Page 22 of It's One of Us
The group is buzzing. Her private messages are full. She goes immediately to the last one, the only other kid in Nashville—the rest are spread around the South, mostly, with a few off in other parts of the country. It’s weird to think she has a sister in town she’s never met. They’d talked about meeting up, revealing their real identities, but neither had gotten up the guts yet. Now, though, she needs to reach out and find out what’s going on.
Jezebelle:It’s one of us.
Jezebelle:Man, I drop a bomb and you ghost me.
Scarlett types quickly, thumbs flying over the screen.
Scarfly414:Sorry, mom came home early. I’m totally weirded out about one of the halves being a killer. How did you find out?
Sits for a minute, chewing a nail, waiting.
Jezebelle:Mom works for Metro labs. There was a match to our dad. Don’t tell anyone.
Scarfly414:Wait, so your mom knows you know?
Jezebelle:No. I was snooping. I have a flag on her account so I can see any activity that might match our DNA. Wrote the code myself. She has no idea. Though now...
Before J can answer, a message pops up from a strange account, one she doesn’t recognize.
Hello Scarfly414. This is your mother. We’ll discuss this when you get home. Straight home from school, do you hear me?
“Oh, shit!”
Not only has her mom found her private account, she’s read every message that’s come through. She knows everything that’s being said.
She knows that one of the siblings is a killer.
It’s not like Scarlett was going to be able to hide this anyway, not with that kind of news. But damn, her mom will go ballistic.
The bell rings. She needs to get to chemistry.
Scarfly414:JZ, I think I’m busted. Talk later?
Jezebelle:Yeah.
Scarlett scrolls quickly through the rest of her messages, tendrils of panic coursing through her. Everyone is concerned about the same thing. Speculation, fear, are we in danger?
Do you know who it is?
We should shut this down. I don’t want to be a part of this.
Do we know it’s not one of us on this group?
Could the person responsible for this woman’s murder be on their server already? Watching them? That’s like her worst fear ever.
You have only one chance to do the right thing in this world, baby girl.
Scarlett knows what the right thing is. She should call the police. She should tell them everything she knows. Everything she’s learned. She’s done nothing wrong. There’s nothing to be afraid of. She should get Jezebelle, whatever her real name is, to act as well.
Unless someone on the group is the killer, and they know she ratted them out.
Scarlett needs her mother.
A bit of peace settles upon her. Even if she’s furious, her mom will know what to do. This is too big a decision to make without her. It was one thing finding out who Scarlett is, genetically speaking. Something else entirely to know she may be related to a killer.
Screw chemistry. She’ll make up the quiz later. Scarlett goes to the office, tells the nurse she’s not feeling well, and checks herself out of school for the rest of the day.
The drive home doesn’t take long enough. Her mother is in the kitchen, on her computer. Great.
