Lance makes the throat-slash gesture again.

More students and faculty members have gathered on the lawn. They all look up, like we’re the eclipse. Or maybe like we’re animals in the zoo about to put on a spectacular show.

“You should talk to a lawyer, Lance. Maybe there’s something you can work out. A plea, whatever.”

He’s looking down, ignoring me. Some of the students are from my class, the one Lance was just teaching. And they wave.

Where the hell is Preston?

But I don’t see him.

My phone vibrates again. I take it out and check. Now it’s a text from Diana. She’s telling me the police want to search my house. They want to know if the knife that killed Madeline came from my kitchen.

I hold the phone up. “Lance, the murder weapon. They think it came from my house. The knife. I had it in my pocket one night when Madeline hit me with a bottle. But when I came to, the knife was gone. They think the killer used it on Madeline the next night when she was murdered in the cemetery. But the only person I know who was in the house with me that night was Madeline. Why would she take the knife out of my house? What would that do for her?”

“She was crazy,” Lance says.

“Were you following her?” I ask. “I thought it was Zach. I kind of hope it was Zach. But maybe . . . Grendel didn’t bark at whoever was in the house, which means he was familiar with the person. Did you come into the house while I was out on the floor? Did you take the knife because you were looking for a chance to frame me?”

“So what if I did, Connor?”

“And the night I found Madeline’s body . . . that was the night I brought Grendel to Preston’s house, the night after you must have taken the knife. Maybe Madeline came looking for me again while I was out. And I didn’t go home right away that night after I dropped Grendel off. I drove around for a while and ended up at the cemetery . . . and maybe you were looking for her at my house again. Did you come across her and kill her that night?”

“I knew Madeline wanted to expose me,” Lance says. “Why else would she come back to town that way? She was going to do the same to you, wasn’t she? About the book? She wanted to take us all down. I hadn’t seen or heard from her in two years. I kind of assumed she’d moved on to another life . . . but then she came back. . . .”

“We all failed her, Lance. Clearly.”

Lance swings one leg over the railing, onto the narrow ledge surrounding the bell tower. I can hear the gasps from the crowd below.