Emily clapped her hand over her mouth, her brown eyes wide.
Hanna sprang up on her toes, placing both hands on the top of her head. “You’re totally right. They were friends. That black car I was talking about? The old thing Wilden was driving around? I saw it one other time, too. Remember the day Time Capsule was announced? We were standing in the courtyard, and Ian said he was going to kill Ali to get her Time Capsule piece? Jason came up, and he and Ian had that weird fight. And then Jason…”
“Ran up to a black car,” Aria whispered, remembering that day.
“And he said, Just drive.” Emily’s voice was soft. She pulled out her cell phone and scrolled through her photos. “It works with this, too.” She showed them the photo they’d already seen, the one of Wilden leaving a confession booth, a guilty look on his face. I guess we all have things to feel guilty about, huh?
“It’s so weird that A is sending stuff that actually…makes sense,” Aria murmured.
“Yeah, that doesn’t really seem like A,” Hanna agreed.
“What if A isn’t malicious?” Emily hissed. “What if A’s trying to help?”
Hanna snorted. “Yeah. We help A…or A ruins our lives.”
The DJ shut off the strobe light and launched into another dance song. Partygoers staggered onto the dance floor. Parents clinked wineglasses, toasting another new hotel to escape to on weekends. Aria even noticed Mr. and Mrs. DiLaurentis across the ballroom, talking jovially to Mr. and Mrs. Byers as if nothing was wrong.
She glanced at the ledger in Emily’s hands. The DiLaurentis parents could have been sending Jason to therapists for years, keeping it a well-guarded secret. Maybe they’d been hiding other things about Jason, too. Jason had been so angry today. Could he be one of those people who hid his anger expertly, seeming so sweet and mild until he suddenly…erupted? Maybe Wilden was one of those people too.
“What if Jason found out Ali and Ian were dating?” Aria suggested. “That day he came up to Ian and Ali in the courtyard, he was really protective of her, like he knew something was up. Maybe that’s what Wilden meant by I can’t believe what that ass**le did. I would guess an older brother would want to kill the guy taking advantage of his sister.”
Hanna crossed her legs, her face crumpled in thought. “Ian said in his IMs that they wanted to hurt him. What if they are Wilden and Jason?”
“But Ian implied that whoever drove him out of town were the ones who were really behind it,” Emily said. “So that would mean…”
“Jason and Wilden had something to do with Ali’s murder,” Hanna whispered. “Maybe it was an accident. Maybe something horrible happened that they hadn’t planned.”
Aria felt sick. Was that possible? She looked at the others. “The only person who knows the truth is Ian. Do you think we could talk to him on IM? Do you think he’d tell us?”
They exchanged uneasy glances, not sure what to do. The bass pumped on in the background. The scents of grilled shrimp and filet mignon filled the air, making Aria’s vegetarian stomach turn. She breathed hard, her nerves standing on end. Her eyes landed on Hanna’s piece of her Time Capsule flag, which she’d tied around the chain of her purse. She pointed to the black blob in the corner, remembering how Hanna had described it to Kate at Meredith’s baby shower. “Why did you draw a manga frog on your flag?”
Hanna blinked hard, as though confused at Aria’s change of subject. Then she stretched the flag out and showed them the entire piece. Also on it was a Chanel logo, a field hockey girl, and the Louis Vuitton pattern. “I decorated it in Ali’s honor with the things she’d drawn on hers before it was stolen.”
Aria bit her thumbnail. “Hanna, Ali didn’t draw a manga frog on her flag.”
Hanna looked startled. “Yes she did. I went home that afternoon and wrote down everything she said.”
A tingly feeling crept up Aria’s back. “She didn’t draw a manga frog,” she protested. “She didn’t draw any animals at all.”
Hanna’s eyes flickered back and forth, her face draining of color. Emily pushed a strand of hair behind her ears, looking worried. “How do you know that?”
Aria’s stomach churned. She had the same swooping feeling as the time when she was six years old and wanted to go on the big-kid roller coaster at Great Adventure. Her dad strapped her into the seat and pulled the big metal bar down over her chest, but as the ride was about to start, she was gripped with a searing panic. She’d screamed and screamed, making the amusement park technician stop the ride so she could get off.
Her friends blinked at her, waiting. As much as she didn’t want to discuss this, she had to tell them the truth. She took a deep breath. “That day we tried to take Ali’s flag, I cut through the woods to go home. Someone was coming the other way. It was…Jason. And…well…he had Ali’s flag. Before I knew what was happening, he was shoving it at me. He didn’t explain why. I knew I should’ve given it back to Ali, but I thought maybe Jason didn’t want me to. I thought maybe there was a reason Jason took it from her. Like he thought it wasn’t right that she’d found it so easily. Or that he was worried about what Ian said to her a few days before in the courtyard—that he’d kill her to get her piece. Or that maybe he liked me….”
Emily snorted. She held up the ledger from the upstairs office. “Or maybe he took it from her because he had problems.”