I stumble on. “I wish I’d never gone there, Mom. It was sort of a game at first, a mystery to solve. And then when we found out who we’d been spying on, well, Skylar—”

Mom comes back to life. “Skylar,” she says. “Always Skylar. You do everything she says. Don’t you have a mind of your own?”

“Don’t blame Skylar. It was my idea too.”

Mom gets up and paces around the living room. “At this point it doesn’t really matter whose idea it was. I thought I could trust you while I was at work. It seems you still need a babysitter!”

She stops pacing and grabs my shoulders, forcing me to look into her eyes. I have a feeling she wants to shake some sense into me. Or hit me. I’ve never seen her this angry.

“There’s no telling what could have happened to you and Skylar. You could have been hurt, you could have—you could have been—”

Mom tightens her grip on me as if that will keep me safe. “Promise me you’ll never do something like this again.”

“I promise, Mom. Skylar and I, we didn’t—”

“Leave Skylar out of this. It’s you I care about!”

She lets me go so fast I stumble backward. If she’s this mad about the tree house, I hope she never finds out what else I did. I glance out the window. The shed door is closed. If Jason opens it and she sees him, it’s all over.

Mom picks up her phone and calls Greg. “Change of plans,” she says. “A detective is coming to take a statement from Abbi regarding Mr. Boyce and Ms. Sullivan.Can you please come over?” She lowers her voice but I hear her whisper, “I need you.”

In the silence, I hear Greg buzzing away, but I can’t understand what he’s saying.

“Yes,” Mom says. “I’d appreciate that. We’ll eat here before Detective Klein arrives.”

Greg shows up with the pizza around six. I watch him open the box. Even though it’s still hot and loaded with my favorite toppings, I can’t eat one slice. I even hate the smell of it.

Greg looks at the uneaten pizza on my plate. “What’s this about, Abs?”

“Skylar and I did something,” I mumble, “and Mom—”

Mom slams some plates on the table. “You’ll hear all about it when Detective Klein arrives,” she tells Greg, and then goes on to give a complete recap of what I told her.

Greg stares at me. “That’s the stupidest thing you’ve ever done. You’ve got no idea what goes on in that area. Druggies and dealers do their business there. You’re lucky you didn’t run into them.”