Page 105 of Want to Know a Secret?

April.

My hands are shaking as I type on the screen:

I know you are inside the house, April.

There. That should frighten her off.

I peek through the curtains again. I see April freeze. She feels around in her pocket and pulls her phone out of the purse on her shoulder. Her eyes widen as she reads my message.

She puts her phone back in her purse. I watch her sifting through the purse for a few seconds, and I wonder what she’s doing. And then I see her pull something out of her purse.

It’s a knife.

Oh God.

I’ve got to do something.

I consider calling 911, but it seems like by the time I get through to the police and explain the whole thing to them, and tell them how urgent it is, it will be too late. So instead of the police, I click on Riley’s number.

He answers after one ring. “Jules? What’s going on?”

“April is at my neighbor’s house,” I manage. “She’s upstairs in the bedroom with a knife. I… I think she thinks my neighbor knows something and is going to turn her in.”

“Got it. I’ll be right there.”

I stare across the way, into Maria’s window. April is still standing there with the knife. Any second, Maria will go upstairs. “How long?”

“With the sirens? Maybe… ten minutes.”

“No. Somebody has to come right now.” I squeeze the phone until my fingers tingle. “Right this minute.”

“Okay. I’ll get a squad car to go.”

I try to look in the windows downstairs, to see if Maria is still on the first floor. I don’t see her. “I’ve got to go over there.”

“Jules, no.” I hear the siren going on the other line. He must’ve gotten on the road. “Don’t go over there—it’s too dangerous. I’m getting a squad car to go. Don’t move. We will take care of this.”

“I have to…”

“I mean it, Julianne. Don’t even think about—”

I hang up the phone before he can say anything else. I know he wants to try to talk me out of it, and he might be right. It might be stupid to go over there. But it’s my fault this is happening. I’ve got to do something.

I’ve got to go over there.

Chapter 54

APRIL

Courtney Burns.

You want the truth about Courtney Burns? Here’s the truth:

Bobby was two years old. He wouldn’t stop crying that day. While we were at the department store, he threw himself onto the ground and had an all-out tantrum, his legs and arms flailing around, his tiny face turning pink. I can’t even remember what the tantrum was about. Maybe because he wanted to wear his diaper as a hat and I wouldn’t let him. Maybe because I wouldn’t let him eat sunscreen. Who knows. But at the end of a very long day, I finally got him to bed. He passed out in his crib and I went to the kitchen to make some dinner before Elliot got home from work. It smelled wonderful.

But Elliot wasn’t interested in dinner. He got home from work and he said, “April, we need to talk.”

I didn’t look up from the meat sauce I was stirring on the stove. I didn’t want it to burn. “About what?”