Page 34 of 1001 Dark Nights: Bundle Forty-Two

Aaron saw me talking with the reporter at the con.

And now, Aaron is trying to kill me to protect his secret.Just like he killed Carolyn and her family when he thought that she’d betrayedhim with her stepdad.

And as the water rises, sucking me under, the only thing Ican think is that I’m going to die now. And Simon will never know just howdesperately I was falling in love with him.

Chapter Twelve

He should have gone with her. That was the bottomline. For years, Simon had been living perfectly fine on his own. Now the womanhe was falling in love with was gone for about forty-seven seconds, and he wasalready going batshit crazy.

He paced her living room, then saw the diary. He picked itup. They’d already gone over it in such detail, he doubted that he would seeanything else, but the truth was he needed something to occupy his mind. Heflipped pages, pausing at those odd Vs, wondering who it could be.

Frannie didn’t remember anybody with a first or last namethat started with a V, but memory wasn’t always reliable. Maybe he should geton the Bright Eyes IMDB page and see if there was somebody inthe crew whose name began with the letter V. He was seriously considering doingthat when the phone rang, and he snapped it up the moment he saw it wasMatthew.

“Hey, what’s up?” he asked.

“I called Frannie, but she’s not answering her cell. Is shewith you? Ryan said you two were an item now. Congratulations. But I need amoment to run something by her.”

“Sorry. I’m at her place, but she’s out working on someproject with Aaron.”

“What new project?”

“Spiraling.”

“Spiraling? Are you sure?”

“All I know is what Aaron said. He wanted to go over somerevision notes.”

“That doesn’t make sense,” Matthew said.

“Why not?” Simon’s entire body had gone tense.

“Because we haven’t gotten the new pages yet. In fact, Italked to the writer not an hour ago, and she said that she’d have themtomorrow.”

His blood felt like ice. “Maybe she got an advance read fromAaron before she runs them by you?”

“No. I’ve worked with this writer dozens of times. Thatwould never happen.”

“Why would he tell her that if it wasn’t the case? Is theresomething else in the works?”

“A PR nightmare. Another damnarticle about that hot tub incident came out today,” Matthew said. “But I can’tsee why that would require a meeting between the two of them.”

Simon silently agreed. He glanced down and saw the diarysitting open. From his perspective now, it was upside down, and for a moment,that odd V looked like an A.

Oh, fuck.

“Matthew, did Aaron know Carolyn?”

“Carolyn Pruitt? Of course. They met on BrightEyes.”

“Do you have his address?”

“What’s going on?” Matthew asked after rattling it off.

“Something horrible. Just meet me there.”

Twenty minutes later, Simon, Mario, Matthew, Trevor, Jasper,and Leah were all converging on Aaron’s property.

“We’re going in fast,” Simon said as they coordinated byphone. “I called, but she didn’t answer her phone. Something’s going on. Idon’t know what it is, but I’m not waiting to find out. No politeness, just inand fast. Understood?”