Pretty Little Liars #14 (8 page)

Hanna's eyes lit up. “You asked about N?”

“I tried. They wouldn't tell me anything. I tried to see Iris, too, but she's disappeared.”

Hanna frowned. “She escaped?”

Emily shrugged. “It didn't sound like it. I'm worried that Ali found out Iris helped us and did something to her. Especially after I got this.”

She passed over her phone. Hanna read the text.
Everyone you involve in this will get hurt. Including YOU
.

“Shit,” Hanna whispered.

“We have to stop digging,” Emily said. “No more asking questions—for real.”

“But what if it's too late? Ali knows how much we know. We had that suspect list. And I had to hand over Kyla's note to the cops.” Hanna had done it yesterday, although she doubted they'd connect it to Ali.

“Well, we don't say anything else. We give up.”

Hanna set her jaw. “I don't want to live in fear for the rest of my life! We can't let Ali control us forever!”

Emily curled her fist. “Didn't you see this text? Ali's going to come for us next!”

“
Girls!”
The old woman turned around and faced them. Her eyes were a rheumy blue, and she wore a bedazzled pin of a cat on the lapel of her black dress. “Have some respect!”

Hanna ducked her head and rolled her eyes.

The organist began to loudly play “Ave Maria,” and Emily looked at Hanna again. “I really don't think we should be talking about this right now.” She glanced around nervously. “What if Ali is
here
?”

When a hand touched her shoulder, Hanna jumped. A familiar police officer stood above her. It was Gates, the officer to whom she'd given Kyla's note. For a moment, she thought he was here as a mourner, but he was staring at her so intensely. “Hanna.” He said it like a statement, not a question.

“Y-yes?” Hanna whispered.

Gates offered his arm. “You need to come with me.”

At the exact same time, a skinny, dark-haired man in an FBI jacket appeared behind him. He was looking at Emily. “And you, Miss Fields.”

People up and down the aisles stared. Emily nudged Hanna, and she staggered to her feet. Whispers swirled as she and Emily walked toward the nave.
Pretty Little Liar. Noel Kahn. Alison DiLaurentis. Suicide pact
.

Once the church doors shut, Hanna stared at Gates. “What's going on? Does this have to do with the note about Noel?”

Gates led Hanna out the door. “No, Hanna. It's not about that.” He sounded almost sad.

They stepped out onto the sidewalk. Cars on Market Street slowed to a crawl. The reporters looked surprised, then sprinted toward the girls. “What's going on?” they shouted. “Is this because of Graham's death?” “Are you girls the serial killers?” “Officer, what did these girls do?”

“No comment,” Gates growled, holding tightly to Hanna's arm.

They stopped at a black sedan parked at the curb. It had a removable siren on the front, and the blue lights were whirling. The Rosewood Police vehicle was parked farther down the curb, the engine still running.

The FBI agent opened the door for Emily and pushed her inside. Gates was about to do the same when he realized that a pickup truck had blocked him in. “Damn it,” he cursed, looking around for the driver. No one came forward.

“Ride with us.” The FBI agent walked hurriedly to the front seat of the sedan. “We're going to the same place, anyway.”

Gates nodded, then gestured for Hanna to get into the back with Emily. She slid onto the leather seat. Gates slumped in the passenger seat and slammed the door as the car pulled onto Broad. The reporters followed them for almost a block, hurling questions. Hanna stared straight ahead, afraid she might burst into tears.

Beep
.

Hanna fumbled for her bag. She lifted her phone out and looked at the screen.
One new e-mail
.

The attached file contained a series of images. The first was a picture of a BMW crumpled against a tree. Though blurred by the rain, Hanna could easily make out her face in the driver's seat. The second image was of that same night, only Hanna was out of the car and talking on the phone. In the third image, Hanna was moving Madison Zeigler's body into the driver's seat where she'd just been. Somehow, the other girls weren't in the picture—it looked like Hanna was doing it alone. And of course the picture didn't show the car that had swerved into her lane, pushing her off the road.

Hanna placed her hand against her mouth.

Next to her, Emily quietly gasped. She was staring at something on her phone, too. Hanna looked over, raising an eyebrow.

Emily showed Hanna the screen. On it was a picture of Emily and a pretty, dark-haired girl kissing on the deck of the cruise ship.

“Jordan?” Hanna whispered. Emily nodded miserably.

The FBI officer glanced at her in the rearview mirror. “We know you've been in touch with Katherine DeLong. Aiding and abetting is a crime.”

“But I didn't do anything!” Emily cried.

Their phones beeped once more. Hanna looked down at the screens, both of them cheerfully flashing
ONE NEW TEXT MESSAGE
.

They both opened the message at the same time. Emily let out a small whimper. Hanna read it and winced.

COMING CLEAN

Spencer had been sitting in a holding cell at the Philadelphia FBI branch office for more than an hour now. The room was small and dim, with a splintery table and absolutely nothing for her to do—they'd taken her phone and purse—except to pace back and forth. The only object in here was a plastic cup that had once been full of water. A heater rattled in the ceiling. The whole place smelled vaguely of grape Popsicles.

She made another lap around the room, her mind spinning. She didn't get why Officer Gates had brought her to the FBI. Shouldn't her crime be handled by local police? Or was drug possession a bigger thing? What if she was headed to federal prison? She shut her eyes, seeing her future at Princeton float down the drain. Of
course
this was Ali's next move. She'd been an idiot not to anticipate it.

The door swung open, and Spencer leapt to attention. Aria appeared. Officer Gates and a man with
FBI
emblazoned on his jacket in blue thread pushed Hanna and Emily inside as well.

A had gotten them, too.

Gates looked at Emily and Hanna. “Empty your pockets and give me your purses. I want your keys, phones, and any other personal items.”

Hanna and Emily did as they were told. Aria just shrugged, seemingly already stripped of her belongings. Then the agents handed them cups of water and backed out of the room. The metal door closed with a
clunk
.

Everyone slumped down at the table. Spencer touched Emily's hand. “Jordan? Or Gayle?” she asked in a low voice.

Emily hung her head. “The FBI knows I was in touch with . . .” She trailed off. “What if they ask me where she is?”

“Do you
know
where Jordan is?” Spencer whispered.

Emily was about to answer, but then Spencer caught her arm and glanced around.
They might be listening
, she mouthed. A mirror hung on a far wall. For all she knew, the agents were observing them on the other side.

Emily shifted her chair closer and whispered into Spencer's ear. “I don't know where she is.”

Aria cupped her hands around her mouth and spoke softly, too. “Well, at least you won't be extradited. I might spend the next twenty years in an Icelandic prison for breaking and entering and helping—even though the painting was a fake.”

Hanna pushed her hair around her face and said in a low voice, “Guys, what if the press realizes why we're here?” Her eyes glinted with tears. “It's going to ruin my dad's campaign.”

“My mom was there when the cops came for me.” Spencer thought about the horrific scene at the house. “You should have seen the look on her face.”

Emily looked shiftily back and forth. “Why now?”

Aria laid her head on the table. “Maybe I'm being punished for trying to get answers out of Noel.”

“No, it's because I went to The Preserve,” Emily insisted. Spencer looked at her, surprised. Emily filled her in.

“Maybe it's because I told Mike,” Hanna murmured.

Spencer felt a lump in her throat. “I'm to blame, too. I tracked down the building from that surveillance photo. The one that had Ali in it.”

Hanna's head whipped up. “You
did
? What happened?” Her voice rose in volume, and she clapped her mouth shut.

“Why didn't you say anything?” Aria said under her breath.

Spencer hunched her shoulders and looked at the others. “Ali wasn't there. I don't think she'd ever
been
there. I guess it was a trap all along.”

“We never should have pursued any of this,” Emily hissed. “Noel wasn't punishment enough—Ali needed to make
us
pay. And she had all the ammo she needed.”

“I guess we just lost sight of everything A knew about us,” Aria said softly.

Spencer looked around. “But why are we
here
, at the FBI? I mean, yes, Emily and Aria, it makes sense for you guys. But why did they bring
all
of us here? Why are we in the same room?”

Emily picked at her fingernail. “Well, you know who works for the FBI. Fuji.”

Spencer pressed her tongue hard against the roof of her mouth. Jasmine Fuji was an FBI agent who'd been asking the girls questions about Tabitha Clark's death.
Jamaica?
she mouthed.

Aria looked around nervously. “Maybe they found out about . . . you know.” She drew a
T
on the table with her finger.
T
for Tabitha.

“Maybe
Ali
told them,” Emily said.

“But we have proof that we didn't do it,” Hanna said. “Ali texted us and said
she
killed her. We'll just show them that.”

“How can we?” Emily said, her eyes full of fear. She drew something on the table with her finger, too. The letter
A
.

Spencer knew what she meant. If they told about A, A might hurt someone else.

Aria sat back in the chair, making it creak. “I wish there was a way to talk but to remain protected.
Besides
the witness protection program.”

Spencer licked her lips. “We could request immunity,” she whispered. “Make them promise to protect us if we come forward about A.”

Emily looked nervous. “But what if they say no . . . and then manipulate it out of us anyway?”

“Or what if they
say
they'll protect us but don't follow through with it?” Aria asked.

“Yeah, I don't think that sounds like a good plan,” Hanna said, biting a nail.

“It
is
a good plan,” Spencer insisted. “I see it on
Law and Order
all the time.”

Footsteps rang out in the hall, growing closer. Then the door opened, and a woman walked through. Everyone jumped. “Hello, girls,” a familiar brisk voice said.

It was Agent Fuji. She shut the door behind her. Spencer swallowed hard. This
was
about Tabitha.

Fuji's black hair was sleekly styled as usual, but there was something tired-looking about her face. When she pulled out a chair to sit, one of her nails broke. “Let's talk,” she said. Fuji glanced at each of them as she sat down.

No one said a word. Hanna's hair hung in her face. Aria wiped tears with her sleeve. Spencer had picked away all the skin on the side of her thumbnail. She wondered if Fuji had heard everything.

Agent Fuji settled back in her chair and jingled her keys. Her keychain held a picture of a West Highland terrier with pink bows in its hair. Spencer hadn't pinned Fuji as the type who liked dogs.

Outside, another door slammed. A phone rang. A heater clicked on with a rattle. “Okay,” Fuji said finally. “Hit and run. Aiding and abetting. Dating a fugitive. And international art theft. And it all comes out at once? It seems like an awful coincidence. You girls could face serious prison time. This will ruin your father's campaign, Hanna. If you've gotten accepted to colleges, they'll probably renege the offers. You're ruining your lives. Did you even think about that?”

No one dared to look at Fuji. Spencer's heart banged in her chest.

“I've been working with the state and local police forces on this Clark case, and I think there's stuff you're hiding from me about that, too.” Fuji folded her hands. “You'd better start talking—about
something
.”

Hanna shifted. Aria wiped another tear from her cheek. Spencer cleared her throat and glanced around the table. “Anderson Cooper,” she said in a calm, even voice. Their secret code for Ali.

“Spence, I don't know.” Aria looked pained.

Hanna gulped. “Yeah, maybe we should—”

“We
have
to,” Spencer interrupted. “It's the only way. Just trust me on this.”

Everyone clammed up. Fuji stared at them, waiting. Then Aria sighed. “Fine. Let's do it.”

After a moment, Hanna ever-so-faintly nodded. Emily did, too. Spencer glanced around the room, seeing things for the very last time before they finally came clean about Tabitha. Before their lives, possibly, changed forever. But she knew it was the right thing to do. They were drowning by themselves. They needed help.

She leaned forward and gazed at Fuji. “Look. We're not saying that what we did was right, but we messed up, and we're sorry about what we did. But there are reasons why we haven't come clean. And we
do
have more information on Tabitha, but we haven't been able to tell you.”

“Why not?” Fuji asked sharply.

“Because it hasn't been safe,” Spencer explained. “We're being threatened. What we know is really, really dangerous. So if we say something, we want something in return.”