Or a suicide attempt. Should she try to make it look like Delilah had jumped headfirst? Lily could pick her up by her hair and smash her head against the ground. Or she could look for a rock and crush her skull with that. Skulls were supposed to be really soft, weren’t they?

No. There wasn’t time. They’d be discovered any second now. Had Maria planted the capsules on Delilah the way they’d planned? Lily bent down again, the pain seizing its way up both legs as she slid her hand into front pocket of Delilah’s denim skirt. Delilah’s body was warm through her clothes.

Lily kept her head tilted to the side so she wouldn’t have to look at Delilah’s face. At those scarily vacant eyes.

Her fingers closed around something smooth and hard in Delilah’s left pocket, and Lily smiled with relief before she pulled out a lip gloss in a red plastic case.

Wait. Lily had seen Delilah play with this lip gloss case a thousand times. It was supposed to be clear. But it was red, now, because it was slick with blood.

Lily’s hand spasmed. She dropped the case, and it rolled onto the ground. Dirt and dust coated the sticky surface.

Lily cursed and bent down again to pick it up, cringing at the pain. She wiped the plastic tube on the grass, trying to scrub off the blood and dirt. It didn’t work. It was caked on too thickly.

She held the case up in front of her face, studying it. The red stain was thickest at the base. It matched the biggest bloodstain on Delilah’s skirt. A red-brown patch at the top of her left leg. When Lily had first gotten here, the spot had been about the size of Lily’s palm. Now it was as big as her arm, from her wrist to her elbow.

Delilah was dying right in front of her. Soon her eyes would go black and her pulse would flutter and fade and it would all be because of what she and Maria had done.

That was when Lily heard something behind her.

A tiny sound. Far away. But not far enough.

A footstep, squelching in the muddy grass.

Lily whipped around. Excuses flashed through her mind. Explanations no one would believe. Lies her tongue was bound to trip over.

No one was there.

She was sure she’d heard it. She turned to gaze out over the yard, then scanned the horizon.

She still didn’t see anyone. The grounds were deserted.

Nothing was moving. No one was making a sound except her and the crickets.

Lily couldn’t afford to lose it. Not tonight.

She turned her eyes back to the lip gloss case. Her hand was shaking so much it was hard to focus on it.