Jennifer’s murder still dominated everything. The police provided little information, just the most basic facts. While they said they wanted to question a number of people, no names were mentioned, meaning Blake and Kyle were kept out of the news. For the moment.

I made the mistake of checking some of the replies to the tweets from a local television station. Aside from giving a hint as to what people in the community were thinking, it was also a surefire way for me to lose faith in humanity. Sure enough, a number of increasingly bizarre and horrible theories were already bouncing around. Jennifer had been murdered because she owed someone money. Jennifer had been murdered because she was mixed up in drugs. Jennifer had been murdered by a member of a gang of illegal immigrants.

I closed the app.

But I still felt a little dirty. Twitter always made me feel that way. But not so much that I stopped looking.

Then again, I knew next to nothing about Jennifer. I knew nothing about what she might or might not have had going on in her life. I’d been fixated on blaming Blake—or Kyle—but how did I know it wasn’t something else, something completely unrelated to any of the things I knew about?

I’d have almost preferred it was.

Without even thinking, I checked Facebook as well. More notifications about my photo, but they were slowing to a trickle.

And the second friend request from Jennifer. Lingering. Unanswered.

I was afraid to deny it because the last time I had done that, another one came right on its heels. I’d had enough of that. When I thought of those mystery requests, the ones that seemed to come from beyond the grave, my skin felt like a million ants were crawling over it. And it made me wonder again if someone was watching me, gauging my reactions like some kind of mad scientist or twisted psychologist who wanted to see how much pressure they could apply before I cracked like aging plaster.

Maybe it was Kyle in control of her account. Maybe he had watched me through the windows the night before when I was in Jennifer’s house, since he said he was going by. Maybe he had watched me in my own house the night before, sending the request to see how I responded, and then come back again to harass Amanda.

Or maybe the ex-cons Jennifer worked with. Could one of them have gained control of her account? Could one of them have killed her and then decided to harass me?

I shivered.

To take my mind off that, and since I was standing there holding my phone, I decided to try Blake again, on the off chance he might pick up.