“What do you mean?” I asked. “Of course that’s it.”
“So you only killed your father. No one else.”
“Yes! I told you, I’m not a bad person. I don’t go around smashing random people’s heads in, if that’s what you’re implying.”
Hunter went silent for another moment. Then he stood and grabbed my arm, yanking me to my feet. “Here. Put this on,” he muttered, handing me his jacket. “I have to show you something.”
Confused, I wrapped it around myself. He was so much taller than me that the jacket almost reached my knees, even though it was a normal length on him.
He went to the door and beckoned for me to follow him. When we reached the top of the cellar stairs, he held up a hand to get me to stay back, and then he stuck his head through the doorway and peered around. “Okay. There’s no one in the hall,” he said. “Come on. Quick.”
I followed him toward a staircase and padded up behind him. When we reached the second story, he directed me to a set of ornately-carved double doors halfway down the hall and ushered me inside.
“Sit,” he said, pointing to the bed.
I did as he said, stomach churning with fear and confusion.
Hunter rummaged through a nightstand drawer and pulled out a black cell phone with a red cherry sticker on the back. He played around with it for a couple of minutes, and then he handed it to me.
“What does this mean to you?” he asked, staring right at me.
I glanced down at the phone screen. It was a chat log between me and my old online buddy xxLNZxx.
“I don’t understand,” I said. “Why do you have this?”
Hunter kept staring at me, eyes dark and slightly narrowed. “What does it mean to you?” he repeated.
I nervously shifted my weight on the bed. “Well… it’s me. It’s my conversation with an old friend.”
He crossed his arms. “What friend?”
“I never knew her name,” I said, shrugging one shoulder.
“How the hell is that possible? You talked almost every day.”
“Yes, but it was an online friendship,” I said. “They’re always different to real-life ones.”
“I find it very hard to believe you never exchanged names.”
I blew out a short sigh of annoyance. “Look, she knew my name, because it was right there in my username, so she used that for me. But she only ever called herself L, and that’s what I called her too. It was never really an issue.”
A red flush was starting to creep up Hunter’s neck. “Explain this to me,” he said, pointing to our last few messages.
“She said she was bored and asked if I wanted to meet up so we could finally hang out in real life, and she gave me her number so it would be easier to sort something out,” I said. “I called her to tell her I was already busy. I promised my mom I’d pick her up from work, because her car was being weird again, and I didn’t like the idea of her catching the bus late at night.”
“So you didn’t see this girl that night?”
I shook my head. “No. She didn’t answer when I called, and then she never spoke to me again. Totally ghosted me.”
Hunter sat down next to me. He turned to face me and lifted my chin, forcing me to look right into his eyes. “She really didn’t answer your call?”
“Yes.”
“Are you sure about that?”
“Uh-huh.”
A muscle ticked in his jaw. “You’re lying.”