Page 88 of Stay Away from Him

The officer looked down at his notepad, then read out a description.

It sounded like Thomas’s car. The one Rhiannon was driving.

“I don’t—I don’t understand.”

He looked away, already writing Melissa off. The officer with the mustache kept looking at her, but there was a pained look on his face, like he was embarrassed for her, or worried about her. Like he thought she was just a crazy woman who’d been through a shock. Someone who was not thinking straight. Someone who didn’t have any information—someone who couldn’t help.

“Look,” he said. “We’re going to need your contact information, to take your statement on all this later. But we’re going to be a while here. Can you get yourself home? Is there anyone you could call to come and get you?”

Melissa’s mind drifted back to Bradley, who’d been all day without her at Lawrence and Toby’s house. Safe, but probably wondering where she was. Meanwhile, she hadn’t had a bite to eat since breakfast. She gave the officer her contact information, then went to her car. There she found her phone on the center console, screen lit up with messages she missed when she ran in the house to find Kelli dead. Each message was from Amelia.

Where are you

You have to get back to Thomas’s house

It’s Rhiannon

I know who killed Rose

Where are you? Are you okay? Please tell me you’re getting these.

***

There was a crowd outside Thomas’s house. Three news vans, reporters, cameramen, and a crowd come to gawk. Some held signs:Murderer, Justice for Rose. Instead of turning in, Melissa drove past the cul-de-sac, parked on the street. Then she snuck across a few backyards, crossing Amelia’s before coming to Thomas’s house and entering by the back way.

She found them in the living room. Rhiannon on the couch, her face red with crying, Amelia pacing, hands to her forehead. Her arms dropped when she saw Melissa, and she let out a breath.

“There you are.”

Melissa stared at Rhiannon, who seemed to shrink under her gaze. “It was you,” Melissa said. “You killed her. Both of them. Kelli and Rose.”

The girl’s face crumpled, turned inward on itself. She didn’t say anything.

“Melissa, no,” Amelia said, and took a step toward Melissa. “You’re not thinking straight.”

Melissa’s eyes snapped to Amelia. “What are you talking about? She was just spotted at a murder scene.”

“It wasn’t me!” Rhiannon shouted from the couch. “I only found her. I was too late. Just like you.”

“Then who?”

Amelia walked to the coffee table, picked up a leather bound book, navy blue, with a ribbon tucked between its pages halfway through. She handed it to Melissa.

“What’s this?”

“Rose’s diary,” Amelia said.

“She kept a diary?” Melissa asked. “Why didn’t the police find it?”

“Rhiannon had it.” Amelia looked at her with an expression that mingled accusation and admiration. “She was hiding it.”

“What does it say?” Melissa held it out in front of her, justlooking at it. There was an elastic clasp looped around it. She was almost afraid to undo it and open the pages.

“Just read the last entry. It wasn’t Rhiannon.”

Amelia reached out and pushed the diary closer to Melissa’s body.

“It was Kendall.”

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