Chapter 1
**Author's Note, Please Read: This story contains spoilers for the 5th episode of Twisted, so if you haven't seen it yet, and you don't want to be spoiled or confused, I suggest moving on to something else! You've been warned! ***
*Jo's Point of View*
After the Fall Festival, I didn't know what to think about Danny, about Rico or even about Lacey. Rico acted like he wanted to help, but would clam up and stay silent when Danny was around. After the diner, Lacey acted like none of us existed in public, preferring to hang around her popular friends. I guess I didn't understand how she could act like she was on our side at the diner and then the next day pretend like Danny or I didn't exist when Archie or Sarita was around. At the soccer game that Saturday, she sat across the bleachers next to Sarita and Phoebe, pointedly ignoring me and my mom.
I walked to school the Monday after the Fall Festival, my new routine giving me a chance to listen to audio books and new albums. I was glad my dad didn't drive me anymore, I'm sure he would use that time to interrogate me about Danny even more than he already does. Rico was at my locker when I got there, staring off into the distance at nothing.
"Hey, how was your weekend?" I asked.
He jerked out of whatever daydream he was having and smiled hesitantly.
"Okay I guess. Did you study for that Chem test? It's supposed to be huge." I groaned.
"I knew there was something I'd forgotten to do!" Rico fidgeted, looking around like he thought someone would pop out and yell "Boo!" at him.
"Well, I need to talk to you about something," he said, lowering his voice.
"Like what?" I stage whispered, finding it funny that he was trying to be so secretive and yet was so obvious. He frowned.
"It's serious, Jo. It's about…Danny." I stopped.
"I don't want to tell you in front of him, and you can't say anything to him," Rico insisted and I felt tightness in my chest. Keeping secrets? This wasn't something Rico ever did.
"Okay, so what is it?"
Rico leaned forward and hissed, "The other night, I was walking home from the Fall Festival when I saw Karen Desai on her balcony. She stared at something and then threw it into the pond. It looked like a necklace." My heart was pounding. Rico would lie about this, but what did it mean?
"Are you sure that's what it was? It wasn't like, a penny or a stone or something?" Rico shook his head.
"It was too small to be a stone, and I saw a chain attached. We need to tell someone, like your Dad."
"Whoa! Time out! Why would we do that?"
"Because! It could be evidence! Why would she throw a necklace into the pond? Why not just sell it if she doesn't want it, or give it away? It's suspicious."
"We don't even know for sure that it's the necklace that we're interested in!" Rico raised an eyebrow that plainly said he thought I was delusional if I wasn't more suspicious. I was suspicious, but saying that out loud meant that I would have to admit that if Karen Desai threw away Regina's necklace, that meant she was tied to the murder, which made Danny look really bad.
"Maybe we should, I don't know, go look for it ourselves, before just making assumptions and going to the police." I offered. Rico shook his head.
"Jo, that's completely crazy. Why wouldn't you just tell your dad? If it's no big deal, then nothing will come of it." The first bell rang and I saw Danny approaching from down the hall.
"At least give me time to let this all process before we go running off and telling people! Besides, Danny is coming," I said. Rico immediately shut his mouth, biting down on his lower lip and looking at the lockers as if they were the most fascinating thing in the world.
"Hey guys, was that the first bell or the second one?" Danny wondered.
"The first one, let's go so we aren't late," I said quickly and we left, Rico shooting me a wide-eyed look that said, Keep your mouth shut!
I didn't know what to do for the rest of the day. I tried not to think about the necklace, but Rico had made good points. Why would Karen Desai throw a necklace into the pond? Did Danny know about it? If he did, why didn't he say anything?
At lunch, Sarita went around, handing out invitations to her Halloween Masquerade. She had it every year. She waved a stack of thick, black envelopes around, giving one to Lacey, Archie, Jake, Phoebe and others in their group. She walked by me, Danny and Rico, sitting together at our own table, waved the stack of invitations with a smile and purposefully walked away.
"What is that?" Danny wondered.
"An alien life form?" I blurted before I could stop myself and he laughed.
"No, I mean, what is she doing?"
"She's not inviting us to her Halloween Masquerade party that she has every year. We weren't invited last year either, but back then she didn't care to make sure and let us know about it." Rico said, munching on some carrots.
"Oh," Danny said, watching as she made her way around the cafeteria and the quad, handing out those invitations to the select people she wanted to attend.
"She lives in a gated community, with a guard. You can't get in unless you get the special code for the party," I said. Danny smirked.
"How would you know that, did you try to sneak in one year?" I bit down on my lip and smiled.
"Maybe…" Danny laughed again, moving his hair out of his eyes.
"Do you want to go?" I asked Danny, who shrugged.
"Maybe I've had enough parties for a while," he admitted, taking a swig of water.
"Aren't you going to invite the freak?" Archie asked laughing at Sarita who glared at him.
"Sure, and get my head bashed in like Regina? No thanks, he's not coming within five hundred yards of this party." Lacey frowned.
"They haven't arrested him for Regina's murder, Sarita. If he was the one that did it, wouldn't it be more obvious? It couldn't hurt to invite him." Archie stopped laughing.
"It wouldn't hurt? What's happened to the last two parties he went to? The first one, Regina was murdered. The Fall Festival, Tim Calvert gave him a shove and now everyone's making a big deal out of that. I'm not going if he's invited, and you aren't either." Lacey pressed her lips together and said nothing in response.
"Besides, he wouldn't go unless I agreed to invite Jo, too. I'm not inviting that klepto to my house!" Sarita said, sitting now that her invitations were all handed out.
Lacey glanced over to their table to see Danny laughing at something one of them had said, and Jo turning pink. She felt a pang, wanting to go over there. Instead, she stayed at the table, letting Archie drape his arm around her.
"How about we go as Romeo and Juliet?" Archie asked and Lacey smiled.
"Sure, that sounds good."
At the diner after school, when Danny went to the bathroom, Rico wanted to talk about the necklace again. We'd clued him in on the envelope with money, threatening Regina to keep quiet.
"It still looks suspicious. I know you said Danny wanted to go to the police about the envelope full of money, but it's still weird. Lacey didn't want to go to the police?"
"No, she was afraid of it making Regina look like a bad person, and she didn't want Regina's mom to suffer." Rico rolled his eyes.
"Being dead doesn't make you immune to criticism. We all know what she was really like, sure she didn't deserve to be murdered, but that doesn't make her a great person, either. I don't want to make Lacey's mistake, I really think we need to go to see your dad about that necklace."
"Rico, think about how mad my dad would be if this all turned out to be some wild goose chase." I hissed and Rico whispered,
"Well at least it would give him something to chase. Right now it doesn't look like a whole lot is being done. People are antsy, and if this helps, why not?"
"Can it wait until tomorrow? Please?" I begged, a ridiculous plan forming in my mind already. Rico frowned and sighed.
"Only if you promise that we'll talk to him. Promise?" I nodded, feeling guilty when Danny came back to the table. He had a scone on a plate.
"Anyone want to share?" He asked pleasantly.
"Yes, please! Is it blueberry?" I wondered. Danny scooted in across from Rico and I.
"It's gingerbread cinnamon." We shared the scone and talked about the envelope, the plan solidifying in my head. I felt bad about promising Rico that we would talk to my dad; sure, we'd talk to him, but that didn't mean there would be anything to find, if I had anything to do with it.