Why didn’t Hunt tell me we went to high school together?
I tap the photograph with my index finger. “Tim, do you remember this guy?”
“Yeah. Mark Hunt. I remember him.”
I shake my head. “I’m having a little trouble placing him.”
“He was kind of a weird kid.” Tim drops his voice a notch. “Some football players you might have known beat him up bad enough to put him in the hospital once.”
And suddenly, it all makes sense. Why Hunt hates Shane so much. Why he’s made it his mission to torture him.
That asshole lied to me. And I’m going to make sure he knows that I know what he’s doing.
Chapter 31
ELEVEN YEARS EARLIER
Kayla is dead.
It’s obvious—I know it right away. I know it before Tim goes to feel for her pulse with a shaking hand, the bat gripped in his other hand. I know it before Chelsea collapses onto the ground, kneeling with her face inches from the floor. I feel like doing the same thing.
Keep it together. You’ve got to keep it together, Brooke.
Tim backs away from Kayla’s body. He looks even more shaken than he did when we found Brandon. After all, he was kissing this girl only hours earlier. That’s got to be a shock.
And this is different. When Brandon was found dead outside the farmhouse, it seemed possible that some random psycho had been wandering by and maybe Brandon got in a fight with him because that’s what Brandon does. But this is different. Kayla was inside the house. Which means whoever did this to her was inside the house.
And they’re probably still here.
“You!” Shane’s pointing a finger at Tim. “You did this.”
“Me?” Tim clutches his chest. “Are you out of your mind?”
“You were alone here while the girls were out back and I was out looking for a signal.” Shane’s voice is hoarse. “You’re the only one who had a chance to do this. It was you.”
He makes an excellent point. Tim is the only one who had the opportunity. But it couldn’t have been him. Not Tim. Never. I’d sooner believe that I killed Kayla myself.
“Why would I do this?” Tim shoots back.
“I don’t know. Because you’re crazy?” Shane says. “Maybe she rejected you and you got angry.”
“This is ridiculous!” Tim’s eyes bulge. “You were alone outside for all that time. Maybe you’re the one who did this! You went in through the window and stabbed her while we were all downstairs.”
“Come on—this is the second floor. Who I am—Spider-Man?”
Another excellent point.
Tim takes a step toward Shane, raising the bat in the air. “I don’t know how the hell you did it. Maybe you had a ladder—I don’t know. But it wasn’t me, and it wasn’t Chelsea or Brooke. So it had to have been you.”
“Watch it, Reese.” There’s a menacing edge to Shane’s voice. “You better not be thinking about swinging that thing at me.”
“I will if you give me a reason to.”
My heart is jack-hammering in my chest. I look back at Chelsea, who has scrambled back to her feet. We exchange looks in the darkness. I don’t know what’s about to happen, but it’s something bad. I try to figure out what I could say to make this right, but it’s gone too far.
“Brooke.” Tim’s voice breaks into my thoughts. “You believe me, don’t you? I wouldn’t hurt anyone. Shane… He must have done this.”