after Winter Break—that stuff was prompted by something bigger.”
Suze shook her head, her eyes flashing with anger.
“What’s your theory?” I asked, my voice shaking a little as I forced the words out, wanting to help Hannah, to take the focus off her for a moment or two.
“It’s pretty simple,” Hannah said, standing from her chair, her chain scraping along the wooden floor as she took three steps toward the fireplace, then turned to face the rest of us. “I’ve been thinking about December—what was happening with each of the girls who were taken—and it hit me.”
“This ought to be brilliant,” Suze said, circling the gun in the air in a hurry-up-already gesture. But her hand was shaking. Hannah was on the right track.
“December is when the cheerleaders found out they were headed to National Championships in Florida, right? Leena Grabman was captain, so their success was hers.”
“That’s the same month my band won the talent show,” JJ said. �
��Part of the prize was a recording contract in Cincinnati. We’d just finished the CD when I was taken.”
“And Becca Hillyer,” Hannah said, “she may have been a train wreck, sleeping with her theater teacher, but in December she found out she’d been accepted to Juilliard. Juilliard of all places. That’s freaking out of control crazy, right?”
Suze shrugged, the gun wavering in her hand. “Whatever you say.”
“Emily was captain of the volleyball team. They’d just won the state championship. And you, Suze. If I remember correctly, you got an acceptance letter of your own.”
“Yeah.” Suze’s face pulled tight, shadows darkening her eyes. I could feel the pressure building.
“Parsons School of Design wanted you.” Hannah clapped her hands, her lips parting in a fake smile. “Which might just have been more impressive than Becca getting into Juilliard.”
“All of the kidnappings, they’re linked by success,” I said. “Each and every girl was celebrating a major victory.”
“Exactly what I was thinking,” Hannah said. “Until I was chained to this chair and had a chance to think, and I realized that part was wrong. They weren’t all celebrating. Someone had been lying.”
“Shut up,” Suze said. “Just shut the—”
“If you’d gotten into Parsons, there’s no way you would have gone this far. Kidnapping? Murder?”
“Murder wasn’t part of the original plan,” Suze said. “As the girls were brought in, they woke up to find Emily, and eventually me, chained alongside them. They thought we were victims, too. Until Jude, our masked kidnapper, screwed up and said too much. When Leena figured out who he was, all of the girls started making threats. They had to be eliminated before we could go back to our lives. If it wasn’t for them being so nosy—so freaking mouthy—we might have all made it out alive.”
“That’s sick,” Hannah said. “Beyond disturbing. But still, you wouldn’t have done this if you had a future. Which means there never was an acceptance to Parsons. You’ll never have a clothing line, there will be no future buyers, no promise to show at fashion week.”
“You’re wrong,” Suze said. “This will put me in the spotlight. There’ll be front page headlines about the victims of the Bakersville case. I’ll be a hero.”
“No way you covered all your tracks,” Hannah said. “They’ll find out you’re behind this. And then you’ll have nothing that you’d dreamed for your life.”
Hannah kept talking, but as soon as Suze started moving, I blocked everything out, focusing on her feet step-step-stepping across the floor. Time seemed to slow, but I knew she was moving fast, charging toward Hannah with that gun sighted on Hannah’s face.
I held my breath.
Focused everything on calculating time and distance and the rate of propulsion.
I had to get this right. For all of us, but especially Wes. He hadn’t moved since I’d regained consciousness. I was terrified of what that could mean.
When she was a half-step away, I jerked my foot up to the seat of my chair, wrapping my fingers around the cold metal linking me to the floor, and pulled the chain taut. It caught Suze’s ankles perfectly, and she faltered. I swiveled in my chair, sweeping her feet out from under her.
Suze spiraled through the air, arms flung wide, her face a mask of surprise. Hannah tried to duck out of the way, but she had reached the end of her chain, and went down when Suze toppled into her.
And then they were both on the floor, a writhing mass of arms and legs, twisting and shifting in the center of that circle, the gun peeking out every few seconds.
I slipped to the floor, crawling on my hands and knees, and locked my hand on Suze’s foot as she tried to pull away from Hannah. But then I felt myself slide backward, a vice-like pressure wrapped around my leg, dragging me across the floor. I kicked, screaming Hannah’s name because I couldn’t believe that after everything that had happened, I couldn’t help her. That got JJ moving—she lunged off of her chair, landing directly on Suze, grabbing her braid and jerking so hard I thought her hair might tear free from her head.
The pressure on my leg tightened. With Hannah and JJ working together, I flipped to my back. Jude was on the floor, reared up on his knees as he yanked my leg, pulling me toward him. His face was blotchy red, his lips pulled back in a snarl, and I wondered for a moment if I was about to be killed by the guy I had spent nearly a year dating.
“You have any regrets?” Jude demanded. “The way you played me? The way you strung me along?”
I had screwed everything up and I might never have the chance to make it right again.
But then he was there, Wes—complicated, confusing, perfect Wes—looming just behind Jude, blood still spilling from the gash just above his hairline, arms raised, the chair that had been next to him arcing silently through the air.
“Jude, watch out!” Emily screamed, her words reverberating off the walls.
But she was too late. The chair crashed into Jude’s head and he collapsed on top of me, a dead weight that I couldn’t escape until Wes rolled him onto his side.
I heard the grunts of Hannah and Suze and JJ struggling behind me, and I wanted to turn and help Hannah finish what I’d started. But I had to keep track of Emily, who was standing over Jude’s body, her eyes wild, the knife I had seen on the table clutched to her chest.
“This isn’t right,” Emily yelled. “This isn’t how it was supposed to go.”
And then the cabin echoed with the deafening explosion of the gun.
CHAPTER 35
11:17 PM
I looked to the pile of girls on the floor in front of the fireplace. The stone was spattered with dark spots. I didn’t understand where they could have come from until I noticed a puddle of blood forming on the floor, creeping its way toward me.
A scream tore through the cabin—Hannah!—my voice razor sharp, mixing in with the echo of that gunshot.
I stared, eyes blinking furiously, waiting for Hannah to pop up and toss some smart-ass comment my way. But none of them moved.
For a moment, there was only silence.
Then thunder shook the ground, and the cabin’s door burst open.
“Police!” a deep voice shouted, followed by the crack of the door striking the inside wall. “Everybody on the floor!”
Wes dropped to the floor, shoving Jude to the side before lying next to me.
Men wearing riot gear poured into the room, weapons aimed.
“Get down!” the voices shouted. “Keep your hands where we can see them!”
Emily screamed, throwing the knife to the floor and flinging herself at one of the men. “I’m Emily Simms,” she shouted, her voice wild, her fingers ripping through her hair. “They took me. Kept me here. I just want to go home. Can you please take me home?”
The man tucked his rifle against his side, then wrapped an arm around Emily. Her body shuddered with deep, guttural sobs as he ushered her out the door.
“Drop your weapon,” another voice called, each word rolling away from him like a heavy stone.
I turned back to the girls and the fireplace. From my spot, face-down on the ground, I saw a sticky pool of blood seeping into the imperfections of the wood, sealing the cracks between the floorboards. A body lay crumpled against the stones of the hearth, and I knew in an instant that it was JJ. She was silent, pale, and very still.
I saw someone else, too, stepping just between us.
She stood solid, her feet planted firmly on the ground.
As my eyes traveled up the curves of her legs, my heart raced.
“I order you,” the voice shouted again. “Drop. Your. Weapon.”
I lifted my head higher, taking in the entire scene: Suze and Hannah were still facing off, the gun between them, its barrel inches from Hannah’s face.
“You didn’t even belong here,” Suze yelled, her voice shaking. “You screwed up my entire plan. I was going to be famous. Everyone was going to know my name, my story! All of them were going to
be talking about my designs!”
“Little secret, Suze,” I said, my voice strong, pulling her attention from Hannah, but just barely. My heart hammered as I watched the gun, which hadn’t moved an inch. “Your designs really aren’t all that good.”
Face pinched with outrage, her hips twisted away from Hannah. Mad determination glowed in her eyes as she swung her arm around toward me, gun slicing through the air.
Then I heard the shot, felt the blast in my chest, the way the bass drums had vibrated every inch of me during the Last Day Ceremony, only deeper to my core.
Suze flew back, a slow-motion spiral, her arms flinging as she fell to the ground. Her head bounced once off the wooden floor, eyes wide open as she came to a rest next to the splayed fingers of JJ’s right hand.
“Hannah!” I shouted, pushing off the ground with my hands, dragging the chain behind me as I raced toward my friend and pulled her into a hug. “I thought she was going to kill you.”
Hannah grabbed onto me. “That chick was seriously messed up.”
I squeezed her tighter. “Are you okay?”
“I don’t know yet,” she said. “What about Wes?”
I turned and saw a string of men in black traipsing into the cabin, two of them helping Jude stand before leading him outside. A few of them dropped to the floor, checking both JJ and Suze for a pulse, staunching the flow of blood of one, closing the eyes of the other.
But none of that seemed to register. All I could see was Wes, his face so pale it was practically translucent, eyes rolled back, body stiff, jerking spastically.
I dropped to the floor, scrambling closer to grab his hand and slide his head onto my lap.
“Wes!” I shouted, pressing my hand against his cheek. “Wes!”
And then there was another voice, mixing with my own, coming from outside.
“That guy right there just said all clear. You need to get out of the way.”
“This is a crime scene. I cannot let the three of you—”
“It’s a crime scene you would know nothing about if it weren’t for me, Tiny. My sister is in there! Let us through, or we’ll find another way in.”
The Bakersville Dozen Page 21
