Beautiful Demons

17. No One Ever Believed

My stomach clenched as I forced myself to look at the pictures of Tori's body. I kept my eyes focused on the part of one picture that showed her hands up close. My eyes widened as I saw what Sheriff Hollingsworth was talking about. My mother's sapphire necklace was tangled around Tori's limp right hand.

I couldn't speak. Where would she have gotten the necklace? It was possible she picked it up at the field that night, but why? She didn't seem like the type of person who would pick up a random necklace off the ground and keep it with her. None of this made sense. My mind spun.

I pushed the pictures away from me. I didn't want to look at them any more.

"Here's what I think happened," Sheriff Hollingsworth said, sitting half on top of the desk in front of me. "You're a troubled girl who lets things get out of control when she's angry. You move to Shadowford against your will and on your first day of school, you have a run-in with the most popular girl in the sophomore class. She humiliates you in front of the entire school.

"I listened in horror. This woman actually believed I was capable of murder. I wanted to stop her. To tell her to shut up. But I couldn't speak. My lips were pressed tight together, and my legs were trembling slightly.

This can't be happening.

"You follow her back to her house on Friday night after the game. Lure her into the woods where you get into another argument. Things get heated and you lose control. You burn her, but Tori fights back and manages to pull your necklace from your neck. Scared, you run off, leaving her there in the woods to die."

"No," I said. My voice came out weak and dry. "I wouldn't do something like that."

"But you did have an argument with Tori Fairchild?"

"In the lunchroom that day, yes. But I didn't follow her on Friday night," I said.

"And you're wrong about the necklace. I lost it at the game on Friday. Ask Ella Mae or any of the other girls. I went back to look for it after the game, but I couldn't find it."

"So you admit that the necklace Tori has clutched in her hands is yours?"

Shit. Am I messing up here? I felt trapped.

"Are you allowed to question me without a lawyer? Or at least legal guardian. I'm still a minor," I said, throwing my chin up and folding my arms across my chest. I was trying to seem tough, but think I ended up looking more like a scared kid.

"Where do you think you are? Atlanta?" The sheriff laughed and it sent chills down my spine. "I can do whatever I want with you and no one will ever believe I did anything wrong. You don't exactly have a track record for telling the truth and being a good girl.

"I clutched the sleeve of my shirt into a tight fist, trying not to panic. She was right, though. No one would believe me. No one ever believed me.

The Sheriff pulled out a yellow sticky note and placed it on the table. It was the secretary's note from this morning with my name and a description of the necklace. "It's alright, you don't have to answer that question anyway. We know the necklace is yours. We have witnesses that saw you wearing it. Mrs. King for one. Agnes, your friend at Shadowford. And there's a notebook in your bedroom with a drawing of a woman wearing it. Your mother, I'm guessing."

"You've been going through my things?" I felt betrayed. Helpless.

"Tell me what really happened on Friday night," she said.

I knew I had to tell her about sneaking out and seeing Tori with the boy on the field, but someone knocked on the door before I had the chance.

"Sheriff?" Ellis poked his head just inside the door.

A flash of anger crossed the Sheriff's face. "What?"

"The mayor wants to see you real quick. She says it's important."

Sheriff Hollingsworth's eyes widened. She straightened her jacket and walked to the open door. Almost as an afterthought, she turned back to me. "Don't move."

The door closed behind her and I let out a huge breath. Hot tears threatened my eyes, and I slouched down low in my chair. If they charged me with Tori's murder, they would send me someplace much worse than juvenile detention. I shuddered.

I looked up as the door opened once more. An Asian woman smiled at me from the doorway. She had the most beautiful straight black hair that fell below her shoulders, and her eyes were like black glass. "Harper, I'm Mayor Chen."

Lark's mother. I remembered Agnes telling me she was the mayor's daughter. I had wrongly assumed the mayor was a man.

"I just have a couple of questions for you, if that's okay?" Her voice was soft and smooth. Comforting.

I nodded, relaxing slightly.

"Where did you get the sapphire pendant?"

"It was my mother's," I said.

"But you were adopted, correct?"

I nodded. "As a baby. But my adoptive parents, they gave me the necklace when I turned eight. That's when they first told me that I was adopted. They said my mother's only request was that they made sure I got that necklace."

Mayor Chen seemed to think this over for a moment, then turned back to me. "Do you know anything else about your real mother?"

Why was she asking me about my mother? And the necklace? What did any of this have to do with Tori's death? I shook my head slightly. "I don't know much," I said.

"But you've seen her before?"

"Not really. I mean, I accidentally saw a picture of her that my adoptive parents kept in a file in their desk."

"And that's how you knew to draw that picture we found in your notebook? Of her wearing the necklace?"

I nodded again.

"Do you have any idea how Tori Fairchild would have gotten hold of your necklace?"

"No, that's what I was trying to tell the sheriff. I lost that necklace Friday night at the game. I always wear it, everyday. But when I was getting in the van to come home that night, it was gone. It had to have fallen off somewhere at the stadium. Anyone could have picked it up."

Mayor Chen's eyes locked onto mine, and I searched them, hoping to see some sign that she believed me. On the table, the folder fluttered closed. Mayor Chen hadn't even moved her hand. I stared down at the closed folder, then back up at her ebony eyes.

"Miss Madison, thank you for your cooperation today," she said. "You are free to go."