They Just Don't Know You

Chapter 34

Jade's POV

Thursday, October 10

"But none of it makes any sense."

I'm at Perrie's house, curled up on her couch like on homecoming night. She has the Defender movie on again, but neither of us are watching it. She texted me half an hour ago: I need your true crime brain.

I'm not sure why she trusts me after my Alex-Samantha theory imploded so spectacularly. But here I am. I don't think I'm helping though. Jonnie being Caitlin's killer has always made sense to me. But being Ellie's? Never even crossed my mind. 

"What connection is there between Jonnie and Ellie?" I ask.

Perrie's eyes flash. "None that I know of. Except that he was in town the night she disappeared. If the police had ever looked at my phone, they'd have seen his text." She takes out her phone and unlocks it, then swipes for a minute. She holds the phone out to me and I'm looking at a message. In town for a few hours. Don't freak out.

I read it twice, and when I look back up at Perrie, her face is the picture of misery. "I thought that...I was trying to help Jonnie out by not, you know. Telling the police," she says haltingly. "I thought it was just bad timing. But what if...Christ, Jade." She slumps back against the couch, rubbing a hand so hard across her bruised face that it has to hurt. "What if it was more than that?"

I study Jonnie's text again, wondering why I don't find it more disturbing. After all, I've had him at the top of my suspect list for weeks, and this puts him at the scene of the crime. Problem is, it's not the right crime. "Okay, but...Jonnie was in the process of moving then, right? Or he had moved? So he had a perfectly good reason for being here," I say, handing the phone back to Perrie. "And why would he send you that text if he was planning something? You'd think he'd be more subtle."

"Subtle isn't how Jonnie rolls. I get what you're saying though." Perrie brightens a little, then jiggles her phone as though she's weighing it. "I should let my Mom know what's up. But she's having dinner with a friend, and she's hardly done that kind of thing since she and John got married. I feel like I should let her have a few hours of peace before everything goes to hell again."

I think back to my one lunch at Echo Ridge High with Ellie, when she'd said that Perrie was cute but couldn't obviously compare to Jonnie. "Do you think...Could Jonnie and Ellie have been secretly dating or something?"

"What, while he was also secretly dating Sairah?"

"I'm just trying to figure out how the ring could've gotten there. Would he have given it to Ellie?"

Perrie's voice is ragged. "Maybe? I mean, you'd think somebody would've noticed him sneaking around with a high school girl, but maybe not." She runs a hand through her hair. "I shouldn't have left Jonnie's place. Me and him...I don't know. It's always been complicated. We're not close. Sometimes I've almost hated him. But he's not a...serial killer." She almost chokes on the words.

"Do you think Sairah knows more than she's saying?"

"Do you?" Perrie asks.

I'd had Sairah in mind as a potential accomplice right up to the day she clocked Kamille in the head with a candlestick, then spilled her guts after. She'd seemed so sincere and heartbroken that I couldn't picture it anymore. "No," I say slowly. "I mean, why would she go through the trouble of looking for Caitlin's bracelet if she were? The case was ice cold at that point. If she were involved, the last thing she'd want to do is get the police thinking about it again. And Jonnie helped her, didn't he? Although...well, I guess he's not the one who gave the bracelet to Caitlin, right? Sairah said as much. So maybe he figured it didn't matter."