Slasher Summer(34)

Was it the fear of Ranger Russ or being back in Cedar Lake that had stripped them down to their basic selves? Sticking them back in their roles, like they were playing Slasher’s character tropes at the Rialto. The jock, the preppy, the goth. The cheerleader, the stoner, the nerd, and the good girl. It was all very Breakfast Club. Patrick probably didn’t seem this uptight in his economics program, where everyone was probably a lot like him. Same with Mikey. He’d be just another nerdy tech-bro-in-training. At Jen’s art school, she was one of many goths. Back in boring Cedar Lake, however, she found herself behaving more rebelliously to remind everyone she didn’t belong.

“Mikey?” Patrick said again.

This was fruitless. There was nothing around but more trees. “I don’t think there’s any point looking for him,” she said.

“But he could start Russ’s car and get us out of here. And Jason—” Patrick’s mouth clamped shut like he was afraid he’d said too much.

Jen rolled her eyes. Again, coming back to Cedar Lake had dragged them into the past. She bet Patrick never thought about Jason at all while he was at college. But as soon as he was back in their hometown, he was mooning over the football hero like a schoolboy.

“Speaking of Fred and Daphne, are you really gonna let them make up? I love Tiff, but we all know she treats him like crap.”

Patrick sputtered, and Jen took delight in having discomfited him. “It’s none of my business who Jason dates. Anyway, there’s nothing I can do about it.”

“Isn’t there? Can’t you get him alone and show him the depth and breadth of your spreadsheets?” Jen elbowed him in the ribs, waggling her eyebrows suggestively.

“Ow! We’re just friends,” Patrick said, swatting her away. He was so precious when he was in denial. Fred and Velma—that was a ship no one would see coming, not even Patrick himself. “He’s not even into guys.”

“Mm-hmm.” She had her doubts about that. She’d once spotted Jason at a hole-in-the-wall diner two towns over, gazing intently at Bruce from the basketball team over a tray of nachos. But she didn’t tell Patrick, because the one thing she would never do was out someone who wasn’t ready to be outed. She had scruples. Sometimes.

“Let’s just find Mikey,” he continued. “You can worry about our friends’ love lives later.”

Jen snorted. “I doubt Pipsqueak’s gone for help. He’s probably on his way to Mexico, like he said.”

Patrick took out his phone and glanced at the time. “Even if he is, he’s probably still gotten lost.”

He swiped away a notification on his screen. Jen’s mouth dropped open. “Your phone works?” It would be just like Patrick to intentionally strand them at the cabin for some forced togetherness.

“It never works when I check. Data’s spotty. These news headlines must be slipping in the rare time it connects.”

“Anything interesting? Like a Slasher wannabe on the loose?”

He shrugged. “They found a dead guy in an alley in Fairvale.”

“So just another Friday night in the big city.” Jen made a face. “This is all your fault, you know.”

“Mine?” Patrick’s eyebrows shot up in surprise and hurt.

“We are never getting together at a remote house again. No one gets killed by slashers in shitty little city apartments. No one stupidly runs up the stairs, because there are no stairs. There are lots of people around who’ll hear you scream. And working cell phones.”

She stabbed her knife into the air to emphasize each word. “Working. Cell. Phones! When I get my trust fund money, I’m renting a garret in Paris. You never see slashers in Paris. Everyone’s having too much fun eating bread and having torrid affairs with hot girls named Céline or Ana?s to go on killing sprees.”

“Come on, we still don’t know if we’re in danger from Russ. If he tried to drown Tiffany, wouldn’t his hair have been wet?”

Jen frowned, trying to remember Russ’s features. She’d just spotted the goofy uniform and immediately thought, Loser. “It wasn’t?”

“No. When I was trying to figure out why he looked familiar, I noticed his hair first. It was kind of bushy. Like my mom’s Pomeranian.”

Jen pursed her lips. Her earlier outrageous thought when they’d found the mask in Freddy’s van returned. No, it couldn’t have been Freddy terrorizing Tiff. He didn’t have the balls. She tried to remember who else hadn’t been by the lake when Tiffany had almost drowned.

Mikey and Jason.

Mikey could’ve been playing a practical joke, and in usual Mikey fashion wasn’t owning up to it for fear of the consequences. But he wouldn’t do that to Tiff. She didn’t take jokes well and he’d be afraid to make her mad. The only person Mikey would ever prank was Jason, because Jason would only laugh and not give him shit about it.

“Maybe it was Jason,” Jen said.

“What?”

“I’m trying to think of everyone who wasn’t by the lake while Tiff was swimming. Freddy, Mikey, and Jason. Freddy’s too much of a slacker to hurt anyone intentionally, Mikey’s too afraid of getting into trouble. That leaves Jason. Who actually has a motive as Tiff’s ex.”

“That’s impossible. He loves Tiffany!” Patrick said.