Pretty Little Devils Part 24

Hazel, this is from the school files. It's about Matty. I know this will be painful for you, but I figured you should know before it's too late. I had a bad feeling about him and there's no denying it now-it's all in the files. Call me later, mon pet.i.te, and we'll talk about everything.

xo, Sylvia Hazel braced herself and scrolled down. Part of Matty's file had been pasted in the e-mail.

VARDEMAN, MATTHEW.

"...Matthew violated the temporary restraining order taken out by his girlfriend's parents prior to leaving for Brookhaven.... Matthew is p.r.o.ne to violent outbursts and physical aggression...serious anger-management issues.... We recommend continued counseling upon arrival in Brookhaven...as he will encounter additional stress with this transition, outbursts can be confidently predicted....

Hazel read it again.

...violent outbursts and physical aggression...serious anger-management issues...

Hazel remembered Matty's explosion on the football field. His anger on the night of the dance. She shuddered. She'd been alone with him in the car after that. How could she have let herself trust him?

"Hazel...Hazel, did you hear me?" Her mother was calling her.

"What, Mom?" she yelled back, trying to keep her voice from cracking.

There were heavy footsteps on the stairs.

"I said, you have company," her mother hollered.

Hazel shot bolt upright as her bedroom door slowly swung open.

Matty. He was here.

He was dressed in black, his hair dripping from the rain. His chest was heaving. Hazel saw a wild, desperate look in his eye.

...p.r.o.ne to violent outbursts...

Matty came toward her. She stood up to cover the e-mail on-screen, then clicked off the monitor.

She turned to face him, her shoulders tensed. "What do you want?"

"Just hear me out." He held his hands out in front of him but continued into the room. "It was no big deal. They asked me some questions and let me go. They didn't have any proof." He smiled wryly. "So they had to release me."

Hazel stared at him. Mute.

"I saw you in the parking lot as the police car was pulling away," he explained. "I know it looked bad. But they let me go, Hazel. I had nothing to do with it."

He came closer, reaching his arms out to touch her. Hazel stepped to the side, slowly backing away.

"I was going to call. But I had to get to you. I was freaking out." He took another step toward her. "I found out how Breona died."

She took a breath and stepped back again; she was nearly against the wall.

...restraining order...

"Someone stabbed her," Matty said, his dark eyes boring into her. "Hundreds of times."

"You. Need. To. Go." Hazel forced the words from her frozen chest. "Now."

Matty scowled. "What? Why? You think I did it? Are you crazy?" he demanded, growing louder.

"Get out of here," she rasped. "Please."

He gave her a long, hard look, then turned and stomped back down the stairs. She heard the front door open, then slam shut.

Hazel sank onto the bed, exhaling. It was all so confusing. She knew Sylvia was a manipulator, but it was all right there in Matty's file-and in the angry expression she'd seen on his face. What was happening? Matty couldn't have killed Breona-could he?

PERSONAL BLOG.

HAPPY2BME.

ALL SENSE OF TRUST HAS BEEN COMPLETELY TRASHED. I'M SICK OF BEING TREATED LIKE A DOG. HAZEL IS PLAYING WITH FIRE. SECRETS AND LIES-SOON THEY'LL ALL SEE WHERE IT GETS THEM. THEY'LL ALL PAY.

CHAPTER ELEVEN.

There were officers all over Brookhaven High. Some wore khaki San Diego Police Department uniforms. Others wore street clothes. Those were the detectives-or so Hazel a.s.sumed. Her life had become a crime-scene television show-only there was no sound track, and no one seemed to know who'd done it.

Walking down the hall, she scanned the crowd for Matty.

She pushed her way through the crush. Everyone seemed to be swept up in a swirl of tension-all tight, scared faces, hunched shoulders. Some people were talking too loudly; others were silent. School as they had known it was over forever.

Hazel paused a moment in front of her locker, remembering the day she caught Matty taping his green carnation to her door.

She thought of his smile...how fl.u.s.tered he had been. Was that the face of a brutal killer?

Then she thought of Breona's freak-out.

Breona, who was gone.

Hazel's cell phone went off, ripping her out of her heavy thoughts. She checked the ID-Sylvia.

"Yes?" Hazel answered.

"Did you do this?" There was a brief silence, then...

"Bad babysitter." It was a metallic voice, just like the chip on Charlie Pollins's door.

"No!" Hazel cried. "What is it? Where is it?"

"In my locker. It goes off when I open the door."

"Oh my G.o.d." Hazel stared at her locker. She hesitated for a moment, then she worked the combination and pulled.

"Bad babysitter!"

It was a harsh, rough voice. The same one from the prank calls? Hazel backed away.

"This isn't your prank, Hazel?" Sylvia demanded.

"No!" Hazel cried, her eyes still glued to the open door.

"Then who did it?" Sylvia demanded.

"Why are you asking me?" Hazel asked.

"Because Charlie Pollins does this kind of thing. With those chips," Sylvia said impatiently. "It had to be one of us. Who else would have access to Charlie?"

Hazel didn't have to think hard. Only one other person she could think of had access to Charlie. The same person who had made his missing-pet posters. The same person who played video games with him till late at night.

Matty Vardeman.

Everyone bought chicken noodle soup for lunch, as if solid food were too much to deal with. It was salty, and Hazel couldn't shake the image of huge vats of chicken feet simmering away in a factory someplace. She put down her spoon and sipped a bottle of water.

Sylvia looked around their table. "The voice chips. Give it up. Who did it?"

Everyone stared at everyone else.

A ripple went through the cafeteria as the doors by the diversity mural opened. Three police officers, Detective Fullerton, and Clancy strode in.

"It had to be one of us, right? Who else has our locker combinations?" Megan whispered.

Hazel watched as the authorities slowly made their way through the lunchroom.

"Those wouldn't be hard to get," Sylvia answered without turning her head. "There's a list, right? Of all the combinations? People like Mrs. Sharma have access to them. She probably gave the list to Lakshmi-who sold our combinations to the highest bidder."

"Maybe Lakshmi did it herself," Megan ventured.

"No, she's not that smart," Sylvia said contemptuously. "Whoever did this used Charlie's voice chips. So if it wasn't one of us, it was someone close to us." Sylvia's voice dropped to a low growl. "Attending our parties...pretending to be our friend."

Hazel remained silent.

The PLDs turned as one of the detectives strolled by their table.

"They're going to ask us about the drugs in Breona's locker," Ellen whispered, her voice high and nervous.

"Why? No one asked us about the drugs before," Sylvia pointed out.

"They're going to talk to us eventually," Carolyn agreed. "Someone is going to tell them how much we hated her."

"So?" Sylvia said. "We didn't kill her."

"We talked about payback," Ellen ventured.

"To each other, h.e.l.lo?" Sylvia sounded extremely irritated, as if she couldn't believe how dense Ellen was. "We didn't kill her, Ellen."

"True." Ellen exhaled slowly. "So why do we all feel so guilty?"

Sylvia turned a cold eye on her. "We don't." She looked at the others. "Do we?"

Hazel spoke up. "Whoever killed her was a total psychopath."

"A psychopath. Like someone who had a restraining order taken out on them?" Sylvia asked, giving her a look.

Hazel's stomach clenched. Beads of sweat collected on her forehead.

"We should tell them about the voices in our lockers," Ellen said, eyeing the police officers. "Show them."

Everyone looked at each other, then at the cops.

"Okay, okay, I confess," Carolyn said, half raising her hand. "I did it."

Everyone stared at her in total disbelief.

She grimaced at her soup and pushed it away. "The voices in the locker. I planned it forever ago, and Charlie called me and told me they were done. I already paid him, so..." She shrugged.

"That...is in amazingly poor taste," Sylvia said icily.

"Dude, you have totally got b.a.l.l.s," Megan said. "I swear, that is one of the greats!"

"You're nuts," Ellen said. "It was so inappropriate!"

"That's what makes it so fabulous," Megan argued. "It's so wrong!"

Sylvia sighed like a mother of wayward children. "You never cease to amaze me, mes pet.i.tes."

"Hey, we're not the pretty little angels," Megan said. She turned to Carolyn. "So, the scary phone messages, the e-mails? That was you too?"

"No." Carolyn's smile faded. "I just did the voice chips."

"Well, it's time to confess," Sylvia told the group. "The game is over. Prank caller, come out, come out, whoever you are!"