Chapter 9
I had barely lifted my phone when something crashed behind us.
All three of us spun around.
Our door had never fully latched. It was hanging slightly open.
And standing in the gap was Madison.
She held a paper bag in one hand and takeout containers in the other. Pastries and soup had spilled all over the floor at her feet.
Her face had gone completely white.
Jessica jumped up so fast her chair nearly tipped over. “Maddie—”
“You still think it was me?” Madison whispered.
No one answered.
Her eyes filled instantly.
“I already told you,” she said, voice trembling. “I’ve been careful. I’ve been so careful. Why don’t you believe me?”
Jessica tried to walk toward her. “It’s not that we don’t believe you, it’s just—”
“Just what?” Madison cried. “You know I don’t remember what I do when I sleepwalk, so how can I promise anything? Is that what you want to hear?”
Reilly stepped in, blunt as ever. “Look at the timing. You dream about cutting watermelon, and a girl dies with a head wound. Then you dream about eating rice noodle rolls, and a guy turns up with—”
She cut herself off, but the meaning was obvious.
“You can’t blame us for thinking it’s more than coincidence.”
Madison broke down crying even harder.
“Fine,” she said. “If you want proof, I’ll show you proof.”
She strode into the room so suddenly that all three of us flinched.
But she did not pull out a weapon.
She pulled out her phone.
“I installed a security camera in my new room,” she said through tears. “After what almost happened to Emma, I was terrified of myself. So I set it up facing the door. Every night. If I left my room, it would show it.”
Reilly took the phone and started scrubbing through the footage.
The camera angle covered the door clearly.
If Madison had left, we would have seen it.
Reilly checked the timeline from the previous night, then the one before that.
Nothing.
Madison never opened the door.
The murder in the boys’ dorm had happened the night before, and there she was on video, inside her room the whole time.
Jessica exhaled shakily. “Maddie, I’m sorry. We were wrong.”
Madison wiped her face. “So now do you believe me?”
Jessica nodded immediately.
But I didn’t.