Chapter 25
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
TRUST ISSUES
NASH
“Hey Nash. Wait up.”
Genevieve runs after me the second I step out of the locker room. We had a scrimmage in preparation for the first game of the summer mini tournament in two weeks.
“Gen.” I keep my tone as neutral as possible. “What are you doing here?”
“I was waiting for you. I was hoping we could talk for a second.”
This feels very much like an ambush, and I’m not interested in anything Gen might have to say. I think there’s a better chance to cut this conversation short if I hear her out rather than wasting time arguing with her, though. She doesn’t strike me as the patient type.
“If you don’t mind, can we make this quick? I’m starving and I need to go to eat something.”
Her glossy lips tighten just for a second, as if she were trying to hide her chagrin at my less than welcoming tone.
“I won’t take much of your time.” She manages to smile. “I assume you know about tomorrow night’s surprise party for Tucker?”
“Yeah, Talia invited me. Are there any changes of plan?”
Gen lowers her gaze, batting her eyelashes for a second before returning her piercing blue eyes to me. “No, we’re still meeting in front of the club at ten. I was just wondering if you wanted to go with me.”
Not even if you were the last woman left on Earth after the zombie apocalypse.
The words are on the tip of my tongue, but I know better than to say them out loud.
I opt for a more diplomatic approach.
“Aren’t we all going together, anyway? I’m gonna see you there.”
My hopes of getting out of this easily are shattered when she insists. “I know that, silly.” She giggles. “But I thought you could come knock on my door to pick me up, and we could go to the club together. Like a date.”
Nope. That’s not happening.
Regardless of the fact that Gen is a bitch, I still feel bad for turning her down. But I have the perfect way to let her down as gently as possible.
“Look, Gen, I’m flattered, but…”
Her eyes narrow and her jaw pops. “Are you saying no?” Her voice goes up by several decibels. “Do you know how many guys would give their left nut to go on a date with me?”
I fight the urge to cup my nuts to reassure them that they’re safe. The more I look at Genevieve Bergen, the more she reminds me of a praying mantis. I wouldn’t put it past her to eat her unfortunate sexual partners after she’s had her way with them.
“Oh, believe me, I’m flattered. And in different circumstances, I’d say yes. But I can’t. I play hockey with your ex, and to make things worse, Mack is my roommate too. Going out with you would be against bro-code.”
Gen rolls her eyes. “Whatever! What about all the girls at training camp who are hooking up with him then? He doesn’t give two shits about hooking up with my future teammates. Why should you show him a kind of respect he hasn’t even thought about showing me?”
Maybe because you’re a raging bitch who wouldn’t think twice about sabotaging your teammates?
I don’t say that either. “Look, Gen, I don’t know, ok? That’s between you and your teammates. But Mack and I are becoming good friends, and I don’t want to do anything to change that.”
“It’s because you like Taryn, don’t you? Isn’t that against bro-code since she’s fucking both Mack and Tucker?”
I hate people who don’t understand when a conversation is over. “Not that it’s any of your business, but Taryn and Mack are just friends.”
“And you buy that?” Gen snorts. “Come the fuck on. They’re so cozy, it’s obvious they’re fucking.”
“Gen, they’re not. But even if they were, I don’t want any drama this year. And going out with you would be just the opposite of that.”
She opens her mouth to continue arguing with me, but I’m saved by my phone.
Normally, I would never answer an unknown number, but right now I’d do pretty much anything to get out of this uncomfortable conversation.
“Sorry, I gotta take this.”
A female voice greets me. “Nash Belkin?”
“Speaking.” I drawl, turning so that my back is to Gen.
“This is Hemlock Beach Sheriff's Department. I’m putting you through to Deputy Sheriff Moss. Hold the line.”
A male voice comes on after an audible click. “Is this Nash Belkin?”
I confirm he’s speaking to the right person.
“I’m Deputy Moss. We spoke a couple of weeks ago in regard to the murder of your frat brother, Timothy Greene. Do you have a minute to talk?”
“Sure. How can I help you, Deputy? Is there any news about the investigation? I haven’t seen much in the news.”
There’s a brief pause as the deputy sheriff exhales.
“Unfortunately, not much. That’s why the news networks have been repeating the same details over and over.
We still haven’t found the murder weapon despite our forensic unit going through the crime scene and the entire fraternity house with a fine comb.
Unfortunately, the murder was committed during or shortly after a huge party attended by hundreds of students.
So it’s a lot of evidence that might not even relate to the crime itself. ”
I nod, even if the deputy sheriff can’t see me. “Yeah, half the campus came to party at the Gamma house. The house and the garden were bursting with people. And more people were still arriving even when I eventually decided to call it a night.”
“When was that again? Do you mind refreshing my memory?”
I have no problem answering any questions. I don’t think I even spoke to Tim during the party. “Around one a.m., maybe one thirty. But I was definitely in bed by two.”
“Were you alone?” He asks.
“I was. And the party was still raging, so I put on my noise canceling headphones to be able to fall asleep.”
Deputy Moss clears his throat. “Right. Thank you for confirming that, Mr. Belkin.”
“You can call me Nash.” I say, like I did the first time he interviewed me the day after the party. “Is there anything else I can help you with? Not to sound rude, but you already asked me these questions before you allowed me to leave the state.”
The deputy sheriff sounds demoralized when he speaks next.
“I hope you can. We’re just interviewing everyone again, hoping that we missed something the first time around.
Are you sure there isn’t anything else of importance that you might have remembered in the meantime?
Like for example, did you see the victim with anyone in particular? ”
Last time they didn’t ask me that question when I told them that I spent most of the party playing beer pong in the basement with the football team. They didn’t care about giving me the cold shoulder like my own teammates, so I only went back up when I decided I had a decent enough buzz.
I open my mouth to tell him that I saw him with Taryn, but I hesitate.
I’m pretty sure I did see Tim and Taryn dancing together at some point when I was going back upstairs.
“You’re mistaken. I wasn’t at that party. I was packing my apartment that night, ready to set off first thing in the morning.”
Taryn’s words right after we hooked up echo in my ears. I was pretty sure that I saw her with Tim.
Or am I? In all honesty, I had a little more than a buzz. I was pretty shit faced. Could it be that I saw Tim speaking to another blonde the night he was murdered, and I thought it could have been Taryn? Could I have seen them talking some other time? It’s more than possible.
“Not really, sorry. I had a lot to drink that night. You know, we were all celebrating the end of the academic year.”
The disappointment is clearly evident in the cop’s voice.
“I guess it was worth a shot. Sadly, everyone we spoke to was very inebriated that night. And to top it all off, the school was in the process of updating its CCTV system, and the area around the fraternity house had old cameras that were out of service. So we have to rely solely on eyewitnesses.”
That sounds inconvenient, but it isn’t surprising. Hemlock Beach wasn’t as affluent as Star Cove, where everything is top-notch.
“I’m sorry, I can’t help you more, Deputy.”
I can hear the cop’s sigh on the other end of the line.
“Thank you anyway. I’ll keep going through the endless list of that party’s attendees.
Hopefully, we can jog someone’s memory. Your friend hooked up with someone the night he was murdered.
We found a condom on the floor, and the preliminary toxicology report we got from the coroner indicates the presence of a cocktail of powerful narcotics in his system.
There’s a chance that the person who hooked up with him could have something to do with his untimely death.
If not, it’s possible that she was lucky to have escaped with her life.
Either way, we’re eager to speak to the person whose DNA is on that condom.
Right now, all we know is that it’s a woman, and that she doesn’t match anyone in our database, so she was never arrested. ”
“So you’re going to test every woman who was at that party to find a match?” It’s probably a stupid question.
“We’re getting started with that. We’re asking people to come forward voluntarily for now, and we’ll be getting warrants if we don’t get a match.”
I don’t tell the deputy that if the person who had sex with Tim is the killer, they aren’t going to be stupid enough to offer their DNA on a silver platter.
“Thank you for taking this phone call, Nash. Please remain available in case I or someone else from the sheriff’s department needs to ask you any more questions.
And if you remember anything else, no matter how small, that you think might be of interest, don’t hesitate to call me on this number.
Or you can reach the main switchboard of Hemlock Beach Sheriff’s Department if I’m off duty or otherwise unavailable. ”
I put my phone back in my pocket once the phone call ends.
“That sounded interesting.”
Gen’s voice makes me literally crawl out of my skin.
“What the fuck, Gen? I thought you were gone. You scared the crap out of me.”
She pouts for half a second like she’s wounded by my words. “If I didn’t know better, your reaction would make me think that you’re annoyed to see me here.”
No shit. Of course, I don’t say that. But I don’t get why Gen would think that I would want to spend any more time with her since I just declined to go on a date with her. “I just thought that we were done with our conversation when my phone rang. And I know you’re a very busy woman.”
She plays with the ends of her long, dark ponytail. “That’s so true. I’m trying to be an influencer, and growing my followers is a full-time job, I swear. Of course, the tryouts helped a lot. Once I’m team captain, it’ll be even better.”
“Yeah, I bet. Anyway, I should go eat something. I’m starving.”
My tone conveys that this is a goodbye, but Gen isn’t done.
“You have a healthy following on social media. You haven’t been very active since your injury. But think about how much you could grow if you were dating the right woman.”
There is nothing I would care less about. “Nah, I’m over all that shit. But you do you.”
I take a step to signal that this conversation is definitely over, but Gen can’t or won’t take a hint.
“It sounded like you were talking to the police.” She says, stepping in my way. “And it sounded serious.”
If I don’t throw her a bone, we’ll be here all night. “It is serious. One of my former teammates was murdered right before I left Hemlock Beach to come here.”
Gen covers her mouth with both hands, blue eyes wide with shock. It looks fake. “Oh my God. Do they think you did it?”
“Of course not!” My patience is running out very quickly. “If they did, I wouldn’t be here more than two thousand miles away. I’d be in a jail cell in South Carolina.”
“Then why did the police call you?” She asks, crossing her arms over her chest.
I tighten my grip on the handles of my duffel bag. “They’re calling everyone because they’re clueless about who did it, ok? They found the guy dead in his bed, and all they know is that he hooked up with someone before he died. I don’t know anything else, like I told the cops.”
“Well, at least he died happy.” Gen snorts.
I can’t help but laugh. “Yeah, no. I doubt it. Getting his head hacked off his neck must have been the opposite of fun.”
“Oh, that’s the murder you’re talking about?” Gen gasps.
If I rolled my eyes any harder, they would fall off. “Unless you’ve heard of any other murders at Hemlock Beach College this summer…”
“Shut up.” Gen swats at my arm with another giggle. “I remember seeing something about it on the news, but I was getting ready for tryouts and I was distracted. So, did you know the guy who died?”
The morbid curiosity of her tone is off-putting, but it’s heaps better than being hounded about taking her on a date. “Yeah, he was a brother and a teammate. But we weren’t close. He was a bit of a douche, to be honest. But he hid it well for the most part. We just weren’t friends.”
“I get it,” Gen shrugs. “I wouldn’t even speak to half the girls at camp if the directors didn’t care so much about team spirit. Being on a team with someone doesn’t mean you have to be friends.”
It doesn’t, but it helps if you can be at least civil to your teammates. If anyone should know, it’s me.
“So what else do you know? Do you have any idea who the killer is?”
“No, Gen. I have no clue, like I told the cops. And you probably already knew that because you’ve eavesdropped on the entire conversation.”
She links her arm with mine. “I know that, but maybe you were protecting a friend or something. You can trust me; I’m not gonna tell anyone. Was it one of your teammates? If yes… hot.”
She says it like “hawt.”
“I don’t have the faintest idea who did it. And how can you think that someone who committed a gruesome murder is hot? If anything, they’re dangerous.”
Gen rolls her eyes. “I take it you don’t read any dark romance. As long as he’s a hottie, the killer type is hot. Especially when he’s so obsessed with you that he would kill anyone just for looking at his woman.”
That’s it. She’s fucking crazy. “Let’s agree to disagree. Killing people is the opposite of hot.”
“So you’re telling me that you really don’t know? Boring. I’ll have to ask Taryn and Jodie what they think.”
“Why the fuck would you ask them?” I bite out.
She shakes her head. “You know, Nash, for someone hot, you’re a little slow. Didn’t Taryn and Jodie go to your same school? If the dead guy was a hockey player, he must have been popular. Maybe they have a theory.”
As if summoned by Gen’s words, I spot Taryn’s blonde head as she comes out from the main building. She’s headed to the dining hall with Talia in tow.
“Sorry, Gen,” I shrug off her hold on my arm. “I really need to eat right now. See you around.”
I jog in Taryn’s direction. I don’t know what the fuck I’m doing. I still think I shouldn’t date anyone, especially not someone who’s already seeing two of my teammates. But I can’t help it. I’m drawn to Taryn like a moth to a flame.