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The words whispered through Sadie’s mind. Eddie’s voice, his words. Had he said this to her about Isabella? Or had he been speaking of someone else?
Devlin’s cell vibrated in her hand. She answered. Listened for a few seconds, then said, “I’ll be right there.” She put her phone away. “I have to go. My daughter needs me.”
“Thanks for giving me a ride,” Sadie managed to say without her voice breaking.
Devlin paused at the door. “Like I said last night, anything you can do to help is greatly appreciated.”
Sadie nodded. “Yeah.”
Devlin left.
All this talk about Alice being Isabella was nothing more than speculation, a potential scenario. A theory. Sadie couldn’t be sure. Maybe her mind was playing tricks on her again. That happened sometimes. Okay, more than sometimes.
But the photos on Devlin’s phone were real. The drawings belonged to Alice Cortez. Dark. Sinister. Those drawings were way too similar to ones Sadie had seen before ... in that shack or shed at the Osorio compound. The shaking started deep inside Sadie and spread outward, through her limbs.
The place the masked child had led her into the night of that party.
33
4:15 p.m.
Devlin Residence
Twenty-First Avenue South
Birmingham
“Please, Tori,” Kerri pleaded, “tell me if there’s anything else we need to talk about? I can’t help if I don’t know.”
Tori sat on the sofa, her elbows resting on her knees, her face in her hands. Kerri had never seen her so desolate. To say she looked as if she’d lost her best friend was the understatement of the century. Shehadlost her best friend as surely as if she had died, but this went well beyond that kind of loss and pain.
This was the agony of betrayal. The level of betrayal only a best friend could wield.
Tori leaned back against the sofa. “They all believe her. And why wouldn’t they? We’ve been friends forever.” Her eyes closed in misery. “I just can’t imagine why she said such a thing.”
“Did Sarah ever talk to you about wanting to hurt Brendal? Or to Alice that you know of?”
Tori moved her head side to side. “She said she hated her. We all said that at one time or another. You know when you get angry, you say things you don’t really mean. At least not completely.”
Kerri nodded. Her back to the arm of the sofa, she pulled one knee under her so she could sit facing Tori. “I know exactly what you mean. There was someone in my freshman class who made me feel that exact same way.” Kerri sighed as the memories instantly tumbled into her mind. “My sort-of-hate girl was Lola Gray.”
“Lola?” Tori’s lips twitched as if she might smile. “Are you talking about Piper Knox’s mom?”
“She was a Gray back then,” Kerri admitted. “She was the mean girl that year. She’d come into her more grown-up assets earlier than most of us, and she had perfect skin and perfect teeth—no braces required. She lived to make the rest of us girls feel inferior—which was completely unnecessary, because we already did.”
“But she didn’t die.” Tori’s face fell. “And your best friend didn’t finger you for pushing her down the stairs.”
“No. But I did play a dirty trick on her once.” Kerri had never admitted this to anyone. Ever. Not even Diana or Jen.
Tori’s eyes widened in disbelief. “What did you do?”
“We were seated on the bleachers awaiting the start of the pep rally. Lola was on the row above me, her feet sort of between me and the girl next to me. Lola was always so full of herself and bragging to anyone around her that she never noticed me fiddling with her sneaker laces.”
“You did not?” Tori said in disbelief, her eyes even wider now.
“I did. I tied those suckers together. When the pep rally was over and it was our turn to leave, she took a tumble. She busted her lip and hit her nose, so there was lots of blood. Scared the heck out of me. Luckily there were no serious injuries. She was, at least temporarily, mortified with the swelling and bruising.”
“Did you feel like you’d made her pay just a little?” Tori asked, her eyes closely searching her mother’s.
