Spencer wordlessly led Hanna out of the bathroom and past a clump of kids. Then she noticed Aria standing near the bar, alone. "You're coming too."
Hanna dropped Spencer's hand. "I'm not going anywhere she's going."
"Hanna, you told everyone you dumped Sean!" Aria protested. "In English?"
Hanna crossed her arms over her chest. "It didn't mean I wanted you to come here with me. It didn't mean I wanted you to steal him."
"I'm not stealing anything!" Aria screamed, raising her fist. Spencer worried for a second that Aria might try to hit Hanna and inserted her body between the two of them.
"That's it," she said. "Just stop it. We have to find Emily." Before they could protest, she dragged them past the ice sculptures, the karaoke line, and the jewelry auction tables. Spencer had just seen Emily not twenty minutes ago, but now Emily was gone. She passed Andrew, sitting at a long, candlelit table with his friends. He noticed her, then quickly turned back to his friends and barked out a loud, fake laugh, obviously for her benefit. Spencer felt a twinge of remorse. But she couldn't deal with him now.
Tightening her grip on the girls' hands, she strode past the tables out to the terrace. Kids were gathered around the fountain, dipping their bare feet, but still no Emily. By the giant statue of Pan, Hanna started to moan. "I have to go."
"You can't go yet." Spencer pushed Aria and Hanna back into the dining room. "This is important for all of us. We have to find Emily."
"Why is that so important?" Hanna wailed. "Who the hell cares?"
"Because." Spencer stopped. "She's here with Toby."
"So?" Aria asked.
Spencer took a deep breath. "I think…I think maybe Toby's going to try to hurt her. I think he wants to hurt all of us."
The girls looked shocked. "Why?" Aria demanded, her hands on her hips.
Spencer looked at the ground. Her stomach felt tight. "I think A is Toby."
"What makes you think that?" Aria looked angry.
"A sent me a note," she admitted. "It says we're all in danger."
"You got a note?" Hanna shrieked. "I thought we were going to tell each other!"
"I know." Spencer stared at her pointy Louboutins. Back inside the tent, some of the boys were having a break-dancing contest. Noel Kahn was trying to do a kickworm, and Mason Byers was doing some sort of butt-spin. Wasn't this supposed to be a civilized function? "I didn't know what to do. I…I actually got two notes. The first one said that it would be better if I didn't tell you guys. But the second one really sounded like it was Toby…and now Toby's here with Emily, and—"
"Wait, the first note said we were in trouble, and you did nothing?" Hanna asked. She didn't sound angry, exactly, just confused.
"I wasn't sure it was for real," Spencer said. She ran her hand through her hair. "I mean, if I'd known—"
"You know, I got a note too," Aria said softly.
Spencer blinked at her. "You did? Was it about Toby too?"
"No…" Aria seemed to consider her words. "Spencer, why were you at the yoga studio Friday?"
"Yoga studio?" Spencer narrowed her eyes. "What does that have to do with…?"
"It was a little too much of a coincidence," Aria went on.
"What are you talking about?" Spencer cried.
Hanna interrupted. "Aria, was your note about Sean?"
"No." Aria turned to Hanna and creased her brow.
"Well, I'm sorry!" Hanna spat. "I got a text from A, too, and it was about Sean! It said that he was at Foxy with another girl…you!"
"You guys…" Spencer warned, not wanting to get into this argument again. Then she knit her eyebrows together. "Wait. When did you get a text, Hanna?"
"Earlier tonight."
"So, that means…" Aria pointed at Hanna. "If your note from A said Sean was at Foxy with me, it meant A saw us. Which means—"
"A is at Foxy. I know," Hanna finished, giving Aria a tight smile.
Spencer's heart pounded. It was really happening. A was here…and A was Toby.
"Come on." Spencer led them into the long, narrow hall that led to the auction room. By day, the hall was stuffy and very Philadelphia, with tons of Missions end tables, oily portraits of grumpy, rich men, and creaky wood floors, but by night, each table held an aromatherapy candle, and the wainscoting was decorated with different-colored lights. As the girls paused under a blue bulb, they looked like corpses.
"Run this by me again, Spencer," Aria said slowly. "Your first note said that you shouldn't tell us. But shouldn't tell us what? That you got a note? That A was Toby?"
"No…" Spencer turned to face them. "I wasn't supposed to tell you what I knew. About The Jenna Thing."
Horror crossed the girls' faces. Here it comes, Spencer thought. She took a deep breath. "The truth is… Toby saw Ali light that firework. He's known all along."
Aria stepped back and bumped into a table. A piece of pottery wavered, then fell off, shattering all over the wood floor. No one moved to clean it up.
"You're lying," Hanna whispered.
"I wish I was."
"What do you mean, Toby saw?" Aria's voice was quivery. "Ali said he didn't."
Spencer wrung her hands together. "He told me he saw. Me and Ali, actually."
Her friends blinked at her, stunned.
"The night Jenna got hurt, when I ran out to see what was going on, Toby came up to Ali and me. He said he saw Ali…do it." Spencer's voice was trembling. She'd had nightmares so many times about this very moment; it was surreal to be in it.
"Ali stepped in," she went on. "She told Toby she'd seen him do something…awful…and she was going to tell everyone. The only way she wouldn't was if Toby took the blame. Before Toby ran off he said, I'll get you. But the next day, he confessed."
Spencer ran her hand along the back of her neck. Saying this out loud transported her right back to that night. She could smell the sulfur from the lit firework, and the freshly mown grass. She could see Ali, her blond hair pulled back in a ponytail, wearing the pearl teardrop earrings she'd gotten for her eleventh birthday. Tears came to her eyes.
Spencer swallowed and continued. "The second note A sent me said, You hurt me, so I'm going to hurt you, and that he was going to show up when we least expected it. A cop came to my house this morning, too, asking me about Ali again, and this cop was grilling me, acting like I knew something I shouldn't. I thought Toby might've been behind it. Now he's brought Emily here. I'm afraid he might hurt her.
It took Aria and Hanna a long time to respond. Finally, Aria's hands started shaking. A deep red patch crept up her neck into her cheeks. "Why didn't you tell us before?" She squinted uncertainly at Spencer, searching for words. "I mean, there was tat time, in seventh grade, when I was alone with Toby, at that drama thing! He could've hurt me…or all of us…and if he really hurt Ali, we could've helped save her!"
"I feel sick," Hanna moaned distantly.
Tears ran down Spencer's cheeks. "I wanted to tell you guys, but I was scared."
"What did Ali say to blackmail Toby so he wouldn't tell?" Aria demanded.
"Ali wouldn't say," Spencer lied. She felt superstitious about telling Toby's secret, as if as soon she said it, a bolt of lightning would descend through the skylight…or Toby would appear, supernaturally having heard everything.
Aria stared at her hands. "Toby's known all along," she repeated again.
"And now he's…back." Hanna looked positively green.
"He's not only back," Spencer said. "He's here. And he's A."
Aria grabbed Hanna's arm. "Come on."
"Where are you going?" Spencer called nervously. She didn't want Aria out of her sight.
Aria turned halfway around. "We have to find Emily," she said angrily. She picked up the hem of her dress and started running.