Wanted

31 THE REMAINING PIECES

Spencer lay coughing on the lawn a safe distance away from the house, Melissa out cold next to her. The structure burned steadily, an inferno of yellow and orange. Every so often, a mini explosion spit sparks high into the sky. The upstairs level, where they’d recently been imprisoned, was nothing but a brittle, blazing carcass.

The other girls crawled over to them. “Is everyone okay?” Spencer shouted. Emily nodded. Hanna coughed out a yes. Aria had her face in her hands, but weakly said she was fine. A sharp wind whipped around their faces. It was heavy with the odor of charred wood and dead bodies.

“I can’t get that letter out of my head,” Emily said in a monotone, shivering in her thin sweater. “Ali was so angry at her sister for switching places and sending her away she killed her.”

“Yep,” Spencer said, shifting her weight on the bumpy ground.

“Ian had nothing to do with it. Billy didn’t, either. Ali just needed to pin it on someone. And then she was going to kill us.” It was like Emily needed to say all of this out loud to convince herself that it had really happened.

“It was Courtney who talked to us when we tried to steal her Time Capsule flag. It was the only way to make her parents think she was the sane twin…” Aria said in equal disbelief, wiping soot from her face. “And Courtney picked us at the charity drive because she had to—she couldn’t be friends with Naomi and Riley anymore. She didn’t know them—she only knew us.”

“Naomi and Riley told me Ali ditched them for no reason at all,” Hanna sighed.

Spencer hugged her knees. Another spark rose high in the air. A terrified squirrel skittered down a nearby tree and took off across the lawn. “When Ian came to my porch, he said he was on the verge of figuring out a crazy secret that would turn Rosewood upside-down. He must have known that Courtney had been home that weekend.”

“And Ali must have known we’d think Jason or Wilden set that fire,” Hanna wailed. “Except the fire didn’t go as planned—she got hurt. So she called Wilden, and he whisked her away, thinking she was following her parents’ orders to stay hidden. But really, she left to make us look crazier.”

“And I guess Ali put those pictures on Billy’s laptop,” Spencer continued, wincing as something else inside the house popped and crackled. She checked on Melissa, who held her face in her hands, quietly sobbing. “She was also the one who’d called the cops and tipped them off, saying Billy killed Jenna.”

“But she killed Jenna,” Aria said.

Everyone fell silent. Spencer shut her eyes, trying to imagine Ali taking beautiful, shy, blind Jenna Cavanaugh and throwing her into that ditch. It was too horrible to comprehend.

“Remember that picture A sent Emily of Ali, Courtney, and Jenna together?” Spencer said after a moment. “Jenna was the only person besides Ali’s family and Wilden who knew there were twins. Maybe Jenna suspected the first switch. She met Courtney the same weekend it happened.” She cocked her head. “But why would Ali send us that photo if she didn’t want us to know what Jenna knew?”

“Because she could,” Hanna answered. “Maybe she banked on Jenna never saying anything. And then when it seemed like Jenna might, she…” She trailed off, burying her face in her hands. “You know.”

Melissa lifted up her face with a groan. It was covered with thick stripes of ash and dirt. There was a gash on her shoulder and rope burns on her hands and feet. She smelled like Ian’s rotting flesh. Queasiness roiled in Spencer’s gut.

Spencer reached out to clean a streak of ash from her sister’s hair. Her eyes filled with tears. She couldn’t believe how wrong she’d been about Melissa. How wrong they’d all been. “Why did Ali want to hurt you?”

Melissa propped herself up, shielding her eyes from the bright flames. She coughed, then cleared her throat. “When Jason told me about the twins years ago, he said that Ali and Courtney had no contact whatsoever—that they hated each other.” She gingerly stretched her neck and rolled her shoulders. “So when you told me that Courtney said Ali told her lots of stuff about you guys, I got suspicious.”

There was a crack from inside the house, and the girls instinctively turned away. Part of the second floor collapsed to the ground with a groan. “I talked to Wilden,” Melissa said over the noise. “He said they were a little worried about Courtney when she first came home from the hospital, especially after you guys said you saw Ian’s body. Jason wondered if Courtney had killed Ian in revenge for him killing Ali.”

“She did murder him.” Aria pushed a twig into the soggy dirt. “Though not for revenge.”

The big glass windowpanes in the DiLaurentises’ sunroom popped and shattered. Glass rained onto the lawn, and the girls covered their heads.

“But Courtney had an alibi for that night,” Melissa went on, brushing a piece of blood-soaked hair from her eyes. “And then Billy came along, and suddenly everything seemed to make sense.”

Aria huddled closer to Hanna.

“But when Courtney showed up,” Melissa said, pulling the sleeves of her filthy cashmere sweater over her hands, “I couldn’t stop thinking about all the inconsistencies in Billy’s case.”

The fire crackled for a few moments. Something crashed from behind the house. Emily flinched, and Spencer grabbed her hand.

“I followed Courtney…Ali…a lot,” Melissa admitted. “It wasn’t until I went to the Preserve that I knew for sure what had happened.”

Spencer’s mouth dropped open. The pamphlet of the Preserve she’d seen in Melissa’s room. The appointment with the therapist. “So that’s why you went there?”

A stream of sparks erupted from the top of the house, into the air. “I talked to Ali’s old roommate, Iris,” Melissa said. “And she knew everything—even that you were going to be her roommate, Hanna.”

“Oh God,” Hanna moaned, her shoulders going limp.

Spencer placed her palms on the top of her head. They’d missed so many clues. Ali had set a brilliant trap…and they’d walked right into it. She looked at her sister. “Why didn’t you tell me this stuff about the Preserve earlier?”

“I only went there this morning.” White steam emerged from Melissa’s mouth. It was getting colder out by the second. “I was on my way to the police station afterward, but someone jumped me in the parking lot. When I woke up, I was in the trunk. I recognized Ali’s voice.”

Spencer stared blankly as the old teak swing set behind the house caught fire. Ali must have grabbed Melissa after she came over to Spencer’s to get ready for the dance. She never should have told Ali that Melissa had warned Spencer to keep her distance….

Then another thought struck her. “Did you say Ali threw you into the trunk of her car?”

Melissa nodded, loosening a dry, charred leaf from her matted blond hair.

“You were there on our drive up here,” Spencer gasped, the knobs of her spine pressing into the rough trunk of the tree. “You were with us the whole time.”

“I knew I heard something,” Aria whispered.

They were silent for a few moments, staring dazedly at the house. The fire crackled and hissed. Far off, another sound emerged. It sounded like sirens.

Melissa struggled to stand, still leaning against the big tree. “Can I see the note she wrote you?”

Spencer reached into her hoodie, searching for the letter, but the pockets were empty. She looked at Emily. “Do you have it?”

Emily shook her head. Aria and Hanna looked clueless, too.

Everyone turned to the ruined house. If the note had slipped out of Spencer’s hands, it was nothing but ash now.

Just then, a fire truck screamed up the driveway. Three firemen jumped out and began to unroll the hoses into the lake. A fourth fireman ran to the girls. “Are you okay?” He immediately radioed for an ambulance and the police. “How did this happen?”

Spencer looked at the others. “Someone tried to kill us,” she said. And then she burst into tears.

“Spence,” Emily said, touching Spencer’s shoulder.

“It’s okay,” Aria cooed. Hanna hugged her, too, and so did Melissa.

But Spencer couldn’t stop crying. How had they not suspected Ali was behind this? How had they been so blind? Ali had said a lot of the right things, too—exactly what they all wanted to hear: I missed you guys. I’m so sorry. I want things to change. She’d told Spencer you’re the sister I’ve always wanted. Spencer was putty in her hands. They all were…and they’d all almost died for it.

The fireman slid his walkie-talkie back into his pocket, and the girls broke apart. “The ambulance is on its way,” he said, and beckoned for the girls to follow him.

As they climbed the slope, moving farther from the house, Spencer poked her sister’s arm. “You had to figure this out before me, didn’t you?” she teased, wiping away tears. Leave it to Melissa to one-up her even with this.

Melissa blushed. “I’m just glad you’re okay.”

“I’m glad you’re okay,” Spencer said back.

The smoldering house loomed in the distance. Beds and chairs and dressers crashed through the brittle flooring to the first level, sending up fiery plumes. Emily stared hard at the flames as if searching for something. Spencer touched her arm. “You okay?”

Emily pulled her bottom lip into her mouth. She glanced at the fireman. “There was someone in the house when it exploded. Is there any chance she’s…?”

The fireman stared at the remains of the house and scratched his stubbly chin. He shook his head gravely. “No one could have survived that fire. I’m sorry, girls, but she’s gone.”