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"Excusea dog approached them down the sidewalk He seeue lolled out of itswas on a leash or not

The ?" he asked sharply

Spencer’s ht our friend lived here"

"No one lives there," theat the house "That place has been vacant since they built it"

It didn’t see It also didn’t seeuy out for a ith his dog "Have you ever seen anyone co out of this place?" she dared to ask "Anyone at all?"

"Nope, not even a light on," the " He gave the look, and for a moment, Spencer wondered if she’d trusted hi stood As they passed, the dog stiffened and turned its head toward the realtor’s office across the street Spencer sucked in her sto sense a presence? But then it loped off and lifted its leg on a clu disappeared, all footsteps and jingling tags

Spencer waited until theto look at Chase "This was definitely the unit in the photo"

"Do you think Ali knee found it?" Chase whispered, his eyes wide And then, suddenly, a terrified look crossed his face "Do you think it was possible that Ali planted that video? Maybe she was never here in the first place Or maybe she sent us here to hurt us"

Spencer couldn’t believe it hadn’t occurred to her She darted off the porch, certain so horrible was about to happen It didn’t, but for a split second, she swore she could hear so She squinted hard at the trees, then peered worriedly at the realtor’s office, desperate to make out Ali’s shape at theWhat if she was close? What if she realized what they’d discovered--and she was furious?

Spencer took Chase’s hand "Let’s get out of here," she said hurriedly, darting back to the car She hoped, suddenly, that they hadn’t made a horrible mistake

3

HANNA LOSES IT

An hour later, Hanna Marin and her boyfriend, Mike Montgomery, sat in Hanna’s Prius, in bumper-to-bumper traffic on the way from the hospital back to Rosewood Mike fiddled with the radio, first choosing a rap station, then flipping to sports He let out a sigh and stared out the , looking just as exhausted as Hanna felt He’d hung around for a long tiht, partly for Noel and partly for Hanna Hanna wasn’t even sure when he’d left, but she was pretty certain it had been after ain shortly after Noel had woken up this

Hanna’s phone, which was connected to the car’s Bluetooth system, bleated loudly She pressed the ANSWER button on the center console without looking at the caller ID "Hanna?" a fa out "It’s Kelly Crosby froer hovered over the HANG UP button on the steering wheel She could feel Mike staring at her "Uh, hi"

"I was just calling to let you know that there’s no need for you to come in next week," Kelly went on "The clinic is closed until further notice because of themurder"

The murder Hanna sed hard

"I also wanted to let you know that Graham Pratt’s funeral will be toht you reat," Hanna said loudly to Kelly "Gotta go!"

She hung up and stared straight through the windshield as though nothing were amiss The only sound was the clunka-clunka-clunk of the uneven pavement on the off-raht you said Graharipped the steering wheel hard Mike had been suspicious about her volunteering stint at the burn clinic, first certain she wanted to reconcile with her ex, Sean Ackard That was ridiculous, but she couldn’t exactly tell hi about A She’d finally admitted that Aria and Graham had been in the boiler roo on Graham to see what he knew But there were a lot of holes in her story, and Mike knew it

She shrugged "I had to tell people at the burn clinic that Grahaet close to him"

"And what’s this about a murder?"

Hanna stared fixedly at a Delaware license plate on the car in front of her "No clue"

"Bullshit"

"I don’t know!" Hanna protested