Page 63 of The Engagement Party

“All good questions, and maybe I’ll answer a few, but I’m not going first. See, we’re all here for a reason.”

No, no, no. Alex tried again. “Did you set up the party?”

Dylan nodded in Ruthie’s direction. “She did.”

Cassie groaned. “I knew it.”

“You don’t know shit,” Dylan shot back. “I hacked her emails, like I did to all of you. Genius, remember?”

“It’s not as impressive if you have to keep telling us,” Mitch whispered.

“Do you want to go first? Tell me what I want to know and maybe I’ll have mercy on you...” Dylan pointed the gun at Sierra. “Or someone you care about.”

“You’re going to sit there and interrogate us then shoot us, one by one, if we fail your little test?” she asked. “You can’t possibly think that will work.”

“I have you trapped on an island. I’ve proven I can kill two grown men without breaking a sweat.”

Desperation surged through Alex. “This revenge plan won’t bring Brendan back.”

The barrel of the gun moved around the room, pointing at each one of them in turn. “Stop with that bullshit. You don’t get to kill someone, stain their memory, then use their good character as a shield for your sick behavior. And you don’t get to hide. Not anymore.”

“You won’t get away with this.”

Alex feared his wife was absolutely wrong.

“Ah, the lame response to the inevitable.” Dylan’s laughter ended with a shake of his head. “No one knows I’m here. My computer and phone will show me sticking around home all weekend. No forensics. No DNA. No direct line back to me. Tricks I learned from you all.”

Sierra looked around the sectional. “Take them to the police. Present your evidence and make them answer for whatever they did.”

Alex couldn’t allow that to happen. “Sierra—”

Dylan talked over Alex. “Sensible but they’ve had years to come clean. Years to perfect their lies. They have no intention of doing the right thing. They have to be forced. That’s my job.”

Alex felt the end racing toward him and rushed to deflect one last time. “We’re all going to tell you the same thing. We don’t know who killed Emily, but, like everyone else who knows anything about this case, we assume it was Brendan.”

“I have another idea. I’ll kill one of you at a time. I’m betting, eventually, I’ll pick a person at least one of you cares about and then we’ll see some self-sacrifice in the form of an honest answer.”

“What happens if someone does admit to doing something to Brendan?” Will asked.

“They die.” Dylan’s smile returned. “Admittedly, this isn’t a game you can win. And if you think that’s unfair, imagine how Brendan felt.”

Chapter Forty-Seven

Book Notes: Those Left Behind

Brendan had friends. All of them vouched for his character and insisted he’d never hurt anyone. Law enforcement had heard it all before, so they gave little credence to those statements. But it was harder to write off Brendan’s alibi. The person whose story never wavered. The one who passed a lie detector test without trouble.

Dylan Richter. Two years older than Brendan. They shared family ties, a passion for online gaming, and a dream to work with computers in some way. Dylan at Cornell, seven hours away and in the first year of graduate school, communicated with Brendan almost every day.

Dylan showed the computer logs and explained the reality of Brendan being in his room all night when Emily died. Dylan also knew about Brendan’s dream for his upcoming senior project. A beta of a video game he wanted to create. A video game with a role he wanted Emily to narrate. That was the reason for the supposedly damning text. Simple. Uncomplicated. Not violent.

The police believed Dylan’s high IQ and computer talent provided an opportunity to create evidence to support the alibi. In other words, those in charge thought Dylan lied.

After graduation, Dylan landed a job with a small gaming company that eventually sold to a very large company in a lucrative deal. Instead of going on vacation or jumping into a new area, Dylan took time out for a personal project. Clearing Brendan’s name became an obsession. It took months to collect data and build online connections. To put Brendan’s name, life, and alibi in front of a group of sleuths who dedicated huge amounts of energy to investigating crimes.

The plan worked. Dylan got people talking about Brendan and poking holes in the case against him. Dylan aimed information and misinformation at the problem in equal measure. Whatever it took to get people to listen, to make them doubt the version they’d been told about what happened at Bowdoin.

Dylan decided to confront the people at the heart of the Emily and Brendan mysteries. The goal morphed from clearing Brendan’s name to controlling the fate of those who’d destroyed him, all while ignoring the real costs of digging into the past.

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