“You acted too nice,” Thayer said.
Emma glanced up at him, frowning. “What?”
“That’s what Laurel said: You were too nice to be Sutton. You didn’t do a very good job playing her.” Thayer shrugged. “Well, I guess you did a fine job. Everyone bought it. Then again, it would have been crazy not to. I mean, I thought I was going crazy.”
“Thayer, I’m so, so sorry—” Emma started, but Thayer cut her off.
“Save it,” he said curtly. His eyes narrowed on Emma. “Just tell me—did you kill Sutton?”
“No.” Emma looked down, shaking her head. Even though the whole world thought she’d done it, it somehow hurt more that Thayer thought she could have hurt her own sister. “I’ve been trying all this time to figure out who did.” She glanced at Thayer, who was staring off across the street. “Ask Laurel—my first morning here, there was a note for me on her car. She thought it was a love note. But it was a threat from the killer. It said that if I didn’t keep pretending to be Sutton, I would be next. It’s in Sutton’s room, if the cops haven’t taken it.” A cloud drifted over the sun, and the colors of the world dimmed like someone was turning down a knob. “I’ve gotten three notes since I got here. I told Quinlan about them. There’s a purple pillow with a ripped seam in Sutton’s room—I hid them all inside it and stitched it back up. Ask Laurel if the police came for it yet.” Emma looked down at her lap. “And it wasn’t just me he threatened. He said he’d hurt the rest of you if I didn’t do what he said. You. Laurel. Laurel’s parents. Everyone.”
Thayer gripped the pole. “So some maniac has been watching you for months, making sure you kept fooling everyone into thinking you were Sutton?” There was an unavoidable note of skepticism in his voice.
“Look, I know it sounds crazy. It is crazy. But yes. Sutton’s murderer has been watching every move I make.” Emma paused. “My first week here, someone strangled me with Sutton’s locket during a sleepover at Charlotte’s, warning me to keep up the act. Then that light almost fell on me at homecoming court rehearsal, with another warning note. And . . .” Her voice grew small, but she kept going. “And I think whoever killed Sutton killed Nisha, too. I’m almost certain that Nisha learned something about Sutton’s death that night, and she died because of it.”
Thayer’s face went pale, but he didn’t flinch. He stared at Emma with steady green eyes. “I guess that explains why you asked me so many weird questions when I was in jail. You thought I did it for a while, didn’t you?”
Emma hesitated, then nodded. “I know now you’re not capable of anything like that. But when I first got here I didn’t know anything about anyone. Everyone was a suspect. You, Mads, Charlotte, Gabby, and Lili.” She paused. “Even Laurel.”
Emma fell silent, shivering in the morning breeze. For a few minutes the only sounds were the birds twittering in the low canopy of trees. A college-aged nanny wearing a jumper and tights pushed a stroller down the street. She started to enter the playground but seemed to change her mind when she saw two teenagers hanging out there during school hours. Emma swayed gently on the swing, the chains creaking overhead.
“Well?” Thayer asked after a moment’s silence. “Who are your suspects now? Do you have any clues?”
Emma picked at one of her cuticles, her mind racing. Thayer might have information she needed, something that could help her defeat Garrett before he managed to frame her. Then this nightmare could be over.
But she thought of the notes she’d gotten, the warnings. She’d been one step behind Garrett ever since she arrived in Tucson. Ethan was already in danger just for helping her. She didn’t want to risk any more lives.
“No,” she lied. “And anyway, I don’t want you involved. It’s too dangerous.”
Thayer stepped forward quickly, to stand directly in front of Emma. “I’m not stupid. I know you have a suspect.” He lowered his voice. “You think it’s Garrett, don’t you? That’s why you were asking me all those questions about him the other day.”
Emma hesitated.
Thayer seemed to read her fears in her expression. He shook his head impatiently. “I’m not giving up on this.” Grief flashed through his eyes, so raw she had to look away. His voice cracked. “Someone took Sutton away from me,” he said fiercely. “And I want that person to pay.”
The pain in Thayer’s voice tore at me, fear and love warring for control in my heart. I wanted nothing more than for Thayer to stay safe, out of Garrett’s reach. But at the same time, the violence of his feelings sent a little thrill through me. Thayer loved me—and he wouldn’t let Garrett get away with what he’d done.
Emma clasped the swing chains, hanging her head with a sigh. A moment later Thayer crouched down next to her.
“Emma?” he prompted.
“Okay,” she finally said under her breath. “But don’t go doing anything stupid, Thayer. You can’t go after Garrett. You’ll end up in prison, or worse.”
“I don’t care,” he shot back, his hands clenching against his thighs. She tugged hard at his sleeve, forcing him to turn and look at her.
“Sutton would care,” she said softly.
She was right. The image of Thayer in prison, staring at cinder block for the rest of his life, knotted my insides. But even worse was the possibility that Thayer could end up like me—murdered, lost to his friends and family forever.