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Bryan nodded. “The only proof I need is the facts. Andrea was the only one with the means and the motive. Like I said, she knew about all four girls from the very beginning.”

“Elena knew about them before I got sick,” Josh argued. “And let’s not forget we found her earring in Lily’s car.” If Bryan could blame his best friend, Josh could find enough reasons to accuse Bryan’s vindictive girlfriend.

“What earring?” Elena asked, honestly surprised. “What are you talking about?”

“We found a butterfly earring in Lily’s car,” Bryan explained. “Josh has pictures of you wearing the exact same earrings.”

“Oh my gosh! They were my favorite earrings,” Elena told them. “I took them off when I was in the shower after cheerleading practice a few weeks ago and they just disappeared. I figured someone had stolen them, but I never imagined it was to try to frame me!”

“Frame you, huh?” Andrea queried. She had almost recovered from the shock of having Bryan point the gun at her. “As if we don’t know you’re capable of just about anything.” Elena sneered, but Andrea had already turned back to Bryan. “If you found proof that it was Elena, then why are you harassing me?” she demanded. “I really don’t think it’s fair for you to single me out.”

“And I don’t think it’s fair that you’re getting away with murder,” Bryan replied dryly.

“Shut up, Bryan!” Jim shouted. “Just shut up and leave her alone.”

Andrea was handling things better than Jim. His eyes were bulging and his finger was dangerously close to the trigger. It was making Josh nervous. Rosa and Elena looked utterly terrified, but Bryan didn’t seem to care that his own weapon had been turned against him. He continued his verbal bashing, though he did so in an eerily calm voice, and hardly spared Jim a glance.

“Jasmine remembered one small detail about her attacker,” Bryan continued. “The color red. What did she see, Andrea? Were you wearing Jim’s letter jacket, like you normally do? Or was it just the color of your hair that caught her eye?”

“This is crazy!” Andrea exclaimed. “We all wear red jackets. Red and white are our school colors!”

“You’re getting nervous,” Bryan pointed out. “I can tell. Why not just admit it, Andrea. Get the guilt off your chest.”

She lost her composure and burst into tears, glancing desperately between Josh and her boyfriend in the hopes that one of them would come to her rescue. “I didn’t do anything!” She sobbed. “I even tried to help Nadine. If Elena hadn’t held me back, I’d be dead!”

“Enough!” Jim declared. “Leave her the hell alone, Bryan. Just stop it. Or I . . . I swear to God, I’ll shoot you right now!”

“Jim is right. Lay off her for a while,” Josh agreed. He took a tentative step in front of Bryan.

“And you!” Jim spat, turning his fury onto Josh. “You’re the whole reason for this mess. None of this would be happening if you could just keep your shit in your pants. Damn it! If anyone deserves to get shot today, it’s you.”

The more crazed Jim became, the more things made sense. Josh realized what Bryan’s plan had really been. He never thought it was Elena, or Rosa, or even Andrea. He was trying to lure Jim into a trap. There was one thing he hadn’t counted on—Jim getting the gun away from him. 

He should have realized he couldn’t fight Jim when he was hurt. He should have let Josh in on the plan. At the very least, he should have shut the hell up when he lost the gun. If Jim didn’t shoot them both, Josh decided he was going to kick Bryan’s ass later.

“Jim, man, you just need to calm down,” Kevin said suddenly. “Don’t make the same mistake I did. Josh and his drama ain’t worth throwing your life away.”

“No! I’m not going to let them do this to Andrea.”

“Nobody’s doing anything to Andrea,” Elena soothed. She walked over to Andrea, and put her arm around the sobbing girl. “Look, she’s just fine. But that gun is scaring the hell out of her. So just put it down, okay? Let’s talk about this rationally.”

“All of you just shut up!” Jim shouted. “Let me think.”

“There’s nothing to think about, Jim,” Josh told him. “I know I was an idiot. No one will blame you for any of the things you did. We all know I had it coming.”

“The things I did?” Jim swore under his breath. “Screw that! You aren’t pinning this on me. If anyone is going to go down for this, it’s you.” Jim pulled back the hammer on the gun. Even though his hands were shaking, Josh had no doubt that he meant to pull the trigger.  “I’m sorry, man. I really don’t want to do this. But if it’s you or Andrea, I’ve gotta save the girl I love.”

“No!” Rosa cried.

It had been so long since she had spoken, Josh had almost forgotten she was there. Just as Jim raised the gun and took aim, she was suddenly beside him. He only caught a brief glimpse of her long braid before she crashed into his chest and blocked Jim’s shot just as he pulled the trigger. Josh tried to shield Rosa from the danger she had placed herself in, but there wasn’t enough time to push her out of the way.

There was a loud click. Josh waited for the bang. He waited to feel the pain as the bullet tore through his flesh. Or worse, to feel Rosa go limp in his arms. None of it happened and no one fell. Instead, the same click was repeated over and over until Jim let out an animalistic shriek.

“Are . . . are we alive?” Rosa was still trembling in his arms when Josh opened his eyes. He hadn’t even realized he had closed them. 

Josh felt a little shaky himself. “Yeah, we are.”

“I knew it,” Bryan said. “I just knew it was you!”

Jim tossed the useless gun to the ground. “You don’t know anything, you moron! You have no idea what you’ve done. Now you’re all doing to die!”

“I’m not as dumb as I look,” Bryan bragged. “I knew that the gun would be all the bait the killer needed. I knew they would try to take it away and get rid of the witnesses. That’s why I made sure there weren’t any bullets. The gun’s not loaded!”

“Well, then.” A sarcastically sweet voice rang out and there was a distinct click as the hammer of a gun snapped into place. “I guess it’s a good thing I brought my own gun.”

The whole group turned as one. All their eyes grew wide and silence enveloped them. All that could be heard was the sound of their strained breathing and the ticking clock that seemed to pulse in time with their heartbeats. Josh pulled Rosa close, but he was hardly the one doing the protecting. It was only her strong, unwavering presence that kept him from collapsing. For one glorious second, as he had watched Bryan’s victorious face, he had thought the nightmare was over. Jim was guilty. While it didn’t seem to make much sense, Josh figured crazy people didn’t need a motive. He had been so wrong to think it ended with Jim. The real truth was enough to make him dizzy.

“Andy . . . Andy, what are you doing?” Josh stammered.

His gaze traveled from her face, twisted into a mask of fury, to the shiny pistol she clutched. Josh recognized the gun from her father’s office.  They had snuck in there often enough to raid his liquor cabinet, and the gun was kept right beside his stash.  Once his only child had grown up, Mr. Carpenter didn’t think it was necessary to keep it locked up anymore. What an idiot he had been—almost as big of an idiot as Josh.

With the shock of Andrea’s betrayal still washing over him in waves, Josh couldn’t bring himself to move. Bryan was ready to pounce on the much smaller girl. He took only a few steps before he noticed that the barrel of the gun was pressed against Elena’s ribs. Bryan froze in mid-stride. Elena shook her head when she saw the completive look on his face. She knew he was trying to think of a way to get her out of harm’s way. She also knew that while Andrea had them backed up against the wall, there was no chance of Bryan succeeding without someone getting hurt.

“Bryan, don’t come any closer!” Elena cried.

“If I were you, I would listen to your pretty little girlfriend,” Andrea told Bryan when she noticed him shift his weight in deliberation. “As I’m sure you know by now, I’m not afraid to shoot.”

“Oh man!” Kevin exclaimed. He finally moved from his chair and scooted closer to the others, stepping behind them to shield himself. “What the hell are you doing?”

Andrea didn’t even acknowledge Kevin. She laughed humorlessly as she eyed the startled, pale faces that surrounded her. “The junior detectives should stick to their day jobs.” She sneered. “For a minute there, when Bryan was drilling me, I thought you had actually figured it out. You thought it was Jim. He doesn’t have the wits or the balls to pull this off.”

“Andrea, please,” Jim begged. “Don’t say anymore.” He turned to Josh and the others, his face desperate. “It was me, okay! I did it. I admit it. Andrea’s just trying to protect me. Don’t listen to her.”

Josh shook his head. He knew it was the other way around. In his own way, Jim was just as sick and twisted as Andrea.

Andrea protested. “You’re not taking the credit for all my hard work. You see this gun, Bryan? I used it to force your sister into writing that suicide note. I made her turn on the car in the garage.” Bryan had to clutch the side of the couch to keep from falling over. His heart wrenching groan seemed to amuse Andrea. “You wouldn’t believe how easy she was to kill. Not like Jasmine. That girl was a challenge. She really put up a fight.”

“Andrea,” Jim pleaded desperately. “Please stop. You don’t know what you’re saying!

“Why should I stop now?” she demanded. “Just look at them!” Andrea cackled again, glancing from one terrified face to another. Josh couldn’t see any hint of the friend he had known all his life in the wild green eyes that stared back at him. “You should see yourselves. You all look so shocked! I swear it’s been worth it just to see the expressions on your faces.”

“For God sakes, Andy! How . . . why?  What’s wrong with you?” Josh stuttered.  “Why would you do this? Those poor girls. . . .” He shook his head again. “Why?”

Andrea’s insane grin faded. The unbridled fury that replaced it was just as terrifying. “Why do you think I did it, Josh?”

Josh shook his head. “I can’t even imagine. I thought we were friends.”

“Friends.” She pushed Elena aside in her agitation so that she could focus her attention—and her firearm—on Josh. Josh was relieved to see Elena scoot over to Bryan. “You thought we were friends. You were always so blind, Josh. You never see what’s right in front of your face. Don’t you know that I love you? That I’ve always loved you?”

“You don’t love him, Andrea!” Jim shouted. “You might think that you do, but I’m the one who protected you all this time.”

“You’re just as nuts as she is, aren’t you?” Bryan’s voice echoed Josh’s exact thoughts. “How could you think she cared about you if she was killing people to try to get to Josh?”

“I saw the way things were going,” Jim told them. “And I’m a much better detective than either of you two morons. I knew it was Andrea from the very beginning. But the cops thought it was Josh. I figured once he got arrested and was out of the way, Andrea would finally realize that I’m the one she loved! Especially after everything I did for her—after I protected her.” He turned back to Andrea. “You have to realize now that we belong together. We love each other! I know we do. You’re just confused.”

“Please!” Andrea rolled her eyes sarcastically. “I mean, I appreciate you keeping your mouth shut and all, but did you really think I could ever care about a loser like you?” She laughed so hard she nearly dropped her gun. “What a joke! I never cared about you! I just kept you around to keep up appearances. I had to fight the urge to gag every time I kissed you.”

“Stop, please. . . .” Jim begged. He slid to the floor and rolled himself into a tight ball.

“How does it feel to know you just threw your life away for someone that doesn’t give a crap about you at all?” Bryan asked.

Jim ignored Bryan and looked up at Andrea with tear streaked eyes. “You’re killing me, Andrea!”

“I really could kill you, you know,” she said viciously. “It would be sooo easy. All I’d have to do it pull this little trigger, and BANG.” Almost everyone in the room jumped, except for Jim. “You’d be dead and none of us would have to listen to you whine anymore.”

“It would hurt a lot less than what you’re doing to me now!” Jim sobbed.

“I know,” she agreed, turning more serious. She looked back at Josh. “Unrequited love sucks. It can make you do things you never imagined you’d do. Like covering up for a killer or even becoming one.”

“Andy, why didn’t you just tell me how you felt?” Josh asked. “All this time . . . I never suspected.”

“Exactly my point!” Andrea screeched. “You should have realized! You should have felt the same connection I did. I’ve watched you flit from one girl to another all these years, all the while wondering when you would figure out that I was the one you were meant to be with. It never really bothered me that much because I knew none of them meant anything to you. Then this bitch Rosa comes along.” She gestured to Rosa with her gun and Josh pushed her further behind him. “When you told me that you loved her, all my dreams fell apart. I finally realized that you were never going to love me the way I loved you. I hated you for that! And I hated Rosa even more. I hated every girl who ever got to be with you.”

“But you encouraged me with Rosa,” Josh said, confused. “If you hadn’t, I probably wouldn’t have kept trying after she turned me down.”