Page 49 of Dead Girls Can't Tell Secrets

My breath is shallow, my vision foggy as I tell them about the tournament, the grades, the money—everything. “I heard the car, and I thought she was headed to the lab to tell my parents. But then she never came home. Late that night, we got the call from the hospital.”

Even Jacey gapes at me like I’m a monster. And I am. Saying it all aloud, listening to what I was willing to do to get what I wanted, I know I deserve whatever’s coming. That day, when I was too selfish to do the right thing, I let the darkness in me climb up my core, coat my throat, and wrap itself around my brain.

I wasn’t a sister. I wasn’t even a friend. Iwasthe darkness.

“But she didn’t go to the lab,” Tyler says. “She didn’t go to the Point right away either. I don’t know why. Maybe she figured out the meeting wasn’t happening, or maybe it was the last thing on her mind after being suspended for the chemistry tests. She went back to the school to talk to Mr. Davis. She was planning to take the fall for everything.”

“Why would she do that?” Noah asks.

Because she’s the sister I’ll never be.

Tyler shakes his head. “I tried to talk her out of it. That’s why I called her. But she said she needed to do it and that I had to trust her. And I did, for a while. But the way she was letting Savannah use her was too much, so I called her again. When she didn’t answer, I drove to the school to see if I could get her to listen to reason. By that point, her car was already gone, and I didn’t want to upset her more if it was already done. So I went home.” He tugs on the strings of his hoodie, stretching them until they look like they might snap. “I should’ve tried harder to find her.”

“So, then,” Noah says, “she went to the school first andthento the Point? Because she was so upset?”

“That’s what I’m trying to figure out” Tyler paces, boots crushing some feathery fronds. “I went to the police station and spoke to a cop. Detective Breslow. I told him something was off. Piper was upset about what Savannah did, but she wasn’t suicidal. It didn’t make sense. She’d called me from outside Mr. Davis’s office. So how did she get from there to being unconscious on the side of a mountain?”

“What did Breslow say?” I ask.

“He basically laughed in my face. But the weird thing waswhyhe laughed. It wasn’t because Piper had fallen from Suicide Point. It was because I’d mentioned Mr. Davis. Breslow seemed very familiar with our favorite club advisor. He didn’t find the situation the slightest bit worrisome.”

“Did you try talking to Mr. Davis?” Jacey asks, grabbing on to the railing to pull herself up. Her eyes shut momentarily as she sways, pant leg brushing a fern bejeweled by dewdrops. Then she steadies herself. “Did you ask if Piper went to see him that day?”

“I didn’t want to show my hand,” Tyler says. “Figured I’d learn a lot more about him if he thought I was just some kid from Foothill who’s really into wilderness survival.”

“You’re saying you infiltrated our club to spy on Mr. Davis?” Jacey flashes an incredulous look. “Mr. Davis is a great teacher. He cares about his students. Look, I really want to find out what happened to Piper, too, but Mr. Davis didn’t write the threat in Piper’s bag or”—she waves a hand toward the cliff—“dosomething to her. If that’s what you’re thinking, you’re wrong.”

“Maybe he’s not,” Alexandra says. Sunlight casts a honey-colored glow over her dark curls as she glances up from the little pink notebook she’s clutching.

Jacey turns to her, and Alexandra bites her lip. But she loosens her hold on the notebook. “I’m on the school paper with Piper. You guys all claim to know her, but every one of you is missing the most obvious thing ever. About Piper. About this club.”

“So then say it already.” I might snatch that notebook and fling it off the cliff.

“Why did Piper join this club?” she asks.

“Because Noah was in it,” Jacey says, brushing some dirt off the front of her sweatshirt.

Alexandra shakes her head. “Maybe that was part of it. But it wasn’t the only reason.”

“She joined because she’s Mr. Davis’s pet,” I offer. “She never stops talking about him.”

Alexandra flicks her pen against her chin. “Not good enough. Why did she join a club involving all the things she hates? Exercise and the outdoors, for example?”

Noah rubs his temple. “She said she wanted to try something new. Piper develops new interests all the time.”

“Piper wasn’t pursuing a new interest,” Alexandra says, looking exhausted. The wind picks up, hurling her curls into disarray and whipping the scent of wildflowers into the air. “She was pursuing a story.”

Noah lifts a brow. “Like for theGrayling High Gazette? She wouldn’t have kept that a secret.”

“She might’ve, if the story put her in danger. Whatever Piper was investigating, she didn’t even tell the other editors about it. She probably knew no one would approve.”

Exhaustion has melted my brain so much that I giggle. “Piper was investigating Survival Club? Like, the case of the missing canteen?”

“Not the club itself,” Alexandra corrects. “Someoneinthe club. I suspected she was working on something secret a while ago. She was always distracted during journalism meetings, jotting down notes and whispering into that recorder of hers. But she refused to tell me what it was. At first, I thought she was worried I’d steal her idea or something, like…like what she’d done to me.” Her eyes darken. “Things have always been competitive between us. Well, one day, Piper tore a page out of her notepad and crumpled it up.” A small animal darts through the underbrush next to the path, and Alexandra flinches. She drops her voice, like the chipmunks are listening. “After everyone went home, I dug it out of the trash. Most of the writing was scratched out and scribbled over, but a couple of things were still legible, just barely, likeSC. So I asked myself, why would Piper have to write encrypted notes for a school story?”

“Or go undercover for a school story, for that matter,” Noah adds.

“Because it wasn’t someschool story,” Alexandra says, gaining momentum. “I think Piper was investigating something bigger. A story someone would’ve threatened her over to make sure she’d stop poking around. And when that didn’t work…” Her gaze slides over to the cliff.

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