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“I say we don’t cross him off the list until we can clear his whole family.”
“Right. Sure,” she said absently.
“And last we have Daria. You know her best. I don’t know her at all.”
“She’s been a loyal soldier. She wouldn’t do this. And I would be shocked if she had told anyone about my life. It wouldn’t make sense. And it’s not like she has a boyfriend to confide in.”
“It leaves us with a small list of potential suspects. Of course, there could be others who are associated with people on our list that we don’t know about.”
“That’s a possibility.”
But Reese was pretty sure that she knew who her mole was, and it was going to blow her world apart.
ChapterThirty-Five
First thing the next morning, Reese ran down to the convenience store near their building to pick up a copy of theGazette. She’d left Grady behind, sleeping peacefully. When she got back, she popped a reusable pod into the coffee maker and stared at the paper resting harmlessly on the island countertop. Part of her was dying to know what was inside, the other part was terrified. But she could do this on her own now. She didn’t need to rely on Grady. She was a gold medal winner, for God’s sake! She took a deep breath and dove in.
She flipped open to the Entertainment section. Semple’s continuation of his series had migrated to page three. At least it was no longer on the front page of the section. Her heart thumped as she read the first line.
Reese Beresford is no saint, but neither is Jennifer Brennan.
A double sting, Reese thought. She dove into the piece, trying to keep her focus without skipping ahead. This article started where the last one had left off. It began at Woodbine Middle School, which Reese and Jennifer had both attended. Semple had gone back and found as many of their schoolmates as he could. Reese remembered some names, but others were foreign to her. As she read, she was brought back to a time she’d rather forget. She’d had a small core of friends. Mia and Robin had been steady friends until high school when they’d drifted apart. Semple had managed to track down both.
Her eyes stung with tears as her old friends—ones she hadn’t seen in years—spoke about their friendship and Reese’s commitment to skating. They’d also confirmed the relentless bullying, and how Jennifer went out of her way to make Reese’s life difficult. They spoke of how Reese had been good at deflecting the bullying, but that by the time it had gotten excessive, the friends were no longer close and hadn’t been directly involved, but they wouldn’t have blamed Reese for finally fighting back.
Reese set the paper down and thought of Mia and Robin. They’d been good to her, her only real and true friends in middle school. Why had she allowed herself to drift from them? And even now, when they hadn’t spoken in years, they’d still been good and supportive friends. She vowed to reach out to them. That would be her priority.
Semple had found friends of Jennifer’s from that time as well. All people Reese had never connected with, people who had never said a word to her, people Reese viewed as the popular crowd. Two had spoken to Semple, but he’d noted that several more had declined to get involved. Of the two who had, one didn’t recall much, but said Jennifer was hard to get along with. She also said she barely remembered Reese from that time. The other said she remembered Reese as a quiet kid who minded her own business but was also someone Jennifer thought of as competition. She made several comments about Jennifer’s competitive streak.
The piece ended with an interview from a few skaters around the club at the same time as Reese. One had clearly befriended Jennifer and said that Reese was constantly showing off, making all the other skaters look bad. The other two said Reese had always been quick to help out, and was polite and courteous. They couldn’t say the same about Jen, who often made the rink atmosphere hostile.
Semple concluded the piece by blaming the adults around the “two young women” who did nothing to prevent what was about to happen.
Reese folded the newspaper. He’d ended the article with a great hook, a hook so great that even Reese had no idea what was about to happen. The emails and texts?
She was dissecting the article when Grady came into the kitchen and kissed the top of her head.
“You’re up early,” Reese said. “I didn’t wake you, did I?”
“No. I have practice at nine. I can’t sleep in. How was it?” he asked, pointing to the paper.
“It was a draw once again. I think he’s doing it intentionally.”
“Likely. He wants to create some tension for when he reveals the big climax.”
“I can’t wait,” Reese said bitterly.
“I’m going to make a protein shake, then head out to training camp. Let’s do something tonight. Anything.”
“Sure.”
Once Grady had finished his shake and showered, he kissed her on the cheek and was out the door. Reese grabbed her phone and searched for Mia’s and Robin’s profiles on social media. While Robin had since married, she still went by her maiden name. Mia had been easy to find too. She sent them both personal messages. At first, she’d thought to make it generic and polite, but that was the old Reese. The one who kept herself closed off from too much emotion. She wanted Mia and Robin to know what they meant to her, and more importantly, how special they were. She also apologized for how their friendships had ended. She hit send knowing she may not hear back from them, but that it was worth the chance.
She didn’t have to wait long. Within an hour she’d heard from both, and their return messages had been so kind that it had brought Reese to tears. She decided this time to message them both together.
Maybe we can meet for coffee sometime? I know you both have your own lives now, but I’d like to catch up, see how you’re doing.
She was putting herself out here and possibly facing rejection, but she had to try.
