And beneath it all was a threat, right? For sure. He pretty much came out and said her ability to pass her thesis defense hinged on keeping her mouth shut.

Did guys just stick together no matter what? Was it some kind of man code of conduct?

Despite being buried under several layers of blankets, including a quilt her grandmother had made her before she went off to college, Rebecca shivers. She feels better than ever, knowing Steven and Mikaila are in the bedroom right next door. Steven went around and made sure the door and all the windows were locked, and he even offered to sleep on the couch so no one could get past him. Mikaila whined over that option, and Rebecca agreed it seemed unnecessary as long as the dead bolt and the chain were engaged on the front door. And Rebecca couldn’t very well deprive Mikaila of time snuggled with her boyfriend after she came out and helped save her from Hoffman.

And how exactly did Mikaila know the right thing to do? How did she have the smarts to extract Rebecca from a difficult situation? Mikaila may lack common sense, and may seem totally self-absorbed, but she could be a good friend when she wanted. And when Rebecca came back in and thanked her, Mikaila simply said, “Hey, we ladies need to stick together against the creeps of the world.”

And speaking of creeps—there is Madeline’s book.

It tells the story of a woman in her twenties being murdered in a town that sounds exactly like Gatewood. And the woman who gets murdered has a creepy husband who likes to slime around with the woman’s friends. And the guy even gets violently angry sometimes, which makes Rebecca shiver all over again when she reads that part of the book.

And as she nears the end, she realizes the creepy, domineering husband kills his wife. And then he decides to come after his wife’s friend, forcing her to run for her life. . . .

The shivers won’t stop.

And it all feels so familiar, so real, that it almost seems like Rebecca might have read the book before. But she knows that’s not true.

Madeline wrote the book and passed it off to her.

Rebecca turns what appears to be the last page of the book.

Except . . .

There are more pages. But they’re typed. They look so different from the rest of the book, which is handwritten on yellowed and crinkly paper, like it’s been sitting around for a while in a closet or on a shelf. These other pages, the typed ones, are clean and crisp. New.

Did Madeline write something else and include it?

It says at the top: “My Best Friend’s Murder: A Sequel.”

Rebecca knows My Best Friend’s Murder is the name of Dr. Nye’s book. So did Madeline write a sequel to that? And why?