ED COULDN’T BELIEVE WHAT HE WAS SEEING ON HIS PHONE AS he streamed out of English literature.
It was amazing, really. Not the fact that the new DGM had pulled off two pranks in one day, but the fact that Ed didn’t know Amber Stevens had been to fat camp.
He took it as a personal affront by these DGM copycats. At Margot’s request, he’d been digging into Amber’s past for the last six months and hadn’t found so much as a hint of Amber’s Camp Shred history. Sure, it had probably been in fifth grade, before her family moved to Menlo Park. And of course Amber, who’d cemented her queen bitch reputation by making fun of other people’s weight, would have gone to tremendous lengths to ensure no one ever knew about her hypocritical past. But Ed prided himself on being smarter—and sneakier—than almost anyone else at school, and the fact that the new DGM had succeeded where he had failed stung like hell.
He sighed as he shoved his phone back into his pocket. If only Margot was here to see it. Ed was pretty sure this montage would elicit a smile.
The hallways at Bishop DuMaine were a seething mass of confusion. Father Uberti had dismissed school for the day just twenty minutes into fourth period. He wanted everyone to vacate the campus immediately, pending the police investigation of the newest DGM transgressions. Around him, students were running every which way, gossiping, laughing. Cell phones and tablets that weren’t lit up with the Amber montage were playing the video of Rex and the clown. Teachers scurried through the halls, trying to get students to break up their powwows and go home. Ed noted the whistles of gym coaches and the screams of police sirens in the distance.
Everyone thought DGM was dead since Bree Deringer had turned herself in. Idiots.
Now only one question remained: who would get framed for these latest DGM crimes against Bishop DuMaine humanity?
And more importantly, how did Ed make sure it wasn’t him?
He wove through the hallways, the only student not transfixed by his cell phone screen, and searched for someone who could help with the answer to this question. It didn’t take him long to spot the tall figure of Kitty Wei striding purposefully down the hall, her long ponytail swishing violently from side to side.
“Hola, Miss Student Body Vice President,” Ed said, sliding up behind her. “A word, if you will?”
Kitty didn’t even look at him. “No time. I have to meet Kyle and Tyler. They’re taking me to see Rex.”
“In case it’s slipped your notice,” Ed said quietly, straining to keep up with her long stride, “we’re all about to be sacrificial lambs. Old F.U. is going to tear the school apart to find out who was behind these pranks, and do you really think the newbie perps have the fail-safes in place like you hardened criminals? It’s only a matter of time before they’re caught, and you’d better pray they don’t know shit about you.”
Kitty stopped dead in her tracks and Ed plowed into her solid frame, momentarily knocking his breath away. Before he could regain his composure, Kitty gripped his arm so fiercely he thought his arteries might pop and dragged him out of the nearest door into the deserted courtyard by the boys’ locker room.
“What the hell is wrong with you?” she growled through clenched teeth. He’d never seen Kitty this pissed off before. Apparently, he’d hit a nerve. “Are you trying to get us arrested?”
Ed smiled while he rubbed the numbness out of his upper arm. “I’m watching out for number one, that’s all.”
“Of course you are.” Kitty stuck her finger in Ed’s face. “And how do we know you won’t protect yourself by turning us in?”
“You don’t.” Ed smiled broadly. “You just have to trust me.”
“Make no mistake about this,” Kitty said, glaring down at him. “I don’t.”
Just then, the side door to the school burst open and Logan lumbered into the courtyard. Instinctively, both Ed and Kitty jumped apart and acted like they hadn’t been involved in a heated confrontation just moments before.
“Hey,” Logan said, glancing back and forth between them.
Ed immediately donned an affable, friendly demeanor. “Logan, my man.” He held his hand up for a high five. “Don’t leave me hanging, bro.”
Logan stared at Ed’s raised hand but didn’t reciprocate. “How’s your aunt Helen?”
Ed felt his face grow hot.
Kitty arched an eyebrow. “Aunt Helen?”
“Don’t ask.” Ed eyed Logan, wondering if he was serious or pulling his leg. “She’s fine,” he said slowly.
“Oh,” Logan said with a smile. “Good. Hey, can I talk to Kitty? In private?”
“Anything you can say to Miss Wei,” Ed said, channeling a hotshot sports agent, “you can say to me. I have exclusive rights to all professional interviews and—”
“Ed!” Kitty barked. Her sense of humor was definitely lacking. “Get out of here.”
“Fine.” He desperately wanted to hear what Logan had to say to Kitty, but what could he do short of positively refusing to leave? That would piss Kitty off even further, which was the last thing he wanted to do. He’d just have to take his chances eavesdropping. With a dramatic sigh, Ed slowly dragged his backpack toward the door to the boys’ locker room. “I am considerably—and reluctantly—out of here.”
Kitty wanted to punch Ed in the face as he sauntered out of the courtyard. How did they ever think it was a good idea to initiate him into DGM?
“Sorry,” Logan said. His usually breezy smile felt forced. “I didn’t mean to interrupt.”
“Trust me,” Kitty said. “You weren’t interrupting.”
“Oh, good.” Logan shifted his weight back and forth between his feet as if he were standing on hot coals. “I don’t even know if you’re the right person to talk to, but I heard your speech this morning. In leadership. And, well, I thought that you might listen to me.”
He looked nervous and uncomfortable, like a guy who was keeping a secret. Was it possible Logan knew something about DGM or the killer? “Sure,” she said, smiling. “What’s up?”
“It’s about Olivia Hayes. Do you know her?”
Kitty fought hard to keep from showing any emotion at the mention of Olivia’s name. She took a moment to remind herself of their outward relationship.
You know who she is because she’s the most popular girl in school and you’re dating her ex-boyfriend. Nothing more.
“Everybody knows Olivia Hayes.”
Logan laughed nervously. “Right. Sorry. Well, I’m worried she might be involved somehow in all this.”
Kitty stiffened. “What do you mean?”
“Like . . .” Logan ran his fingers through his longish blond hair. His eyebrows were pinched together and his nose wrinkled up, as if he was grappling with a difficult concept. “A couple of days ago, we were talking about the night Margot . . .” His voice trailed off and Kitty saw a look of pain wash over his face.
“Opening night of the play?” she suggested, careful not to give anything away.
Logan swallowed. “Yeah. Well, I told Olivia about how I’d seen something weird that night. While I was onstage. Two dudes in the audience who, like, totally shouldn’t have been there.”
The Gertler twins.
“Did you tell the police?”
Logan nodded. “Yeah, but I don’t think that sergeant dude took me very seriously.” He shook his head. “Anyway, I told Olivia, right? And then last night I stopped by the surf shop where these dudes work, just to look at some new Uggs, and it was empty.”
Kitty looked at him sidelong. “What do you mean, ‘empty’?”
“Like, the door was unlocked, the lights were on, but nobody was home.” Logan passed a hand through his hair again. “I checked with the lady who runs the shop next door and she hadn’t seen anything. She called the owner, who was pissed, I think. I left my number in case anyone heard anything, then this morning I got a voice mail from that sergeant guy, asking if I could come down and answer some questions about their disappearance.”
“They’re missing?” Kitty blurted out.
Logan shrugged. “I guess so. And, like, right after I told Olivia. Don’t you think that’s kinda weird?”
It was kind of weird. More so than Logan could possibly have realized.
“Then after that video this morning,” Logan continued, “I thought I’d check out the ’Maine Men meeting. You know, like, if this is all connected to what happened to Margot, I want to help.”
“Of course.”
“And when I heard your speech I thought . . .” He heaved a sigh. “I thought maybe you’d listen to me.”
Ugh. How could she ease Logan’s mind about Olivia without giving away DGM’s secret? “I’m sure it’s just a coincidence.”
“I guess.” Logan hiked his bag up on his shoulder and turned toward the door. “Anyway, thanks for listening.”
“You’re welcome?” Kitty said as he disappeared from the courtyard.
Kitty slowly dialed her locker combination. The Gertler twins were missing? What did that mean? They were the killers? They weren’t the killers? Her head was spinning as she lifted the ’Maine Men shirt out of her locker and stared at it. As much as she loathed the idea of wearing the thing, she had to admit it put her in a position to help DGM, to help Margot and Bree, and to keep everyone she cared about safe.
That seemed mostly worth it.
“So it’s true.”
Kitty swung around, the blue shirt still gripped in her hands, and found herself face-to-face with Donté. His features were tense, his eyes unusually dark, and Kitty could see anger reflected in his entire body.
“You joined the ’Maine Men?”
Dammit. Had Mika told him? “I can explain,” she began.
“What, you just liked the shirt? It’s a good color on you?”
Kitty had never seen Donté so angry. He was always good-natured and easygoing. She’d never known a harsh word to pass his lips, not even in regard to his ex-girlfriends, or smack-talking basketball players on a rival team. But now he looked at Kitty like she’d just kicked a puppy, and she didn’t like it.
“I know how you feel about the ’Maine Men,” she said, trying to suppress the emotional flutter in her voice and afraid she’d burst into tears at any moment.
“They’re assholes,” Donté said.
“But there’s a reason I’m doing this.”
“Which is?”
Which is I can’t tell you. She couldn’t exactly explain to Donté that she was the person responsible for forming DGM and for carrying out all of their previous exploits. She’d worked so hard to keep her friends and family away from it. If she shared that secret with Donté and Father Uberti found out, he might get kicked out of school and lose any chance at a basketball scholarship. She’d literally be responsible for ruining his life. And so she’d lied to him, kept him in the dark. Even now, when faced with his indignation over the ’Maine Men, she couldn’t bring herself to endanger his future.
“I can’t explain it right now,” she said, dropping her voice. “You’re going to have to trust me.”
“Trust you?”
“Yeah,” Kitty said, taken aback. “Just like I’m supposed to trust you. Isn’t that what you asked me to do?”
“That’s different,” he snapped.
“How?”
“You don’t understand.”
Kitty didn’t appreciate the double standard. “So I’m supposed to blindly trust you when you say that there’s nothing wrong with our relationship, but when I ask you to trust me with this ’Maine Men thing, you get all bent?”
Donté jabbed his finger at the packaged shirt. “They stand for everything I hate about this school.”
“Me too!” Kitty blurted out.
“Then why did you join them?”
Kitty clamped her jaw shut. She’d already asked him once to trust her. That should have been enough. It had been when he asked the same of her.
“I have to go,” she said, and turned back to her locker.
“Yeah,” he said. “You do.”
Out of the corner of her eye, Kitty watched as Donté stormed down the hallway, and she fought back the tears as she wondered if those were the last words they’d ever speak to each other.
