“Is there somewhere we can go?” Belle’s eyes darted toward the boy at the front desk, who was watching them through his long violet bangs. He had a kind enough face, but you never could tell who people were by looking at them. As Lily had once said, the wickedest monsters knew not to leave footprints.

Lily eyed Belle a minute, her blond hair shorn into a haphazard pixie cut. She looked like a child who’d taken a pair of scissors to her locks when her mother’s back was turned. Finally, she waved Belle through the common area, down a short hallway, and out the back door. They stepped into a courtyard with a fountain in the center. Roses wove around the back gate, curving up to wrought-iron finials, but they were pink, rather than the red roses in Raven’s garden.

It didn’t break Belle’s heart to look at them.

Lily, on the other hand, seemed distrustful of the roses, and it gave Belle an idea. She sat down on the lip of the fountain, trailing her fingers through the water. “You know what this pond needs? Water lilies.”

Lily’s head snapped up, and there was a spark in her eyes that hadn’t been there before. “Lilies? What are you planning?”

“Nothing. I’m done planning. That’s why I’m here. I was hoping you’d give me the Recipe for the Perfect Murder, so we could put this thing to bed.”

Lily sat down close to Belle, keeping her voice low. At present, they were the only two people in the cloudy courtyard, but Belle could see an attendant lingering by the back window, watching them.

They had to be careful of what they said.

“What if I don’t want to put things to bed?” Lily asked, her eyes watching the misshapen wooden building. “You just decided it was over, but it isn’t over for me. I’m still living it.”

“What is your mother doing to you?” Belle whispered, her chest tightening at the thought of finally getting an answer to this question. She’d been wondering for months, searching Lily for signs of abuse. Bruises. Cuts. But like with Raven, she’d found nothing. “Why can’t we go to the police?”

“The police are useless! They sent Raven to the other side of the country instead of actually helping him. They took my stepbrother away. Your boyfriend.”

Belle’s lips twitched, and she curled her fingers over the lip of the pond. The police hadn’t taken her boyfriend away. Jack had. Jack was going to pay for that. But first Belle needed to destroy the Recipe for the Perfect Murder, so no one could link her back to the crime. She’d written it in her own handwriting. She’d never be so foolish again.