"So she killed Cheyenne over a jewelry box," the detective said skeptically, leaning his elbow on
the table and his chin on his hand. "That's not much of a motive."
"No! She killed Cheyenne over her grandmother's death!" I said, frustrated. "Look at the photos of
Cheyenne's room from the morning we found her. That box is sitting on her desk. Now it's hidden
in Ivy's room. She must have gone back and taken it. To her that box is a symbol of everything that
happened that night. Maybe she thought that if you guys found it you might figure it all out. I
mean, isn't that what guilty people do? Return to the scene of the crime to cover their tracks?"
The detective took a deep breath and glanced toward the open doorway behind me, toward th
e
hustle and bustle of the office, as if he was wishing he was out there rather than in here. Why did
he refuse to take me seriously?
"Listen, Reed, we've already talked to Ivy and she has an alibi for the night Cheyenne was
murdered." He pulled his notebook toward him and flipped through it. "She was with Gage
Coolidge all night and he corroborated her story."
"So? Gage is totally in love with Ivy," I protested. "He'd say anything she asked him to say."
Hauer looked at me with the expression of a man who was starting to get fed up with pandering to
a whiny kindergartner. I wasn't sure whether I wanted to cry or smack him across his tired, old
face. Instead, I whipped out my next weapon.
180
"Look," I said, pulling the destroyed photo of Cheyenne and me out of my bag and slapping it
down in front of him. "I found this in my room the other day."
Detective Hauer picked up the two halves of the photo by their edges and looked them over. I
grabbed my iPhone and scrolled to the pic of Ivy's photo, then turned it to him.
"Now look at this," I said. "Me, Cheyenne, Ariana, Noelle. All of us X'd out in the exact same way.
The girl has already taken care of Cheyenne, and Ariana took care of herself. That leaves me and
Noelle," I said, my voice trembling. "She's coming after us next, I swear."
For the first time all morning, Detective Hauer looked slightly interested. Even concerned. I was
glad that the fact that I was afraid for my own life had actually gotten through to him. He had a
heart after all. He placed the phone and the photo in front of him and studied them. I seized my
moment.