Page 101 of Slapshot Obsession
Unknown: Your best friend is a filthy slut. Look at how she was dry humping the Cove Knights’ goalie last night. It makes me sick to my stomach.
There’s the photo of Taryn and Tucker that alerted Carole and Lexi that the no fraternization rule was missing from the paperwork the cheerleaders had signed.
Unknown: Share this photo with the cheerleading coaches and with all your teammates. Everyone needs to see what a disgusting whore Taryn is.
“The photo was your doing? Not Gen’s?”
Jodie is weeping as she nods. “I tried to fight him. I swear.”
She’s right. The next messageconfirms it.
Me: Why would I do that? Taryn didn’t do anything wrong.
Unknown: It’s up to me to decide right and wrong. Do what I say if you don’t want to spend the rest of your life in a prison cell. You have one day, or I’ll call the cops. Tick Tock, bitch.
Fuck. It gets worse from there.
Unknown: Your best friend is the biggest whore I’ve ever seen. The second she gets told she can’t mess around with the hockey players, she’s kissing Nash. And I know she fucked his teammate Colsen on the night you two arrived in town. I know because I was there. I watched her sleep in Colsen’s bed. You need to tell her to break up with them. Or I’ll call the cops.
The next message demands that Jodie scare Taryn in the basement of our building.
Jodie tries to refuse, and the stalker takes his threat up a notch.
Unknown: If you don’t do it, I will. And believe me, you don’t want me to start playing this game instead of you. I already killed Tim, and I liked it. If you do what I say, there’s a chance I’ll let you and Taryn live. If not, your BFF might lose her head just like Tim.
“Holy fuck.” I bite out.
The last message to Jodie was from yesterday morning. The stalker complains that Taryn is still seeing us. Evidently, he—or she—took matters into their own handsand assaulted Taryn.
If she hadn’t gotten away and if Colsen and I hadn’t been on our way back to camp in the rain… I shudder at the thought of what could have happened.
“I get it. You had no choice.”
Jodie drops the knife. It lands on the floor with a cluttering sound.
I don’t even think about it; I take her into my arms. “You must have been terrified.”
She’s crying so hard she can barely talk. “I didn’t know what to do.”
“Come here. Let’s get you some water and talk about this, ok? I’m on your side.”
“Really? You aren’t going to call the cops on me?”
I shake my head. “Believe me, I’d be tempted. But that’s Taryn’s call, not mine. And if I know her like I think I do, she’ll understand that you were in an impossible situation.”
“What are we going to do, Nash? When I thought you were the stalker, I hoped that if I caught you red-handed, I could make you stop. But now I don’t know how we’re gonna get out of this.”
She’s right. “First off, send me your screenshots and let me take some of the messages from the app. The stalker confessed to Tim’s murder. So if Taryn decides to call the cops, you two should be off the hook.”
Jodie still looks hesitant. “But there’s still the fact that we ran and we got rid of the murder weapon and a lot of other evidence.”
“That’s true. But maybe the police team can find the stalker with our help. Even if you deleted the first text and the rest were sent through the app, their forensic team can do stuff that’s impossible for us. If we cooperated,hopefully they would cut a deal with you and Taryn about the destruction of evidence.”
“Maybe.” She sighs. “We’ll see what Taryn says. It would be great not to have to look over our shoulder every second of every day.”
I get that.
“Nash, are you sure she’s gonna forgive me?” She says one second later.
