“What are you doing in here?” Blaire’s voice cut through the silence.

Kate jumped, looking up and closing the book. “It was you?” She could barely get the words out, her breathing labored. “You killed her?”

Blaire’s eyes blazed as she looked at the journal in Kate’s hand. “That’s private!”

“Blaire! What did you do? Why did you kill her?”

“I didn’t. I promise I didn’t.”

Kate threw the journal at her. “What is this, then? You hate me!”

“No! I did at first. When you called to tell me about Lily, I blamed you. I came back to hurt you. But after being with you . . . my feelings changed. Look.” She opened the journal again and pointed.

“See, here I’m talking about how happy I am that we’ve made up. And that justice is served for Lily. I started out for revenge, but I’ve forgiven you for what you did.”

Kate’s heart started beating faster. “Blaire, you’re scaring me. I don’t understand. I loved you—why would you do all this? You sent me those mice, the birds, those horrible maggots, when you knew how fragile I was. I thought you were here to help me.”

Blaire’s expression turned plaintive. “I was trying to help you.” She shook her head. “In the beginning it was to get back at you, but then, when I realized Simon was guilty, I had to keep going so he’d be caught. The last time I tried to tell you about him, you kicked me out of your life. Remember?”

Kate began to tremble, her body going cold. “Blaire, I’m sorry. I was young.” Her mind was working as fast as it could. This was not the Blaire she’d known years ago. She tried to remember what she’d learned in her psych rotation in medical school about dealing with the mentally ill. “You were right,” she said in a calm voice. “I see that now. I should never have married him.”

“No, you shouldn’t have. I needed to make you see that. That’s why I planted the bracelet and the phone while you were running around accusing poor Hilda.”

“Simon is innocent?”

Blaire was pacing now. “He’s not innocent! He’s guilty of everything. Just because I had to help the police get enough evidence to nail him doesn’t mean Simon is innocent! I told you. Your mother called him and told him to stop messing around with that tramp.”

“But your journal . . . you sent the mice. Are you working with him? Are you involved with him?”

Blaire gave her an incredulous look. “What? No. He didn’t do anything but kill Lily. Everything else was me.”

“But how did you know what I was wearing . . . the sweatshirt?”