Pretty Little Killers (33 page)

“You know how she gets,” Rachel had said. Daniel did know how Skylar “got.” Skylar could be pigheaded when she'd made up her mind, and there was no talking her out of her position. Sometimes she'd get angry if people kept pushing.

But the story made no sense to Daniel. Skylar had snuck out with Shelia and Rachel dozens of times and he'd never, ever heard of Skylar insisting on being dropped off like that.

By then he'd been hounding Rachel for almost six weeks. That fall UHS was staging
A Midsummer Night's Dream
, the Shakespearean comedy. She and Daniel were at play rehearsal for several hours each night, since both teens had big roles in the production.

One day in October, Rachel finally cracked.

The argument took place in the auditorium during studio acting, one of the classes taught by Mr. Kyer. Small groups were scattered around the auditorium, performing various exercises. Kyer circulated, checking each group's progress.

As usual, Daniel had been picking on Rachel the whole class, and as they fought their voices grew louder.

“You need to quit telling everyone I know stuff,” Rachel said, her voice quivering.

“You do!” Daniel answered. “You need to tell what it is.”

“You don't know anything.” Rachel tried to walk away but Dan kept at her.

“I know you're hiding something!”

“I don't know shit about Skylar!” she yelled. “I don't know anything!”

“Rachel, just go freaking confess. Go tell them what you know.”

Rachel burst into tears and ran out of the room with Kyer following close behind.

When he returned a few minutes later, the drama teacher drew Daniel aside.

“You need to give her a break, Daniel. False accusations can lead to serious problems.”

“They're not false. I'm only trying to get her to talk.”

“It's hard for her,” Mr. Kyer said. “She's going through a lot since Skylar disappeared. People keep asking her what she—”

“That's because she's lying! She knows something and the police need to know what it is so they can find Skylar.”

“She's not lying. I've talked to her. She doesn't know anything more than she's told the police.”

“That's bullshit.”

“That's enough, Daniel. Leave Rachel alone.”

Daniel knew better than to argue with him. Kyer couldn't see that Rachel was lying, but pissing his drama teacher off wouldn't help. Daniel shrugged.

“I did upbraid her and fall out with her,” Daniel said.

Mr. Kyer smiled. He recognized one of Daniel's lines from the play. “That's it. Focus on the play. We only have two weeks.”

With all the tension in the air, all over school—not to mention in drama class and during rehearsals—Daniel wasn't so sure they could pull it off. Opening night was two weeks away, and he didn't have a lot of confidence in Rachel. She was acting pretty weird.

Meanwhile, “Josie Snyder” and “Mia Barr” kept tweeting to Shelia and Rachel. By then their tweets were also for the public's benefit. Josie Snyder's tweets were often taunting and judgmental. Her October 26 tweet tied Shelia and Rachel to one of their favorite TV shows:
bring pretty little liars down together . . . #promisetoneverleaveyoucold
.

Pretty Little Liars
was a mystery-thriller, as much soap opera as mystery. The premiere shows five teenage girls at a slumber party. They get drunk and the next morning one of them is missing. By the end of the episode, the other girls discover she was
murdered and one of her pretty, popular friends had killed her—but which one?

Josie Snyder's reference to Shelia and Rachel as “pretty little liars” was the first time the two teens were linked to the TV show publicly, but law enforcement had privately been referring to the pair that way since Skylar disappeared.

The next day, Josie Snyder's tweet incorporated lyrics from a Merle Haggard song entitled “Mama Tried”:
Turned 21 in prison doing life w/o parole #loveoldiesmusic
.

A few days later, she tweeted again. This time it was a lyric from the theme song of the TV show
Cops
:
Whatcha gonna doo whatcha gonna doo when they come for you
.

Whoever Josie Snyder was, her unceasing pressure on Shelia and Rachel was taking its toll—especially on Rachel. Numerous people said Rachel was having a difficult time with the play. Daniel's relentless push for answers hadn't stopped after Mr. Kyer called him out; it only became more subtle. Daniel began texting Rachel more and speaking to her less. And Rachel's on-stage behavior in the run-up to the play was outrageous: As opening night approached, her tears, outbursts, and tantrums threatened to turn the comedy into a tragedy.

thirty

Becky's Rant

On the opening night
of UHS' production of
A Midsummer Night's Dream
, a cast and crew of about forty teens rushed around taking care of last-minute preparations. A few parents, school personnel, and other adults drifted through the chaos. Thirty minutes before show time, most of the actors were in costume. A few were still sitting for their stage makeup. In the auditorium, people had begun to arrive and select their seats for the show.

Daniel paced back and forth reciting his lines in the hallway behind the auditorium. With glitter on his face and his hair teased large, he couldn't wait to play the role of Oberon, the Fairy King. Down the hall, Daniel spotted Rachel in costume for her role as Helena, speaking to her mother. Rachel appeared to have been crying. Daniel heard Rachel's and Patricia's voices rising. He gestured to one of the girls who had applied Rachel's makeup to go rescue her. Mother and daughter were obviously in the middle of another fight.
Great timing
, Daniel thought.

Just then Daniel thought he saw Patricia's hand smack Rachel across the cheek. The smack was followed by, “Get your shit together, Rachel!”

While Daniel said he had no idea what provoked Patricia, her best friend, Liz, insists there is “no way” Patricia slapped her daughter.

“Patricia never believed in corporal punishment,” Liz said, “so she wouldn't lay a hand on that girl.”

Liz witnessed the exchange between Rachel and her mom that night. Patricia had just learned Rachel didn't show up for the previous night's performance because she was off somewhere with Shelia.

Patricia was furious with Rachel. The police had warned her to keep Rachel away from the other girl, and not only had Rachel lied to Patricia, but she also skipped out on a performance. Patricia had gone to great pains to try to follow their instructions, but every time she turned around Rachel was being defiant and flaunting her friendship with Shelia.

When Mr. Kyer told Patricia that Rachel's understudy had to go on instead, Liz said Patricia was enraged. She confronted Rachel and when the teen realized she had been discovered, her eyes widened and she burst into tears.

While all of the backstage drama was going on, no one suspected anything was amiss because Rachel's Twitter traffic during that time was upbeat, reflecting her excitement and love of the stage. She sent a shout-out to Mikinzy for showing his support by being in the audience and bringing her flowers. Her enthusiasm peaked on November 3, the last day of the play. Rachel tweeted:
round three boys and girls, let's kill it tonight!

Rachel's good mood didn't last long. Several area teens received subpoenas to appear before a federal grand jury in Clarksburg, about forty-five minutes from Morgantown. Grand jury subpoenas are supposed to remain secret, but Shelia and Rachel learned that Eric Finch, Crissy Swanson, and a teen named Aaron Roupe—all of whom had known Skylar through Shelia Eddy—were called to provide information.

Law enforcement was unaware Shelia and Rachel knew about the grand jury, but they did. The girls were upset and it showed in their tweets. Rachel's
sick of being let down
and Shelia's simple
F M FREAKING L
(“FML” is textspeak for “fuck my life”) were easy to decipher.

Later that day, Shelia's tweets revealed sadness—although the remorse might have been feigned (
i would do anything to go back to the beginning of 2010 literally anything
). Could her tweets have been a reference to the fact that in 2010 Shelia still lived in Blacksville and Skylar was still alive?

Shelia's sadness was short-lived. The next day she was back to her old form and feeling cocky:
no one on this earth can handle me and rachel if you think you can you're wrong
. This may have been meant as a warning, possibly for the police working the case.

The official transcript of the grand jury proceedings remains sealed; however, it appears to have been a fishing expedition. The fact that a federal grand jury was convened in the first place helps explain the FBI's presence, since the FBI always works cases brought into federal court. Given all of this, the precise nature of the investigation remains obscure.

Was the grand jury looking for evidence of the bank robberies? Was Skylar's disappearance connected to those bank robberies? Afterward, the subpoenaed teens said it seemed the grand jury was more about Blacksville drug traffic than either the bank robberies or Skylar's disappearance.

But Shelia and Rachel clearly believed the grand jury was all about a girl—Skylar. For instance, Shelia tried to alleviate Rachel's worry in a November 6 text:
Mark said it was ALL gunna be about drugs
.

By “Mark,” Shelia may have meant Mike Benninger, her attorney. Both girls' parents had retained attorneys for their daughters sometime in September, not long after police began questioning the two teens.

Rachel texted back:
okay how does he know that's all this is about? im sure its more for me
.

Shelia replied,
because thats what the us attorney said their gunna follow the drugs to get to skylar
.

If Rachel was worried about the federal grand jury, that was nothing compared to what came next: the two girls learned that authorities wanted them to take a lie detector test. Neither teen was happy. It felt like the heat had been dialed up another notch.