Lisa took down one of the Browerville yearbooks and flipped to the back. “This is going to be easy. Each book has an index listing names and photos.”

With both of them sitting at a library table, looking through the yearbooks, it didn’t take long to locate a photo of Mary Kay Hinklemeyer. There was one picture of her as a junior varsity cheerleader jumping up, legs spread, arms akimbo, with the other cheerleaders at a basketball game. Lisa stared at the photo for a long moment without speaking, and then she passed it to Hannah for a similar silent perusal.

“Do you think that’s Brandi?” Lisa asked.

“I think so.”

“Okay, but you couldn’t prove it by me. She really changed a lot since she was in school.”

“That she did,” Hannah commented, biting back a quip about the wonders of nose jobs, hair coloring, and other surgical enhancements. “Let’s go through the whole yearbook together and see if we recognize anyone else.”

They turned the pages in silence for a few moments until they came to a photo of a pep rally in the school gym. Brandi and the other cheerleaders were in front of the crowd and the band was seated behind them.

“Is that who I think it is?” Lisa asked, pointing to a boy with dark-rimmed glasses who was holding a trumpet.

“Kirby Welles?” Hannah guessed, flipping back to the index. “Here’s his name. I didn’t know he went to Browerville High.”

“Neither did I.”

Lisa started paging through the yearbook again, looking for anyone else she might recognize. Hannah was silent, barely looking at the pages. She was too busy going over the conversation she’d had with Kirby. He’d claimed he had just met Brandi tonight and that was clearly a lie. He’d known Brandi since she was Mary Kay Hinklemeyer, junior varsity cheerleader. And that explained why Kirby had been so upset to hear that she was dead.

“Thanks for your help, Lisa,” Hannah said, pushing back her chair.

“You’re welcome. You’re going to see Kirby Welles?”

“Oh, yes,” Hannah said, heading out of the library at a fast clip. By virtue of his lie, Jordan High’s bandleader had just become her prime suspect.

<15>

While Hannah was upstairs, the banquet room had undergone a transformation, thanks to the Jordan High athletic department, whose members had volunteered to move tables and chairs for the party. Except for two long rectangular tables near the kitchen, the dining room tables had been folded and returned to the storage area under the stairs. In their place, dozens of round, four-person tables had been arranged near the giant Christmas tree, leaving a good-sized circular area, with the trees in the center, for a dance floor.