“I don’t know, ma’am. That’s not up to us to decide. We’re just here to ask your daughter what she knows that could help us in the investigation.”

Caydance stared at Frank. Frank stared back at her. The kid was brash, as if the word authority had no meaning to her. She tucked her hair behind her ears and examined her cuticles.

“Caydance, do you know anything about what happened to Gabby?” Murray’s tone was kind, familiar, as if he were a favorite uncle chatting about holiday traditions. The intent was to lower her guard, though she didn’t seem bothered by anything other than being inconvenienced.

They watched the young woman; several seconds ticked by. Frank expected her to deny it, but instead she grew very still, her eyes fixed on the carpet. Her mother seemed not to know what to do. Her hand slid onto her daughter’s shoulder, and she looked back and forth between Frank and Murray.

“Look,” Caydance finally said, “it’s Zoey’s fault. She screwed it all up.”

Susan knelt next to Caydance. “What are you talking about?”

“It wasn’t supposed to be a big deal. It was just a little revenge for what she said.”

“What she said?” Frank asked.

“On that Web site. About cheerleaders.” Caydance sighed heavily. “I tied her up, and Zoey was supposed to go untie her in like ten minutes.”

“I think you better stop right there,” Susan said, nearly out of breath. “We need to call a lawyer.”

“Mother, please. It’s not a big deal. If anyone should get in trouble, it’s Zoey. She didn’t do what she was supposed to do. She’s the one that left Gabby out there. And I even told Zoey that we didn’t know for sure if Gabby said that stuff anyway.”

Frank tried not to react in any way, but inside it was all he could do to suppress what wanted to come out. How could she be so flippant? Frank glanced at Murray, who played it cool, keeping an even expression. “I see. So Zoey was supposed to go untie her but didn’t do it?”

“I guess. I haven’t talked to Zoey. She was supposed to call and she didn’t, so I just assumed it all went down. I tried to call her and she didn’t answer her phone.”

Murray jotted on his notepad, keeping his tone easy. “So tell me exactly how it was supposed to take place.”

“Caydance, stop. Just stop. Don’t say anything else.”

Murray’s calm eyes turned toward Susan. “With all due respect, I don’t think this is the time to look out for your best interest. A young woman almost died last night, and if Caydance can help us piece together what happened, I think you should let her. But if you’d like, we can finish this up at the police station.”

Susan stared at her daughter, tears making her eyes shiny. “Caydance, you realize what you’ve done, don’t you?”

Caydance’s attitude seemed to have suddenly sobered up. Her hands dropped to her lap, and she studied her mother’s face without scorn. “I don’t know. I mean, we didn’t think this would happen. It wasn’t supposed to happen like this.”

“Tell me how it was supposed to happen.”

“Gabby’s just very… Sometimes she wanted to be one of us, you know? She’s nice and all that, but it wasn’t going to happen. But she kept trying to buddy up to Zoey, act like they had a lot in common. It was really getting on Zoey’s nerves. And then there was this thing on the Web site about how stupid cheerleaders are. So Zoey kind of pretended like they could be friends, and it was supposed to be a practical joke.”

Tears streamed down Susan’s face. She stood and backed away from the chair, shaking her head.

Caydance watched her mom for a moment, then looked at Murray.

“How did you get Gabby to go along with this?” Murray asked.

“Zoey asked her if she wanted to go to a party with us. Gabby snuck out of her house, and I picked her up a block away. I took her to the back room-”

“The back room?”

“That’s the rest area. That’s what we call it. I took her there and told her we were playing a little initiation game. I left, texted Zoey, and came home. That’s it.”

“You mean you left after you stripped her down and tied her to a tree?”

Susan stepped forward, wiping her damp face. She stood straighter and her eyes stirred with harshness. “All right, that’s enough. Is Caydance going to be in trouble? She told you everything. I think it was very courageous how she told the truth.”

Frank got up. “Yes, ma’am. Your daughter has nobility written all over her.”

Susan scowled. “What’s going to happen?”

“You’re not to leave this town,” Murray said. “The DA will decide whether or not to press charges. At this moment we are not going to take you in because you cooperated. We’ll be in touch. You need to make yourself available.”

“Is Zoey going to be in trouble?” Caydance asked.

Susan glared at her. “I think Zoey is the least of your concerns right now.”

“What your mother means,” Frank said as they began walking out of the room, “is that she is sure your first concern is for Gabby and her well-being and recovery.”

Susan opened the door for them as she speed-dialed someone on her cell. As the door closed, they could hear her ranting into the phone.

Murray and Frank walked toward the car.

“You’re going to make sure this girl goes down, aren’t you?” Frank asked.

“In a big, bad way.” Murray smiled. “And now, let’s go meet the Princess of Darkness.”

Kay didn’t have a showing until later in the morning, thank goodness. Something told her Jenna needed her. In fact, she would cancel the showing if need be. Maybe she should anyway. Maybe they could spend the day together talking.

Kay sifted through the pantry, deciding what to fix for breakfast. Just spend the day talking? Like that was going to work. But maybe spending any time together at all would be proactive in restoring their relationship.

She stood at the refrigerator door and looked at all the pictures held there by magnets. She studied the picture of Jenna at seven, dressed up for Halloween as a cheerleader. Times had been really good and uncomplicated back then. She knew the transition into adulthood would have its rocky times, but she never suspected it would be like climbing the Alps. Cold and harsh with little oxygen.

Kay opened the fridge and decided on an omelet. She paused and listened for any movement upstairs. All was quiet. Checking her watch, she realized she had time for a quick Starbucks run. She’d bring Jenna some green tea.

On her way, she tried not to think about how badly last night could’ve turned out, but her mind kept running over the scenarios. And she couldn’t help but insert herself into the scene. What would she do if Jenna went missing like that?

She shook off the dark thoughts and whipped into the Starbucks parking lot. A north wind snapped around the building as she tugged the door open. Once inside, she stood for a moment, trying to warm and compose herself.

She reminded herself that everything was fine. Yet fear nagged at her, and she wondered if Jenna was safe at the house. She’d locked all the doors, checked all the windows, turned on the alarm.

But still…

“Help you, ma’am?”

Kay blinked, focusing on the young man with shaggy hair, who kept swinging his head to the side, trying to get his bangs out of his eyes. Kay almost felt compelled to dig in her purse for a bobby pin. “Um, yes. Sorry. A venti green tea and a venti nonfat mocha.”

“Kay?”

Kay turned around. Shannon, Zoey’s mom, stood behind her, grinning.

“Hi, Shannon. Didn’t even see you in here.” Kay handed the barista her credit card and stepped to the side.

Shannon shuffled up, sporting a velour sweat suit. “I’m exhausted. Didn’t sleep well last night.”

“I know. Wasn’t that horrible about Gabby?” Kay asked, grabbing a napkin and stirrer.

“Yeah. And Zoey was being a beast to top it all off. We had to ground her and then she totally wigged out, yelling and crying. It was ridiculous. She was just headed to eat pizza with the girls. You’d think the world had imploded.”