Deadly Little Sins (26 page)

I hit the intercom button again. “I know why Natalie came back to Wheatley. And I think you do, too.”

Luke doesn’t respond. A full minute of silence goes by. This is not going well.

Then the door opens. I take a step back as Luke gets in my face.

“What do you want?”

“To talk. But we can’t do it here.”

“What? Is this about Natalie? Because I told you I don’t know where she is,” he says.

“You’re lying. And you lied when you said you haven’t talked to her in years. I know about the phone calls. And the money. And Plymouth.”

Luke’s lips part. “How—”

“That’s neither here nor there.”

Luke’s eyes flash. “Are you stalking me or something?”

“It’s not you I care about,” I say. “You may not give a crap what happens to your sister—”

“You don’t know her, okay?” Luke looks around the sidewalk. Lowers his voice. “You don’t know what she’s capable of. And I have to go.”

“Where?” I step in front of him.

He sighs. “The police station. My car was stolen. There’s an issue with it.”

I look Luke Barnes straight in the eye. “Did you threaten your sister’s boyfriend in middle school?”

“What?” Luke’s eyes flash. “Where did you hear that bullshit?”

“Her old roommate,” I say.

Luke lets out a sharp laugh. “Of course Natalie would say I did something like that.”

“What do you mean?”

“Because my sister is a pathological liar.”

My head hurts. I don’t know what—or who—to believe, but I know that Luke and I need to get the hell out of here before the police to show up inquiring about his missing car. I convince him that we have to put distance between his apartment and us so I can explain everything before the cops show up to ask about his car..

Luke says he has something to show me anyway.

“She called me about six years ago,” he says as we cross the street. He’s leading the way. “She said there were dangerous people after her. That’s why she fled to Georgia. She also needed five grand, to disappear.”

“Did you give it to her?” I ask.

“No.” There’s the faintest trace of guilt in his voice. “You don’t get it. It was exactly the thing Natalie would do—lie to get something she wanted. It’s the whole reason my parents sent her to boarding school.”

“What do you mean?”

“When she was in the seventh grade, my parents got called to the school. Nat had bruises on her arms. It started happening every month. And the bruises got worse. On her thighs and stuff.” We’re waiting at another crosswalk. “She wouldn’t say who did it, so the school sent a social worker to our house. My parents had her see this child psychologist, who said Nat was probably hurting herself. For attention.”

There’s a sour taste in my mouth as I think of the description of Natalie’s injuries in the discipline report.

“My parents thought the smaller classes at boarding school would help,” Luke says. “But when she got expelled, and moved home, the lying got worse. It turned into stealing, then drugs. So I wasn’t too quick to believe her evil henchmen story.”

Wait, wait,
the crosswalk voice tells us. This light is taking forever to change.

“She showed up at my place three years ago,” Luke says. “I swear I had no idea about the stolen identity thing. All she told me is that she was back. And she needed money again. She’d heard that Dad died, and she wanted her share of the inheritance.”

The light changes, but Luke doesn’t motion to cross the street. His jaw is set. “Our goddamn father died, and she didn’t come to the funeral. But she showed up at my door, asking for his
money.
”

“I’m assuming that you didn’t give it to her,” I say as we cross the street.

“I’d already put most of the money into the company,” Luke says. “I gave her a few thousand dollars and told her I never wanted to see her again.”

“Did she mention anything about Wheatley, or the school?”

“Not until last year,” Luke says. “She called and said she was in Wheatley. She was about to come into a lot of money. She sent me all this weird shit in the mail, like a map of the old reform school.

“She said what she found was huge. And that she had to get out of town afterwards. Fast. And she needed my help. I told her she was nuts.”

“She came back to Wheatley so she could extort Headmaster Goddard from right under his nose,” I say. “She had dirt on him.”

“How do you know all that?” Luke looks at me.

“I’ll tell you later. If you told Natalie to leave you alone, how did you end up helping her disappear?” I ask Luke.

“I had no choice,” he says. “She said if I didn’t help her, she’d take me to court over the inheritance. My father had never cut her out of the will. She would have won, and I couldn’t afford it. My company is already in trouble.…”

Luke’s voice trails off. He’s pale, as if the reality of his situation is finally hitting him. I’m afraid he’ll faint right here in the street.

“She called back a few months ago and said it all went wrong,” he says. “Said I had to get her a ticket to Moscow and a passport under the name Jessica Cross. If she stayed here, she’d be killed, or worse. I didn’t believe her—I just wanted her gone.”

“So you gave it to her,” I say.

We’re at South Station.

“The lockers,” Luke says. “One is hers. She gave me the combo and told me to leave the ticket and passport here. She said she’d leave the cash. But I haven’t picked it up. I swear that I wanted no part in whatever she was doing. You’ll see that.”

I follow Luke down the steps to where the lockers are. He leads me to 52A and enters the combination. He opens the locker; inside is a black pouch. Luke’s face falls.

“What’s the matter?” I ask.

Without a word, he opens the bag and shows me the contents. A plane ticket and a passport.

“When was she supposed to pick them up?” I ask.

Luke pales. “Two months ago.”

CHAPTER

THIRTY-SEVEN

There’s genuine worry etched on Luke’s face now, and I know when he said he wanted Natalie gone, he hadn’t meant that he wanted her dead.

“I swear I thought she was lying,” he says. “If I’d thought there were actually people after her—”

I hold a hand up to him. “Shh. You’re stressing me out. I can’t think.”

“What is there to think about?” he demands. His tone of voice and expression make him look thirteen, not thirty. “I have to call the cops. Tell them the truth.”

“The truth is that Natalie’s burned body might be in your car right now.” The words tumble out of me. “I’m sorry.”

“Are you kidding me?” Luke covers his face. “I have to call a lawyer.”

“
Don’t
do that,” I say. “Not yet. It’ll make you look guilty.”

“Guilty? Of what?”

“Just tell the police the truth,” I say. “Everything. Start from the beginning, when she left for Georgia.”

Luke pales. I think of one more thing. One more piece to the puzzle that doesn’t quite fit.

“Are you
sure
she didn’t say anything else about being in trouble?” I say. “Who she was running from before she turned up in Georgia?”

“I don’t know,” Luke sputters. “She—I don’t know. Like I told you, she was living in Brockton for a while, getting into some bad stuff—”

“Brockton? You didn’t tell me that.”

“Why
would
I tell you that? It has nothing to do with anything.”

Luke looks at me funny. My head is spinning.

Brockton is where someone shot Tyler and Ryan Becker to death.

Execution style.

When I’m back on campus, I call Brent and tell him to meet me outside his dorm. He’s already waiting on the bench when I get there. He stands up, taking in my face.

“Are you okay?”

“Fine.” I’m out of breath. I practically ran here from the T station. “You have your car here, right?”

“Yeah. What’s going on?”

“I think Natalie hid the Plymouth records on the annex before Goddard had her killed. Brent, we have to get to them before Roe does. They’re going to get away with it.”

Brent runs his hands down my arms. “How can you be sure she hid the records there?”

“She sent her brother this.” I show Brent the map of Plymouth on my phone. “See that building that’s circled? That’s where the jail was. Why else would she send Luke a cryptic clue like this? She wanted someone to be able to make the records public if she couldn’t.”

“Okay,” Brent sighs. “Let’s go.”

We make it to the highway before Dennis calls me.

“Shit.” I pick it up, against my better judgment.

“Do you want to explain why you were at Luke Barnes’s place when I specifically
told you not to do anything
?”

“He didn’t kill Natalie, Dennis. Goddard and Nathan Roe did.”

Dennis pauses. “Are you on the
highway
?”

“Anne,” Brent hisses. “You have to hang up. He can be tracing the call.”

“Dennis, I’ve got to go—”

“Anne, turn around and go back to school
right now
. If you don’t, I’ll have to call this in.”

I squeeze my eyes shut. “I’m sorry, Dennis.”

And I hang up.

CHAPTER

THIRTY-EIGHT

We’re silent as Brent gets off the highway and makes the turn for the annex. He’s looking peaked, and I hate myself for the position I’ve put him in.

“You know I can’t go back after this,” I finally say. “You have to leave me, and come up with a story about how I made you do all this.”

“I’m not doing that.”

“I just ignored directions from a cop.”

Brent grips the wheel. “I’ll say whatever you need me to say for you.”

I wipe my palms on my knees. “No. Tierney will expel you for helping me.”

“I don’t give a flying fuck about Tierney, or some meathead cop. We’re in this together.”

I don’t know what else to say, so I grab his hand. He squeezes it.

Brent stops speeding when we get to the annex. He parks just outside the lot.

My mind races. “Circle the annex, and bolt if you see the police or Dennis. If I’m not back in fifteen minutes, just leave. I’ll call you and tell you where to pick me up.”

I jump out of the car before he can protest. Fifteen minutes, no doubt, before Dennis figures out where I am and sends a cavalry to retrieve me. Ten minutes to find where the jail once stood, and figure out where Natalie hid the records before Goddard had her killed.

Fifteen minutes. It’s nearly impossible.

She’s not the person I thought I was. She lied, she blackmailed, and she let me believe she was someone she wasn’t.

But Ms. C believed in me. I owe her the same thing—I owe those lost boys the same thing.

She didn’t deserve to die. Neither did they. Not like that.

I make it to the lodge before Brent calls me.

“Anne, get as far away from here as you can,” he barks.

“What?”

Brent screams. I take off running for the parking lot.

Brent is staring straight ahead when I emerge over the guardrail. He mouths something at me. I run toward him, stopping in my tracks when I see Natalie Barnes pressing a knife to his throat.

CHAPTER

THIRTY-NINE

Natalie Barnes.

Ms. C.

Alive.

Natalie rolls the back window down. “Give me your bag.”

“What are you doing?” I blurt, stepping forward.

She presses the knife closer to Brent’s neck. “Easy, Anne. Don’t make me slip.”

I glance at Brent helplessly. He mouths
run
. But I won’t. I’m not going to run and leave him here with this psychopath. Even if she wasn’t holding a knife to his throat.

I hand my bag to Natalie through the window.

“You’re alive,” I say. I thought Goddard had Roe kill you. Why are you doing this?”

Natalie’s expression darkens. “Trust me. You were the last person I wanted to get hurt. You should have backed off when I gave you the chance.”

“You followed me,” I choke out. “You’re
alive.
”

“Anne.” Brent swallows. He moves his eyes to my door. Silently telling me to jump out and run. Natalie notices.

“I don’t want to cut your throat, but I will if I have to,” she tells him.

“Oh, my God.” My legs shake beneath me. “You killed Dr. Muller. It was
you
.”

“I had no choice.” Natalie’s voice is pleading. “I left him for his own good. I told him never to contact me again. Then he found my mother in Rhode Island.
He
told you about Natalie. He was going to ruin
everything
.”

“He loved you,” I choke out. “He couldn’t let you go.”

“He should have gotten on his plane,” Natalie snaps. “This never had to happen. Get in the car, Anne.”

Natalie keeps her knife trained on Brent as I climb into the front seat. She commands him to drive away from the annex.

“What about those guys in Brockton?” I ask, stalling for time. “The Becker brothers. You killed them, too, didn’t you?”

A slow smile spreads across her face. She grabs the hem of her shirt. I flinch, but she lifts it up to show me a crescent-shaped scar on her hip.

“Tyler gave me this. And a nasty heroin addiction,” she says.

“I don’t believe you. I know about the bruises. I know you hurt yourself.”

“You know nothing!” Natalie slams her free hand against the back window. Brent twitches. I move my hand to his knee.

“Tyler passed me around to his brother, and all his druggie friends while I was too strung out to fight back. So yeah, I put fucking bullets in their heads,” she says. “And every single second I’ve had to spend on the run has been worth hearing them beg for their lives.”

My veins turn to ice.

“You’re not going to get away with this,” I say.

“Really? Because everyone short of you two thinks I’m dead.” Natalie jerks her head back toward the way we came. “And when they find your bodies, they’ll also find a note in Brent’s handwriting saying you wanted to go Romeo and Juliet style.”