The Good Girls

Chapter 28

ON FRIDAY EVENING, A SIX-FOOT-TWO-INCH fuzzy white bear slammed into Jane and clumsily swiped at the spilled beer on her shirt with a giant paw. "Oops, sorry!" he crowed with a muffled giggle. Jane could tell it was Sander Dennis, who was in her chem class. His girlfriend, a junior named Penelope Steward, cackled in her pink tutu, then sauntered around the DJ table toward the keg.

"Where's your costume?"

Jane looked up. Thad Kelly, a senior, was wearing a blue bird costume and a sash with "Insert 140 characters here" printed on it. He stared at Jane drunkenly, even though the party had started, like, five minutes ago.

Jane looked down at her boyfriend jeans, rolled
up at the cuffs, and her thick cable-knit sweater. "I didn't really have time to think one up," she said.

"Lame!" He laughed and boogied away.
She sighed and scanned the room again. If only she could tell him she wasn't here to celebrate Halloween—she was here to save a life. A horrible premonition told her that tonight was going to be the night that the killer was planning on hurting Lonnie. It was the perfect environment: a loud, chaotic party, lots of alcohol, lots of suspects.

The exact thing they'd said when they were planning to prank Ben at his party.

Jane shuddered. She had to find Lonnie. She was definitely coming to this: Earlier today, she'd posted on Facebook about her top-secret costume. Jane had also noticed a post about her from Lonnie on Facebook—a picture of her and Oliver, kissing, with a nasty caption—but she'd quietly deleted it from her page and decided not to dwell on it or on the fact that Lonnie had apparently snuck out of the restaurant that night and spied on her and Oliver while they were kissing. It couldn't get in the way of Jane trying to save her.

Jane had checked other people's sites, too. Crystal White's Facebook was still silent, though a lot of people had posted that they were praying for her. People had posted to Audrey's account offering their condolences for Audrey's stepmom, though Audrey hadn't added anything in a long time.

Evie's page was just as silent. The last time she'd posted was before the whole hoarding email thing, when she'd uploaded a link to an article called "The Ten Best Pandora Downloads to Kickstart Your Weekend." There was certainly no mention that she was attending the party.

Jane closed her eyes and remembered the image of Evie driving past Lonnie's house. Maybe there was an explanation for it. Maybe Evie knew someone else on that street. Maybe she was driving slowly because she was looking for a particular house—just not Lonnie's house. Because why on earth would Evie be behind all this? Why would she risk so much? In fact, maybe Evie had the same reason Mac did: to check on Lonnie to make sure she was safe. That had to be it.

A Katy Perry song came on, and a bunch of kids screamed and started dancing. Jane took another spin around the patio, circumnavigating the pool, where a horde of juniors were playing an aggressive game of co-ed water polo, the girls holding tight to their string bikinis as they hurled themselves up and out of the water.

Then Jane saw her. There was Lonnie, sitting with Maeve Hurley, who played violin. Lonnie was dressed as a sprinkle candy from Candy Crush and holding a beer. Jane was so thrilled she almost cheered.

She marched over. When she was a few feet away, Lonnie looked up at Jane and narrowed her eyes. She started whispering something to Maeve. Maeve looked at Lonnie and giggled.
But that still didn't deter Jane from her mission. "Hey, Lonnie," she said, approaching her ex-friend.

Lonnie looked at her confusedly, then wrinkled her nose. "Nice outfit. Or lack of outfit. This is a costume party, dork. Or is that your costume—a dork?"