“I tripped,” Lia said. “Like Abby.”

“Which is weird since there was nothing to trip over.” He pulled out another picture, this one of a small knife. It was the dull short kind that came with a full set of silverware in fancy lunch boxes. A few people at school used them. They only just passed the “no knives” rule because they were no more dangerous than the plastic ones in the cafeteria. “Do you recognize this?”

“No,” Lia said, even though she could think of only one reason for why he would ask.

He laid another two photos before her, this time one of a tree, where a thin circle of bark had been worn away from the trunk. The other was of a pale, battered leg, which was marred by a narrow red line across the shin. “At least, there was nothing to trip over when we got there, but it was just you and Abby in Pleasant Pines.”

The back of Lia’s throat grew hot and damp. Her mouth watered. She whispered, “Is that her leg?”

“You had tried to take her out the day before, hadn’t you?” he asked. “But you missed, she got hurt, and it almost got the game canceled. It was you who convinced Principal White not to ban it.”

Lia closed her eyes.

“And Ben Barnard, bless him, got taken out of the game right before he was killed.” Pages rustled, and a photo slid across the metal table. “According to friends, he got shot in the hand.”

Lia shook her head. “I saw his hand. I can’t see it again. I don’t want to see it again. Please take it away.”

“How did you cut your cheek?” he asked.

“I was running,” she said. “From my assassin. They chased after me when Gem dropped me off at home.”

Her mom sucked in a breath. “You were supposed to stop playing.”

“Everyone was, but you didn’t,” said James. “And you were running through Pleasant Pines, right? Near Pine Valley pool?”

“I was on the phone with Devon,” Lia said. “I didn’t see Cassidy at all.”

“You sent him a picture, too. You didn’t just talk to him.”

Lia opened her eyes, and James covered up Ben’s picture with a different one. Cassidy, face hidden by her hood, splayed out in the grass next to one of the cement tables near Pine Valley pool. Red stained the corner of the table. The pink water gun lay in the grass next to her. Lia gagged.

“No…no, Cassidy wasn’t there when I was there,” Lia said, stammering. “There was this other person following me, and I shot them, but they didn’t stop to exchange information. We’re supposed to exchange information when we get a kill, but they just kept following me, so I ran. Cassidy wasn’t there. There wasn’t anyone else there.”

“You took them out?” he asked. He was far too calm for this. Three people were dead, and Lia was sure if she opened her mouth again, nothing but screaming would come out. “Are you sure Cassidy didn’t take you out?”