Total pages in book: 67
Estimated words: 62923 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 315(@200wpm)___ 252(@250wpm)___ 210(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 62923 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 315(@200wpm)___ 252(@250wpm)___ 210(@300wpm)
Ryder frowned. “Who could be in danger? Does he have a wife and kids he might be willing to sacrifice?” Ryder knew it was a stupid question; there was always somebody in danger…somebody another person was always willing to sacrifice to try and save their own sorry asses when involved in situations like this. A part of him hoped the SWAT team failed at negotiations and they were able to storm in and kill the bastard. If anybody deserved death, it was this nutcase.
Shaking his head, Jeremy answered, “No family; Joshua was an only child and the wife left him shortly after Joshua’s suicide. From the information we’ve been able to gather so far…which isn’t much, mind you, it looks like she just up and left one day. Disappeared and left Daddy Peterman to face the fallout of what their son left behind.” Jeremy shrugged. “I can’t say that I blame her. From everything I could find on the internet, she was a nice woman; nothing like her husband and son.”
Remi shook his head. “Okay…start at the beginning; I’m confused. In the yearbooks, it looked like they were all friends. What happened during that last year that led to Joshua’s suicide?”
“According to Kris, they were all a very tight circle of friends, grade school through high school. The boys were football stars and the girls, Kris and Melissa, were, of course, cheerleaders. They ruled the school when it came to popularity. They were rich, beautiful, and the envy of all—typical high school shit. Sometimes they dated each other; sometimes they dated others. It sounded like the guys played the field, while the girls waited for the guys to grow up. It was all upended when Gary met Veronica Westfall the summer before their senior year.”
“Rat girl,” Remi whispered. “I knew there was something between her and Gary. They are always holding hands and just…looking at one another a certain way.”
“Rat girl?” Jeremy asked with a frown. “Why do you call her rat girl? I saw her picture; she was beautiful, in a sweet and innocent kind of way. In my opinion, she’d be the All-American boy’s wet dream. What is it they say? A lady on the streets and a freak in the bed?”
Ryder swore out loud. “You’re such an idiot, Jeremy. Stay focused. What’s the story?”
Offended, Jeremy complained, “He started it!” His finger pointed at Remi.
“Yeah, well, he can get away with a lot more than you can,” Ryder countered. He winked at Remi and said, “He can get away with about any damn thing he wants.”
“Good voodoo priestess, you two are disgusting,” Jeremy muttered. “Okay, so Gary meets Veronica and she absolutely rocks his world. There’s a problem, though. Veronica wasn’t like the rest of their group. She wasn’t rich…just didn’t fit in. She was a public-school student that won the opportunity to attend O’Connell Preparatory High School because of her outstanding grades and exceptional work ethic. At her old school, she’d been a cheerleader, so Melissa and Kris convinced the rest of the team to allow her to practice with them over the summer, so she’d be prepared for tryouts when the year started. That’s when she met Gary.”
Jeremy took out his cell and checked for messages again. Frowned. “Shit, they should have him by now,” he muttered in frustration. “Okay, where was I?”
“Gary meets Veronica and she rocks his world. Come on; stop torturing us. Tell us the background.”
“Everybody seemed to mesh well with Veronica, especially Gary, so the group thought everything was grand in their world. What none of them knew was that Joshua, friend to them all, secretly had a huge crush on Gary. I mean, nobody knew…not even Gary. Of course, being gay in a conservative-focused high school is some tough shit for anybody and maybe worse for an athlete whose father is a pillar of the local Republican party. After a while, having all those testosterone-driven feelings for Gary and then having to watch the spotlight of his affection loving up on another person, especially somebody Joshua thought was beneath Gary, became too much for him to handle.”
“So, he committed suicide,” Ryder and Remi both finished for Jeremy.
Jeremy cleared his throat. “Not before he tried to kill Veronica, though.”
Both Ryder and Remi’s eyes whipped in Jeremy’s direction. “What?” Remi demanded. “Joshua tried to kill Veronica…literally take her life because she’d taken his man…that wasn’t really even his?”
Jeremy nodded. “They were having a party one night at Joshua’s house; I think maybe around Spring Break. It had been an all-day event, so Kris admitted they were all well past drunk. Apparently, at the Peterman’s house, liquor ran free and in abundance to minors. Joshua lured Veronica up to his bedroom by telling her he had a birthday gift for Gary and wanted her approval. As soon as he had her in his room, he locked the door and jumped her. From what Kris said, it was brutal, and he had nearly twenty minutes with her before Gary noticed Veronica was missing. When he went in search of his girlfriend, he heard her screams coming from Joshua’s bedroom. He tried to get in the bedroom, begged Joshua to open the door, but the kid was having none of it. He wanted Veronica out of his life…out of Gary’s life...and he wasn’t going to stop until he’d made it happen. Gary yelled for the rest of the group and with the help of Jason Waylon and Ron Perry, they were able to bust the door down. Kris said Veronica was nearly dead by the time they were able to get to her. Joshua was on top of her bloodied body, choking her to death. The bastard was so driven to kill that it took all three guys to pull him off her. One of the kids, Kris thinks it was Melissa, had called 911 and the police showed up about that time. Veronica was taken to the hospital, but it took months for her to make a full recovery. He’d broken several bones in her face and knocked out a few teeth. There were broken ribs and her wrist had to have metal added to mold the bones back together.”