Down to the Liar(17)

Take Garrett, for example. Easy to crack. Winning is everything to him, so the badger scam is the quickest way to tear him down. It’s not even a scam, really, since I have actual dirt on him. Murphy thinks I should wait to confront him, but I think the field is the perfect place. It’ll remind him of all he stands to lose if I take this public.

After an interminable length of time, the game finally ends. Which means it’s time for my game to start.

“Garrett.” I keep my smile amiable as I approach. Amiable like a piranha. “Great game. Good…what do you call it? Hustle? I’m not super into sports.”

“Thanks.” He looks shifty. And superhumanly attractive, with the artfully mussed black hair and the cheekbones. But mostly just shifty.

“Bet you’re wondering why I’m here. Or maybe you’re not. Maybe you have a pretty good guess.”

“I don’t, actually,” he says. But he doesn’t look confused. “Is Skyla okay?”

“See, that’s the thing, Garrett. I think she could be okay. If she weren’t dating a psychotic, abusive loser like you.”

“What are you talking about?” Garrett’s expression is a perfect hybrid of pissed off and confused.

“I’m talking about this.” I hold up the Whois IP address entry I printed out. “Oops. Didn’t think you’d get caught, did you? Well, you did.”

“You think I posted all that crap about Skyla?” he says, disgusted. “I love her. Why would I do that?”

“I’m sure we could spend hours delving the deranged depths of your twisted psyche. But let’s jump to the salient point, shall we?”

“I didn’t—”

“Stop. Just stop. Delete your Facebook accounts. Otherwise, I’ll be forced to take this issue to the dean. Do you really want something so scandalous on your permanent record? I can’t imagine Cornell accepts many pre-med students convicted of harassment.”

He snatches the paper out of my hands and skims it. “Just because someone used my IP address to post doesn’t mean I did it. Someone could have cracked our wireless account. Someone could be trying to frame me.”

“Why would someone want to frame you?”

“To throw suspicion off themselves? I don’t know. But it sure as hell wasn’t me.”

Much as I hate to admit it, he has a point. I can’t prove it’s him. It could be someone in his family. Or, less likely, somebody trying to frame him. If I get it wrong, the attacks will continue. And even if it is Garrett, as long as he has deniability, he can continue posting as long as he likes without repercussion.

“Where were you last night when the most recent posts went live?”

“I was at home.” Aha! “With Skyla.” Damn.

“All right, fine. You’re off the hook for now. But you’re still on my list. And the best way you can prove it’s not you is by keeping this conversation to yourself. I don’t want you tipping off the real attacker by letting them know we’re on their trail.”

“What about Skyla?”

“Not even her. She’s already tied my hands enough with how I go about getting results. I don’t want her micromanaging me on top of that.”

“I meant is Skyla in danger? If someone’s lurking outside my house using my IP address while she’s inside, does that mean she’s being stalked?”

I gape at him, stunned. I hadn’t thought of that. If she is being actual-stalker stalked, that’s a whole other ball game. For one thing, it means the mark has a wholly different agenda than I previously ascribed to him. If it’s true, it changes everything.

“I don’t know,” I say. “But it’s worth keeping a closer eye on her. Don’t tell her, though. No point in panicking her over something we don’t know for sure is happening.”

He looks like he doesn’t agree, but he nods anyway. “You’d better hurry, though. If this isn’t resolved by the end of the week, I’m calling the police.”

“That’s probably a good idea,” I admit. “Just tell me first, so I can get my people out of it. Not that what we’re doing is illegal, but some of them have reasons to avoid the police.”

“Fair enough. And for what it’s worth, I’m rooting for you. I don’t want to put Sky through a police investigation if I don’t have to. She’s already been through so much.”