Pretty Little Devils Part 32

Ellen was right. Sylvia was evil. But there was no way to prove it.

Hazel felt lost. She needed a sane voice. Someone to lean on.

She got out of the shower and called Matty. He was there in minutes, holding his arms out as before. She didn't kiss him. She kept her distance.

"Matty," she began. "I...I have to tell you something awful." She took a deep breath.

In a rush, she told him everything. The big prank. Ellen. The baseball bat. Brandon dead on the floor.

"Oh my G.o.d," he breathed. "He was killed? And you knew that and didn't say a word?"

She stared down at her hands. At some point, she had started biting her nails, and she hadn't even realized it. They looked awful. She felt ugly. She couldn't believe Matty was sitting with her when she was so repellent.

She turned to him, searching his face. "It was unreal, Matty. For so long I didn't know what to do. I didn't know what to think. But then I started putting the pieces together. It was Sylvia. We were going to the police-Carolyn, Ellen, Megan, and I. We were going to tell them everything. But then...we found Megan."

"Oh my G.o.d." He stared at her. His shock reflected her own worst thoughts. She felt herself beginning to panic. "Sylvia," he said. "She's been right there with you all along." She held on to both his hands and took deep breaths, willing herself not to shatter.

He wiped her tears with his fingers. "I'll help if you'll let me. I'll keep you safe tonight. I'll stay in my car out in front of your house until the sun comes up."

"No way," she protested, amazed that he could be so kind. "You won't be safe out there. You can sleep in here...on the floor."

"Your parents won't mind?" he asked.

"They won't notice. Don't worry."

While Matty settled into the blankets she'd laid out on the floor, she picked up her cell phone and checked for messages.

There was one voice mail-from Ellen: "Oh my G.o.d, Hazel! I was attacked! I was at Carolyn's and I was freaking out so much I went for a walk, and someone jumped out of a car and tried to knife me! I ran back into her house. We don't know what to do! Call me back as soon as you get this."

Her heart pounding, Hazel called back. There was no answer. She dialed Carolyn's cell phone.

"Oh my G.o.d. Where have you been?" Carolyn asked. "There's a huge cut on Ellen's arm! I'm so scared, Hazel. Someone is out to get us."

"We have to go to the police," Hazel said.

"And tell them what? About Brandon?" Carolyn asked, panicking. "It's like Sylvia said. We need some proof."

Ellen grabbed the phone from Carolyn. "We can't go to the police, Hazel! Sylvia will get us."

"Listen," Hazel said. "Stay calm. We'll meet up in the morning and talk this over. Matty is here. He's going to help us."

"I can't believe this is happening." Ellen sighed. "Just stay on the phone with us. Carolyn will get on the other extension. We're so scared."

"I just had a thought," Hazel replied. "Sylvia got me this phone. Is there some way she can listen in?"

"G.o.d, I don't know," Ellen said. "She is a total hacker. She showed us all how she got into restricted sites and spied on private chat rooms. It's not such a stretch to think..."

"Let me call you back on my landline," Hazel replied.

She got the portable and called back. She, Carolyn, and Ellen stayed connected the entire night, dozing, talking, comforting each other.

PERSONALBLOG.

HAPPY2BME.

SLEEP TIGHT, LITTLE DEVILS. YOU CAN RUN BUT YOU CAN'T HIDE. IT WILL ALL BE OVER SOON-FRIENDS TILL THE END. THE VERY END.

The next morning the PLDs converged on Matty's house. The place was shabby and messy. Denise, his sister, was working a double shift.

They stuck to Matty's room. It was like being in a bunker. There was a poster of LA Confidential on one wall and a poster for Collateral on the other.

"I still say we ask Josh," Matty said. "For all we know, he's just as eager to get out of this mess as you guys."

Ellen and Carolyn disagreed.

"Josh can't be trusted," Carolyn said. "He's Sylvia's little puppet."

"He'll tell her we're going to the police," Ellen said. She took a breath. "The same thing that happened to Megan could happen to us."

"What we need is proof," Matty said, lowering his voice. "We need to find Brandon's body. That way, it's not your word against hers. They'll have no choice but to take her into custody."

"But n.o.body knows where Sylvia and Josh took it," Carolyn said.

"We have to think," Hazel said, casting her thoughts back to that night. "Maybe Sylvia let something slip." She looked into the faces of the others and saw horrible regret-the need to go back and undo that night.

In that moment, Hazel hated Sylvia with every bit of her being. She clasped hands with Carolyn and Ellen. "We're in this together," she said.

"Finally," Ellen said. "All this time we talked about being there for each other. This is the first time it's ever really been that way."

"You all seemed so close," Hazel said. "Like such good friends."

"Haze, I'm so sorry you got mixed up with us," Carolyn replied. "You had some pretty decent friends. They weren't ultra-cool, but you were doing okay."

Hazel squeezed Carolyn's hand. "I didn't know I was doing okay," she confessed. "I wanted to be a PLD."

"Everyone wanted to be a PLD. But what were we?" Carolyn sighed. "I'd give anything just to be a regular person."

"Too late," Ellen said.

They fell silent. Thinking. What could Sylvia have done with Brandon?

Hazel's gaze moved to the movie posters on Matty's walls.

"Hey," she said slowly, "Sylvia was always going on about Diabolique. Then she totally freaked when someone put it in at the party...after Brandon died and the night before Megan-"

"Original or remake?" Carolyn interrupted.

"Who cares?" Ellen said. "It's the same movie, right?"

"It was the original," Hazel told the group. "The one in French she was always saying we should watch. Then finally someone put it on and she went crazy. Why?"

"I've seen it," Matty offered. "It's a cla.s.sic. There's a great scene with a swimming pool. That's where they dump the body."

"Well, it's not like Sylvia dumped the body in her pool," Carolyn said. "I think someone might have noticed that."

"In the movie it wasn't just a regular pool," Matty added. "It was an abandoned pool. It was filled with leaves and junk. Very cool in black and white."

Hazel shook her head. "Abandoned pools..."

There was a long silence, broken at last by Carolyn.

"Oh my G.o.d!" she exclaimed. "There was this old, abandoned house...."

"Where?" Ellen looked interested.

"Deep in the woods behind Sylvia's house. We used to go out there when we were kids. Sylvia was completely obsessed with the place."

"It had a pool?" Hazel asked her.

"Yes. We used to go out there all the time, and then one winter it burned down."

"It did? How?" Hazel asked.

"I don't know, but part of me always suspected Sylvia set that fire."

Hazel thought back to the night at the Darlings'. Sylvia telling her what a strange child Breona had been. How she'd gotten Hazel to talk about her deepest secret.

Sylvia was the strange one all along, Hazel realized. How could I have trusted her? How could I ever have been so stupid?

"Is the house still there?" Ellen asked.

Carolyn nodded.

"Then let's check it out," Ellen suggested.

"I know the way," Carolyn said.

Matty looked at Hazel. She swallowed. "Let's do it. You drive."

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN.

The hills were black. There was no moon, and a hot, dry wind rustled through the trees. It was called the Santa Ana, and it was giving Hazel a headache.

She sat with Matty in the front of his Cruiser, her hand on his thigh, as they barreled down the two-lane strip of highway that led to Sylvia's house.

Carolyn navigated them down a back road so they wouldn't have to cut past Sylvia's to get through the woods. "Okay, up this driveway."

Beneath the branches of several overgrown pepper, eucalyptus, and acacia trees was a steep, shadowy strip of blacktop. Hazel doubted that the casual driver would have noticed it. Some of the trunks were still blackened from the fire Carolyn had mentioned; the wind whipped them hard, and they bobbed and dipped as if they might break in half.

"We're not that far away," Carolyn announced. "Cut the engine. We can walk from here."

Matty turned off the ignition and killed the lights. He had found only one flashlight at his house; he turned it on now and aimed it at the ground. The wind tossed leaves at them as the four walked up the steep driveway.

"The pool is to the right," Carolyn said.

Hazel nodded, taking Matty's hand. They continued walking.

The wind blew again, and a thick stench wafted toward them. Hazel retched. There was only one thing in the world that smell could be-the smell of death.

"We're here," Carolyn announced.

They were hovering at the edge of the deep end of a half-full swimming pool. The smell radiated from it. Matty's flashlight shone down on a suspended blanket of brown, desiccated leaves.

They all stood quietly, staring.

"We know he's there," Hazel pointed out. "Can't we just tell the police?"

"No." Ellen cleared her throat. "We have to be sure."

"I'll do it," Matty volunteered. He fanned the flashlight back and forth, then found some concrete steps leading into the pool's shallow end. He turned to Hazel and kissed her quickly.

The wind howled through the ruined trees and blew the leaves on the surface of the pool. Hazel's eyes watered.

The flashlight beam moved ahead of Matty as he reached the bottom of the pool. He walked forward, moving his flashlight back and forth, scanning the area in front of him.

Then he stumbled. He swore; the flashlight beam jittered. There was a splashing sound...and darkness.

"s.h.i.t," Matty exclaimed. "I lost it. I can't see a thing." He knelt down, reaching into the leaves and muck.

"Come back," Hazel pleaded.

"No, wait!" Ellen said. "We can't just leave!"