Page 64 of The Game Is Afoot

“What did Cole question her about, Mackenzie? Did he find something out?”

“There’snothingto find out. You should be ashamed of yourself, Mavis.” And then she takes off running down the block.

This could be the missing piece of evidence I’ve been looking for. If Cole found out Bethany was lying about her cancer, what would he do with that information? It could take down Bethany’s whole moneymaking operation. What would she do to keep him quiet? Would she make sure he stayed quiet…forever?

“So she reallyisn’tyour little friend.” Ms. Joyce somehow isright behind me, carried by the same silent feet she used to sneak into Mackenzie’s backyard.

“I told you she wasn’t.” I sigh. “But I think I might have made her my littleenemynow.”

“Hmmm. Well, you really shouldn’t be getting involved in these Caucasian problems anyway. If herreallittle friend is faking cancer, and she wants to believe that, that’s not any of your business.”

I stare hard at the bug from Mackenzie’s kitchen that’s still in her hand and then throw in a few slow blinks for good measure.

“Yes, let’s all stay in our own business then, huh? That sounds good.”

Anders Bynum breast cancer clinical trial

Balanced With Bethany FTC

Balanced With Bethany BBB

Balanced With Bethany scam?

George Washington wig

George Washington wig CHEAP

Listening device in neighbor’s house illegal?

Plausible deniability

Eighteen

I kept myself as occupiedas I could with the reassembled heart-and-Shrek murder board, adding in every detail I just learned from Mackenzie. But by midafternoon, the frantic, fizzy energy feels too big to contain in my body, let alone my house, and I need to talk this through with a human—as opposed to a construction paper ogre. Luckily, the school day is done, so I’m free to pace Jack’s office while I wait for Pearl’s theater class to end without being interrupted by pesky children needing counseling.

“So Mackenzie didn’t confirm it then? That Bethany is lying about her cancer?” he asks, rotating his chair back and forth in time with my laps around his room.

“I mean, no. But she basically did, right? Because if Cole sniffed out that she was lying andheworked closer with her than anyone, it seems—well, then something was clearly shady there. And then there’s what Vicky said, too. About the eyebrows.”

“Right. But she didn’t actually confirm anything either.”

“Okay, not with her words, she didn’t,” I agree. “But she did with her face!”

“Do you think the detective will accept face evidence…or?” He grins at me and I roll my eyes. But a laugh escapes from my chest and pretty soon he’s laughing, too. For a second I feel like I’ve flashed back to last fall, when the two of us were tucked away in his office just like this, talking (and laughing) through our theories—Stabler and Benson.

Of course, it’s not the same, though. Solving that mystery may have brought us together, and sure, he’s listening to me now. But how he really feels is lurking like a shadow on the edge of my vision. He doesn’t approve of me getting involved in this—I know that. He thinks my time would be better spent dealing with my trauma in therapy, or looking for a job that’s going to make me feel appreciated and fulfilled. And those are, like, annoyingly normal and admirable things for him to want for me. So as I’m talking to him, I have to simultaneously convey that I’m okay, that I have a totally sane, totally healthy relationship with this mystery. I have to be a lot more careful. And that sucks out a lot of the thrill, the lightness, that was there before, when discussing what Trisha did with the body was really just a pretense for flirting.

But that’s all right. The thrill is replaced with the comfort that he’s mine, that I don’t need a mystery as a pretense to be with him.

I stop my pacing and sit down in the chair across from his desk. His hands are already reaching out, and I weave my fingers through his.

“I know this is bonkers.”

“That’s okay. I like bonkers.”

I narrow my eyes at him, and he smiles back.

“I just feel like I’m getting close to…something,” I say. I let out a long sigh and shake my head. “If he knew she was lying, if he threatened to expose her, that’s motive. The most realistic one I’ve found so far.”

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