50

GARY

Gary sat opposite Scott in the waiting room. It had been two days since the mayhem in the house; Gary had rushed in there and immediately pinned Casey to the floor. She had fight in her, even then, screaming, lashing at him. But he’d sat on her and rung the police.

Then, as they waited, he’d grabbed her phone and deleted all that shit. “Is this it? Do you have copies?”

Casey had only smiled, looking sick. Gary hated that he’d had to touch her.

They could only hope that was it, but Scott hadn’t even asked about the emails. He was more concerned with Lauren; she’d gone unconscious again as they waited for the emergency services. The last they’d seen of her, the paramedics were wheeling her into the back of an ambulance.

Scott had sat with Gary, staring at Casey as she sang softly; that was the weirdest part, once she knew it was over. That high-pitched, soft voice, belonging to an angel, not her.

Scott sighed. He had a bandage on his finger and he was limping terribly, but he’d lied to the doctors and said it was a regular limp for him; he didn’t want to take care of himself before he found out Lauren was okay.

“Casey didn’t have it easy, when she was a kid,” Scott said. “As she was… as we were playing her games.” Scott swallowed. “She’d talk, tell me stories.”

Gary snorted. “If they were real.”

“You don’t think so?”

“She’s not exactly an honest person, mate. Maybe she had it tough, or maybe her mum and dad were good hard-working people who did their best to raise her. Either way, I’m not taking that psycho’s word for anything.”

“I wonder,” Scott said. “But she told the truth about the email. Nothing’s gone out.”

Yet. Neither of them said it. They didn’t have to.

“The original email account, at least. If she has another…”

“It’s been more than twenty-four hours.”

“She could’ve set it for any time. She likes that, I bet, knowing she’s making me paranoid.”

Gary sighed. “She’s a liar. Look how she justified what she did. Those fucking diary entries. Whatever the hell that was.”

Scott winced, looking around, as though the notebook was a bomb. And maybe it was. “I don’t know why she would say anything like that, Gary. I swear to God I don’t.”

“I believe you, mate.”

It was the truth; Gary knew Scott too well to ever suspect he’d do anything like that. And if it was true, why had Scott showed it to him the first chance he got? He didn’t doubt his friend.

Except… well, why would she write that?

Scott pulled his knees up in a tentative way, wrapping his arms around them. He was constantly looking over his shoulder. “Especially since… did I ever tell you about Natalie?”

“What about her?”

Scott stared for a second, then shook his head. “Nothing.”

“What, mate?”

Scott looked down at his knees, shaking his head again, almost like it was a nervous tic. “It’s nothing.”