Page 28 of Dead Girls Can't Tell Secrets

At the wordboyfriend, she flinches.

“Believe me, I would, but I can’t afford to get in trouble right now. My parents wouldn’t be able to handle it.”

Jacey’s head sinks. “Yeah.” She kneels down to straighten her sleeping bag and then slips inside it. “I tried to make other arrangements, you know. With the tents. But Abby hates me.”

“Why?” The word is out before I can help it.

“Just—I don’t know.”

I get my things situated and zip up my sleeping bag around me. “I heard you and Noah in the woods earlier,” I say, because once my mouth is on a roll, there’s no stopping it.

“What?”

“You apologized for something. Was it about Piper?”

Jacey’s inhale is like thunder inside the tiny tent. “You’re a real piece of work, Savannah.”

“Look, if you know what happened to her that day, just tell me. Please.”

“We weren’t talking about that. I never even saw Piper that day. That’s the truth. Yes, we had a little…thingwhen she joined Survival Club. I was just in a bad place, and I blew up at her. But that was it. You know she’s my best friend.” The last word breaks off like a weak branch in the wind.

My chest tightens. It wasn’t her. Which means my search isn’t over.

Or maybe Grant has been right this entire time. Maybe I’m just trying to put the blame on someone else because I can’t face what I did. And I’m so desperate that I nearly dragged Jacey into this. As if I haven’t hurt her enough already.

“I’m sorry.”

“No, I get why you…our relationship hasn’t exactly been perfect the past few years. But I love Piper.”

I meant that I’m sorry abouteverything. About Grant. But as usual, I’m too chicken to say it. The sound of the others’ voices mixed with the chirping of crickets drifts in as the two of us lie side by side in the dark.

“I should’ve known you had nothing to do with it,” I say. “I mean, I did know, after I saw the calls from somebody named Alex. Obviously, if you’d called her, the phone would’ve said your name.”

Jacey props herself up on an elbow. “Someone named Alex called her?”

I nod, even though she can’t see me in the dark, my chin rustling the nylon bag. “Three times. Her last calls before my mom’s. And I don’t think they were from Alexandra.”

More silence, broken only by the crickets and the occasional giggle. “So, then,” Jacey says, voice barely above a whisper, “you really think someone did something to her. Who would have a reason to hurt Piper?”

I shut my eyes, trying to breathe, slow and steady. But the frustration rises until I can feel it in my jaw. “You think I’m being stupid, like Grant does. Piper fell from Suicide Point, so I should just shut up about all this stuff.”

Maybe I’m frustrated because they could be right.

“I didn’t say that.”

I wait for her to elaborate, but she doesn’t say anything else. Doesn’t even move for a moment that stretches for ages.

“I just can’t think of anyone in the club who wasn’t crazy about Piper,” Jacey finally says. “Everyone pretty much thought she was God’s gift to wilderness survival.”

The tension shoots pain through my shoulders and neck. Of course Jacey doesn’t believe me. It isn’t her fault. You can’t just erase months of heartbreak and distrust.

And she’s right. I haven’t found a single motive for anyone in this club. I turn over onto my side.

There’s a rustle, then a muffled noise. Is she crying?

“This reminds me of the time we camped out in your backyard and Piper thought she heard a cougar.”

She’s laughing.

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