They walked toward the artwork. Around each photograph was a large black square frame. Small beams of light from the ceiling illuminated each image. The first photo was of a long, straight road as seen from the inside of a car. It was printed in black archival pigment ink on cotton paper, and there was something haunting about the dark trees and eerily lit sky. Emma glanced at the small placard off to the side. Besides listing the artist’s name, it also showed the price. Three thousand dollars. Whoa.

“So I haven’t told you the latest,” Emma whispered as they moved to the next photo, a triptych of desert vistas. The champagne tickled her throat, and she felt increasingly aware of how close Ethan stood to her as he examined each photo. To outsiders, they probably looked like boyfriend and girlfriend. She took another sip of champagne. “I’m almost positive Sutton was with the Twitter Twins at Clique on the night she died.”

Ethan lowered his glass from his lips. “What makes you say that?”

Emma explained the conversation she’d had at Madeline’s house on Saturday. “It’s too much of a coincidence. They had to be the friends Sutton was with when she shoplifted. And what if they . . .” She looked away, fixating on a fire extinguisher mounted to the wall across the room.

“Gabby and Lili, killers?” Ethan tilted his head and squinted as if trying to picture it. “Those two are definitely off-kilter, that’s for sure. They have been for years.”

Emma skirted around an enormous potted plant with spidery leaves to get to the next photo. “Part of me thinks they’re too vapid to pull it off.”

“They’re the poster girls for vapid,” Ethan agreed. “But whatever happened to Gabby on the night of the train prank gives them motive.”

“And maybe that ditzy-girl act is just that—an act,” Emma said. She’d certainly known fake ditzes before, like her foster sister, Sela, who acted like the quintessential dumb blonde in front of their foster parents but sold pot out of an abandoned split-level at the back of the neighborhood.

“They’re good actresses, then.” Ethan walked to another photograph. “Did anyone tell you that Gabby ran over Lili’s foot last year with their dad’s Beemer?”

“No . . .”

“And then when Lili came home with a cast on, apparently Gabby was like, ‘Oh my God! What happened to you?’”

Emma giggled. “She did not!”