Chapter 156 – The Liar’s Game – Holly Hayfield

My proof of identity, or should I say, Olivia’s proof of identity was more than enough to silence the room. Maria gave Sarah a look like she was asking stupid questions. Sarah was looking around nervously, perhaps hoping someone would say something. Ian just looked nervous in general for whatever reason.

I was grinning deviously the entire time.

“So, ‘Sarah’, should we talk in your office, or…?” I asked.

Sarah blinked at me nervously like she forgot that I was standing right in front of her.

“I…” She started to say.

“Of course!” Maria agreed. “It’s not like you’re busy with anything else. You need to earn the cash the studio pays you for that nice car you just got.”

“Actually, I was working on…”

“Nothing important,” Maria said assuredly. “Now if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got a set to be on in five minutes. That means get the hell out of my room and take this conversation back to your broom closet.”

“I…” Sarah started to protest.

Maria headed for the door, corralling all of us out into the hallway.

“Ian, be a good boy and tell the director that Sarah is doing a job for me right now.” Maria said. “We wouldn’t want her trying to weasel herself out of something again.”

“Yes ma’am!” Ian said.

“Okay…” Sarah said in defeat. “I’ll bring them over to my room.”

Maria patted Sarah on the shoulder as she walked by.

“I knew you would. I’m sure you won’t disappoint me, this time.” Maria said condescendingly before departing us.

When she was gone Sarah gave Silver and I the meanest look that she could muster. That was to say not much, considering her homely seasonal attire. Appearances aside, she didn’t feel very threatening compared to someone like Angelica or Ms. Sampson. Sarah was the PR arm of their group, not the muscle or leader.

That’s why I wanted to make her crack like an egg.

This woman wouldn’t have Ms. Logan’s instability or the Matriarch’s charisma. She wouldn’t have Angelica’s fortitude or Ms. Sampson’s cunning. This woman was a weak link, and even more so than Ms. Logan since she was operating without backup. How much information could I gleam from her as Olivia Noelle?

“So,” I said conversationally as we walked down the hall together. “You went to our school?”

Sarah turned about-face to give me and Silver another hard look. Even Silver was unfazed by Sarah’s attempts at intimidation.

“You know, I wasn’t told anything about Malorie having a cousin!” Sarah said.

“What are you talking about?” I asked in a sarcastic voice, “Maria just told you back there, did she not? I was there! Don’t tell me that you forgot already?”

This caused Silver to chuckle. She was struggling to stay in character at the moment but luckily Sarah didn’t take her laughing seriously. She actually looked peeved by it.

“Now, now, Olivia… You shouldn’t be so hard on our host. She probably meant something else.”

“Of course she did. She meant that Officer Morelli and Ms. Sampson didn’t warn her about us.” I said bluntly.

Both Sarah and Silver were taken aback by this. Silver probably wasn’t expecting me to say something so provoking, so soon. The accusation here was that Sarah was in cahoots with Angel and Ms. Sampson over Malorie. Sarah understood what I was getting at because she immediately shook her head and deflected the statement.

“No, no, no! I only meant that Malorie never talked about you in the past. You’ve caught me by surprise. You’ve got the wrong idea.”

“Do I?” I asked.

“You do! Come on. My office is right over here. Let’s talk about this inside.”

“Lead the way, ma’am.” I said.

Maria wasn’t joking when she called Sarah’s office a broom closet. If someone had told me that this room had literally been converted into an office instead of a janitorial supply room I would fully believe them. Her desk was the size of a high school desk, having only enough room for her laptop and coffee.

There were only two chairs in the room, her chair and a chair on the other side of her desk for guests. The room felt narrow and cramped. There were no windows or decorations other than some pictures that were posted on the walls to make the place look livelier.

The pictures weren’t even family photos or anything along those lines. The pictures were god-forsaken, outdated memes plastered all around her seating area. This office was cursed. I could see Silver trying to hold back another laugh as she stared at one of the images on the wall. I pinched her side.

“You can sit down, Jess. I’ll sit in your lap.”

“Are… are you sure?” She asked. “I could sit in your lap instead if you prefer.”

“Why? Do you think I weigh more than you? Are you seriously calling me fat at a time like this?” I asked in mock anger.

“Fine!” She said. “Sit in my lap.”

I let Silver sit down first before sitting in her lap. She couldn’t help but to laugh as I sat down. I laughed too when she put her arms around me to hold me in place.

Sarah sat down in the chair in front of her laptop.

“I hope you two are having fun.” Sarah said irritably. “Now tell me why you two came here. For what reason is Ms. Novak so interested in you? Why have you come to us now after all this time? Seems strange that Malorie’s cousin didn’t come to us back when Malorie first went missing...”

“You mean back when you were writing articles saying that she ran away?” I asked with a smile still on my face.

Sarah looked like she had been slapped across the face.

“Oh yeah, that’s right.” I confirmed. “I read your old articles. You weren’t the only one writing articles like that, but you were the only one that personally knew her. Things must be difficult for you now that your theory fell through so hard.”

Sarah glared at me and folded her arms over her chest.

“So what…? I was wrong. It’s hardly the first time that a journalist has been wrong.”

“Sure,” I said. “But you never wrote a follow up article to clarify to your readers that your former theories were wrong. The whole Malorie burial came and went without you writing a single word about it. How strange.”

“Your point being…?”

I smiled broadly at her because this was exactly what I was hoping she’d say. I changed how I was sitting in Silver’s lap to face Sarah with my entire body.

“My point, dear journalist, is the reason why I’m here. I have sufficient reason to believe that Angelica Morelli didn’t act alone in my beloved cousin’s murder. It wasn’t just Angelica Morelli. It was her former best friend, Abigail Logan. It was Jackie Sampson. It was… Hmm… Who else could have been involved?”

I spoke in an airy, playful tone that I could tell was driving Sarah up the wall. To say that she was shaken by the accusation was an understatement. She was literally shaking in her seat as if it were freezing in here. She was beginning to sweat nervously as though it were hot. This woman was so easy to read that whatever non-answer she gave me was worthless in the face of that.

This was the game of liars and she definitely wasn’t a player. Ms. Sampson was a practiced master of deception which made talking to her about Malorie a fruitless task. This woman had so many obvious dead giveaways that I could read her like a book. As a counselor and master of deception myself, she wasn’t going to beat me at this game.

“I see what you’re getting at and it’s the wrong idea. We were all good friends with Malorie, why would we…”

“Were you? That’s not what Ms. Logan said back while she was alive.”

“Abby…? She didn’t know what she was saying. She was always a little off her rocker, especially towards the end.”

“Are you sure? She seemed more truthful than ever near the end. I knew her quite well.”

“Not as well as I did.”

“She mentioned something about the name ‘Duluth’, does that mean anything to you?” I asked innocently.

Sarah shook her head and waved her hands dismissively.

“That’s just the name of a teacher that used to work at the school. It doesn’t mean anything.”

“So Ms. Logan’s story about the Art and Theater club going after her was a lie?”

“Yes! A complete lie! Abby was always fabricating fantasies and living in her imagination! If you really knew her as well as you claimed to then you’d know too.”

“Maybe you’re right. How else would the details of her story be so well thought out and oddly specific?” I asked. “But how do I know for certain that she’s the liar and not you? Back then I never put much stake into Ms. Logan’s stories, but now after my cousin’s body turned up… Well… Let’s say it caused me to reconsider.”

Sarah was on edge as I spoke. I practically sensed the gears in her brain turning as she thought up a response.

“I assure you that Jackie and I were never part of whatever Angel did to Malorie.”

“So Angel killed Malorie because of what…? Because she didn’t like her?”

“I don’t know.” Sarah said uncomfortably.

I paused to let the silence hang in the air. I shared an overdramatic look with Silver before turning back to Sarah.

“You are a journalist, aren’t you? A journalist that’s from our school! You should be all over this! I thought you’d be interested in hearing me out. Somehow I get the feeling that you’re not interested in my story at all.”

“I am a journalist, yes, but these things are too close and personal for me to investigate myself. Besides, there’s no grand conspiracy behind Malorie’s murder like you seem to believe. If I knew that Jackie was involved with Malorie’s murder then I’d tell the police.”

This caused me to break character and smirk out of place. Sarah didn’t seem to interpret that as an affront to the legitimacy of her claim. She stayed as stony-faced as possible, trying to keep her false air of composure.

“Would you?” I asked rhetorically. “Alright, let’s say I believe you. I’m not the only person that believes in a large conspiracy behind Malorie’s death. There was this website that recently got shut down…”

“All nonsense published by some overzealous fanatic. It’s nothing short of a fan fiction of reality. I’m sure Abby had something to do with its creation.” Sarah said.

“What about the Killing Cat?” I asked. “She seems to believe in this conspiracy idea.”

Sarah actually got visibly riled up upon hearing this. She balled her fists angrily and clenched her teeth.

“The Killing Cat is nothing but a low-life murderer!” Sarah said. “She killed some of my friends.”

“All of which had strong ties with Angelica Morelli and Ms. Sampson, no? The police are spending more time investigating them too now that Malorie’s body turned up. I’d be worried if I were you... Aren’t you afraid the Killing Cat might come after you eventually?”

Silver poked me from behind. The wide-eyed look she had on her face was similar to Sarah’s.

“What…?” I asked her. “It’s a fair question. We all watch the news... Well… Sarah here is even part of the news.”

Sarah stood up and slapped her hands against her desk.

“I’m not worried about that thug any more than the other criminals on our streets. I think I’ve heard all I needed to hear to tell Maria that you were both full of hot air! Thanks for wasting my time!”

I smiled cheekily at her.

“Thanks for having us!” I said.

We were promptly kicked out as Sarah went to go get security. Silver and I didn’t stick around long enough to be caught by them. We weren’t wearing guest badges and thought it’d be best to hightail it out of there while no one was looking.

My final act within the building was to flip the receptionist the bird as we ran out. She flipped the bird right back, despite being busy talking to someone on the phone. What a lovely lady. Silver and I ran to the edge of the parking lot, all the way to where Alyssa’s scooter was currently parked against the curb.

Silver was doubled-over, breathing heavily after our run. This was nothing for me, not even enough to be considered training.

“It was nice that Alyssa let us borrow her scooter.” I said. “I don’t think you would’ve survived a jog from here to Autumn Eden.”

“Wha…?” Silver asked while panting. “You mean to tell me… You’re saying that you could jog that far?”

“And still keep going…? Yes, that’s what I’m saying. It’s not that far when you think about it. Marathoners run longer distances all the time.”

“I’m never running a marathon in my life!” Silver said.

I laughed in response. That’s when I got a call on my phone. I thought it would be my mom asking me if I was planning to sleep over at Alyssa’s house. That’s where I was technically supposed to be at the moment. Instead, it was Sam.

“Sam, what’s up?” I said as I answered the phone.

“I was hoping you’d come to my party since I got permission from Ash and my parents to have one. I convinced my parents that it was a return-to-school party and that only goody-good girls were coming. It would be nice to actually have at least one goody-good girl show up.”

“Well…” I started to say.

She would be correct under normal circumstances, but she called me at a funny time. The entire point of my Olivia character was to be a bit of a pain-in-the-butt to everyone she interacted with. She could hardly be considered a goody-good girl. There was no way in hell I could show up to Sam’s place dressed like this. She’d think I went off the deep end.

“Let’s just say something came up.” I said.

“Shame.” Sam said. “Even Naomi got permission to come after a little convincing. The principal’s phone call to her parents about the vote earlier might’ve had something to do with it. They seem to believe that this is a unique school event of some sort. The only ones from our group that didn’t show up were Perri, Jin, and Silver.”

I looked over at Silver who was sitting on the curb, still catching her breath. After seeing this sort of behavior I resolved to bring her to one of my track club sessions soon.

“Actually, Silver’s right here with me.” I said. “Do you want to speak to her about Perri and Jin?”

Silver perked up at this.

“Sure.” Sam said.

“Get up, lazybones! It’s for you.”

Silver took the cell phone from me and pushed me aside with a playful hip bump.

“Hello?” Silver asked.

I couldn’t hear Sam’s side of things from there. I climbed onto the scooter and waited for Silver to finish talking. I got a sense of the conversation from Silver’s responses. It sounded like they were speculating on Perri’s next move. I had enough of this. That’s why when Silver hung up the phone I decided on a new plan.

“Tomorrow’s a Saturday,” I said as Silver climbed onto the scooter with me. “Do you think you could get Perri and Jin to meet you somewhere? I’d like to talk to them outside of school.”

“Why don’t you call them yourself? Don’t you have Perri’s contact information?”

“They won’t accept an invitation if it’s me. They’ll think I’m just interested in talking official school business again. Do you think you could help me out?”

“I can, but I’m not sure what you hope to accomplish. Going by what Sam said it doesn’t seem like they’re willing to accept the vote.”

“That’s why you’re going to help me get to them. Set up the meeting.”

“Sure, I’ll try.”