He cut me off. “I bet you think he’s good in bed.” He looked at Theo and scoffed. “I know Jane did.”

Zac Ellis turned and walked down the slope of sand, and then he, too, disappeared over the dune.

70

“Y ou used to sleep with Jane?” The waves of the lake seemed bigger, sounded louder.

Theo’s eyes were full of something-pain, maybe?-but what did I know? He said nothing.

“You had an affair with Jane?”

“Affair. Whatever.”

“Whatever? How can you be so cavalier about this?” I didn’t wait for an answer. “How long were you together?”

“A couple of months.”

“You and Jane dated-cheated-for a couple of months, and you didn’t mention that?”

He shrugged. “I don’t kiss and tell.”

“Even after the person you kissed was murdered?” My voice was rising. “Even after I told you I was being investigated for her murder? You didn’t think that was information you should mention?”

He stayed silent. He looked angry now as he stared down at me. His hair fell in his face, shrouding it.

“Why did she even introduce us?” I asked.

Another shrug. “After she ended things, we stayed friends. She was always trying to introduce me to women. She wanted me to be happy. But I was never into any of those women. Not until you.”

My eyes searched his face. “You were never into anyone because you were still into Jane, right?”

He said nothing.

“Were you in love with her?”

He shrugged. “Once. I guess. And I was pissed at her when she dumped me, but-”

“But what? Was sleeping with me some messed-up way to get back at her?”

He paused, looking even more irritated, then he muttered an unconvincing, “No.” His hair fell farther in his face. He leaned toward me a bit, and I felt irrationally cornered.

“I’m leaving.” I turned and started walking toward the car. When I stepped from the dune and onto the forested path, shadows fell around me. I started walking faster. As I did, I heard a voice in my head, my logical, intuitive voice saying, Run. Get out of here.

Theo jogged past, stood in front of me.

“Don’t,” I said, feeling panicked now. We were out here in the middle of nowhere.

I tried to move around him, but he put his hands on my shoulders and held me firm. Still he wasn’t saying anything.

“Why did you even come here with me?” I asked, my words fast, a little panicked now. “Didn’t you know Zac would recognize you?”

“I only met him once. I figured if he did recognize me, and it came out, then it was meant to.” His hands were still on my shoulders. He stared at me intently. I was scared of him suddenly. Found myself, ironically, wishing Zac was here, wishing anyone else was here. I swiveled my head around, saw no one.

“Who are you?” I tried to shake his hands from my shoulders, but he was too strong. “I mean, where is your apartment? Why have we never been there?”

“My place sucks. I’m in the same place I had three years ago when I started my business. I’ve been too busy to move.”

I looked at him, stared at those lips, the same lips that had done so many great things to me, and then I looked back into his eyes. I didn’t know this guy, I realized. Not at all. “Are you lying? Maybe you lied to Jane about who you were, too. You’re probably not some young hotshot, you’re probably a player. Someone who preys on people.”

“No. Everything I’ve told you is true.”

“Except that you dated Jane.” I shoved him aside finally. “What other secrets do you have?” And then I thought of one. “Did you and Jane play any games together?”

“What do you mean?”

I looked around, wondering if Zac and Zoey were somewhere near. Maybe listening. I stood closer to him and dropped my voice. “Like scarfing?”

He paused, but I saw the recognition in his eyes.

“You did. You did that to her.”

He gave a little nod, lips pursed together tight.

“Why don’t you say something?” My loud voice echoed through the forest.

“What do you want me to say?” he yelled.

I saw Jane’s body-the blood, that scarf around her neck. “Oh my God, did you kill her? You have this story about Mexico, but you could have been in Chicago the whole time.”

“What are you babbling about?”

He hadn’t denied it. I shoved him hard now and hurled myself down the path. My pulse started racing as fast as my legs. He ran behind me, calling my name, chasing me.

I ignored him, making my feet move faster, my pulse bang harder. The whole time I was aware that he could outrun me; he could pounce on me from behind; he could do anything to me he wanted. And where were Zoey and Zac? My mind reeled around like an animal trapped in a cage. Was this some kind of bizarre setup? Were Zoey and Zac and Theo all in this together?

Finally, the parking lot came into view. I whimpered with relief and broke into a final sprint toward the car.

“Stop!” he said.

I clicked the driver’s door open with the remote. When I reached the door, I yanked it open. He was standing on the other side of the car.

I got in and started the car, making sure the passenger door was still locked.

“Izzy!” I heard through the windows. He pounded on the side of the car. “You can’t leave me here!”

But I floored the car into Reverse, and that’s exactly what I did.

71

A fter thirty minutes in the car, when I was breathing normally again, I wondered if I should go back and get Theo, if I shouldn’t have left him there. But my mind was still a swirl of worries and one big question-had he killed Jane?

I went over and over that moment in my head when Zac said, I bet you think he’s good in bed…I know Jane did.

Theo had slept with Jane, and he never mentioned it to me. He wanted to make her jealous. He wanted to make her angry. So clearly, he must have been angry himself. Enough to kill her? And was he lying about going to Mexico? It was, as Detective Vaughn had pointed out, interesting timing, and then there was the scarfing thing. He knew about it. He’d done it to Jane, and that’s how she’d been killed.

I tried to imagine Theo hitting Jane, winding that scarf around her neck in the last moments of her life. My stomach felt as if it were filling with bile.

It could have been Zac, too. Then there was Zoey, and her creepy, silent presence. There was Jackson Prince. Which reminded me about the doctors Mayburn was contacting.

I called him, told him that Theo was back and that he used to have a relationship with Jane.

He whistled. “This thing just keeps getting more messed up by the moment. At least you have an alibi for Friday night.”

“Yeah. Now if I could just get one for Monday, the day she died. Any luck with the doctors?”

“I just got one of them to talk.”

“Are you serious? What did he say?”

“It’s a she. Dr. Holly Wallace. I guess it’s the ladies who are going to sink Prince. Wallace had a similar story to Dr. Hamilton’s. She wouldn’t quite go the whole way and admit she’d referred any cases or taken payments, but it was obvious she knew what I was talking about, and she was on the phone with me for almost forty-five minutes.”

“You think she’ll talk on camera? I got clearance from Trial TV to work on this story.”

“The Trial TV that fired you?”

“Yeah. I guess it’s sort of a freelance thing.” Traffic slowed at Sheffield with a horde of people heading into Whole Foods. I glanced in my rearview mirror. I don’t know what I was looking for. Zac following me? Or maybe Theo? Should I call and make sure he had gotten out of there okay? I saw that image again, him hitting Jane, winding that scarf around her neck.

“Is Trial TV paying you for this story?” Mayburn said.

“I don’t know. I didn’t ask. I’m basically picking up on Jane’s last story. I’m doing it for Jane, not the money.” I hadn’t even thought about my financial situation with everything else going on. Weird how things that seemed so serious, so emergent, became wisps, barely concerns, when dwarfed by something bigger.