The Follower by Kate Doughty (ebook reader with built in dictionary TXT) 📕

visit from the police, which Amber realizes is probably a little nerve-racking.

She sends Jada a quick reply confirming that they hadn’t told the cops about the drinking or the tapes. She thanks Jada for her earlier messages, but tells her that she’s not ready to talk about Cecily just yet. She doesn’t even know if she’s ready to talk to Cecily just yet. But she has to.

And then they arrive. They find Cecily awake, in a hospital room with sterile lighting.

Her head is in bandages, just like in Amber’s dream.

But unlike the dream, Cecily doesn’t unveil a monstrous face. Instead, she smiles up at her siblings.

“How—how are you?” Amber asks.

“All right,” Cecily says, but Amber can hear the tremor in her voice. “They’re still not sure . . . if it’s a second- or third-degree burn,” she admits. When she sees their confusion, she continues. “They said—they can save my eye, but they’re not sure about the level of scarring. They think I’ll need some kind of surgery or skin grafts, but they don’t know . . . how bad . . . it will be yet.” The one blue eye that remains visible is wide, frightened, brimming with tears. Amber wonders how much they should tell her about their discoveries from the past twenty-four hours, if it will scare her to hear their theory about the follower and all the other things that happened leading up to her being hurt.

Or maybe it will make her mad that no one put the pieces together sooner.

Before Amber can decide, Rudy starts to fill Cecily in, explaining everything from the police visit to what Amber thought she saw last night in her doorway.

As Cecily listens, her eyes go wide. “That’s like what I saw—they said that it was a hallucination, but I thought I saw—I thought—”

“It could have been a dream,” Amber admits. “We have a security system. The alarms didn’t go off.”

Rudy shoots her a look. “You were convinced it was real this morning.”

Cecily reaches out a hand and grabs Amber’s forearm. Her grip steady. “Someone did this to me, Amber. This wasn’t an accident.”

Amber swallows and nods.

“So, what’s the plan now?” Cecily asks. “How are the sponsors reacting to me not being able to fulfill any of my contracts?”

“About that . . .” Amber pauses.

Once again, Rudy jumps in and explains their decision to remain on social media. For Amber to do the sponsored posts.

“You can’t,” Cecily says, her voice rising. “This follower did this to me.”

“The police went over a list of people who could have had contact with the makeup,” Rudy says. “Us, Bella, Jada, Joseph, the crew . . .”

Cecily shakes her head. “I took that go bag everywhere. I’ve been trying to think about where it could have happened—the bonfire, the hardware store . . . I can’t even remember the last time I used it. Maybe at the bonfire? But I don’t think I did, I think I just had it on me . . . but I always have it on me,” she says, shaking her head. “Do you think Bella or Jada could have . . . done this?” Cecily asks.

Amber shakes her head. “Cecily, they were so horrified.”

She’s glad when Rudy agrees with her. “You didn’t hear them scream,” he says softly. “They couldn’t have. That wasn’t fake.”

“Bella’s been messaging nonstop; she wants to visit when she can,” Amber says, hoping that it will cheer Cecily up. “Jada, too.”

Cecily’s face twists. “I don’t know . . .” She swallows. “I don’t know if I want them to see me like this.”

“What about Joseph?” Rudy asks. “Do you think he’s a suspect?”

“He seems nice, but that proves nothing,” Amber says. “I hate to say it, but someone on the crew makes a lot of sense. They’d have access to everything in the house.”

Cecily nods. “Who else?”

“What about the kids at the bonfire?” asks Rudy. “Weren’t they talking about sneaking in? If they’ve been sneaking in and out of the house for years now, they probably have ways of getting in. Miles, Alicia, Steve, Trent . . . and who knows how many others.”

“There’s also squatters,” Amber says. “The police mentioned them. What if one of them got too attached to the house?”

Rudy nods. “But why masquerade as the murdered girl online?”

Cecily shivers. “To scare us. It’s working.”

Rudy shakes his head. “I think it’s more than that. Think about it—the last two families to live in that house have had some kind of death, and now someone’s after us, too? This had to start with Alex Grable.”

“Or it’s someone taking advantage of the house’s reputation,” Amber argues. She knows that Rudy is convinced that Alex Grable’s death has something to do with everything, but . . . right now she doesn’t care about a twenty-year-old murder.

“I’m going to listen to the tape again,” Rudy says. “Maybe there’s something else on there. Something we missed.”

Amber shudders. She doesn’t want to think about the recording, doesn’t want to listen to Alex humming, singing softly about killing her mother . . .

“What do I say when the cops show up?” Cecily asks.

“The truth,” Amber says after a long beat of silence. “After all, they should find something. It’s their job.”

“We didn’t mention the tapes, though,” Rudy adds. “We figured that, given everything else going on with the house, it wouldn’t be good for anyone. It would just stress Mom and Dad out, and the case is already closed. But if you want to tell them, we won’t ask you not to . . .”

Cecily is silent for a long second. Then she shakes her head. “You’re right. Bring me the tapes when you’re done,” she says finally. “I want to listen. I want to help.” She lets out a strangled laugh. “I’m going out of my mind in here, and it’s only been a day.”

Amber and Rudy nod and promise to bring the tapes. Rudy wants to start questioning people straightaway, to do some sleuthing of his own, but Amber convinces him to delay his investigative streak for an hour to be with Cecily. They pile around their sister and watch cartoons until