Page 113 of Good Girls Lie
That belies logic, though. Why, if she’s an impostor, would she draw any attention to herself?
Ford needs to get to the bottom of this, and for that, she needs the originals. She has to inform Tony and his niece about what she’s discovered, but she also can’t have an investigation into a student reveal her own secrets.
Ash’s room is monkish without Camille’s things cluttering it up. Ford didn’t give Ash’s lack of accoutrement any thought when she arrived last month; now it strikes her as odd. What teenager doesn’t have a thousand and one things around them? There isn’t another room on the floor she could enter and see this level of minimalism.
Which makes searching it easy.
She finds the mobile phone taped to the inside wall above the door to Ash’s closet. She gives herself a pat on the back for clear thinking. It’s where she would have hidden it if she’d been trying to make sure no one found it.
She swipes it open. The battery is almost gone, and there’s no passcode. How irresponsible, and how lucky.
The photos are easy to find, right there in the app.
That little bitch.
Ford is faced with a choice.
Take this phone into custody, drag Ash in, and find out why she has it, or delete all the photos and destroy the phone. It’s not like Ash can come to her and ask for her phone back—she’s in violation of the rules by having it. Ford should kick her out on her ear. She should kick her out regardless, though Tony might take care of that for her.
A Goode girl in handcuffs. Her mother will have her head.
Something to be avoided at all cost. The girl knows too much.
Push and pull. Push and pull.
Maybe the two of them need to have a heart-to-heart, get all this out in the open. Quid pro quo.I don’t expel your skinny ass, you don’t reveal what you know. And who the hell are you, anyway?
Ford is grasping at straws, and she knows it. Her mother wouldn’t hesitate here, she’d have already thrown Ash to the wolves. Ford should do the same. She can’t risk losing the school over a scandal, not on top of Camille’s suicide.
Tony’s worried face. He thinks Ash killed Camille, or that niece of his does and is planting that idea in his head. And now to intimate Ash had something to do with Muriel... Muriel... Ash quit piano.
She would have to, wouldn’t she? If she wasn’t the prodigy piano player, Muriel would have known quickly.Out of practice, my ass.
But had she eliminated Muriel because she was worried about being exposed as a fraud? That would be...diabolical.
“Ash? Do you have any—oh!”
Ford whirls around to see Piper standing in the doorway. She puts her hand behind her back immediately, praying the phone hasn’t been seen.
“Dean Westhaven. Hello. I was just looking for Ash. I’m sorry to disturb you.”
And she disappears before Ford can say a word.
Damn sneaky girls. What did she see?
Ford shoves the phone in her pocket and steps into the hall. “Miss Brennan. A word, if you please?”
Piper’s tall frame stops dead. “Yes, Dean?”
“Why aren’t you in class?”
The freckles go dark with a charming blush. “I got my period. I came up for tampons but I’m out, V doesn’t have any. I was just seeing if Ash has some.”
If she’s lying, she’s a smooth operator.
Why do you assume everyone is lying? Just because you’re up to your neck in deceit doesn’t mean everyone is.
“Are the bathrooms not stocked?”
