Please Don't Tell by Laura Tims

Author:Laura Tims
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2016-03-25T07:00:00+00:00

THIRTEEN

October 20

Joy

ALL I CAN DO IS SIT ON THE EDGE OF PRESTON’S bed while he puts the DVD in his computer. My muscles feel atrophied, like I’ll never be able to lift anything heavier than a paper clip.

“Did you watch it last night after we got off the phone?” he asks.

I shake my head. “My laptop doesn’t have a DVD drive.”

A grainy black-and-white video starts, text in the corner dating it years ago. It looks like it’s from a security camera. At first, the street it shows is empty. Then a police car pulls a Toyota over to the curb. A man gets out.

“That’s Officer Roseby,” says Preston, startled.

A woman gets out of the Toyota. They argue briefly. I can’t hear what they’re saying.

Then Roseby slaps her to the ground, pulls her back to his car by her hair. He shoves her in the back and the video ends. My mouth goes dry.

“Jesus Christ.” Pres leans away from the computer, as far back as he can. “How does he still have a job?”

I bend my pinkie the wrong direction until the pain clears my head. It’s funny, all the little ways you can hurt yourself without anybody noticing.

“Maybe they just gave him a citation. I don’t recognize the street. Maybe it was before he moved here.” Preston’s muttering to himself. “Or maybe nobody ever saw this. In which case, how’d the blackmailer get ahold of it?”

I move my numb tongue. “We don’t know how he got the photos of Principal Eastman, either.”

He flinches the way he always does when the photos come up. I overheard him in the hall today, asking if anyone knew how Savannah Somerset was doing. I think he does it for the same reason I bend my pinkie back and dig my thumbnail into my wrist.

“Let me see the note again,” he says.

I pass it to him. I don’t look at it. I read it last night over and over again. At this point I don’t even understand it—it’s all gibberish.

Joy Morris—

We’ve shown everyone the truth about one man at your school already. It’s time to do it again.

This week, Officer Roseby will be giving a lecture in the auditorium at your school. Enclosed please find a DVD. Your job is to replace the DVD that he will be using in his presentation with this one.

If you don’t do this, or if you tell anyone, I will go to the police and tell them that you killed Adam Gordon.

“It’s definitely someone who goes to our school.” Preston says. “Otherwise why would they know or care about the people who work there?”

“Maybe it’s a staff member.” I say it so he thinks I’m trying.

“That doesn’t fit with everything else. It’s got to be somebody who went to the party, somebody who doesn’t like you and knew you hated Adam—remember how we figured all this out?”

I raise my shoulders and lower them.

“Joy?”

“I just keep thinking . . . What’s the point? It’s never going to be over.” I wrap the tail of my backpack strap around my forefinger until it turns purple.

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