One of Us Is Back (One of Us Is Lying, #3)

by Karen M. McManus

The one that says, I’m not sorry. The one that says, What would I do differently? I wouldn’t get caught.

My girl’s back in town for the next two months, so I guess I am, in fact, living the dream.

One of these days I’m going to be the guy Bronwyn deserves, not the guy she had to save from prison while we were in high school.

don’t understand how you can look at someone who’s obviously hurting and think, You know what this person needs? More time in their own head.

The Bayview Police are nothing if not consistent. No matter what kind of crisis they’re faced with, they’ll focus on the wrong problem one hundred percent of the time.

Lol

“The biggest unsolved mystery in Bayview is why that guy still has a job,”

This is the worst thing I could have imagined a month ago, but I’m still standing. I will always keep standing.

I suppose I could’ve grabbed a drugged drink by mistake, but if somebody was targeting Vanessa, why am I the one who was taken from Nate’s house and dumped in a shed?

“Don’t even question her methods,” Bronwyn says, taking a sip of her drink. “Mere mortals can’t possibly understand.”

Simon usually liked to sleep until noon,

Same

“All right, all right. Didn’t mean to question your OTP. I’m only asking because I think she’s cute. Vanessa, not Bronwyn. Well, Bronwyn is also cute, but she’s very taken and you’re kind of mean and I’m scared of you, so….” He raises both hands in surrender, and I snort out a reluctant laugh. “What do you think? Is she single?” “You’re back to talking about Vanessa, right?” “Obviously. I don’t have a death wish.”

The third woman takes a long swig of her drink before saying, “Go ahead and hit him, Nate. I’ll tell everyone it was self-defense.”

Lmao

Bronwyn has proved a hundred times over that she’s in it for the long haul with me, and I’m not going to let Jake Riordan make me question it. Or ruin it.

You’re great. Addy responds instantly. Are you drunk? I pocket my phone, mood slightly lifted. She knows I’m not.

Dad frowns at his watch. “Really? She’s late? That’s not like her.” A chill settles over me. No, it’s not. My father has barely started getting to know Bronwyn, but he knows that.

“Addy, have you heard from Bronwyn?” Maeve asks urgently. “I called to ask you that,” Addy says. “She’s left me unread for almost an hour, which is so unprecedented that I started thinking about what happened to Phoebe….” “Fuck. Fuck!”

“So I’m going to find him, and find her, and make sure he knows that messing with Bronwyn Rojas is the worst mistake a person could make,”

“But all they’d say is Oh, she’s only been missing for two hours,” Maeve snorts. “And then something super useful like, What are you planning to do? Break and enter?” “Yes,” Nate growls. It’s the first thing he’s said in almost half an hour that’s not just a guttural sound of rage, so: progress.

“It’s my home phone! Pick up, pick up—” Nate’s already on it. “Hello?” he asks, setting his phone to speaker. “Nate, I am so sorry!” Bronwyn’s voice fills the car, and then it’s chaos—Maeve starts screaming again, I’m half crying and half hysterically laughing, and Nate repeats Bronwyn’s name over and over, like it’s the only word he can remember.

“Do you have any idea how much I love you?” he asks roughly. “I do,” she says, her voice softening. “I love you too.”

“Oh my God,” Bronwyn gasps. “You must have been in a panic!” “No, we were totally calm,” Maeve says. “Nate definitely wasn’t planning to murder Jake or anything like that.” “I still might,” Nate says tersely. “As a preventive measure.”

“He’s warmed by the flame of love, which even the river beside Marshall’s Peak couldn’t extinguish,” Maeve says dramatically. “Shut it,” Nate says, but he’s still too relieved to sound truly annoyed.

“I think we should still check it out.” “I strongly disagree,” Maeve whispers, backing up. “Well, I’m going,” I say, turning to Nate. “You in?” He sighs. “If you’re in, I’m in.”

Thursday was my night off from the country club, and I spent it with my not-missing girlfriend.

“I don’t know if you’ve noticed, Nate, but everyone I graduated with hates me.” “Not everyone,” I say, and she gives me a wry smile. “Am I growing on you? Like mold?” “You’re not the worst person who’s ever come here.” She snorts. “Thanks for your support.”

I’m pretty sure there was no we about it. My father wouldn’t think of that on his own, but he’d cheerfully walk through a burning house if Bronwyn asked him to do it. We have that in common.

hate to eat and run, Crystal, but I’d feel a lot better if we checked it out.” My dad speaks before I can answer, pushing his nearly untouched salad bowl away. “Then we should go,” he says.

The first thing I see is the back stairwell, and my mind flashes to being there with Bronwyn after we’d been questioned by the Bayview Police about Simon’s death. I’d apologized for stealing baby Jesus during our fifth-grade Nativity play and given her a burner phone in case she wanted to talk more. I tried to act like I didn’t care whether she used it or not, but all I could think as I handed it over was Don’t throw it out, okay? Pick up when I call. And she did. She let it ring six times first, but she did.

Luis shoots her a look that’s half admiration, half alarm. “Sometimes I don’t know whether to be turned on or terrified by you,” he says. Maeve smiles serenely. “Both is fine.”

“This is almost exactly what I thought a Rojas party would be like.” Nate exhales in frustration. “Really? That’s how you’re gonna start?”

Lmao

“Well, the official story was that she left to spend more time with Jake,” Lucinda says. “And maybe she did. God knows, that kid must’ve needed more supervision. But mostly, Katherine just couldn’t do the job anymore. Alex’s death really rattled her.

Thegy had an affisr????

“It’s not that simple, Alex,” she said. “I wish to God it were, but it’s not.”

Holy fuv

“Sometimes, I wonder what life would have been like if I’d actually taken you to Oregon all those years ago,” she says. “It would have been terrible,” Bronwyn says instantly. Both my mother and I turn her way, and her cheeks get red. “For me, I mean.”

It doesn’t matter how many times she smiles at me like that; I still forget how to breathe for at least a few seconds.

“Alexander Alton’s death is highly sus. His car was found parked near a beach about ten miles from here, like he’d randomly driven there and decided to go swimming without telling anyone. It was pure luck his body washed up at all, but it took over a month. Not a lot left to examine at that point.” She grimaces. “And he left his phone in his office, which—who does that? Maybe it was a mistake, but maybe someone was covering their tracks.”

“You’re assuming Vanessa can get intel,” Cooper says. “Nate didn’t seem so sure.” Kris shrugs. “Nate has never appreciated the power of gossip,” he says.

“We’re going to want to talk to all of you, because Jake Riordan has disappeared.”

Wtf

“Oh. Okay.” Evie’s forehead creases as she jabs at the register, then raps it hard on one side. Sometimes, you have to practically beat that thing to get it to open. “Don’t worry about doing me a favor, I guess. It’s not like I’ve ever done any for you.”

Lmao what

“That she did, in fact, have an affair with Alexander Alton,”

“I don’t know, maybe he could’ve thought about what he owed his wife, who’d given birth to those children, but whatever. Men are pigs.” “Present company excepted, right?” I ask. She snorts. “Let’s hope so, for Bronwyn’s sake.

She kept saying, over and over, I loved him. I loved him so much. We were going to build a life together. He was supposed to be my ticket out.” “Out of where?” I ask. “Bayview?” “I asked the same thing,” Vanessa says. “And she said, My marriage.”

Wtf

It’s a comment posted by a girl with the user name @sophiehh13, whose avatar photo…looks a lot like Chelsea Alton. The comment reads, Stop stealing my pics you psycho!!!

Wtff

“A girl was holding it when I got back from the bathroom. You know her. That kind of hippie-looking girl who lives with Nate?” “Sana?” I ask, blinking in surprise. “Yeah. She was like, ‘Oh, some stuff fell out of your bag; I put it back in,’ ” Owen says. “Then she zipped up the front and handed it to me.”

Wtf

The words slip out of me before I realize I’ve said them, as I stare at the green vine-patterned wallpaper that’s been haunting my dreams ever since the night I was kidnapped.

Wtffff

“Evie?” I ask. “Is that really your name?” Her eyes are like chips of blue ice as she closes her front door with one swift motion and says, “You shouldn’t have come here, Phoebe.”

Its chelsea

Chelsea E. Alton, the first caption reads, and it’s…holy shit, it’s a years-younger version of that girl Evie from Café Contigo. Alexander Alton’s daughter has been here all along, serving us food and eavesdropping on our Murder Club meetings.

A kid wearing a suit and tie, beaming a familiar smile. He’s heavier now than he used to be, but I still would’ve recognized him even without the caption beneath his name: Gavin P. Barrett. My fellow bar worker and all-around good guy apparently knew Chelsea Alton way back when and has been with her in Bayview the entire time people were disappearing. And I just handed Addy over to him.

Wtffff

An engine roars behind us. I turn, mildly curious about who else decided to hang out in the deserted Guppies parking lot, and blink in surprise at the sight of a familiar motorcycle charging our way. Nate stops a few feet from me, whips off his helmet, and holds it out. “Here,” he calls over the still-roaring engine. “I don’t have an extra, so you need to put this on.”

Thank god

“Chelsea?” I repeat, stomach twisting. “Evie from Café Contigo,” Nate says. “Her real name is Chelsea Alton, though. And our friend Gavin here graduated high school with her in Ohio.”

Gavin tosses him the jacket and Nate holds it up, frowning. “This isn’t—” he starts, but before he can get out another word, Gavin’s a blur of motion, lunging for Nate so quickly that I don’t understand what’s happening until there’s a sickening, crunching sound and Nate collapses on the ground with Gavin standing over him, a crowbar dangling from one hand.

Omg