“The kids?” Taylor asked.
“Schuyler has a sister. She’s still at Hillsboro, right, Theo? What’s Jackie’s new married name, Blake?”
“Let me think. At-something.”
“Sky’s sister’s name is Fane,” Theo said helpfully. “Gorgeous girl, at least she used to be. She and Sky were close. It tore her up when he was sent away. She started hanging with the Goths, wearing all that crazy makeup.”
“Fane Atilio?” Taylor said. Her voice sounded hollow in her ears.
‘That’s it. Atilio,” Evelyn Howell said, smiling.
“Son of a bitch,” Taylor said. “I mean, sorry. Excuse me.”
“Was it something I said?” she heard Mrs. Howell ask her husband, their tones growing lower as they realized something was going on. Taylor let the door shut behind her. McKenzie was waiting for her in the hall. “We need to go have another chat with Fane Atilio.”
Fane smiled winningly at McKenzie, then shot Taylor a hateful glance. Taylor was having none of it. She walked around the table, jerked the back of Fane’s chair, making the metal screech along the linoleum floor, then sat down right next to her.
“Fane, you have a brother. Schuyler. Where is he?”
Fane looked down her nose at Taylor, then looked away. “Virginia.”
“We need his number. Ridit now.”
“I don’t know it. It’s at the house.” She managed to look bored. Her makeup was flaking off. She’d obviously been crying at some point since they’d been gone. Black smears ringed her eyes. Her skin, pale as an opal, blanched further.
“It’s not on your cell?” Taylor asked.
“No. I wasn’t allowed to call him there.”
“Is Schuyler really in Virginia? Or is he here in Tennessee?”
The eyes clouded. “I don’t know what you’re talking about. I haven’t seen him.”
“You’re lying, Fane. We called your mother’s work. They said she’d been out sick for a couple of weeks. She wasn’t at your house. Where is your mother? We know your stepfather is overseas, but wherefs Jackie?”
Fane bared her fangs at Taylor, then licked her lips.
“Wouldn’t you like to know,” she said, then shut down, arms crossed, eyes closed.
Taylor let her sit that way for a moment. She had a bad feeling about Jackie Atilio.
Something Ariadne said popped into her mind, about the coven. The bond these children had was strong, no doubt about it. Divide and conquer, that was the way in. Turn them against one another, let them think the others were talking. That was how she was going to reach into their minds and draw out the truth, not through threats or cajoling or promises. She stood up, cleared her throat. Spoke softly.
“Fine. We’ll just go talk to Thorn again. Between him and Ember, we have most of the story anyway. We know all of you participated in the murders.”
The effect was immediate, violent. Fane lunged upward, out of the chair, hand raised like she was going to slap Taylor.
“Liar” Fane screamed. “They would never betray us. The penalties are too steep.”
Taylor grabbed her by the arm and twisted, forcing the girl back into the chair. Fane was panting in her fury. Taylor could see her starting to unhinge.
“I beg to differ, little girl. How about you tell me about the movie you and your boyfriend made. The one of the murders?”
Fane looked at the floor, breath coming in short gasps. “What movie? I don’t know anything about a movie.”
Taylor released the girl’s arm. “Look at me.”
Fane glanced up at her.
“Stop lying, Fane. It was uploaded from your computer. My tech is going over your laptop now-they found the original.”
A beat, the girl gathered her thoughts. “Oh, that. That’s all fake. Playacting.”
“How could you possibly expect me to believe that, when you’ve shot the film at all the crime scenes and you have Brandon Scott’s murder on tape? You want me to believe that it’s a coincidence? Do you think we’re stupid, Fane?”
Fane had calmed herself, was sitting straight again, composed. “Yes, well. WeVe gotten very good. None of that is real.”
“Right. And how about the letter you sent to The Tennessean ? Was that fake, too?”
“Isn’the going to say anything?” Fane turned to McKenzie, eyes pleading. “You can’t let her talk to me like this.”
McKenzie leaned forward, voice deep and grave. “Fane, I’m very disappointed in you. We talked about this earlier. The more you help us, the less you’ll be punished. That’s how this works. We know you’re involved. You hold the key to this mystery. We want to help you, but you have to help us, too.”
“Don’t give me that crap. I’m not going to help you. You don’t care. You said you cared, and I know you don’t.” She started to cry again, McKenzie rolled his eyes at Taylor.
Taylor handed Fane a tissue. “Blow your nose. You’re not going to get any leniency because you’re crying. Tell us what we need to know now.”
Fane snuffled into the Kleenex. “It wasn’t me. I don’t know what you’re talking about. And I think I’m done answering your questions. I want a lawyer.”
Shit. They’d pushed her too hard.
‘That’s your right. Fane. Though if you had nothing to do with all of this, you shouldn’t need a lawyer. But we’ll go arrange for that. One little issue-we need to inform your parents. I wasn’t kidding before, I need to know. Where is your mother?”
“In hell, probably,” she said, then closed her mouth tight and laid her head on the table. They would get nothing more from her.
They left Fane alone in the room. The hall was bright. Taylor felt like she’d spent half this case standing in the hallways of the CSC, trying to interpret the lies spilled in the interrogation rooms. She itched to get outside, back to the scenes. That’s where the answers were going to come from, not this merry band of misguided Goth children, lying and cheating their way through life.
“We need to find this mysterious brother. My gut says he’s involved,” McKenzie said.
Taylor leaned against the wall, one boot propped against the painted cinderblocks. “I want to find her mother. I don’t like any of this.”
“What do you think is going on?”
“I think we’re looking at an unhealthy relationship between a brother and sister who were separated when their parents got divorced. Being together was paramount. When they were split, they started doing anything they could to get back together. I think we need to comb through the Atilio’s house, get word to the husband, see if we can find the mother. She’s too conspicuously absent for anything good to be happening.”
“You may be right. The separation could be a precipitating event. Fane shows definite sociopathic tendencies. Ef she’s practicing Wicca, she could think she’s got control, that she can change the course of her life according to her will. Happiness would be anathema for her-she’d strike out against anything she saw that reminded her of what she used to have. You noticed that the families we’ve talked to have all been relatively happy, with two parents. That could have been the impetus for choosing the victims.”
“So she arranges with her friend Thorn to have the party kids’ drugs tainted, then sneaks into their houses and carves pentacles in their stomachs? That’s as good a theory as any I’ve come up with, except for one thing. How did she know who would take the pills and who wouldn’t? Theo Howell said he sent word to everyone. Would there have been more? And how would Fane have known?”
“Eight victims. At least three involved. I don’t know, LT. Maybe she was there when they took the drugs.”
“And Brandon Scott? He didn’t take the dru^s and was beaten to death because of it. I think we’re going about this the wrong way. These crimes are all related, but it’s still too much of a fluke that some of the kids with the drugs took them and some didn’t. I think the ones who died were forced to take the dru°;s.”