Page 30 of Above All Else

“Carter, I need you to stop and think for a second. If I had killed Amber, don’t you think I would have left town?” I pulled away from the tree—my nightgown clinging to the bark. Sticky sap marred the delicate, torn fabric. “Wouldn’t the police have found all this evidence years ago?”

“Not if they didn’t care.”

I shook my head and stepped toward him. “They cared, Carter.” I reached out again but dropped my numbing hands before I touched him.

“They scoured the towns fifty miles in each direction. Questioned everyone who was at the party that night. Went over every camera available to them. And still... nothing.” I cocked my head to the side. “They cared, but the killer was better.”

His thick brows furrowed, his jaw pulsing as he pulled out his phone from his pocket. “You said Ethan ripped your dress?”

“Yeah. I had to tie his letterman jacket around my waist to keep it in place.”

His fist clenched around his phone, the whites of his knuckles gleaming in the moonlight.

“Why?”

He turned his phone towards me. “This dress is intact and covered in blood.”

My gaze narrowed on the flowered material—the design much too realistic for my tastes back then. I snagged the phone from his hand and brought it closer to my nose, zooming in on the fabric. “I can’t believe I didn’t notice this before.”

He tore the phone from my grasp and looked at the screen. “What?”

“The dress and shoes...” I groped my side and tipped my head back. “Ugh...I don’t have my phone.”

“You’re practically naked in the forest.”

“Thanks to you.” I looked around as I wracked my brain.

How can I prove it?

I snapped my fingers and pointed at him. “Amber’s socials.”

“What?”

I jumped with glee. “That night, Amber and I took a bunch of pictures together. She posted it to her socials. It should still be there.”

Unless they removed the account.

Carter thumbed through his phone as I moved closer to him, my heart racing, his musky cologne mixing with the faint scent of burning wood floating in on a breeze.

“This one?”

Amber and I stood together, my arm wrapped around her shoulder, our cheeks pressed together as she took a high-angle selfie with her new phone. Tears burned my eyes.

It’d been a long time since I’d seen my best friend, her image bringing in a flood of anguish.

“Look.” He flipped back to the video. “It doesn’t match.”

“I told you.” I slapped his shoulder with giddy glee, then held out my hands. “Now, release me.”

He shook his head. “This doesn’t prove much of anything, June. You could have gone home and changed.”

“I was with Ethan until six in the morning. You just have to check the hotel security cameras.”

“Like they’ll keep them this long.”

“Look atmysocial then.“ I snagged the phone from his hand in a back-and-forth tug of war over the evidence-rich device. “My mom demanded proof of life at five A.M.” Thumbing through his phone, I entered my name in the app search bar. “I posted it to my pages, too, ragging on my parents for being nosey.”

“They were seeing if you were okay.”

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