Page 62 of Haunting the Deep

Does that mean they think Redd’s warning might have been directed at me, too?“What about her parents?” I ask.

“Most likely at the yacht club,” Alice says. “I’ve lived next to them my whole life, and they’re almost never home on the weekends.” We pull to a stop, and she gestures toward an enormous redbrick house with black shutters. “See, empty driveway.”

Mary turns around from the passenger seat and looks at me. “When we get out of the car, make sure you act like everything’s normal. Don’t speed-walk or look around suspiciously, and no one will question what we’re doing.”

The girls and I jump out of the Jeep, my heart beating so loudly I’m sure the neighbors can hear it.

Susannah nods in the direction of the brick house and I follow. Every piece of gravel under my boots is amplified.

Alice sticks her fingers through a thin opening in a tall white wooden fence and jiggles a metal latch. The gate swings open into the backyard. Rows of white flowers and bushes, all trimmed and uniform, line the house and fence.

Alice grabs a fake frog and flips it over, revealing a hiding place for a key. “They never change it.” She slips the key into the back door, and just like that we’re in Niki’s house.

For a few awful seconds we stand in silence. I hold my breath.

Alice taps on the door from the inside. “Anyone home?” she yells.

I cringe and so does Mary. Silence.

Alice nods. “Told you they weren’t here.”

Mary scowls. “Jeez, you could give us a little warning before you start yelling.”

“Doesn’t mean they won’t come home,” Susannah says, and all at once we’re moving full speed through the hallways and up the stairs.

Niki’s bedroom door is open, and the inside matches the rest of the house, pastel blues and white.

“Whatever you touch, keep track of where it was. Judging by the neatness, she would notice immediately,” Susannah says.

Alice and I head for her desk, Mary to her closet, and Susannah to her bookshelf. I leaf through a pile of books and papers, but everything mentioning theTitanicis just Wardwell’s homework assignments. We’re all super quiet and focused.

The first desk drawer is filled with pictures of Niki and Blair and a few other girls over the summer. Below the pictures are birthday cards, notes scribbled in big loopy cursive, and a wooden box. I lift the box lid. Inside is an envelope with Niki’s name on it.Wait, I recognize that handwriting.

I set down the stack of cards and pictures and pick up the envelope.I’ll just put it back in the box and forget I ever saw it.

Nope. I open the back flap and pull a card out.

Niki,

Hoping you’ll accept this bracelet as my invitation to the Spring Fling next week.

Jaxon

P.S. I’ll pick you up at 7:30 tonight.

I rub my thumb over the part of the card where the bracelet left an indent. What, it took him a whole twenty-four hours after our fight to do this? I get why he didn’t tell me, but I’m also getting nervous that I’m losing my best friend to Niki, of all people.

“Sam,” Alice says, looking down at the card.

I forcefully shove it back into the envelope. “It’s nothing.”

“Then why are you abusing that envelope?” Alice takes it out of my hands and puts it back in the box. “Dude, trust me on this one—if he likes Niki, then he’s definitely not the person you thought he was.”

Mary watches us. “What happened?”

“Nothing.” I shake my head. “Jaxon gave Niki one of thoseTitanicdance bracelets.” Everyone’s quiet, as if they’re waiting for me to go on, so I do. “It’s not that I want to date Jaxon. It’s that I feel like he just dropped me, like suddenly I don’t matter to him anymore.”

Mary frowns.