She shrugs. “No idea—she could have just run away or something. Fuck—I don’t think we’ve ever had any murders around here before.” She frowns and wraps her arms around herself. “You shouldn’t keep walking home from school by yourself.”

“And you shouldn’t still go out at night.”

“I don’t go out alone.”

“That doesn’t matter—you should stay home until whoever’s doing this is caught.”

She shakes her head and walks on ahead. “Leave it, Tess.”

“I’ll tell Dad if you don’t stop,” I call after her.

“Tell him,” she says. “It won’t make a difference.”

“Have you got a death wish or something? What is wrong with you lately?”

She spins round, stands in front of me. “You don’t have a bloody clue, do you?”

“A clue about what?”

“Oh, forget it, little sister. And if you tell Dad about me going out, I’ll tell him about your little secret.”

“What secret?”

“Your lovely friendship with Julia’s ex. Your little gardening jaunts.”

I flinch. “I don’t think he’ll be worried about me doing some weeding for a neighbor.”

“Oh, don’t you? Really? It’s all entirely innocent, is it? Is that why you wash your hair and put makeup on every time you go weeding?” She laughs. “I don’t think it’s me with the death wish.”

“What do you mean?”

She sighs and shakes her head. “Just…be careful, okay? Maybe we should both stay home a bit more.”

A thorn pierces my palm through the gardening glove and I suck in my breath.

“Are you okay? Let me look,” Greg says, pulling off my glove. There’s a drop of blood on my palm. He wipes it away. “I don’t think you’ll die from blood loss,” he says, smiling, still with my hand in his.

No, there is no more blood because it’s all gone to my face. Bella’s stupid words have spoiled this. All I can think about is what if Dad walked into the garden now and saw Greg holding my hand. Saw me with my freshly washed curls and lip gloss, alone with Julia’s ex? It makes this feel sordid and wrong, but it doesn’t make me want to snatch my hand away.

“Have you heard about the other girl who’s gone missing?”

Greg lets my hand go and I watch another drop of blood well up. “Impossible not to hear about it around here.”

“She wasn’t from our school, but she was close enough that everyone thinks the killer might have taken her.”

“The local gossips are loving it, aren’t they? No thoughts for the poor girl’s family. Although I hear she’s a troublemaker—wild,” Greg says.

That’s what the tabloids are saying: a “wild” girl, just like Nicole. Doesn’t mean they deserved to be killed, though.