Aria sat up straighter. “Did I miss anything? Did Noel . . . ?”
Hanna shook her head. “He still hasn’t woken up.”
Just yesterday, a helicopter had brought Noel here from Rosewood, and he hadn’t regained consciousness since. On the one hand, Aria couldn’t wait for Noel to wake up. On the other, she had no idea what she would say when he did. That was because even though she and Noel had been dating for more than a year, Aria had just discovered that Noel had had a secret relationship with Alison DiLaurentis while she was in The Preserve. He knew the truth about the DiLaurentis twin switch, and he hadn’t said a word to Aria—or anyone else. To say that Aria suddenly couldn’t trust Noel was an understatement. She’d even gone so far as to wonder if Noel was Helper A, the secret boyfriend who’d been helping Ali torment the four of them. But then an A note had directed the girls to the storage shed. The girls were sure it was a trap Noel and Ali had set, so they’d called the police. They’d found Noel bound and gagged in a chair, close to death. And then there was a new note from A: Noel wasn’t the helper. A—Ali—had manipulated them once more. Noel was just another victim.
“Miss Montgomery?”
A tall, bristly-haired police officer stood above Aria. “Y-yes?” Aria stammered.
The cop—who had Popeye forearms and a reddish crew cut—stepped closer. “Name’s Kevin Gates. I’m with the Rosewood Police. Do you girls have a minute?”
Aria frowned. “We already told the police everything we know yesterday.”
Gates smiled gently, making his eyes crinkle. There was something teddy-bearish about him. “I know. But I want to make sure my guys asked you the right questions.”
Aria bit down hard on the inside of her cheek. Now that Noel had been hurt, she felt she needed to keep quiet about A again. She couldn’t risk anyone else becoming a victim.
Gates led them to a more secluded part of the waiting room, next to a pot of very fake-looking lilies. After everyone sat down on a new set of scratchy couches, he looked at his notepad. “Am I correct that you received a text message that Noel was in the storage shed?”
Despite their more private location, Aria could still feel everyone in the room staring. Mrs. Kahn peeked up from behind the Food section of the paper. A boy in an Episcopal Academy sweatshirt peered out from under his hood. Mason Byers, one of Noel’s buddies on the lacrosse team, who was sitting at a table across the room, stopped shuffling a deck of cards and cocked his head toward the group.
“I got a handwritten note, not a text,” Hanna clarified. “And it said to go to the shed. I called the cops just in case the threat was real.”
Gates made a mark on his notepad. “It’s good you did. Whoever sent you that note most likely hurt Mr. Kahn—or, at the very least, saw who did it. Do you have the note on you?”
Hanna looked trapped. “It’s at home.”
Gates paused from writing. “Will you bring it to us as soon as possible?”
“Uh, sure.” Hanna rubbed her nose, looking uncomfortable.
Gates turned to Aria. “Mr. and Mrs. Kahn said you called them several times that same morning, asking if Noel had come home. Did you have reason to be worried about him?”
Aria tried very hard not to make eye contact with her friends. She’d made those calls that morning because she was going to turn Noel in. As Ali’s helper. “He wasn’t picking up his phone,” she said simply. “I’m his girlfriend.”
Gates looked at Spencer and Emily. “You two were at the shed as well, correct?”
“That’s right,” Emily said nervously, peeling her paper coffee cup apart.
“Did you see anyone on the school grounds that looked suspicious? Two people who might have put Noel there?”
Spencer and Emily shook their heads. “All I saw were a bunch of kids playing soccer,” Spencer said.
“Wait.” Emily leaned forward. “Two people?”
Gates nodded. “Our forensic team thoroughly inspected the photographs of Mr. Kahn in the shed. The complex way he was bound and gagged could have only been done by a two-person team.”
Everyone exchanged a glance. Ali and Helper A, obviously. It was proof Noel really hadn’t been Ali’s accomplice.
“And you have no idea who could have done such a thing?” Gates pressed.
There was a long silence. Aria swallowed hard. Hanna’s mouth twitched. Spencer and Emily looked anywhere but at the officer. It was probably obvious that they were lying, but it wasn’t as if they could tell the truth.
Finally, Gates thanked them and walked away, his back stiff and straight. Hanna covered her face with her hands. “Guys, what am I supposed to do?” she moaned. “I can’t give them that note!”
“If you don’t give it, they’ll think we’re hiding something.” Spencer slumped back on the couch. “Maybe we should just tell them what’s going on.”
Aria narrowed her eyes. “And risk someone else getting hurt?”
“What we need to do is figure out who Helper A is.” Spencer glanced cagily at the cop, who was now talking to Noel’s parents. “Then we can come clean about everything.”
Hanna stared into her palms. “I can’t believe Helper A isn’t Noel.”
Aria made a small, tortured sound.
“I didn’t mean it like that,” Hanna said quickly. “I mean, I’m glad it’s not Noel. But we were so close to figuring it out. And now we’re back to square one.”