Hanna nodded. “Honestly, who’s to say Ali has ever been working alone? Maybe she had someone help her drag Ian’s body out of the woods that night after we found him. Remember how quickly he was gone?”
She shivered, thinking back to that cold, creepy night. They’d come upon Ian’s bloated, blue body and had run back to get Officer Wilden, only to find a matted patch of grass when they’d returned. The mechanics of it had always bothered Hanna. Ali was tough, but she wasn’t strong enough to drag a six-two, one-hundred-eighty-pound guy away from a crime scene in under ten minutes.
Spencer sat down on the couch. “Someone could have helped her carry Ian up the stairs and put him in the closet at the Poconos house, too. That same someone could have been the one to kidnap Melissa.”
“And kill Jenna Cavanaugh,” Hanna said, shifting to the edge of the couch excitedly.
“And set that fire in Spencer’s backyard,” Aria added.
Everyone stared at each other. It seemed so obvious now. Ali wasn’t superhuman. Of course she had help. But who was crazy enough to help her?
“It has to be someone who loves her, obviously,” Aria said faintly.
Spencer wrote love on the paper. “Like a friend or a boyfriend, right?”
“Sure.” Emily sounded a little pained. “But that could be anyone.”
Hanna sat back to think. “Well, Real Ali was in The Preserve for a long time. So maybe it was someone she met while she was there.”
“Like Graham?” Emily asked, looking at Aria.
Aria hunched her shoulders. “Graham seemed more into Tabitha than Ali, and he told me he never visited The Preserve. And I’m not sure he’s A—he’s been in a coma since before the latest notes came in.”
“But maybe Ali wrote the most recent notes,” Spencer suggested, writing down Graham’s name anyway.
“And potentially bugged our houses? I don’t know about that.” Aria tucked her feet under her butt. “And anyway, A is threatening to frame us for hurting Graham. My money is on Graham seeing Ali’s helper. I bet that’s what he was trying to tell me in the boiler room.”
Hanna perked up. “Ali did have some good friends at The Preserve, though. Remember Iris, Ali’s roommate? When I was there, she talked about Ali—well, she called her Courtney—all the time.”
“Ooh, that’s good.” Spencer wrote Iris beneath Graham’s name.
Then Hanna tapped her lips. “Although I’m not sure Iris could be Ali’s henchman. She was at The Preserve when Ian was killed. I don’t know how she could have snuck out to haul Ian’s body to the Poconos, either. We’ll have to figure out a way to see if she was there when we were in Jamaica, too.”
“Still, she could know something.” Spencer turned back to their list. “Who else?”
“We can’t leave off Jason,” Aria volunteered.
Hanna frowned. “Ali’s brother? Do you really think he’d help her?”
“Who knows?” Aria shrugged. “That family is beyond weird.”
Hanna raised an eyebrow as Spencer wrote it down. That was big of Aria to suggest it—she’d had a crush on Jason forever.
“What about Cassie, Ali’s field hockey friend?” Spencer asked. “Remember, before Ali died, how she bragged about Cassie nonstop? How she was going to high school parties. How Cassie was the coolest. How Cassie was going to be her new BFF.”
Emily didn’t look convinced. “I ran into Cassie last Christmas, and she seemed okay. And anyway, that was our Ali’s friend, not Real Ali.”
Spencer smacked her forehead. “Right. God. It’s hard to keep track.”
They wrote down a few more names, including Darren Wilden and Melissa, only because the two of them had been involved in Ali’s case from start to finish. But they didn’t seem like very likely suspects. Spencer scratched her chin. “I still feel like we’re missing something huge. Maybe Ali’s helper is right in front of us and we don’t see it. Is there anyone besides the four of us who has been around this whole time? During Ian’s death, Jenna’s death, the fires, Jamaica, that summer, all of it?”
Hanna cleared her throat. “Well, I can think of two people, but I don’t think either of them would be Ali’s helper.”
“Who?” Spencer’s eyes widened.
“Mike.” Hanna looked guiltily at Aria. “ . . . and Noel.”
Aria burst out laughing. “Never in a million years.”
Spencer’s marker hovered over the paper. “We can’t rule anyone out, though.”
She wrote Noel’s name at the bottom, then capped the marker once more. Aria glowered at her. “Why aren’t you writing Mike’s name?”
Spencer sank into one hip. “Do you seriously think your brother would do that to you?”
Aria pressed her lips together. “Well, maybe not. Besides, Mike’s an idiot.”
Hanna let out a small squeak. “Hey! He’s my boyfriend!”
“Well, Noel’s my boyfriend.” Aria peered at everyone anxiously. “You guys, this is crazy. Just because Noel was everywhere with us doesn’t make him guilty—it’s just a terrible coincidence.”
“We know,” Spencer assured her. “We just have to write down everyone, okay? That’s the point of this meeting. We’ll probably be crossing him off the list in days.” She turned back to the list. “This is a good start, don’t you think? We should investigate some of these people. Graham, Iris—there are some good leads here.”