BooksBarbecue
Back The Game
Chapters (68)
  1. Cover
  2. Dedication
  3. NOW
  4. One
  5. BEFORE
  6. Two
  7. Three
  8. Four
  9. Five
  10. Six
  11. Seven
  12. Eight
  13. Nine
  14. Ten
  15. Eleven
  16. Twelve
  17. Thirteen
  18. Fourteen
  19. Fifteen
  20. Sixteen
  21. Seventeen
  22. Eighteen
  23. Nineteen
  24. Twenty
  25. NOW
  26. Twenty-One
  27. BEFORE
  28. Twenty-Two
  29. Twenty-Three
  30. Twenty-Four
  31. Twenty-Five
  32. Twenty-Six
  33. Twenty-Seven
  34. Twenty-Eight
  35. Twenty-Nine
  36. Thirty
  37. Thirty-One
  38. Thirty-Two
  39. Thirty-three
  40. Thirty-Four
  41. Thirty-Five
  42. Thirty-Six
  43. Thirty-Seven
  44. Thirty-Eight
  45. NOW
  46. Thirty-Nine
  47. BEFORE
  48. Forty
  49. Forty-One
  50. Forty-Two
  51. Forty-three
  52. Forty-Four
  53. Forty-Five
  54. Forty-Six
  55. Forty-Seven
  56. Forty-Eight
  57. Forty-Nine
  58. Fifty
  59. Fifty-One
  60. NOW
  61. Fifty-Two
  62. Fifty-Three
  63. Fifty-Four
  64. Fifty-Five
  65. AFTER
  66. Fifty-Six
  67. Acknowledgements
  68. About the Author

‘She put private pictures of me on a message board. She went through my phone somehow and got them. They were just silly little selfies I sent to someone I was seeing at the time. Nothing fully nude, thankfully, but enough to embarrass me, that was all. Nothing with my face, either, which was something at least. She was angry. I didn’t tell anyone because it didn’t matter. They were taken down and no one even knew about it. There’s enough out there already that no one even cared enough to start sharing them round or anything. No one knew it was me. She told me herself and that was that. We had a row, but it was all sorted.’

‘Still, it must have been difficult,’ Mark said, trying to take it all in. ‘Given everything else she was doing, to other people I mean, you can’t have taken it too well. Being lumped in with all of the others.’

‘She was angry at herself. We all just got caught in the crossfire. I got off lightly and I don’t think that was accidental. She knew I hadn’t really done anything wrong to her, despite what she writes in that letter. Honestly, if she had just chilled out a bit, then everything would have been different for her. She couldn’t do that though. It doesn’t mean what she wrote here is true though. I had nothing to do with what happened to her.’

‘You said she had messed with things she didn’t understand…’

Stephanie made a noise as if to speak, then stopped herself. She seemed to grow smaller in her seat, as Mark looked at her. She opened her mouth, then closed it again.

‘What?’

‘I shouldn’t have said anything, it doesn’t mean anything.’

‘You need to tell me,’ Mark said, firmer now, seeing that, if anything, he’d only made the whole case even more incomprehensible. He began to feel out of his depth, but ploughed on regardless. He couldn’t just let it all go. ‘I’ve taken a chance on trusting that you had nothing to do with what happened. That’s why we’re in here and not an interview room under caution. Now, you need to trust me.’

‘It’s nothing. It’s silly.’

He remembered the words written in the letter, what Emily had mentioned, and knew there was only one question to ask her now.

‘Stephanie,’ Mark said, reaching out a hand and resting it close to where she was sitting. ‘What’s The Game?’

She didn’t answer immediately, swallowing hard and rubbing a hand across her face. ‘It could be why she’s dead.’

Forty-Four