“I thought so too, at first. When Lily came to visit me here and said you were sneaking around, burning Raven’s clothes in a fireplace, I thought there had to be a logical explanation. You couldn’t have killed his stepmother and framed me for it, because you were the one who called off the murder. You didn’t have a violent bone in your body.”

“I don’t.”

“You do.” Belle’s smile cut across her face, sharp as a scimitar and equally deadly. “I just had to figure out the connection between everything. You called off the murder so suddenly, just days after your mom’s boyfriend fell down the stairs. He swore somebody tripped him. He refused to come back to your house after that,” Belle added, and it didn’t escape her attention that Jack’s breathing had gone shallow.

“I didn’t trip him,” Jack whispered. “I couldn’t have tripped him, because he fell down the attic stairs, and I was in my bedroom sleeping when it happened. My mom came out of her room first, and I came out after her. It would’ve been impossible—”

“Yeah, I remember what you told the police,” Belle broke in. “You recited it to me and Raven like you were quoting from a script. But I have a theory about what happened that night, just like I have a theory about what happened the night Evelyn was murdered. If you don’t start telling the truth, I’m going to take both theories to the police.”

Jack’s eyes were on the ground. She was sinking into her ratty gray sweats, as if she might disappear entirely. But there was no escaping this facility, just like there was no escaping what she’d done. “What’s your theory about the other night?”

Belle leaned in as a guard passed their cell, briefly glancing inside. A moment later, she said, “You’ve been in love with Raven for a very long time. You thought you loved him enough to kill for him, but then your mom’s boyfriend fell down the stairs. He claimed someone tripped him, and if the police found a petal of poppy in Evelyn’s tea a few days later, they might suspect you’d gone all vigilante on the adults in town. So you found a way to protect Raven without risking arrest, and you found a way to feel close to him, even when he was gone.” Here, she flicked her gaze to Jack’s clothes, and even though they weren’t the familiar T-shirts and jeans Jack had been sporting for the past three years, Jack clearly caught Belle’s meaning. “Did you think I wouldn’t figure out that you were wearing his clothes to school? I went shopping with him for half those clothes. Peeled some of them off him, too.”