If Something Happens to Me

by Alex Finlay

I’m Chantelle Luna. I work in the lab at KBI.”

Chantelle swipes at her phone, then displays a photo. It’s of an envelope. On the outside it says: “If something happens to me.”

“We think it’s a book cipher.”

11,5,1—4,4,2—6,1,4—3,4,1 7,4,3—10,2,6 9,5,1—4,2,5 5,1,2—2,1,1—10,2,6 8,3,1—3,5,1—6,2,2—7,3,6—5,3,1—13,2,1

Ali's note

referencing the page, line, and word in a book

“So, like, eleven, five, one, means go to page eleven, line five, and the first word on that line in whatever book is the key for the code. You piece it all together and it makes a message.”

We can’t without knowing the source material—the book Alison used to make the code.

Usually broken bones or, if they’re really behind, a disfigurement that will be a constant reminder of their debt.

“Sriracha,” she says, with the hint of a smile. She wears bright red lipstick. “Like the hot sauce.”

Lol fake name?

“Michael, thanks for coming.”

Michael as in Michael Lane, Alison's father? Was her family part of the mob and they had to fake her own death/kidnapping?

She thought maybe your daughter might, I don’t know, have some insights.

Ali?

“Taylor hasn’t mentioned anything. But you know teenagers.…”

Is Taylor actually Ali?

Michael Harper is a nice man. It’s a wonder he ever got mixed up with O’Leary. But lots of nice men do.

Hmmm, I'm still wondering if this is actually Ali's father

Dash texted back three: Ruby Quinn, Juliette Bishop, and Chrissy Roberts.

Juliette shrugs. “She said it was fake and just makes you sad.”

Ali or she didn't want to be found

“Ali was, like, phobic about having her picture taken,”

Because of the mob? Was her family a part of the mob and they didn't allow those things?

“You asked if Ali had any secrets?” Ruby says. Bingo. Poppy nods for her to continue. Ruby opens the car door, gets inside, and looks up at Poppy from the driver’s seat. “Ask your brother.”

Oooh how is Dash involved?

“Seriously, Dashiell, is there something I need to know?” She uses his full name only when she’s angry.

A word that seems to be the only descriptor for a day at school or any other experience in his fourteen-year-old’s life. He examines her. She looks so grown-up.

Hmmm so she's too young to be Alison. There goes that theory. Maybe it is just coincidence that Taylor and Ali both have fathers named Michael.

As Taylor considers the menu, Michael finds himself staring at her. She looks more like her mother every day. The dark flowing hair, wide-set eyes. Until her mother lost all her hair, lost all the weight and that glint in her eyes in those final days.

Oh wait, that is the same description we got from Poppy of Ali. Maybe Ali is Taylor's mother and it sounds like she got sick with cancer.

If both said they liked the same book,

He’s interrupted when Taylor thrusts a phone into his hand. It displays a video.

??? Omg what?

Buckman cuts her off: “Look, you wanna know why the investigation was crap, look in your own house.”

Dssh was somehow involved

“In real life, our Holy Fools are whistleblowers. People willing to sacrifice loyalty to their job or institution to expose the truth.”

There’s an unwritten rule that you don’t go after family, but the Sabatinos have shown that they’re willing to test boundaries.

My name is Ziggy de la Cruz and I run a true crime podcast called the Treehouse. I’ve uncovered some new evidence on the Alison Lane case. I’m going to run a segment on it tonight, so if you’d like to hear about the evidence before the public, please come by my studio located here.

Hmm

“You have our deepest condolences. Although Anthony wasn’t with the Academy long, he’s part of our family. The outpouring from his classmates has been uplifting.”

I wonder if Pendleton was part of the attack because of that video

Finally, O’Leary says, “We’re still in a state of shock. We just can’t understand why Anthony would commit suicide and

Wait what? I don't buy the suicide story

I’m sorry. I tried. I love you.

“Then tell me. Are you saying Alison’s alive?” The man closes his eyes, gives no response.

The Monster sighs. “If you don’t believe me, talk to the sheriff.” This pushes Ryan back on his heels. “The sheriff? What sheriff?” “The one from that shit town of yours.”

So Ken Walton is also involved

Nora taps on her phone, like she’s trying to identify any landmarks in the direction The Monster is heading.

What if Nora is part of the group of people who is after The Monster?

Ali called it le pétrichor, French for the pleasant smell after a rain.

“Four years.” This surprises her even more. “So you started a true crime podcast when you were…” “Eight,” he says.

So Ziggy is 12? Wtf lol, okay I'm gonna say that this is a little too fantasical for a mystery crime thriller

Our opinion, based on a reasonable degree of scientific certainty, is that the hair collected from Benedict Cromwell’s sleeping bag and the hair used to compare the sample came from the same hairbrush.

“That the evidence on the sleeping bag was planted. It was taken there and put on the sleeping bag.”

Hmmm some corruption going on

“My guess: to protect whoever really took her.” “And who would that be?” Ziggy looks at her, exasperated. “You need to listen to Episode Eighteen.”

“Peter Jones, Lackford, England.”

The woman said the American guest lives in the UK. Jones is the only guest from the UK. And Nora learned that of the two flights leaving soonest from the airport, one was to London’s Heathrow.

Later, in his study, he thinks about Taylor’s question: Why do you work for such a dangerous man? He could never tell her the truth. That he’s simply repaying a debt.

So that’s how I got to work for such a dangerous man, sweetheart. It was my inheritance from your mother.

During their senior year, Ali had feelings for another guy, kissed him. It was a mistake, she said.

“When we were leaving Lovers’ Lane, we saw this old-time motorcycle parked out of the way. No owner in sight.”

“It was like one of those ones with a sidecar, like old war movies where there’re two people who can ride at the same time.” Poppy feels nauseous, she thinks she may throw up. But it’s coming together. Dash.

Uh oh

Brian, his hulk of a brother,

Shane's brother

Buckman, so angry that his investigation was being stifled, believing he’d been wrongfully terminated: Look in your own house. Alison’s friend Ruby Quinn: Ask your brother.

Who would want to protect Dash if he’d done something horrific? The answer strikes a lightning bolt to her core. Their father. Helped by his closest friend in the world, the man who helped him survive in Iraq, Sheriff Ken Walton.

Sigh....

But that’s not what sends his heart into free fall. It’s that Headmaster Pendleton is believed to have succumbed to the blaze.

Oh geez

This takes him aback. Dylan, one of the kids from her friend group. The attorney general’s son. Then his heart smashes to the floor: one of the kids in the video. “What about him?” “He, like, overdosed.”

But then a more terrifying thought slams into him: What if this wasn’t an accidental overdose?

You need to come clean!!!