But I’m still mad about it.
“And I’m saving the best part for last.” Kendall flips her hair over her shoulder. “So according to her, he ended up passing out at her place. But I kind of got the impression she was lying.”
I frown. “How do you know?”
“She’s not a good liar. With my father, it was a skill I needed to master pretty quickly. Trust me, I can spot a bad one.”
“So you think she was lying about Jeremy being there all night?” Seth asks.
Kendall nods. “So then you have to wonder—why would she do that? If she had nothing to hide?”
I take this in silently. Is Kendall right? I don’t know anything about spotting a liar. But that’s obvious, isn’t it? If Gen spent years lying about being my friend, and Fiona spent all last summer lying to our whole family about what she was doing, and I never had a clue—
Maybe Gen’s been secretly plotting to drive me and Jeremy apart ever since we got together. And that night, she saw her opportunity. Jeremy ran into her after our fight, spilled everything. He’d been drinking. He went home and passed out. Gen decided, for whatever reason, that it was a good time to confront me. She went through the woods to get to my house. Saw me, or who she thought was me, in the dark. Decided to take care of her problems with one push. Or, like Seth theorized, she knew it was Fiona and decided to try and frame me. And then, when I was never arrested, she offed Thatcher. Thatcher, who somehow knew it was her and never told anyone.
Could all of that be true?
But I’m shaking my head before anyone even speaks. “No. Gen’s said some stuff to me—but I know her. She was my best friend. She’s not capable of killing anybody.”
“Well, to know for sure,” Kendall says, “it would be really helpful if you could find out from Jeremy whether or not she’s lying.”
“No,” Seth says before I can answer.
Kendall and I both look at him. “What do you mean, no?” I demand.
Seth hesitates, then seems to decide something. “Did you ever think about Jeremy?”
“Think what about Jeremy?” I ask, even though I’m pretty sure I know what he’s saying.
“He’s got a good reason to hate you,” Seth says.
“Seth, he didn’t know about you and me until after Fiona died.”
“So you think.”
“So I think because it’s true.”
“Addie. Just consider it. What if he followed you that night? And saw us?”
For a moment, I picture it. Jeremy creeping through the rustling dark, seeing me and Seth on the rock in the middle of the clearing, watching as Seth pulled off my shirt—
I close my eyes against the image.
“That kid was batshit in love with you,” Seth goes on. “And you cheated on him. With me.”
“It— He…Even if he had seen us that night—in what warped world would Jeremy then decide to get revenge on me by killing Fiona?” I shake my head. “That doesn’t make any sense.”
“That’s not what I’m saying. He used to cut across the Bier property to get to my house from the trailer park. So maybe after he saw us, he used that same route to get back home. He’d been drinking. It was dark. He was beyond upset. He was walking along the ravine and sees blond hair ahead of him. He thinks it’s you. He chases after her, she runs, he reaches out to grab her, she falls—”
“And then what?” I demand. “He pretended to be shocked when he found out the next day? Pretended to still be into me for a month afterward, until I told him about you and me? Spent the past year lying to everyone? Jeremy’s not that good an actor. And even if he was—no. I know you guys aren’t each other’s biggest fans, but that’s seriously the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard, Seth.”
I can see the storm brewing on Seth’s face. “Maybe you don’t know him as well as you thought you did.”
“I know him better than that, Seth. And so do you, actually. Just—leave Jeremy out of this. There is absolutely no way he killed Fiona. Or Thatcher.”
“Would you have believed he’d come to my school and assault me? If you didn’t hear it from his own lips?”
“I—”
Because it’s true. I might not have.
But I shake my head. “It’s one thing to lose his temper and hit you, it’s another to commit two murders and lie about it.”
“Addie.” Seth’s voice is a little softer now. “It was probably an accident—”
“Would Thatcher have been an accident, too?”
Seth hesitates. “Maybe Thatcher was threatening to tell, and he panicked—”
I’m still shaking my head. “No. I’m telling you, you’re wrong. It can’t have been Gen, and it can’t have been Jeremy.”
Kendall frowns. “If there was just some way to know for sure—”
“I’ll ask Jeremy if he was really with Gen that night,” I say.
They both look at me. “And you don’t think he’d lie about it?” Kendall asks.
“Jeremy wouldn’t lie to me.”