"Seriously."
"'Students from Easton Academy help out with last weekend's Coleman Park Cleanup,'" Marc read,
squinting at the caption. "I remember this! It was my freshman year. There was this park in
downtown Easton that they wanted to renovate and Easton Academy sent all these kids to help. It
was supposed to be a volunteer thing, but everyone who was sent was pretty much being
punished for some infraction or another. All of Billings and half of Ketlar went."
"What was the date of the picture?" I asked.
"It was taken on... May thirteenth," Marc read.
That freakish tingle of discovery I had been feeling so often lately rushed right through me. May
thirteenth. The date was familiar for a reason. That night, Ivy and Cheyenne had broken into Ivy's
grandmother's house in Boston and tripped the alarm. That very night Ivy's grandmother had
suffered her stroke and Ivy's vendetta against Billings had been born.
This was the picture she chose to keep within sight at almost all times? It had to remind her of the
worst day of her life. Why would she keep it so close? Why?
Um, because she's a psycho?116
And then, just like that, it hit me. She'd kept it
as a constant reminder of why she hated Billings so
much. She'd kept it to motivate her in her mission to bring all of us down. Looking at each of the
faces in turn, I got chills for a whole new reason.
One committed. Check
One dead. Check.
Noelle was the only one left.
117
CRYPTIC GIRL
"Well, you've got me convinced," Marc said as we headed out of the library together an hour later.
He pulled his hat on and lowered it to his brow line. "I'd say Ivy's a pretty decent suspect."I had
just shared the entire Ivy/Boston/grandmother/Billings story with him and he had been riveted
throughout the telling.
"Glad we're on the same page," I replied as I pulled my scarf up to my chin. "But we do still have
another person on our list."