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I saw Angelina in the front seat, her teal hair now dyed with black tips, and when I got in the back, I scooted inside beside Cherith, who looked doubly strange wearing all dark clothes. Her long blond hair was braided in a single thick braid, and she’d taken out her silver nose ring.
No one said anything for a while, not even a hello. It was only as Kaity started to drive us away from the house that Angelina muttered, “I’ve never been this close to Montgomery Manor before. It’s even bigger up-close.” The car fell silent after that, and that silence lasted a good minute or two.
Kaity was the one who broke the silence next by saying something to me, something the others were probably both thinking as well: “I heard Gareth got arrested. They’re saying he might’ve had something to do with the fire at the old Banks house.”
“What Kaity means is,” Angelina said, turning around in the front seat to stare at me in the back, “did Gareth do it? Did he kill Neo and set that fire? And if he did… why? And, if he did all that, did he kill Erin and her parents, too?”
I didn’t know how they heard about all that, but it didn’t matter, because absolutely none of it was true. Still, they didn’t know that, and I couldn’t exactly tell them why I knew for a fact Gareth hadn’t done any of it. All I could say was, “I think it’s a mix-up.”
Kaity’s eyes were on me in the rearview mirror, her glasses heavy on her nose. “You always hated Gareth. You were on my side when we were trying to convince Erin not to talk to him. I don’t think it’s a coincidence that, right after she started talking to him, she went missing. I think Gareth’s involved in all of it, and I don’t know why you’d defend him.”
All eyes were now on me, minus Kaity’s, since she was driving—or maybe they’d been on me this whole time. It occurred to me then that they’d probably all talked about this on the way to pick me up, maybe even earlier. Maybe offering to come get me was their way of trying to worm the truth out of me, to see if I knew any details and was hiding something.
“Gareth is a world-class jerk,” I stated, refusing to let these three girls trip me up. “I’m not his biggest fan. But I don’t think he’s capable of doing any of that.” God, it was hard to say that so confidently, to lie to these girls like this, but the truth was far uglier than they could ever know. Sometimes ignorance was bliss.
“Well, until there’s a break in the case, I’m going to continue thinking it’s Gareth,” Kaity spoke, and Angelina and Cherith nodded with her. “You can do whatever you want, but just know that hiding things from law enforcement during criminal investigations is also a crime. Your new stepdaddy has money, but sometimes, even loads of money can’t help.”
So that was how it was going to be, huh? These girls were going to basically ice me out until this was over, until Gareth’s innocence was proven.
Fine. Let them go on and think whatever they wanted. The truth was messy, and they weren’t ready to hear it. They never would. The closest thing to the truth they’d get is when we nailed Brett Banks for the crimes.
And we would. God, we’d take that asshole down. Gareth didn’t kill Neo. I did, and if I had to, I’d fucking kill again.
We arrived at the school, though we weren’t the first ones there. The back parking lot was still cordoned off, but there was ample parking in front of the school and on the side. Kaity, Angelina, and Cherith all huddled together as we walked to the football field, leaving me to walk behind them, by myself.
They didn’t trust me. I was still the new girl, the outsider, another Montgomery even though I’d constantly told everyone I was a Dent. I never wanted to be a Montgomery. The last name, the money, the respect that only came with power… none of it was mine, and I didn’t care to keep it.
The men, on the other hand, were a different story.
We arrived at the football field to find someone had started to set up a makeshift memorial on a small stage that had been brought into the center of the grassy field. Kaity and the others went to help, while I meandered to the bleachers and took a seat.
Night fell as time crept by slowly, and more and more people showed up. A local company had donated fake candles, and Kaity and her friends helped hand them out to everyone. Funnily enough, they skipped over me.
Maybe they blamed me for all of it. I came to Eastcreek and everything turned to shit.
Once the crowd had thickened, taking up damn near the whole football field, I got to my feet and started to circle the crowd. A lot of students who’d never known Erin that well came, along with their families and other people from Eastcreek I didn’t recognize.
Someone took the stage and started to talk about Erin and her parents, a middle-aged woman who shortly introduced herself as Erin’s aunt. Though I wasn’t close to the platform, I could see her red hair, and I’d bet anything her skin was full of freckles, like Erin’s had been.
“Erin was…” Her aunt paused, giving a sorrowful smile to the crowd. “A beautiful soul. She loved musicals and the color green. She wanted to go to college and major in—” It was like she was just listing off facts about Erin, and I wondered if she’d do the same thing for Erin’s parents.
Kaity and the others were close to the platform, standing there and hugging their fake candles close to their chests. I couldn’t see their faces, but I’d bet anything they were crying, or close to it. A thing like this, a candlelight vigil for one of your best friends and her family, was something that brought the emotion out of you.
I lost track of time. Eventually Erin’s aunt stepped off the platform so someone else could come on the stage—an elderly man wearing all black, save for a little white square in front of his neck. A priest. He carried a small bible and flipped it open, and he started to read a passage.
Almost everyone bowed their heads in respect to the priest and his reading, but I didn’t. I stared at the man in black, wishing religion could make me feel better. The hard truth was, nothing in this world would make me feel better, not about myself, not about the things I was capable of, and not about what I wanted to do to Brett in retaliation for all the harm he’d caused by doing what he did.
As it turned out, I was wrong. My concerns about Brett going after Rick or Alistair tonight were pointless, because the man of the hour himself suddenly appeared by my side, holding a fake candle and staring up at the priest, much like I did, before he showed up.
Brett’s voice was low, “You know, I never understood the big deal about religion. Is it because we’re the only living things who are constantly aware of our impending death? Is that why it’s so appealing to the masses? Life after death. Don’t know who’d want that. Isn’t one life enough?”
He turned his blond head and looked at me, his eyes dropping to see my empty hands. “What? No candle? Brianna, that’s kind of rude, isn’t it? This is a vigil for your friend, you know.” Even as he said it, the corners of his mouth curled upward in a smile.
God, how I wanted to wipe that smile off his face. “You know what I think is rude?” I asked, my voice low. We stood in the back of the crowd, but the people in front of us had already turned and shot us glares.
“Talking during the sermon?” Brett asked, his smile widening.
I couldn’t take it anymore. That smile, the smug look, like he thought he had it all worked out. I reached for the small LED candle he held onto and tore it out of his grasp. After throwing it on the ground, I leaned into him and whispered, “Coming here when you mutilated them and left them as presents for the world to find.”
