“Actually,” I say, “one other person had a chance.”
“Who? Shane was outside. And nobody else is here. Who else had a chance?”
“You.” I try to pick out her features in the dark room, but all I can see are her dark eyes with leaked mascara. “You were alone in the living room when Tim and I were in the kitchen.”
Her jaw falls open. “Excuse me?”
“Well,” I say thoughtfully. “It does make sense. More sense than Tim or Shane randomly killing Brandon and Kayla. I mean, Brandon was cheating on you. A lot. And then Kayla was accusing you of killing him. It stands to reason—”
“Oh, this is good!” Chelsea sounds like she’s trying to be sarcastic, but there’s a slightly hysterical edge to her voice. “First my boyfriend is murdered and I have to find his dead body. And now you think I killed him, and apparently busted down Kayla’s door and did her in as well?”
“No, I’m not saying that,” I say carefully. “I’m just pointing out that you had an opportunity and a motive.”
She stands there for a moment, her silhouette completely still. “If I am the one who killed them, why am I bothering to look for a weapon? If I did it, that means I’ve got a knife stashed away somewhere, doesn’t it?”
“I… I guess so.”
“Damn straight.” She shakes her head. “I mean, you are seriously out of your mind if you think that I’m capable of killing two people.”
My stomach churns as a thought hits me. Tim was looking for the knife while Chelsea and I were in the house. He didn’t find it, but that was information he told to me alone. So how could she know the killer has a knife stashed away? Unless…
“I think we should go downstairs.” I scramble to my feet. “I want to make sure the guys are okay. And… I think it’s better if we’re all together.”
“Are you crazy? For all we know, Tim has already stabbed Shane to death, and he’s waiting for us at the bottom of the stairs!”
“No,” I say firmly. “He’s not.”
I’ve got to get out of this room. Now that Chelsea knows I’m onto her, I’m not safe here. I don’t want to end up like Brandon and Kayla—I can’t. I go over to the door and turn the knob, but the wall of books we built in front of it keeps it from opening.
“Hey, hey, hey!” Chelsea slips in front of me and puts her hand on the door, holding it closed. “Seriously, what are you doing? It’s not safe down there.”
“I want to go.” I kick some of the books away. “Let me go.”
“Brooke, you’re being crazy! You don’t seriously think I killed Brandon and Kayla, do you?”
“I don’t know.” I push a few more books out of my path. “I just need to get out of here. I have to use the bathroom.”
I try to reach for the doorknob again, but Chelsea is blocking it with her body. I raise my eyes to look at her round face, her black hair with the pale tips that I helped her bleach in the bathroom at her house, and her brown eyes that suddenly look like pools of blackness in the dim light of Shane’s bedroom.
“Chelsea,” I say firmly. “Step aside. Now.”
Her gaze zeroes in on my face. “No. You’re not leaving.”
Chelsea had been searching the room for a weapon, but she didn’t need to search. She had a knife on her all along. The same knife she used to kill Brandon and Kayla. The same knife she’ll use to kill me.
Except when I look down at her hands, they are empty. Where is the knife? Did she stash it somewhere?