Pretty Little Killers (12 page)

She'll Tell Our Secrets

A month before classes
dismissed for summer break, Wendy Evans
¹⁵
was studying during lunch in one of the rooms off the library when Rachel came in. Wendy was one of the friends she had ditched for Shelia. It didn't take Wendy long to realize Rachel wanted to vent. Rachel closed the door so they were alone. She seemed exasperated—or angry.

“I can't stand Skylar,” Rachel said suddenly.

Wendy shrugged. “Why not? I thought you all were best friends.” She remembered how little she had seen or heard from Rachel since she, Shelia, and Skylar had become fast friends. Even so, Wendy knew Rachel and Shelia talked badly about Skylar behind her back. They bad-mouthed everyone, including Skylar.

“I can't stand her,” Rachel repeated, her eyes hard, “but I can't not be her friend.”

“Why?” Wendy asked. “Just don't be friends with her.”

“She's like, so mean,” Rachel said. “She'll blackmail us and tell all our secrets if we stop being friends with her.”

Wendy smiled, thinking Rachel was being overdramatic. No wonder she was in theater. “What secrets?”

Rachel didn't answer. Instead, her eyes narrowed and a scowl formed on her face.

“At this point,” Rachel said, “I wouldn't mind if she died.”

Shelia and Rachel laughed as Daniel and Skylar got into the car. They had changed out of their uniforms in the bathrooms at work, so they were ready to go. It was a summer Saturday afternoon, with Rachel in the front passenger seat, Skylar and Daniel in the back seat. Shelia wanted to treat herself—and Skylar and Daniel had gotten their paychecks.

“Hang on,” Shelia said as she finished a text. “Cool Ridge?”

“I haven't been there in, like, forever,” Rachel said.

Cool Ridge was the head shop on High Street in downtown Morgantown.

“Wait, wait!” Skylar said as Shelia pulled out of Wendy's parking lot. “I need an ATM.”

Since they were new employees, Wendy's paid Daniel and Skylar with a type of debit card. The two teens could get cash with their cards and purchase whatever they wanted. Of course they needed cash for weed. They could get a cut for $60.

A quick stop at the gas station across Cheat Road and they were off to Sabraton, the next exit off I-68. Daniel knew a place. Shelia, Rachel, and Skylar waited in the car. Daniel was in and out in less than five minutes.

“Next stop—Cool Ridge!” Shelia said as she pulled back on the Interstate.

Daniel was packing a pipe and Skylar had her lighter in her hand. Rachel peeked over the passenger seat.

“Time for dementia hits,” she said quietly in a high-pitched, mock-singing voice. She and Shelia said that a lot, laughing afterward.

Cool Ridge is like any other head shop around for the last forty years. They sell incense in assorted shapes and scents, bongs, colorful bracelets, and beads galore. Celebrity, movie, and video posters. Odd musical instruments, like didgeridoos. They also sell lots of T-shirts. It was the trio's favorite store, as it was Daniel's.

The four teens browsed for a while. Stoned, they weren't in any hurry. Skylar spent quite some time trying on bracelets. Daniel liked the T-shirts. Shelia and Rachel lingered near the incense, sniffing the ones that smelled especially good—or really bad.

By the time they were ready to go, Daniel had paid for a black T-shirt with an image of a marijuana leaf. Skylar had picked out a cool bracelet and some incense. Rachel didn't buy anything, but as the clerk rang up Skylar's purchases, Shelia handed Skylar the incense she had chosen.

“Mom wants me to bring home some milk and stuff,” she said to Skylar.

“Sure,” Skylar said, signaling the clerk to ring up Shelia's incense. Skylar and Daniel exchanged glances. They had talked about this many times in the last few months, how whenever they went shopping, saw a movie, or bought weed, Shelia never paid. Not since they had started working at Wendy's. They always just went along with it, but it was starting to bug them. The majority of the time, Skylar and Daniel blew their entire paychecks in one short weekend, paying for all four teens' purchases.

It was one of the last times the trio and Daniel partied together. The girls' relationship was deteriorating so fast it happened before they knew it. During the last few months Skylar was alive, her negative tweets toward Shelia and Rachel slowed considerably. They didn't stop, as evidenced by a February 2012 subtweet,
omg the number of
times you do shit to piss me off throughout the day keeps going up and up. im not oblivious fyi
. But Skylar's Twitter traffic was not dominated by the dynamics of her relationship with Shelia—and Rachel—like it had been the previous autumn.

This matches Mary's belief that Skylar was pulling away from Shelia, disengaging. She was reviving old friendships—with Hayden McClead, for instance—and trying to start new ones, like the one with Amorette. Skylar was building a new life, one that invited old friends back into her world.

Some of Skylar's tweets showed her disdain for Shelia and Rachel; others showed they weren't on her mind at all. By May 10 she was tweeting,
obsessive girlfriends and ex girlfriends are my favorite. congrats on looking fucking pathetic
.

Her Honors English portfolio paints a picture of a girl who was maturing and coming to acceptance during her last few months of life. In a poem she titled, “Different,” Skylar wrote about the loss of her childhood friend.

       
You were once friendly, funny, and flamboyant

       
But now you're hopelessly needy, negative, and naïve

       
A new boyfriend changed you for the worst

       
But even claiming he was the apple of your eye didn't keep him around

       
From happy as a clam to sad as a skeleton

       
You lost your friends and your spirit

       
So now the only thing I have to say to you is

       
I told you so
.

Skylar's words indicate she was trying to let go of Shelia—whom she blamed for giving up their friendship—but finding it hard to let her resentment fade away.

Tension and stress within the trio escalated again when their ongoing argument ruined Shelia and Skylar's trip to the beach the first week of June 2012.

By the time Skylar joined Shelia's family for their June beach vacation, as she had for the last several years, the tension between the two girls had turned their relationship quite volatile. No one knows what the fight was about, but people have speculated Shelia may have tried to put the moves on Skylar.

Perhaps this was an effort to test her control over Skylar, or merely an attempt to involve Skylar in the lesbian relationship she and Rachel may have had. It would have been a useful tool to Shelia: if Skylar played the same game, so to speak, she wouldn't dare reveal Shelia and Rachel's secret.

Regardless, something went very wrong during the trip. Shelia and Skylar argued the entire week. The fighting grew so intense, Shelia returned home and told Rachel they had to put their plan into action.

According to WVSP Corporal Ronnie Gaskins, the lead investigator, Shelia said, “Skylar has to die. Now.”

Skylar's father believes if Shelia did make a sexual advance toward his daughter, Skylar would have rebuffed Shelia. Skylar was friends with everyone and especially disliked it when other people made fun of gays, but she wouldn't have been interested in Shelia sexually, Dave says.

It is very likely that's what Skylar's Twitter fight during the early hours of June 9 was about. But it might not have been. It's hard to say since the person with whom Skylar argued from 5:50
A.M
. to 6:27
A.M
. through subtweets has remained unnamed. Based on police reports that she and Shelia regularly argued online, however, it was believed Skylar was angry with her.

       
5:50
A.M
.:
youre just as bad as the bitches you complain about
.

       
5:50:
and a liar
.

       
5:51:
“love”

       
5:52:
well now im too fucking annoyed to sleep

       
6:13:
yeeaahh
..

       
6:14:
fuucckk yoouu
..

       
6:15:
and no I do not type like that
.

       
6:27:
just know I know

Star City police officer Jessica Colebank believes Skylar was arguing with Shelia and Rachel, but it is difficult to know what either girl said in return, since all of Shelia's tweets during the time the fight was taking place have disappeared from her Twitter feed, and Rachel's account has been deleted.

The single subtweet that stands out in Skylar's rant is the last one:
just know I know
.