Read Online The Good Girls by Sara Shepard - Free Book Online Page B

“You don’t think that’s an awfully weird coincidence?”
    â€œHow so?” Mac asked.
    Caitlin looked at Julie. “Julie, you said you wanted him dead in that same film studies conversation about Nolan. And now . . . he is. ”
    Julie suddenly remembered what Caitlin was talking about. Before they’d plotted how to kill and then prank Nolan, they’d each gone around and named someone they would kill, and how they would do it. Julie’s pick had been Parker’s dad. And, come to think of it, hadn’t she said, he could be stabbed to death in the prison yard ?
    â€œI don’t want to be paranoid, but the timing of it is eerie,” Caitlin said quietly. “First Nolan dies exactly how we planned, and then Parker’s dad does, too?”
    â€œGuys get killed in prison all the time, though,” Mac said, looking around the room.
    â€œYeah,” Ava seconded. “They’re probably not connected.”
    â€œBut let’s play devil’s advocate a minute,” Caitlin argued. “Let’s say it isn’t a coincidence. Say someone . . . I don’t know, heard that conversation.” She looked at Julie again. “I wish we still had those notes Granger had written about our conversation. Do you remember what they said?”
    Julie flinched. She’d found a yellow legal pad in Granger’s office, which had notes that were clearly from their conversation that day. She looked at Parker to confirm.
    Parker nodded. “It said ‘Nolan—cyanide.’ If Granger killed Nolan, then that’s how he got the cyanide idea—and how he knew he could frame us.”
    â€œDid he have all of our other names on it?” Ava asked.
    â€œI think so,” Julie said. “There was something about Leslie, and Claire . . .”
    Mac pitched her gaze to the ceiling. “I said Claire.” Her cheeks turned red.
    â€œAnd Parker’s dad,” Julie added. “Granger had written all of them down.”
    â€œNot Ashley Ferguson, though,” Parker added, and Julie nodded. That was true. But maybe he just hadn’t known who Ashley was at the time. She didn’t take film studies.
    â€œDo you think it’s possible someone else heard us, too?” Caitlin interrupted. “Aside from Granger, I mean?”
    Julie frowned. “Someone else in the classroom?”
    Caitlin shrugged. “I don’t know. Probably.”
    â€œEven if they did, what are you saying? That person snuck into the prison yard of a maximum-security prison and stabbed a guy to death?”
    â€œMaybe? Let’s just go over it. Who else was in the room that day?”
    Ava shut her eyes. “Ursula Winters. Renee Foley. Alex, but he was all the way on the other side of the room, talking to Nolan.”
    â€œOliver Hodges, Ben Riddle, and Quentin Aaron,” Mac added. “James Wong—”
    â€œHis dad’s a congressman, and he’s a lock for Harvard early admission,” Ava interrupted. “He wouldn’t do anything that stupid. Cross him off the list.”
    â€œOh, like we wouldn’t do anything as stupid as pranking someone, because we’re headed for Juilliard and soccer scholarships and all?” Mac said.
    Ava paled. “Okay,” she admitted. “James Wong could have heard us, too.”
    â€œClaire was there,” Mac added. “So maybe it’s her? If she heard me say I wanted her dead, she’d be the type who’d get revenge.”
    Caitlin tapped her lips. “What about Ursula? She wants to beat me at all costs.”
    â€œBy killing people?” Parker looked at them skeptically.Julie had to admit it sounded pretty extreme. No one said anything.
    Julie shut her eyes, realizing what they sounded like. “Guys, this is crazy. No one heard us talking except for Granger. And I saw that legal pad with my own two eyes. Even if the cops find it, our names