Chapter 8
CHAPTER 8
PHIL
They had dinner on the terrace, grilled salmon with roasted vegetables, a decent meal, but nothing special.
Phil ate but hardly tasted the food, his mind elsewhere even as he conversed with the six people he planned to destroy. Through the meal, he found himself stunned at his ability to joke and laugh and look each of them in the face—except for Sarah, for some reason, he couldn’t face Sarah—as they shared anecdotes and past memories.
But as the sun went down, an orange smear fading into the lavender horizon, Phil grew increasingly irritated by the frivolity and camaraderie. He lost the ability to smile and tease and pretend that he didn’t want the six of them dead and buried. Struggling to control his rage, he rose from his chair.
“Don’t tell us you’re going to bed,” Alex said, with a hint of disappointment that Phil recognized as an attempt to control the situation. Alex had never been above using emotional blackmail to get what he wanted. If Alex was disappointed, then you were supposed to change your behavior so that he would no longer be upset.
“It’s not even midnight,” Mia said.
Chris checked his watch. “Eleven-sixteen.”
“I’m not going anywhere,” Phil said.
“Then why are you standing?” Grace asked, her voice slightly slurred.
Phil exhaled. “I have something to say …”
“A toast?” Chris asked.
“Not exactly,” Phil said.
“Seems like something serious,” Chris said, with a slight grin that quickly faded as he glanced around, his gaze furtive, and seemed to notice that no one else was amused.
“Dead serious …” Phil said, surveying the table. Everyone was on high alert, no longer relaxed and tipsy. They’d sobered instantly. Easy smiles were gone. Mouths were tight, grim lines.
“What do you have to say?” Alex asked, his gaze hard, but curious.
Slipping a hand into the pocket of his trousers, Phil grabbed the note, maneuvering the small slip of cheap paper between his fingers.
“Several months ago,” he began. “I started receiving notes from someone … I don’t know who … but the messages on these notes were pretty disturbing.”
“Disturbing how?” Mia asked .
“What do the notes say?” Alex stared at him.
Phil removed the note from his pocket, then dropped it on Alex’s plate. “This is the most recent one I received. Take a look.”
Glaring at Phil, Alex read the note. He frowned. “What does this mean?”
“You tell me,” Phil said.
Alex scoffed. “You think I sent this?”
“What does it say?” Grace asked.
“One of you at this table did,” Phil said.
“Let me see it,” Mia said, grabbing the note from Alex. She read it, her brow furrowed. “I don’t understand.”
“What does it say?” Grace asked again, her voice rising an octave.
“Let us see,” Chris said.
Mia flicked the note toward Grace.
Alex asked, “What makes you think one of us sent them?”
“Considering what the notes say,” said Phil. “I think it’s obvious that the messages are about what happened at the party.”
“Not necessarily,” said Jason, reading the note that had been passed to him by Chris, who’d read it together with Grace. “I mean, we haven’t seen you in fifteen years. This note could be about something in your life that happened after the party.”
“That’s true,” Chris said. Grace and Mia nodded their agreement.
“Let me see it,” Sarah demanded.
Jason hesitated, then passed it to her. Sarah read the message, shaking her head. “I doubt one of us sent this. I can’t imagine why you think we would have. All of us have spent the last fifteen years trying to forget that night. I certainly have tried to forget and I never want to think about that night for as long as I live.”
“Sarah is right,” Alex said. “None of us wants to bring up the past, but it’s always with us, something we have to contend with, as I’m sure you know.”
Phil glared at Alex. “Here’s what I know … these notes have nothing to do with anything that happened in my life after that night at the party. Because my life after the party was filled with guilt and shame. I was always depressed. Started drinking. Doing drugs. Fell in with the wrong people. I even overdosed.”
“But you went to rehab,” Alex said.
“You’re sober now, Phil,” Mia said.
“Maybe one of those … wrong people … you were hanging out with sent the notes,” Grace suggested.
Chris nodded. “Maybe you said something when you were, you know … under the influence … and they?—”
“One of you sent the notes,” Phil repeated. “One of you had the guts to send them to me … and now I know what all of you did … and because of that, I’m going to destroy your lives.”