Page 79 of The Rookie's Second Chance

Mandy's room was meticulously organized, almost unnervingly so. My eyes were drawn to her desk, where I found a box full of magazines. Something about them seemed off. On closer inspection, my heart sank. There were letters cut out, the same kind of cutouts used in the stalker letters sent to Lexi.

A cold sweat broke out across my forehead as I continued to rummage through her things. Hidden in a drawer, I found a stash of pictures of Lexi from college. They were taken from afar without her knowledge. But what was more disturbing were the photos from the past year. Mandy had claimed she wasn't around during that time. The photos told a different story.

I felt sick, but the most unsettling discovery was yet to come. Tucked away in another corner of the drawer were doctored photos. Pictures of the meals Mandy had made, photoshopped to show us eating together and cuddling. She'd created a fantasy life with me as the unwilling co-star.

The last straw was the photos of me sleeping. They were recent, and there were many. The violation of my privacy, the sheer creepiness of it all, made my skin crawl.

I sat back on my heels, still holding a photo of me asleep. The room felt like it was closing in on me. Mandy's obsession, her delusions, had been right under my nose, and I had been too blind to see it.

How had things spiraled so out of control?

I glanced at my watch. I had to get back to the station, to Kayla. We needed to piece this together, to understand the full extent of Mandy's involvement.

I stuffed the most incriminating items into a bag, evidence that needed analysis.

As I stood up, ready to leave the room, my phone buzzed with a text from Mandy: "Hey, where are you? Can't wait to see you tonight."

Tonight? What was she planning? I pocketed my phone without responding.

I needed to talk to Kayla. We had to figure this out before it was too late.

I was about to leave and head back to the station with my evidence when the slightly open closet caught my eye. It was just enough that I couldn’t leave without looking, without peeking inside…

I stood frozen in the closet, my heart pounding against my ribcage. The closet was a shrine to a twisted obsession, but not just with me – with Kayla. Photos of her, some normal, but others... Jesus, others were defaced, marked with violent scribbles. It chilled me to the bone. Mandy's obsession with me was one thing, but this? This was downright dangerous.

I fumbled for my phone, my hands shaking. First, I tried calling Kayla. It rang and rang, then went to voicemail. "Kayla, it's me. Call me back as soon as you get this. It's urgent." My voice was tight with panic.

Then, I heard it – footsteps outside the room. Light, quick steps, the kind of steps that knew they'd been caught. I lunged for the door, but I was too late. The front door slammed shut, the sound echoing through the empty house.

"Shit!" I hissed, sprinting down the stairs and out the door. But it was useless; Mandy was gone, her car missing from the driveway. She knew. She saw me going through her things.

I needed the evidence, so I ran back upstairs and took pictures of everything, then ran back out the front door.

Adrenaline coursed through me as I bolted to my cruiser, throwing the evidence bag into the passenger seat. I had to find Kayla before Mandy did. The thought of what she might do and what she was capable of terrified me.

As I drove, I called Kayla again, each ring sending a new wave of dread through me. It went to voicemail once more. "Kayla, please, you need to call me. It's about Mandy – she's not who we thought she was. Please, be careful."

I pushed the cruiser to its limits, my mind racing as fast as the engine. Every possible scenario played out in my head, each worse than the last. The realization of how blind I had been, how I had misjudged Mandy so completely, gnawed at me.

Mandy's obsession, her fixation on me and her hatred for Kayla, whatever her reason was for stalking Lexi to begin with, it all made a twisted kind of sense now. I needed to get to Kayla to protect her and end this before it went any further.

"Please, Kayla, be safe," I whispered to the empty car, pushing it even faster. The roads blurred past me as I sped towards the station, hoping someone there might have some answers, my mind racing just as fast as the car.

"Come on, Kayla," I muttered, redialing her number, hoping she'd pick up this time. But again, it went straight to voicemail.

Frustrated and worried, I called the station. The chief picked up after the second ring. "chief, it's Jake. Have you seen Kayla?"

"Hey, Jake. Yeah, Kayla just left a few minutes ago," he replied, his voice casual.

“Where did she go?"

"To meet you, I thought," the chief sounded confused. "She seemed in a hurry. Said something about meeting you at a location."

"What? No, I didn't..." Realization hit me like a ton of bricks. Mandy. It had to be her.

"You alright, Jake? What's going on?" The chief's voice was laced with concern now.

"I think Kayla's in trouble. Mandy Pennington—she’s been staying with me, a friend of my sister’s—I think she’s behind Lexi’s stalking. Behind all of it. I gotta go." I hung up abruptly, my mind racing.

---