Page 114 of Snowbound Threat

“Who are you talking about?”

“Pete,” Lila spat the name out. “He wouldn’t give up. He kept digging. I knew eventually he’d figure it out. That’s why I had to stay close to him.”

Charlie recalled the numerous conversations she and Pete had about Lila. He thought she came to see him because she cared about him and Charlie. The truth was she was keeping tabs on Pete’s search for answers.

“Where’s Abby?” Charlie forced the words out while she wasn’t sure she wanted to know.

“Right beside you.” Lila pointed to Charlie’s right.

Slowly, Charlie turned to stare at a mound of dirt that was the grave for her childhood friend. She screamed and then screamed again.

“Shut up, shut up, shut up!” Lila grabbed hold of her chin, forcing Charlie to look into her deranged face.

When Charlie forced herself to be calm, Lila let her go.

“Why did you kill Abby?” Her voice sounded devoid of all emotion. She glanced around the cave lit only by Lila’s flashlight. As far as she could tell there was only one way out and that was blocked by a stack of rubble.

“You know why. Don’t pretend you don’t.” Lila snapped, drawing Charlie’s attention back.

“I don’t. Abby was your friend, too. Why?”

Dark red blotches dotted Lila’s pretty face. “Because she killed my brother!”

Despite her desperate situation, Charlie couldn’t believe what she’d heard. “That’s not true. Tyler was killed when his car went over the mountainside. It was an accident.”

“No!” Lila screamed in her face while waving her arms all around. “Abby was driving and she was high. She was driving too fast. She misjudged the curve in the road and went over the side. She walked away with only a few scratches while mybrother. . .” Her words turned into sobs. “W-while my precious brother died.”

Charlie couldn’t believe it. “That’s not true.”

“Yes, it is,” Lila screamed. “She told me. Abby confessed she was the one driving. She’d been using drugs. Tyler had fallen asleep. She killed my brother.”

Charlie finally had the answers as to what happened to her friend, and it was the last thing she ever imagined. Now, the depression that seemed to follow Abby around back then made sense. At the time, she thought it was simply because they’d lost a friend in Tyler’s death. The truth was much darker.

“Why didn’t you just turn her in? Abby would have faced charges. She would have paid for what she did.”

“No. That wasn’t good enough. She needed to die.” Lila scrubbed her tears away. “So, when you called to say let’s meet at the bridge, I had it all figured out.”

Charlie frowned. “But you said you couldn’t go. You weren’t there.”

Lila’s sinister smile told the truth. “I used the excuse that it was a bad idea to give me a reason for not going with you and Abby. Instead, I snuck out and followed Abby into the woods.” She shrugged. “I caught up with her and told her the meeting place had changed. She didn’t question me at first. I think she began to suspect something before we reached the cave, but I told her you had something important to tell us both. She went along with it.”

Lila had lured Abby to her death by using Charlie as bait. Her stomach turned and she vomited.

Lila didn’t seem to notice. “When we reached this cave, I had everything set up. She kept asking where you were. I told her you’d be here soon. I had the knife tucked into my waistband.” Lila pulled out a grotesque knife and showed it to Charlie. “When she started to leave, I grabbed her from behind andput my hand over her mouth to keep her from screaming. And then I stabbed her again and again until she wasn’t moving any longer.” She spoke of murdering Abby as if it were nothing.

Charlie tried to control her rage. They’d grown up together. Abby had made an awful mistake but still. . .

She remembered Pete and her heart clenched. “Pete found out the truth. How?” Before she died, she had to know everything.

“By accident. You know Pete, always talking to everyone about the case. He kept in touch with Abby’s family. He heard the initials she wrote down and couldn’t let them go.”

“EHJ. But they weren’t Tyler’s initials or anyone connected to Abby.”

Lila looked at her as if she were just the stupidest person. “Yes, they were. If you knew what you were looking for. EHJ. “Echo my heart, James. He used Echo my heart, Abby.” Lila laughed bitterly. “It was a stupid nickname Abby came up with for Tyler, whose middle name is James. She thought it was so funny. A way to tell him how she felt about him without anyone knowing. . .except me. Tyler told me the truth. We never kept secrets from each other.”

“So, you knew when Pete found the initials that there was a chance he would figure the rest out.”

Lila looked at her with disgust. “There was no doubt in my mind. In fact, he did. The last time I went to see him, I came prepared.”