Somehow she’d been coerced into killing herself, and thousands of people had clicked to the Matchmaker’s Krazle account to watch her do it.

And someone had filmed it. Had zoomed in on her face to make sure the viewers got the best possible angle of her struggling to breathe.

I felt my fists tighten.

Right now, there wasn’t anything I could do about what had happened, but I vowed that when the time came, I would do whatever was necessary to see justice done.

Calvin slipped into unconsciousness while we were still en route to the hospital.

The EMT beside me assessed his vitals and told me that he might have extensive internal injuries.

“As far as I know, he was only kicked twice,” I said, as if pointing that out would somehow help my friend recover.

“Yes. Okay.” But his voice was grim, and I realized that this might be even more serious than I’d thought.

I contacted Christie and told her that Calvin had been injured and that I was heading to the hospital with him. I couldn’t think of any good reason at the moment to mention Sasha’s death.

“I’m not sure when I’ll be home,” I told her. “I’ll text you as soon as I know more.”

++++

When Tessa walked through the front door, her mom asked concernedly how she was.

“Fine. Why?”

“I just wanted to make sure. How was the book signing?”

“Memorable.”

“Did you get to meet the author?”

“Yeah. Briefly.”

“And?”

“And?”

“Did he sign your book?”

“Well, actually, no.”

“Why not?”

“Something came up.”

Tessa tried to figure out exactly how much to tell her mom about secreting the novelist out the back door while the woman who’d burst into the bookstore shouted accusations about him killing her daughter.

Probably better not to get into all of that.

“The guy had to rush out before I could get the book signed. It’s no big deal. Really.”

“Alright.”

“Where’s Patrick?”

“With a friend who was injured tonight. They’re on their way to the hospital.”

“Is the guy okay?”

“I’m really not sure.”

++++

At the emergency room entrance, the paramedics hurriedly transferred Calvin inside, and as I was following them, I got a call from Greer.

“Did you hear what happened to Sasha?” I asked.

“Yes,” he replied heavily.

“Where are you?”