Private 8 - Revelation (21 page)

I could tell by the twinkle in her eye that she didn't believe that Ariana was really behind this--that she was just joking around. But I didn't like it. The girl had tried to toss me off the roof of Billings last December. That wasn't something I was ready to joke about.

"What if she's on campus somewhere this very second?" Ivy suggested.

222 With a rush of fresh fear, I recalled those few times early in the semester when I had felt like I was being watched. When I could have sworn I had seen a pair of cold blue eyes staring at me from the stacks in the library, but when I went to investigate, no one was there. Leaving all those things in my room, sending that e-mail... those were exactly the kinds of insane things that Ariana might do.

But it wasn't possible. She was safely locked away. Far away.

"Stranger things have happened, right?" Ivy said, loving her spooky conspiracy theory.

"Can I ask you a question?" I blurted.

"Sure."

"Why the hell did you have that picture above your bed?" I said, turning sideways in my chair. "I mean, you hated Noelle and Ariana, looking at Cheyenne's face every day couldn't have been fun, and it was taken on basically the worst day of your life."

Ivy arched one perfect eyebrow. "You have done your homework." She looked down and picked an invisible piece of lint from her skirt, flicking it on the floor. "I kept that picture for two reasons. One, I actually had a good time that day, cleaning up the park. We all did. It's the last good memory I have of Cheyenne, and even of... the other two." A blush lit her face for a brief moment and she looked me in the eye. "And two, every time I looked at it, it reminded me that no matter how much fun you have with people, they can turn on you in a second."

Her comment hit my heart with the force of a gunshot. She was right, after all. The Billings Girls had turned on me just like that. But

223 then, I had done something awful to one of our own. Ivy had never done anything to hurt anyone.

Unreal. Ivy was actually more innocent than I was.

"Maybe we should get back to what we were doing," I suggested.

"Works for me," Ivy replied, crossing her arms over her chest. "So you looked into some of the Billings Girls, but not all."

"Why would I look into all of them? " I asked, my face screwing up in consternation. "Some of them have no motive whatsoever."

"Oh, I don't know, because they all had the opportunity?" Ivy suggested with a shrug. "Better opportunity than anyone else. I mean, when it comes down to it, the obvious choice is someone who lives in Billings. A random stranger would have a tough time breaking in there in the middle of the night without any of you guys noticing."

"They wouldn't have to break in. It's pretty easy to get a key card for any dorm on campus," I said.

"I know this. All you've gotta do is get into that lockbox in Ms. Lewis's desk," Ivy said. "But- -"

"How do you know about that?" I interrupted.

"It was one of our 'tasks' for Billings," Ivy replied, tossing in some air quotes. "We had to make Ketlar keys for all the sisters. It was the easiest thing they had us do. But even if someone had a key, it's not like you guys wouldn't notice that person didn't belong in your dorm. There are only sixteen of you." I hated to admit it, but the girl had a point.

"I say we check out all the Billings Girls," Ivy added. "Especially considering we have no other suspects at the moment."

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Honestly, it seemed like a wise idea, even though I wouldn't be sharing that thought with Ivy. After all, Ariana had been one of my best friends, and I never would have suspected her of Thomas's murder. Never in a million years. So wasn't it just as possible that there was someone else inside Billings who seemed just as innocent, but was capable of horrible things?

"Damn, I wish I still had that disc," I said under my breath, leaning my elbow on the desk.

"What disc?" Ivy asked.

I hesitated for a second but realized there was no point in keeping the disc a secret from her. We were supposed to be partners here. And besides, there was no chance of her ever seeing what had been in those secret files. The disc was long gone. I took a deep breath and turned in my seat, lacing my fingers together between my knees.

"I used to have this disc with all this insider info on all the girls in Billings," I told her. "They gave it to me when I was president. I don't really know why, but... Well, anyway, I destroyed it."

"What? Why?" Ivy asked.

"Because I didn't want to have to give it to Noelle, basically," I replied. "It was a whole saving-face thing." "And you never made a copy?" Ivy said.

"No," I replied, embarrassed once again by my lack of forethought.

"Good thinking, genius girl," she said, getting up.

My face flushed with heat and I actually wanted to pull her hair. Working with her was not going to be easy.

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"Did you ever even look at it?"

"Yeah, once. I looked up myself."

"Nice." Ivy rolled her eyes. "On that computer?"

"Only one I got," I said, wondering where this was going.

"Here," she said, gesturing at me to move from my chair. "Let me try something."

She had to be kidding. Like I was going to let her on my computer? Ivy rolled her eyes.

"God, you really are paranoid, aren't you? I'm not going to do anything to it," she said condescendingly. "I just want to see something. You can watch every keystroke, I promise." She was already trying to sit down and if I didn't move, she was going to end up half on my lap. I slid out of there as quickly as I could and stepped back. Ivy opened a couple of windows and double clicked on a file marked "Temporary Files."

"Et voila!" she said happily, lifting a hand.I looked over her shoulder. One of the files near the top was titled "Current Billings Residents."

"No way," I said, leaning over her to click it open. Sure enough, all the files were there, from Noelle on down to me.

"Computers hold whatever files you open for, like, ever as long as you don't delete them," Ivy said, getting up again and pulling the chair out for me. "I'm constantly amazed by how many people don't know that."

I ignored her dig at my lack of computer savvy. My heart was pounding too hard. All this time, all the info I was wishing I still

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had had been right on my computer. I should have teamed up with Pemberly's resident computer genius sooner.

Not that it ever would have crossed my mind.

"So, where should we start?" Ivy asked, practically salivating to uncover all the sordid details of the Billings Girls' lives. So predictable.

"Let's start with Cheyenne," I suggested, clicking open her file. I had never had the guts to look at it before, feeling as if it was somehow wrong to look into the secrets of the dead. But now I had to believe she would have wanted us to check it out--that she would have wanted us to discover who had murdered her and to make sure that person was punished. "Makes sense, right? Maybe there's something in her file that neither of us knows about." "Right," Ivy said. But I could tell she was disappointed. Noelle's file was probably calling out to her like the Holy Grail.

Cheyenne's file was longer than any of the others I had looked at. I quickly scrolled through the basic details of her life--her parents' current spouses and former lovers. Their jobs and incomes. Their real estate holdings. Cheyenne's vitals like birth date, hobbies, awards won. The lists were huge. Cheyenne was every bit the overachiever she had always presented herself to be. And then came the list of significant relationships.

"Holy crap," I said as Ivy whistled.

"I knew she was active, but not that active," Ivy said.

The list went on for days. Names and dates. Some of the names had several dates next to them, indicating that Cheyenne had broken up and gotten back together with a guy several times. Many

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of the dates overlapped. Some of the names were familiar, like Trey Prescott, Ennis Thatcher from Barton, and Daniel Ryan, who'd graduated from Easton a couple years ago. Dominic was on there, as was Gage. There were names of a few other guys from school, and then a ton I didn't recognize. I scrolled through quickly, not knowing what to think. How could a girl my age possibly have gone through so many--

"Stop!" Ivy shouted suddenly.

I jumped out of my skin. "What?"

"Go back," she said. "God, give me a heart attack."

"Whatever, drama queen," Ivy said, rolling her eyes. "Scroll back up."

Fingers shaking, I did as I was told.

"There." Ivy pointed and squinted as she leaned so close to my shoulder that her long hair brushed my cheek. "Does that say Dustin Carmichael?"

My eyes fell on the name, but it took a second for my brain to catch up. When it did, my breath caught in my throat.

"Dustin Carmichael? As in..."

"Amberly's dad," we said in unison.

"Ew!" Ivy proclaimed, stepping back. Her face scrunched up with disgust. "The guy's, like, forty!"

I felt bile rise up in my throat and swallowed it back, trying to focus. I stared at the dates next to his name. They covered the two weeks right before school had started. For two weeks, apparently, Cheyenne had somehow conducted a fling with Amberly's father.

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"I mean, I know he's like one of the top five wealthiest men in the world, but still," Ivy was saying. "Do you think the two of them--" "Ivy, shut up a second," I said, my mind racing as I turned sideways in my seat.

"Pardon me?" she replied, annoyed.

"Forget about how gross it is and focus," I said, staring up at her. "Cheyenne had an affair with Amberly's dad. Right before school started. Like, three or four weeks before Cheyenne was killed."

Realization lit Ivy's face. "You don't think that little tartlet could have--"

"Why not? It's a motive," I said, standing up. "Maybe she found out about it and went into a rage. Plus, as we all know, Cheyenne's death left an opening for Noelle to come back, which Amberly definitely wanted. She always made a point of telling everyone that she and Noelle were old friends. Maybe she figured that if Noelle came back and took over Billings, she had a shot at getting in."

"Which is exactly what's happened," Ivy said, her eyes wide.

I felt a jolt of electricity between us. "I knew it! I knew there was something off about that girl. This is why she wanted the disc so badly! She was worried I might find out about her dad and Cheyenne! She was only trying to protect herself."

"Wait. What do you mean she wanted the disc?" Ivy asked.

"I told Noelle I had a copy of this, just to scare her," I said, gesturing at the computer. "Amberly overheard and demanded I give it to her, and when I didn't, she totally trashed my room looking for it."

"Oh my God," Ivy said, paling. "She is a psycho. Although she's

229 not the only person I know who's been breaking into other people's rooms," she added with a knowing glance.

"You're hilarious," I said sarcastically.

Ivy smirked. "But wait," she said, snatching my suspect list off my desk. "You had Amberly on here but crossed her out. Why?"

I blinked at the list. Amberly's name had been hastily added after I noticed her Ariana- esque transformation, then slashed after I had talked to her friends. "Right. Because her roommates gave her an alibi."

"Was it solid?" Ivy asked, gripping the page in both hands.

I tried to recall every detail of my bathroom tete-a-tete with Lara and Kirsten. How Kirsten had thought Amberly had returned to their room at the "ass crack of dawn," and how Lara had quickly corrected her, saying it was still dark out.

"No. That girl Lara was definitely covering something up. Dammit!" I said, my foot stomping of its own accord. "I knew it. I knew I should have pressed her."

I closed my eyes tightly and brought my hand to my head. I had been onto Amberly days ago and I had just let it go based on the crap ass story of some conniving frosh. She could have easily been lying about the timing of Amberly's return to their room that night. And if she was, it all added up. It all made sense.

"Do you think she's our stalker, too?" Ivy asked.

I had to blink a few times for her to come into focus again. For a moment I had entirely spaced on the stalker aspect of this whole thing. "I don't know." 230

"Think about it. She kills Cheyenne, then tries to drive you crazy over it, blaming it all on you and leaving all those sadistic little gifties."

I had related all the details of my stalking to Ivy the night before, after we had made our pact. She had been, much to my satisfaction, appropriately appalled by all of it. Apparently the girl had a human side after all.

"Maybe she thought you wouldn't be able to handle it and would move out of Billings," Ivy theorized. "Once Noelle was back, she was trying to create a place for herself in the dorm. Which she also succeeded in doing."

"Plus, by getting rid of me, she could move in as Noelle's new best friend," I said slowly. "And I'm sure her new best friend told her what all the Billings Girls made me do for initiation last year. I can't believe this."

I felt suddenly faint and had to sit down on the edge of my bed. She was right. That crazy beyotch was living in my room, sleeping in my bed, using my private bathroom.

Oh my God. All this time Sabine had been rooming with a psycho.

"But what about the X'd-out photo in your room?" I asked Ivy.

"Obviously she planted it there, trying to pin the whole thing on me," Ivy said, lifting a hand as she paced my tiny room. "Which also worked for a few hours. Damn, this girl is good."

All the pieces of this massively distorted puzzle were finally fitting together. "I can't believe I didn't see this before," I mused.

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"It doesn't matter. What matters is, we see it now," Ivy said. "So what are we going to do about it?"

"We need proof," I said firmly. "Something concrete we can take to Hauer. After what happened yesterday he's never going to believe us on our word alone."

Ivy smirked. "Well, lucky for us the entire dorm will be deserted tonight."