Privilege 1 - Privilege (25 page)

"Here I am," Ariana said with a grin.

"So what happened? How did you do it? Where have you been?" Kaitlynn asked. "How did you--"

Her last question died on her tongue. Ariana's heart turned. Kaitlynn had seen the body. Her face went slack and lost all its color as she glanced questioningly, warily, at Ariana. When Ariana remained silent, she took a couple of steps toward the body as if to confirm what she was seeing. Her hand flew up to cover her mouth and she froze.

"Ariana, is that--"

"Yes. It's Briana Leigh," Ariana said calmly.

She had to maintain an air of calm. It was the only way to keep

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Kaitlynn's oncoming panic in check. She needed her friend to help her, and Kaitlynn would be no help if she broke down.

"You killed her?" Kaitlynn said, whirling on Ariana. Her expression was appalled. Terrified. "Ariana! Why?"

"I did it for you," Ariana said in a soothing tone, as if she was telling a nursery schooler why she needed to give in to nap time. "After everything she did to you... I couldn't let her get away with it. She had to be punished."

A tear spilled over onto Kaitlynn's cheek. A grateful tear? A disappointed tear? The crickets' song seemed to grow suddenly louder.

"Ariana--"

"Kaitlynn, she was pure evil... a waste of life," Ariana said, stepping forward to look right into her friend's eyes. Kaitlynn, however, averted her gaze. She couldn't stop staring at the corpse. "But her death won't be a waste."

Kaitlynn blinked. "What?"

Ariana took Kaitlynn's hands and tugged, forcing her friend to face her. Taking a deep breath, she tried to convey the seriousness of the situation with her eyes. Somewhere in the trees, a branch snapped. Ariana prayed it was just a deer or a raccoon, but her pulse quickened. "Kaitlynn, the police need to find my body."

At first, Kaitlynn didn't understand, but slowly her eyes widened. She tried to step back, but Ariana held her firm. A breeze rustled the trees and sent a chill down Ariana's back.

"You can't be serious," Kaitlynn said.

"Serious as life in prison," Ariana said flatly.

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Her palms were starting to sweat. Every second that passed was a second she couldn't afford. She was counting on Dr. Meloni's ego--on his survival instinct--to protect her. Counting on the probability that he wouldn't have a rush of conscience and confess what he had done. If he kept quiet, she and Kaitlynn had until seven a.m.--the first bed check--before anyone realized she was gone. But if he confessed, the cops could be after them at any moment. Ariana needed to get this over with and get out of there before that happened.

"We need to take her out to the center of the lake, weigh her down, and drop her in," Ariana told her friend, clutching her hands. Somewhere across the lake an outboard motor started up. Ariana's heart was in her throat. Then she heard a whoop and a laugh carry across the water. Just some college guys out for a drunken ride on the lake. That was all. "It's the only way they'll stop looking for me," she told her friend. "It's the only way I--we--can ever be free."

An incredulous noise escaped the back of Kaitlynn's throat. "You want me to... to touch her? I don't think I can do that."

"Y can and you will," Ariana said. The engine noise grew dimmer. The boat was headed in the opposite direction. Ariana breathed a bit

ou easier. "I did all of this for you. I got you out of prison. Now you have to do something for me. Unless you want me to go back to jail. Unless you want both of us to go back."

Kaitlynn appeared startled. "No. I don't want that."

"You have to help me," Ariana said desperately.

Something shifted in Kaitlynn's eyes. Sharpened. It was as if she

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had just realized she was free and, at the same time, realized how fleeting that freedom could be.

***

"You're right," Kaitlynn said finally. "Let's get this over with."

Ariana reached for her friend and hugged her. "Thank you," she said. "Now take off your clothes."

Kaitlynn understood without further explanation. She quickly removed her regulation Brenda T. blue shirt, white T-shirt, elastic-waist jeans, socks, and sneakers. Ariana grabbed a pair of jeans and a sweater from the bags in the car and gave them to Kaitlynn to wear. Together, they stripped Briana Leigh down and dressed her again in Kaitlynn's prison wear. As they worked, Kaitlynn never looked at Briana Leigh's face. Not once. Ariana's heart welled over the sacrifice her friend was making for her. She just hoped that Kaitlynn wouldn't have nightmares about this moment for the rest of her life. Ariana knew how horrifying that could be.

She waited until a moment when Kaitlynn's back was turned to remove the engagement ring from Briana Leigh's finger and slip it onto her own, the diamond turned in. Kaitlynn could not know that Briana Leigh had been engaged. Sweet as she was, it might make her feel real remorse.

"Okay. You get her feet," Ariana said once Briana Leigh was dressed.

As Kaitlynn hoisted Briana Leigh's legs, she glanced up. Her jaw dropped in shock.

"Her hair," she said.

"I know. She did that on her own," Ariana said with a smile. "Crazy, huh?"

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Ariana wanted to bask in the lucky irony with her friend, but Kaitlynn was too stunned to comment further. She walked awkwardly backward, struggling with Briana Leigh's dead weight, until they were standing alongside the floating skiff. Together, they bent at the waist and lowered the body into the boat. Then Kaitlynn climbed in, sitting on the bench near Briana Leigh's feet. She was still staring at the girl's face, as if she was understanding for the first time that she was really dead.

"It's almost over," Ariana promised her, climbing into the boat. "Just one more thing."

She sat behind Briana Leigh's lolling head. Her fingers trembled as she reached around her own neck and unclasped the gold fleur-de-lis necklace. The moonlight glinted on the pendant's smooth surface and Ariana felt her heart tear down the center. It was the only thing she had left. The only remnant of her old self.

"Ariana, no!" Kaitlynn gasped.

"I have to," Ariana said, speaking past a lump that had suddenly arisen in her throat.

"But your mother gave you that," Kaitlynn said.

"I know." God, did she know. "But Meloni has seen it. He knows I always wear it. If they find her with it, they'll be convinced she's me."

Closing her eyes, Ariana brought the pendant to her lips and kissed it. She felt all the emotion of the past few weeks--realizing she was never going to see her parents again, mourning them alone in front of a computer, mourning herself every time she looked in the mirror--and felt as if she could cry for days.

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But she didn't have that luxury. She had work to do. Self-indulgence could come later. Taking a deep breath, Ariana pushed it all aside.

"I'm sorry, Mom," she said quietly. "I'm so sorry to put you through this."

Then she clasped the necklace around Briana Leigh's undeserving neck, untied the skiff, and pushed away from the dock into the cold, murky darkness of the lake.

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USELESS

Ariana watched Briana Leigh's face as she sank below the surface of Lake Page. Her blond hair floated out around her head like a halo as she dipped beneath the greenish-brown water. Her skin looked waxy and pale.

"She could be you," Kaitlynn said, her voice morose.

Ariana shuddered, hoping the FBI would agree with Kaitlynn's assessment.

After that, everything went so smoothly it was like a dream. They rowed back to the house, tied up the skiff, and walked through the woods together. As they ducked under branches and stepped around muddy patches and puddles, Ariana felt more and more free. Soon the authorities would have their body. Soon the search would be successful, and Ariana Osgood would be officially declared dead. Before she knew it, it would all be over. She would finally be free to start her new life.

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She only hoped it wouldn't be too soon. Ariana was supposed to have been dead for more than a week. In her estimation, Briana Leigh would have to go unfound for at least a week or two if she was going to look like she had been lolling at the bottom of the lake for that long. But there was nothing Ariana could do about that now. She was just going to have to wait and hope.

It was well past midnight when they arrived at the car. Ariana kept her ears trained for the sounds of sirens or dogs or shouting voices, but none came. There was nothing but crickets and the breeze and the occasional hoot of an owl. Undoubtedly Dr. Meloni was sitting in his house right now, petting his dear Rambo and wrestling with his conscience, trying to figure out what to do next. Tell the authorities that he'd helped Kaitlynn escape and have her found and dragged back, or wait until morning and hope that no one figured out his crime? The thought of his torture made Ariana smile.

At the car the two girls changed into dry clothes. Kaitlynn chose a pair of black cigarette pants and a white off-the shoulder sweater. Ariana took out her coveted Calvin Klein dress and sighed happily as she belted it around her waist. Kaitlynn removed the rubber band from her hair and shook out her curls. Together they leaned back against the trunk of the car. If anyone were to happen along, they would be just two friends out for a moonlight chat by the lake.

"The hair suits you," Kaitlynn said with a smile.

"Y think?" Ariana asked. She lifted the heavy extensions over her shoulders in a gesture that made her think of Noelle Lange. "I'm still getting

ou used to it."

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Ariana looked at her friend with a pang. She had yet to tell Kaitlynn that she was going to Atherton-Pryce now--that they were going to have to go their separate ways--but she decided she should wait until they were far away from the Brenda T. Until they were safely tucked away in a place where they could talk and come up with a plan for Kaitlynn. Because now that Ariana had spent so much time daydreaming about Atherton-Pryce, about the fact that she could still have everything she had always wanted, she wasn't willing to give it up. She could only hope that Kaitlynn would understand.

"We should probably get going. The farther we get away from this place, the better."

"Agreed." Kaitlynn crossed her legs at the ankle and sighed as the breeze tossed her hair back from her face. "So. Where's the money?"

Ariana arched an eyebrow. "Figured out what my plan was already?"

"Isn't it obvious?" Kaitlynn asked with a shrug. "Why else would you have gone straight to Briana Leigh? The money, the body. It's perfect."

Ariana smiled. "Thanks. But I hadn't planned on using her for the body until it became absolutely necessary. And unfortunately, there is no money."

Kaitlynn stood up straight and crossed her arms over her chest. "What do you mean there's no money?"

Her voice was sharp. Angry. Never in Ariana's life had she heard Kaitlynn sound angry. Not even when Christmas had passed without so much as a card from the aunt and uncle and cousin she still had on the outside--the ones who had refused to take her in when her

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parents died. The ones who now had control of all of Kaitlynn's family money.

"It turns out there was a clause in her dad's will," Ariana said, walking around to the backseat with a towel. She wanted to clean out Rambo's dog hair. The new Briana Leigh Covington did not drive around in a hairy car. "She wasn't getting any of the inheritance until she was twenty-five."

"That's bullshit!" Kaitlynn shouted.

Ariana paused, leaning halfway into the car. That was definitely annoyance. She stood up again and looked over the car at her friend.

"Don't worry. I've got fifteen thousand in cash that Grandma Covington gave to Briana Leigh for emergencies. That should be enough to--"

Kaitlynn let out an irritated squawk. She walked around the side of the car and faced Ariana. Her brow was creased in consternation. Ariana stared at her friend. She felt as if she had missed something. As if she was playing catch-up.

She hated that feeling.

"Y ou're telling me that you spent all that time with that bitch and you didn't even get your hands on the money?" Kaitlynn spat, her teeth clenched. "You have to be kidding me!"

"Kaitlynn, calm down," Ariana said, wrapping the towel around her fist. "I told you--"

"I don't believe this!" Kaitlynn seethed. "God, I should have known better. If you want something done right... But I couldn't do it myself, could I? You were my best shot!"

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Ariana's heart slowly turned to stone inside her chest. She suddenly felt cold. Very, very cold. "What are you talking about? Handle what?"

"This!" Kaitlynn flung her hands out as if to encompass the whole world. "I couldn't go myself because Briana Leigh knows me. I had to send someone else," she ranted, pacing the dirt clearing. Her growing voice startled a few night birds from the trees. Ariana's heart seized up in her chest at the noise. She attempted to focus, but she simply could not. She couldn't believe what she was hearing. "So I fed you all the crap you'd need to know to get in with Briana Leigh and gave you my whole sob story and you ate it up. All of it. It was the perfect plan, Ari. Because I thought it up!" The world started to spin in front of Ariana's eyes. She brought her hand to her head and tried to stop it, but it was no use. The person in front of her was supposed to be her friend. Supposed to be innocent, naive Kaitlynn Nottingham. But at that moment the person in front of her was unrecognizable. Fury lined her pretty face and she spat when she talked. The transformation was utterly horrid.

It hadn't been Ariana's plan. It had been Kaitlynn's plan all along. Kaitlynn had planted it inside Ariana's mind, just like Ariana had planted the identity-switching plan in Briana Leigh's head, making her think she'd come up with it herself.

Ariana's stomach turned and bile rose up in her throat. Wrong again, Ariana. You were wrong again....

"But now, as it turns out, you used me to get the body you wanted and now you're leaving me high and dry," Kaitlynn ranted.

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