“Fine,” she finally relented. “I was there. Obviously, I was there. Question is, who was there with me?”
Javen studied her for a long moment. “I only saw them from behind.”
Aster stood before him, holding her breath.
“But from the long hair and clothes, it looks like a girl. And just so you know, the apartment was secured in your name.”
Aster wobbled precariously, looking as though she might faint. In an instant, Ryan shot away from the couch and appeared right beside her, though Aster was quick to recover and push him away.
“I’m all right,” she snapped. And then to Javen, she said, “I need to see that. I need to see everything.”
Without a word, Javen propped open the lid and walked them through the hallway’s surveillance video, which showed Aster weaving down the hall, hanging on to someone shorter, with long brown hair. When they reached the room, the girl sank a hand into Aster’s purse, procured the key fob, and let them both in.
“I don’t get it,” she said. “There are witnesses who swear they saw me get into a car with some unidentified guy. No one ever mentioned a girl. And why was the key fob in my purse? Until that moment, I’d never been there before.”
“Maybe she was waiting inside the car and no one saw her, or maybe she met up with you at the building. As for the key fob, she probably slipped it in there on purpose, knowing the surveillance video would make it look like you rented the place. Not to mention, did you ever actually finish watching the video?” Layla asked, causing Aster to whirl on her in anger, as a knowing look crossed Javen’s face.
“No,” Aster finally admitted.
“Well, maybe you should.” Layla refused to be deterred. “Maybe it’s not at all what you think.”
“So, you’re saying I ditched Ryan at the club so I could go back to my secret luxury love nest—a place so secret I didn’t even know about it—so I could hook up with some chick with long brown hair wearing Rag & Bone skinny jeans?”
“You can tell the designer from that?” Layla pointed at the screen. She knew it was unimportant, but in a strange way, it was undoubtedly impressive. Aster was like a fashion detective.
Aster stood before them, her fingers nervously working the gold-and-diamond hamsa pendant that hung from her neck.
“Keep watching.” Javen fast-forwarded for a bit, before hitting the play button again. A moment later, they watched the girl leave, her head dipped in a way that made it impossible to make out her face. According to the time stamp, about fourteen minutes had passed.
“So, it was a quickie then.” Aster sank to the floor and dropped her head in her hands.
“Is anyone thinking what I’m thinking?” Layla glanced at each of them. “That maybe the girl was Madison?”
Aster groaned, Ryan looked intrigued, and Javen just shrugged.
“I know it sounds like a stretch, but Ryan, you said yourself that Madison talked about hiding out for a while. You also mentioned that she went a little overboard with your staged public breakup. So what if she planned this whole thing? What if she’s hiding out somewhere on some white-sand tropical beach, laughing at all of us? What if she’s just trying to punish Aster for a bit, before she resurfaces and reclaims her spot as the world’s most loved celebrity, thereby getting Aster off the hook for her murder?”
“That’s insane,” Aster said, though her face seemed to question the possibility. “I mean, it is insane, right? Because as much as I want to believe it, wouldn’t that make Madison a total sociopath?”
Layla shrugged. “Vindictive, yes. But a psychopath? Not necessarily.”
“But what about the blood?” Aster asked.
“And the dress,” Ryan said.
“I can continue watching the footage, and I’ll let you know if I see anyone else coming or going,” Javen said. “But there’s no telling how long that might take. I do have school, you know. Not to mention, Mom and Dad and Nanny Mitra are breathing down my neck, sure that I’m sneaking out to come here, despite their strictest orders to steer clear. As if.” He rolled his eyes, prompting Aster to laugh, but only for a second before her face fell serious again.
“Okay,” Ryan said. “So far we know that someone rented the apartment in Aster’s name, someone drugged Aster, and someone led Aster to the apartment, where they spent fourteen minutes and change—”
“Which is long enough for them to have convinced you to do a striptease, put you to bed, and messed up the room to make it look like a wild party occurred,” Layla finished.
“So what do we do now?” Aster’s shoulders sank in exhaustion. “Or, more accurately, how do we find Madison? How do we convince people that she really is alive?”
“Listen,” Layla said. “This all makes perfect sense and I know I’m the one who brought it up, but what about the diary entries? Why would Madison send us those and threaten me to post them? They make her look kind of awful and expose all her lies.”
“Who said Madison’s behind that?” Ryan said. “Maybe it’s just a Madison hater being opportunistic.”
“Like they’re sick of her being hailed as a saint, and they want the public to know who this chick really was.” Javen nodded assuredly, as though he’d just solved the case.