Dead Ringer (26 page)

Laura

Laura was out shopping for the
perfect dress to wear to the special dinner she had planned with Charlie over
their little Saturday getaway when the email from “Sasha” arrived. She started
to read it among the aisles of vintage dresses at her favorite shop but had to
rush into one of the dressing rooms so that she could finish in privacy.

Laura couldn’t remember the last time she’d cried. Could it
have been on the night she pretended to die? Plunging into that icy water had
been more painful than she could have ever planned for, and it was hard to
remember, but she thought there might have been tears of agony streaming down
her face when she finally stepped out of the water and into the darkness,
almost a mile downstream. It wasn’t as she recovered from surgery, even though
that was an entirely different pain. By then Laura was too focused on the
future to think about what she had decided to endure.

These were different tears, and Laura knew that she hadn’t
experienced their variety in years and years. She didn’t like to cry. It seemed
like such a waste of energy and time. But right now the thought of what she’d
done to Lexi was too much to bear, especially now that she was almost certain
Lexi knew she was alive. Laura didn’t know how it was possible or what had
given her secret away, but this email made it clear. Lexi had figured out the
CO secret. Now, of course, she wanted to see her older sister, and she was
trying to tell her that she didn’t need to do what she had done. That was the
part that really made Laura’s stomach knot up and her throat tighten.

But Lexi didn’t know that this was not about Sarah running
away from her indifferent parents and the bullies that wronged her—it was
about stopping the Charlies and Amandas of the world from continuing to use
their power to do evil, evil things. She had to make sure that no other person was
ever put in her shoes.

Laura couldn’t imagine Lexi understanding or accepting her
choices. Even if that was possible, she couldn’t take the risk of anyone else
finding out the truth. The plan had always involved cutting ties forever. That
was the choice she made on the night she ended the first version of her life.
This was more important than what she left behind—even more important
than Lexi. She missed her now, but Lexi would be better off in the long run
without Sarah, and without Laura.

But that didn’t solve the problem of “Sasha’s” inconvenient
invite to what had to be a strange, memorial get-together with Charlie, Amanda,
Kit, and Miller. This was not what Laura needed four days before the final
phase of her plan came together. She didn’t care if the other three spent their
Saturday night in the cemetery where she was memorialized, but she needed
Charlie in a cabin in Beacon, New York. The details were coming together
perfectly, and on the perfect day. Lexi’s little revenge moment couldn’t
possibly top what Laura had put together. It had to be stopped.

Maybe Charlie would say no to whatever Sasha requested and
go with Laura anyway? It was impossible for her to know what Lexi’s email to
Charlie said, so that was a tricky assumption. If he did tell Laura there was a
change of plans, would he tell the truth? It was hard to imagine Charlie
confessing that the girl terrorizing him was back, and that she had enough
information to scare him into doing whatever she threatened. Charlie still
hadn’t confessed to Laura what really happened that night. She couldn’t see him
destroying all the progress he’d made on their relationship since they started
to get back together. If Charlie cancelled, the only option was for Laura to
reach out to Lexi and figure out a way to make her stop. That was going to
require a very clever approach. Laura would have to work on that over the next twenty-four
hours to be sure she had a back-up plan. In the meantime, she also needed to
make sure Charlie knew just how important this weekend was, and that he
absolutely could not cancel.

Laura took a deep breath, wiped her eyes, and left the
dressing room. She didn’t feel like searching through the racks anymore, but
luckily she’d already found a low-cut, red dress among the 70s-style goodies
that would work perfectly. She grabbed it, paid at the register, then left to
grab two juices over at Clover as a surprise for Charlie. They were planning to
get together later that night to make a plan for their road trip up to Beacon.

Laura drove to the juice spot’s strip-mall parking lot, but she
never made it out of her car. Before she even turned off the engine, her eyes
caught something that made her freeze. Through the passenger side window of her
convertible was the outline of a familiar person. He was tall, thin, and
scruffy from what looked like a few days without a shave. He wore a baseball
cap low over his eyes and those ski-style sunglasses with the rainbow-colored
lenses that covered the entire top half of his face. Laura tried to look closer
without moving her body an inch. She didn’t think he could see her from that
far away, but she couldn’t take any risks.

After checking his phone, he got into a large, white sedan
that looked more like something a retired couple would drive and backed out of
his parking spot. That’s when Laura realized that she hadn’t been breathing
since the second she saw him.

There is no reason in the world that Andrew Craig should
be in Englewood, New Jersey
, Laura thought to herself. For one, he was supposed
to be at medical school in San Francisco, but more importantly, a pretty
terrifying legal document stated that he cannot be within one hundred feet of
one Laura Rivers or he’ll be thrown straight in jail.

“There’s no way that’s Andrew,” Laura said out loud this
time, but she still couldn’t bring herself to get out of the car until he’d
driven out of the lot and far away down the street. Even then, she felt safer not
getting out of the car. Charlie would have to live without a juice.

Charlie

“I’m not going there without a gun
in my pocket,” Miller said.

“Why don’t you say that a little louder, Miller. I’m not
sure the entire Englewood Police Department heard you,” Amanda said. Charlie
watched Kit, who didn’t react to either comment. At the moment, she’d reverted
back to being a complete shell of a person.

It was only the second time that the four of them had been
alone together in over a month, and things were not off to a good start.

“Let’s try to stay calm,” Charlie finally said. “I’m going
to figure out what we should do.”

“Well, this time could you be sure to tell us before you
make a decision?” Amanda said.

“Guys. I need this to be over,” Kit said unexpectedly in a quiet
voice. “I can’t go back to the way things were. I swear to God, I’ll die.”

Miller shot a cold look at Charlie and Amanda and placed his
arm around Kit.

The last thing any of them wanted was for this insanity to
go on for a second longer, but as far as Charlie could see, there was no way
out of this situation with Sasha that didn’t involve more trouble.

Charlie suggested they meet at Old Country Buffet in
Franklin Lakes to come up with a plan. He didn’t feel safe inside their houses in
case someone’s parents overheard, and this was a restaurant that no one under
the age of sixty-five ever visited,
and
it was located in a town at
least twenty miles from Englewood. The chance they would be seen enjoying early-bird
dinner was highly unlikely.

Still, the whole thing felt like a waste of time. No one
knew what to do or say. No one—except apparently Miller—even knew
how to protect themselves if they did go to the cemetery like Sasha demanded in
her latest email. They were more trapped now than they’d been when she’d given the
mystery tip to the cops. Yes, the case was technically closed, but Sasha was
claiming that she had the kind of information that could open it all up in a
second.

“What if we tell someone we’re being threatened?” Charlie asked
the group.

“Who could we tell that wouldn’t want to know why?” Amanda
fired back. “Then we’d have to either come up with an elaborate lie, or tell
the truth.”

“We’ve lied before,” Charlie said.

“And look where it got us,” Amanda reminded him. “Besides, that
was nothing like what this would be. We would need to invent an entirely new
story about why we’re being threatened for no reason. The first time we lied,
we just didn’t tell anyone we knew anything about what happened to Sarah.
That’s very different.”

“Just trying to come up with options,” Charlie said.

 “I get it,” said Amanda, “But I don’t think there’s
anything we can do. If Sasha has more information that could hurt us, then we
have to go.”

“So you still think it’s an ‘if’?” Miller asked.

“No,” Charlie answered, not waiting for Amanda to say the
same thing. “I think we have to go. All of us.” All three of them nodded,
agreeing. Charlie thought he saw tears welling up in Kit’s eyes. Miller brought
her in for a hug.

“How are we going to protect ourselves if Sasha does
something insane?” Amanda asked.

“I don’t know,” Charlie said. “We might have to live with
the fact that we can’t.”

* * *

Charlie knew that Laura would be
disappointed that he couldn’t make their weekend plan work, but he didn’t
expect her to be quite so angry.

“I didn’t know you already bought all those snacks,” he
said. “I’ll pay you for all of it. I promise.”

“It’s not about the money,” Laura said, a slight crack in
her voice. “It’s about me trusting you again, Charlie. I know you’re lying
about why you can’t come.”

Of course Charlie hadn’t told Laura the real reason. Things
were finally coming together with their relationship. Tonight he was cooking
her a romantic dinner at his apartment so they could plan their trip. He
couldn’t risk everything falling apart again because of Sasha’s threat. Instead,
he told her that his mom’s shift had switched, and she was now going to be
home. It was the easiest, simplest lie, which was all Charlie could handle
right now. There was no way Laura could find out that his mom’s schedule stayed
the same, and since she was already going up to Beacon, she wouldn’t be able to
check on him—or so he thought.

“Fine. Then I’ll just cancel my trip and come hang out with
you and your mom,” she said. Suddenly Charlie felt like he was in a battle of
wits against a far cleverer opponent, and it didn’t look like the baked ziti
he’d just made Laura for dinner was going to earn him any points.

“You don’t need to do that,” he started. “You love going to
the cabin, you said. We can go another time and I’ll be here when you get back
from vacation with your parents. Don’t ruin your trip so you can have a boring
night with my mom and me.” He couldn’t tell whether or not that was remotely convincing,
but Laura answered that question immediately.

“You’re not getting it, Charlie!” Laura yelled. It was the
first time he’d heard her raise her voice in the entire time they’d known each
other, and hearing it now, Charlie was very happy about that fact. “I don’t
trust you. I don’t believe you. I’m going to skip my trip so that I can check
up on you because I cannot get into a relationship with you if you’re just
going to lie to me again!”

He was caught, and to make matters worse, his mom would be home
any second. From the sound of it, Laura wasn’t going to leave without an
answer, or an even louder fight.

“Okay, okay,” he finally said. “I get it, and I want that,
too. You can stay and we’ll hang out that night, but we shouldn’t just be here,
that’s boring. I’ll take us out to a really nice dinner. The only thing is that
I promised my mom I would go into the hospital with her around ten thirty to
bring her coworkers a special Christmas gift. She’s not working the late shift,
but they are and she wants to surprise them. So we’ll go to dinner, then I’ll
go to the hospital with her, and then we can see a late movie or something.”
The lies were piling up, but Charlie had no choice.

“Thank you,” Laura said, her voice finally mellow again.
“But I’ll go with you to the hospital. That will be so nice. I don’t do enough
volunteer work, and the holidays are the best time.”

If Charlie didn’t know better, he would have thought she
knew he was lying and was deliberately trying to catch him. The look on her
face was almost smug.

“You can’t,” he said, feigning disappointment. “There are
all these crazy rules. But I’ll find out about getting you clearance for
another time.”

At that, Laura stood up, grabbed her bag from the couch, and
started to walk out of Charlie’s kitchen.

“Whoa. What happened? Where are you going?” he asked.

“Home,” she said. “Call me when you’re ready to tell the
truth.”

“What are you talking about? That is the truth!”

Laura stopped and turned toward him. The look on her face
was absolutely terrifying.

“No,” she said. “It’s not. I don’t feel like enlightening
you as to how I know that, but I know, and I refuse to be with a liar.”

Then she turned around and walked out the front door.

Charlie fell back onto the couch. He felt his chest tighten and
his breath get harder to find. It was happening again. He was losing control.
It was not over.