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“Why would anyone want to do that though?” She lowered her voice even more. “We all used to drink in that house. It was so boring and stupid, but we hung around there after dark in the summer. Everybody went. We haven’t gone in ages. Last time was before you came or you would totally have been invited.”
I was sure.
She shivered. “What if somebody is trying to make it look like me? Could anybody hate me that much?”
I stared at her trembling fingers holding on to my sleeve. She was connected to all of the incidents in some way. What did that even mean?
Soon after, Mam and I were called into a small room where I was made to go over every incident a couple of times. They forced me to sign a new statement, and I was thoroughly exhausted by the time it was all over.
“This had better be it,” Mam said sharply to the female police officer escorting us out of the room afterwards. “This is veering too close to harassment now.”
The woman looked as exhausted as I felt. “We just want to find out what’s going on before anybody gets hurt.”
“It’s all right,” I said. “Emma and I want to know the truth, too.”
She didn’t react to Emma’s name, but the more I thought about it, the more sure I was of Emma’s innocence. There had to be something I could do to help her.
I had arranged a study session with Victor and Alison who sometimes joined us, but really, I wanted to talk about Emma.
“What do you two think about the fires?” I asked them. “The police think Emma has something to do with it, but I don’t believe that.”
“She’s too dumb to do something like that,” Alison said, surprising me. Usually, talking to her was like trying to draw blood from a stone. “But she’s not dumb enough to get caught so hard.”
“Yeah,” Victor said. “Somebody could be trying to set her up. She is kind of annoying.”
“Annoying enough to kill people over?” It didn’t sit right with me. “Next time there’s a fire, can’t you two try to track down any suspicious scents or whatever?”
“We’re not Dorian,” Alison said. “He’s the tracker.”
“He’s not here,” Victor said. “So we have to step up. That’s how it works.”
She made a face. “Whatever. I’ll do it, but I don’t know what I’m even looking for.”
“Me either,” I admitted. “You could watch out for anyone acting suspiciously.”
“We should talk to Nathan,” Alison said.
Victor snorted. “You can’t even speak when he’s around.”
She glared at him before gesturing towards me. “Margo can do it. Talk to his mate. She’ll make sure he does something.” She looked at Victor when he started to protest. “We’re not supposed to do things by ourselves anymore. You know that.”
“Yeah, but who’s going to pay attention to us if we poke around?” I said. “It’ll be easier for us to spot something off than the adults right now. Besides, we’re practically adults ourselves. Dorian’s already eighteen.”
They exchanged a worried glance.
“Look,” I said. “The police might think Emma is doing this, but if they find evidence that makes them sure she’s innocent, they’re going to look to the pack. When they talked to me, they brought up Byron a bunch of times.”
“Easy way out for them,” Victor said. “We’ll do what we can, but you need to talk to the hot one, too. Get her to keep Emma out of trouble for a while. If she sticks to her side like glue, she’ll be her alibi.”
“The hot one?”
“Chloe,” both Victor and Alison said in unison before glaring at each other. She dropped her gaze first.
“Okaaay,” I said. “I’ll give her a heads up. Would it be all right if I invited them to study? That way, Perdita will be her alibi, and that might be taken a bit more seriously than her best friend.”
They both readily agreed, and I felt better. With all of us together, we might figure out who could be setting Emma up. It was great to have a distraction from my own troubles.
