Teen Killers in Love by Lily Sparks

Author:Lily Sparks
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: CROOKED LANE BOOKS

Chapter Eleven

Trick

“Happy Halloween!” Janeane smiles at us, holding out a bowl of fun-size candy. I wish I could say she looks diminished, but she actually seems younger-looking than I remembered. Her hair is freshly highlighted, and she wears a sweatshirt with a light-up pumpkin on the front, blinking merrily. “Now, really, aren’t you guys a little old to be trick or—”

Erik’s hands wrap around her shoulders, and he walks her, calmly but forcefully, back into the house. The bowl drops, candy showering across the floor as it circles on its rim faster and faster, like a cymbal crashing. Nobody darts forward to find a chair, I turn and switch off the porch light and shut the door, twisting the lock, then chaining the bolt behind us.

“What is this?” Janeane yells, as Erik pushes her into the dining chair Nobody has dragged into the center of the carpeted living room. “Is this some kind of prank? Let go! Let go of me! What do you think you’re doing?”

I lean against the door, afraid I’m going to black out, the familiar smell and details of the house closing in on me. The pearly carpet, the butter-yellow walls, the text art in the foyer: Gather and Family and Blessed.

It’s impossible to be here and not expect Rose to look up from the couch, or run down the stairs, or hear her laugh bubble up from the kitchen.

“Who are these people?” Janeane yells to me, as though I’m her best bet for help. Probably because I’m still frozen up against the door while Nobody and Erik finish zip-tying her to the legs and armrests of the heavy wooden dining chair.

The Elvis head turns to me, Erik’s eyes connect with mine, and I know what he’s thinking. This is the kind of surprise that might get something out of her.

I reach up and take off my mask.

Janeane’s jaw drops. She looks from me to Erik, who’s also pulling his mask off.

“Wait, I saw you on the news—” She looks at me. “You escaped prison. And—found this person—” She looks warily at Erik. “And you came here?” She blinks, genuinely confused. “Well, I don’t know what you’re after, but Mike will be home any minute—”

“Isn’t he in Costa Rica?” Erik sits on the arm of the couch, leaning slightly forward as though he doesn’t want to miss a single flicker of her expression. “But if you have some other guy upstairs, please, tell us now.”

Janeane twists away from him to see Nobody, her Marilyn Monroe mask still on, grinning red and white.

“We just want to talk to you,” Erik goes on calmly. “About Rose. About Jaw. Oh, and camp too. Dave says hi.”

Janeane shakes her head, a solitary tear darting down her cheek. “I don’t know what you’re talking about, okay? I don’t know what you’re doing here, unless you’re—returning to the scene of the crime or something—”

“Scene of the crime?” Erik smiles, his voice so reasonable. “But this isn’t where you killed Rose.”

Janeane’s face freezes. Then pure, righteous fury shoots through her, and when her voice comes, it’s cold.

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