Sara Shepard - Killer

Mike shrugged. “If you must know, she broke up with me.”

“What did you do?” Aria demanded. Then she held up her hand, silencing him. “Actually, don’t tell me.” Mike had probably suggested Savannah start wearing crotchless panties or begged her to hook up with a girl and let him watch.

Aria drove around to the back of the school, past the soccer fields and the art barn. As she pulled into one of the last spaces in the back lot, she noticed a flapping sign on one of the lot’s tall, metal floodlights. time capsule, THE WINTER EDITION, STARTS TODAY! HERE’S YOUR CHANCE TO BE IMMORTALIZED! said big block letters.

“You’re kidding me,” Aria whispered. The school held the Time Capsule contest every year, although Aria had missed the last three because her family had been living in Reykjavík, Iceland. The game usually took place in the fall, but Rosewood Day had been tactful enough to suspend it this year after construction workers found Alison DiLaurentis’s dead body in the half-dug hole in her old backyard. But Rosewood wouldn’t dare skip out on their most venerable tradition entirely. What would the donors think?

Mike sat up straighter, spying the sign. “ Nice . I have the perfect idea of how to decorate it.” He rubbed his palms together eagerly.

Aria rolled her eyes. “Are you going to draw unicorns on it? Write a poem about your bromance with Noel?”

Mike raised his nose in the air. “It’s way better than that. But if I told you, I’d have to kill you.” He waved to Noel Kahn, who was climbing out of James Freed’s Hummer, and dashed out of the car without saying good-bye.

Aria sighed, peering again at the Time Capsule sign. In sixth grade, the first year Aria had been able to play, Time Capsule had been a huge deal. But when Aria, Spencer, and the others had sneaked into Ali’s yard hoping to steal her piece, everything had gone so wrong. Aria pictured the shoe box at the back of her closet. She hadn’t been brave enough to look inside it for years. Maybe Ali’s piece of the flag had decomposed by now, just like her body.

“Ms. Montgomery?”

Aria jumped. A dark-haired woman with a microphone stood outside her car. Behind her was a guy holding a TV camera.

The woman’s eyes lit up when she saw Aria’s face. “Ms. Montgomery!” she cried, banging on Aria’s window. “Can I ask you a few questions?”

Aria gritted her teeth, feeling like a monkey in a zoo. She waved the woman off, started the car again, and backed out of the lot. The reporter ran alongside her. The cameraman kept his lens on Aria as she zoomed to the main road.

She had to get out of here. Now.

By the time Aria arrived at the Rosewood SEPTA station, the parking lot was almost full with the regular commuters’ Saabs, Volvos, and BMWs. She finally found a space, shoved a bunch of change into the meter, and stood on the edge of the platform. The train tracks were under a rusty trestle bridge. Across the road was a pet store that sold homemade dog food and costumes for cats.

There wasn’t a train in sight. Then again, Aria had been so frantic to leave Rosewood Day, it hadn’t occurred to her to check the SEPTA schedule. Sighing, she pushed into the little station house, which consisted of a ticket window, an ATM machine, and a small coffee counter that also sold books about train travel along the historic Main Line. A few people sat on the wooden benches that lined the room, languidly staring at the flat-screen television in the corner that was tuned to Regis & Kelly . Aria walked over to the posted train schedules on the far wall and discovered that the next train wouldn’t be leaving here for a half hour. Resigned, she plopped down on a bench. A few people gawked at her. She wondered if they recognized her from TV. Reporters had been dogging her since Sunday, after all.

“Hey,” a voice said. “I know you.”

Aria groaned, anticipating what was coming next. You’re that murdered girl’s best friend! You’re that girl who was being stalked! You’re that girl who saw the dead body! When she looked one bench over, her heart stopped. A familiar blond guy was sitting on a bench across the aisle, staring at her. Aria recognized his long fingers, his bow-shaped mouth, even the little mole on his cheekbone. She felt hot, then cold.

It was Jason DiLaurentis.

“H-hi,” Aria stammered. Lately, she’d been thinking a lot about Jason—especially the crush she used to have on him. It was weird to suddenly have him here, right in front of her.

“It’s Aria, right?” Jason closed the paperback book he’d been reading.

“That’s right.” Aria’s insides shimmered. She wasn’t sure if she’d ever heard Jason say her name before. Jason used to refer to Aria and the others as simply “the Alis.”

“You’re the one who made movies.” Jason’s blue eyes were steady on her.

“Yeah.” Aria felt herself blushing. They used to screen Aria’s pseudo-artsy movies in Ali’s den, and sometimes Jason would pause in the doorway to watch. Aria used to feel so self-conscious about him being there, but at the same time, she longed for him to comment on her movies. To say they were brilliant, maybe, or at the very least thought provoking.

“You were the only one with substance,” Jason added, giving her a kind, alluring smile. Aria’s insides turned over. Substance was good…right?

“Are you going into Philadelphia?” Aria blurted, groping for something to say. She instantly wanted to smack her forehead. Duh . Of course he was going into Philadelphia. This train line didn’t go anywhere else.

Jason nodded. “To Penn. I just transferred. I used to go to Yale.”

Aria refrained from saying I know . The day Ali told them Jason had gotten into Yale, his top-choice school, Aria had considered drawing him a Congratulations card. But she decided against it, afraid Ali would tease her.

“It’s great,” Jason went on. “I only have classes Mondays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays, and I get out early enough to take the three P.M. bullet train back to Yarmouth.”

“Yarmouth?” Aria repeated.

“My parents moved there for the trial.” Jason shrugged and riffled his paperback’s pages through his fingers. “I moved into the apartment above the garage. I figured they needed me to help them through this…stuff.”

“Right.” Aria’s stomach started to ache. She couldn’t imagine how Jason was dealing with Ali’s murder—not only had his old classmate killed her, but that he’d then vanished. She licked her lips, thinking of answers for what she guessed would be his next questions: What was it like seeing Ian’s body in the woods? Where do you think it is now? Do you think someone moved it?

But Jason just sighed. “I usually get on at Yarmouth, but today I had something to do in Rosewood. So here I am.”

Outside, an Amtrak bullet train roared into the station. The other people who had been waiting stood up and clattered through the door to the platform. After the train roared away, Jason walked across the aisle and sat down right next to Aria. “So…don’t you have school?” he asked.

Aria opened her mouth, fumbling for an answer. Jason was suddenly so close to her, she could easily smell his nutty, spicy soap. It was intoxicating. “Uh, nope. It’s parent-teacher conference day.”

“Do you always wear your uniform on days off?” Jason pointed to the bottom hem of Aria’s plaid Rosewood Day skirt. It was peeking out under her long wool coat.

Aria felt her cheeks blaze. “I don’t usually ditch, I swear.”

“I won’t tell,” Jason teased. He leaned forward, making the bench creak. “You know the go-kart place on Wembley Road? Once I went there for the whole day. Drove that little car around and around for hours.”