Rumor Central (21 page)

I
had just pulled on to Interstate 95 when I glanced up into my rearview mirror and saw a white car speeding toward me. I looked down, then back up because the car didn't look like it was going to stop.

The car actually pulled up behind me and tapped my bumper. My heart dropped as I grabbed the wheel to try and keep from losing control. I quickly darted over to the exit and the white Ford Taurus did the same.

Oh my God!
I thought. They were trying to run me off the road.

I pressed the OnStar emergency button.

“911, what's your emergency?”

“Someone is following me,” I screamed. “They're trying to run me off the expressway.”

“Ma'am, where are you?” the dispatcher asked.

The car rammed into me again. I screamed as I struggled to keep from careening off the freeway.

“Ma'am, where are you?” he repeated.

“I don't know.” I glanced up at the large green sign on the highway. “I'm exiting near Pembroke Park off of Interstate 95.”

The car swerved and followed me through the exit.

“Can you see the person following you?” the dispatcher asked.

“The only thing I can see is the person is wearing some kind of hoodie.” The hooded stalker was back. And this time, I felt like he wasn't trying to just scare me. He was trying to kill me.

“Ma'am, can you get to a safe place?”

“If I could get to a safe place, I'd be at a safe place!” I screamed.

“Okay, ma'am, I need you to calm down.”

Suddenly, another pair of lights came speeding on the side of the white car, honking and flashing its lights, so the driver sped off. I tried to get a license plate number, but I was too worked up to read the plate. I was shocked to see the Mustang whip in front of me as Bryce rolled down the window and waved for me to stop. I pulled over to the shoulder. I had never been so happy to see someone.

I couldn't think as I opened my car door and all but fell into his arms.

“Are you okay?” he asked.

I found myself shaking uncontrollably.

“It's okay, it's okay,” he said, stroking my back. “The police are on their way.”

“I couldn't even tell them where I was,” I said.

“Don't worry, I called them when I first noticed him hit you.”

That made me stop and back away. “You were following me?”

“I'm sorry. I was really worried about you. I've been trailing you since you left the school.”

Okay, this was really creepy. “Whatever, Bryce. Leave me alone.” I had pulled myself together, somewhat.

“Look, I just wanted to know if you went to the police.”

“Why are you worried about me?” Truthfully, I was acting mad, but I was so incredibly grateful that he had been following me. Who knew what would have happened if he hadn't been?

A car sped by, honking at us, probably because Bryce had parked so crazily on the shoulder. He pulled me farther from the street so I wouldn't be in any danger.

“I'm sorry for freaking you out. But I could tell from the other day, this stalker had you more worried that you were letting on. So yes, I am following you. Someone is stalking you and you continue to blow them off. This is crazy. What happened when you went to the police?”

I sighed, then, desperate for someone to talk to about this, finally decided to stop fighting him. “They're not trying to be any kind of help.”

“Are you kidding me?” he asked in disbelief.

I nodded. “I'm just going to have to figure out who's doing this on my own.”

“How are you going to do that?”

“I don't know.”

“So who do you think it is?” he asked.

“It's somebody from school, I'm sure of it. But I just don't see how one of them would try to kill me.”

He pulled me toward him. This time, I didn't fight him. “Well, I tell you what, we're going to figure this out if it's the last thing we do.”

“We?” I said softly.

“Yeah, we.” He took my chin and lifted it so I could look him in the eye. “Maya, I messed up and I'm sorry. I should've never listened to Sheridan and I definitely shouldn't have just broken things off with you like that. Let me help you, please?”

I wanted to go off on him, tell him what he and Sheridan could do, but I was tired. I was tired of trying to figure this out on my own. I was tired of being an outcast. And to be perfectly honest, it just felt good to have him hug me. It felt good to have someone back in my corner. I didn't say a word, but the way I buried my head in his chest must've given him all the reply he needed.

I
f you had told me two months ago that I would be working with Bryce Logan in any shape, form or fashion, I would've told you that you must've been smoking something. Yet, here I was, trying to come up with some kind of master plan to track down a stalker.

Bryce and I were sitting at the table in his den. I didn't want to meet at my house because I didn't want my mom calling the house phone and asking a million questions.

We'd actually written down all the names of people I thought could be my stalker on Post-it notes and laid them out across the table.

I noticed Bryce's phone light up and Sheridan's picture popped up. I immediately felt myself getting mad. But he pressed IGNORE and kept talking.

“So, which of these do you think it is?” he asked. There were about ten names, everyone from Evian to Chenoa to Blake. But Sheridan's name sat at the top of the list and I just knew it was her. I just needed to figure out a way to prove it.

“If I knew who it was, I wouldn't need you here,” I snapped.

He had the nerve to look like I was hurting his feelings. “Look, I'm just trying to help.”

I sighed. If I wanted his help, I knew I needed to stop being nasty. For the most part, I had been cool, but every now and then I would slip and let a little anger creep up.

“Okay, fine.” I circled Sheridan's name on the paper. “I'm sure it's your girlfriend.” He cut his eyes at me and I flashed a weak, apologetic smile. “I think it's Sheridan.”

“I just think we're looking in the wrong place,” he said doubtfully.

Now, he was really making me mad. “If you're gonna be taking up for her, I will need to just leave.”

“I'm not trying to take up for Sheridan, but I just don't see her doing something like that.”

“Are you going to help me or not?”

“Of course I am. I want to know who's doing this to you just as bad as you do.” He sighed like he didn't want to fight. “So, what do you need me to do?”

I'd thought about how trying to tape Jenn and Sheridan had been a bust, but I still felt like she was key to cracking this thing.

“Okay, I'm going to skip fourth period tomorrow,” I said, referring to the one class I had with everyone—Bryce, Sheridan, Valerie, Jenn, and all of my former friends. I want you to tell Sheridan I'm not there because we found her mom's kid and I'm preparing some big story or something.”

Bryce looked unsure. “This sounds dangerous, Maya, because if it really is Sheridan, then she'll obviously go to any lengths to get back at you. I mean, do you really think Sheridan is capable of murder?”

I shook my head. “I don't know. I used to not think Sheridan was capable of a whole lot of things, but something is telling me it's her. But I have to catch whoever it is.”

“So, what's the plan?”

“You tell Sheridan that I'm at our family's Miami Beach house. That's where the person is going to meet me with details and proof to back up the story.”

“Maya, I don't like this. What if it's not Sheridan?” He tapped one of the Post-it notes. “What if it's one of Evian's goons? You know she's connected to the mob. Those people don't play.”

“Bryce, I don't need you to fight me on this.”

He gave a resigned sigh. “Okay, fine.”

I was so glad that he decided not to keep fighting me. “My guess is once you tell her, if she's behind all of this, either she or Jennifer will head my way to try and stop me.”

He looked at me like I'd lost my mind. And maybe I had. I was just tired of living in fear and wanted to bring an end to this.

“It will be okay, really,” I said. “You just have to follow her. Once she gets there, I'll have a camera set up and rolling. We'll catch her on tape.”

“I don't like this.”

“You don't have to like it. Just do it.”

He glared at me before finally saying, “All right, Maya. And what if it's not Sheridan?”

“Then no one will show up at the beach house,” I replied. “But it is her.” I cocked my head since I could tell he wasn't going to let it go. “But if it's not, we'll come up with another plan.”

I
had been a nervous wreck all day long. But I had a good feeling that this was all about to be over. In fact, I'd called Tamara on my way here and without going into details told her I'd have a blockbuster story for her tomorrow. It was my hope to have proof of the Miami socialite who was stalking and terrorizing me.

I'd set up video cameras all around the beach house and I was ready for Sheridan to show up. I figured if she tried to disguise herself, not only would Bryce catch her, but everything would be caught on tape. If she hired someone, that person would be caught as well. And I could take that to the police. They'd have no choice but to listen to me then.

Bryce had called me to tell me everything was going as planned. He told me Sheridan had asked a hundred and one questions. He said even nosy Valerie had jumped into the conversation, asking questions. I could tell by the tone of his voice that he was starting to think maybe Sheridan
was
behind everything.

My phone rang and I saw Bryce's number and immediately picked up. “Hey, how's it going?”

“So far, so good.”

“Are you with her now?” I asked.

“I'm trailing her. She was really upset after I told her. I'm not sure if she's coming there, but she left campus about twenty minutes ago.”

“Can she see you?”

“I'm in my brother's car. She won't recognize it.” Bryce uttered a curse word, then said, “She's driving like a freaking maniac. It's obvious she's upset.”

“Bryce, is she heading my way?” My heart started racing in anticipation. I was so ready to confront her. If I had been thinking, I would've had a camera operator there and everything so I could do a story revealing Sheridan as the stalker.

“I can't tell if she's coming toward the beach house. She's turning to get off the freeway.”

“Just follow her.” I scurried around, double-checking the camera. The last thing I needed was Sheridan's confessing everything and us not catching it on tape.

“Okay, this looks like this may be a bust,” Bryce finally said, interrupting my thoughts. “She's turning into the mall.”

“
The mall
?” I asked. Okay, this wasn't adding up. If she knows I'm about to meet my source, and she's the stalker, why in the world would she be at the mall?

“She's going inside,” Bryce said hurriedly. “I'm going to follow her in.”

“Okay, just let me know.” I hung up the phone, frustrated. This whole plan was falling apart. Maybe Sheridan wasn't the stalker after all.

I waited for about thirty minutes, pacing back and forth, trying to figure out what I was going to do if Sheridan didn't take my bait. I knew she shopped when she was upset, so that would explain the trip to the mall. But if she was gunning for me, stopping to shop didn't make sense.

The phone rang again. I saw it was Bryce and immediately picked up. “What's happening now?”

“Okay, I'm not sure what's going on, but she just got a phone call and it has her crying. Now she's rushing out of the mall.”

“Where are you?”

“I'm in the car, following her. I think she may be coming your way. I heard her say, ‘I'm goin' to Maya's now.' ”

Oh my God!
She was really about to come confront me. “Okay, I'll have everything ready,” I said.

No sooner had I hung up the phone than I heard a sound coming from the kitchen. I stopped, fear gripping me. Sheridan couldn't possibly be here yet.

“Who's in there?” I called out.

If I'd been thinking straight, I'd have known that was a pretty dumb question because what killer ever says, ‘It's me'?

Silence filled the beach house. Maybe this wasn't such a good idea after all. Sheridan I could handle. Some other goon? I didn't think so. I quickly gathered my things and was about to hightail it out of there. I had just reached for the door when I heard, “Leaving so soon?”

I turned around to the figure wearing the black hoodie, pulled down low and swallowing her frame. I squinted and leaned in toward her. “Valerie?”

She laughed. One of those crazy, evil laughs. “That's right, it's me.”

“What are you doing here?” I said. “How do you even know about this place?”

She walked and ran her fingers along the back of the sofa. “Oh, I know a lot that you don't give me credit for.”

Something about the crazed look in her eyes made me extremely nervous. This was some major weirdness right here.

“Did you follow me here?” I asked.

“Yes, because I want to be you so bad that I follow you around. Isn't that what you told Tamara?”

So she
had
overheard me. I looked at her, confused. “So, is that what this is about? You're mad about something you overheard? You know I was just running off at the mouth.”

“Yeah, you do a lot of that,” Valerie said. “You run off at the mouth. You take secrets that were meant for your own ears and you tell the whole world, just so you can come up!”

Oh, she was for real tripping. She was actually still mad about that? “So, that's what this is about,” I replied. She was still mad about me telling on her friend. This was ridiculous.

“Valerie, why are you trippin'? I said I was sorry. I didn't know it was some big secret. How many times do I have to tell you that? I mean, the way that you're acting, you act like you're the long lost daughter and not your friend.”

As soon as the words left my mouth, a light bulb went off, confirmed by the fact that Valerie lost her smile and tears began to fill her eyes.

“You're not so dumb after all,” she said, sounding like some kind of zombie.

“Wh-what?” My mouth dropped open. “You're Glenda Matthews's daughter?”

She stepped forward and I stepped back.

“Yes, I'm the unwanted child of the world's biggest superstar,” she said sadly, but then quickly forced a smile. “But I wasn't sweatin' it. Yeah, I would get jealous of Sheridan and her life every now and then, but I have a good family. I have a mother and father that adopted this poor little orphan. But they love me very much. And Glenda Matthews has set up a nice little trust fund that I'll get when I turn eighteen, provided the story never gets out.”

I just wasn't understanding. “Then why did you tell me?”

She slammed the table. That's when I noticed the long butcher knife in her hand. “I told you because I was sharing with you! I wanted to be your friend!” she yelled. “I thought I could trust you.”

I wanted to ask why she would think that when we barely knew one another. But she had started wildly waving the knife so now definitely wasn't the time for questions.

I felt like ice was running through my veins as I backed up slowly. “Okay, Valerie, chill.”

“Don't tell me to chill!” She jabbed the knife my way. “How did you even find out it was me?”

“I didn't know,” I said. “I just made that up.”

“You liar!”

I held up my hands in defense. “No, seriously, I just said that because I thought it was Sheridan who was stalking me. I wanted to freak her out.”

“Ha, like Sheridan's ditzy behind would be able to set you up so smoothly.”

“So you were behind everything?” I asked in disbelief. “Sheridan didn't have anything to do with it?”

“No, you idiot! Sheridan wasn't smart enough to play you like I did!”

I couldn't believe I'd let my guard down so much to have this psycho that close to me. But right now, it was all about convincing her that I didn't know anything.

“Valerie, I promise, I wasn't meeting anyone,” I said, calmly. “I just wanted to make Sheridan think I was. Please. just let me go. I'll pretend this never happened.”

She thrust the knife toward me again. “You think I trust you now? You think I believe anything that comes out of your lying mouth?” she screamed, spit flying out of her mouth. “No, there's only one way to shut you up.”

“Please, Valerie, I'm sorry. Just leave and I'll forget this ever happened and I'll drop the story.”

“I risked everything, trying to share with you,” she cried. “My mom was so mad at me. She's never been that mad at me. Glenda has threatened to take all my money. And for what? Because you just had to do the freakin' story. Do you think I would ever trust you again?”

“Look, I'm sorry. I had no idea.”

“I asked you to let it go,” she cried.

“You should've just told me it was you and I would've dropped it.” I glanced at the door trying to gauge how I could make a run for it.

“You expect me to believe that?” She caught me eyeing the door and immediately lunged at me. I ducked out of the way as the knife came down, but she grabbed my leg as I tried to scramble away. We wrestled and I scurried out of the way, screaming for help.

“There's no one here to help you,” she yelled as she jerked me toward her.

I tried to get to the phone, but she kicked it out of my reach.

“What do you want from me?” I cried as she pinned me down. “I told you, I won't do the show.”

“I don't believe you!”

I didn't know who this psycho was. She was raging out of control as she put the knife up against my throat. I just knew I was about to die. I closed my eyes, saying a silent prayer. I so didn't want to go out like this. But I stopped fighting her because it was like she had some superhuman strength. I felt myself giving up and then I heard someone yell, “Valerie!”

I saw Bryce standing there and wanted to scream tears of joy at the sight of him. Valerie paused long enough to look toward the voice. That gave Bryce enough time to tackle her and knock the knife out of her hand. But she kicked him squarely between the legs and he doubled over in pain and she scrambled for the knife. She'd just grabbed it when Sheridan yelled, “Stop! Don't. Valerie, you don't want to do this.”

I was shocked to see Sheridan, but I used the reprieve to get out of the way.

Valerie looked surprised to see her. “You don't know what I want to do,” she yelled.

“I do know,” she said calmly. “I promise I do.”

“You don't know anything about me.”

“I know that you're my half sister,” Sheridan whispered.

“What?” Valerie said, stopping in her tracks. “H-how long have you known?”

“Just a couple of days. My mom told me. She was scared it may come out. So, she wanted me to hear it from her.” Sheridan looked at the knife, then back up at Valerie. “You don't want to do this. She's not worth it.”

Valerie started shaking. “She's ruined everything! My parents are so angry with me. My money is gone. Glenda sent my mother a letter saying they'd violated the agreement, so I wouldn't get my money.”

“No, it's not gone,” Sheridan said. She held up her arm to hold Bryce back as he'd finally pulled himself up off the floor and was struggling to walk over toward us. The expression on Sheridan's face begged him to let her handle this.

Bryce looked at me and my eyes told him to listen to Sheridan. Right about now, Sheridan seemed to be our only hope to rein in this maniac.

“I assure you, I won't let my mom take your money,” Sheridan said.

Valerie looked like she wanted to desperately believe her.

Sheridan turned to me. “I know Maya has a big mouth, but I can promise you she won't do this story. It's all going to go away. No one will ever know.”

Valerie glanced over at me like she didn't trust me.

I didn't know what would happen tomorrow, but right about now I would say whatever I needed to say to get the heck out of here, so I nodded and said, “She's right. I won't.”

Valerie studied me for a minute, then dropped the knife, buried her face in her hands, and sobbed.