Page 31 of Killer Summer
A flash of light in the shadows.
The rustle of palmetto fronds.
A pine twig snapping beneath the weight of feet.
Deep within the shadowy treeline, something moved. Not a monster. Not Matt Vickers. But a man, small in stature with a vintage camcorder perched on his shoulder and pointed at her.
“We found you, Dani Kincaid! The world is going to know about you!”
The man with the camcorder was shorter than her with a slight frame, young enough to be one of her college students and old enough to know better. It had been a long time since she had heard her real name. He stared at her, triumphant with a shitty grin, pleased to have found a chink in her armor. Deep down, Dani always knew it would be a matter of time before she got doxxed.
“Who sent you!” She demanded, her voice wavering.
“Patriot Truths with Tyler,” he said. “We track down lying bitches like you and show the world who you really are.”
“Jesus.” She shook her head and pulled her phone from her pocket. “Well,Tyler, I hope your YouTube channel was worth going to jail for.”
“Good,” he said. “Call the cops. It’s about time you were behind bars for putting an innocent man in jail.”
Dani kept one hand on her keychain mace canister and both eyes on the cameraman as she dialed campus security.
“Here she is folks,” he laughed, the camera still pointed at her. “This is what your tax dollars are paying for. For criminals like her to walk free, while an innocent man wastes away in prison.”
“Who still uses VHS anyway?” she shouted at him.
Dani maintained her cool as a cucumber facade and dialed campus security. What she wanted to do was charge him; to put her fist through his teeth and smash his video footage to ribbons. Even though she was thirsty for revenge, taking it out on this man wasn’t the answer, and would likely just land her behind bars. That’s what he wanted anyway. A reaction from her. Another reason to demonize her. Well, she wasn’t going to let him have it.
She called in the complaint and within minutes, two armed officers were on the scene. Dani expected the man to run away as soon as security arrived, but he stood his ground, letting the vintage camera equipment roll and capture the whole scene. His shitty, self-righteous expression melted into one of shock and surprise as they placed him in the back of their cruiser. As they closed the door, locking him in, her adrenaline reserves gave out, and the sense of panic she had pushed down threatened to surface. This wouldn’t be the end of it. There would be others. There were always others.
“Did he hurt you at all, Professor Spencer?” Officer Leeland gave her a reassuring smile and placed a hand on Dani’s shoulder. She shook her head. She had only spoken to the broad-shouldered campus security guard a few times in passing, nodding polite “hello’s”. She didn’t even know that he knew her name. The other officer stood by the cruiser interviewing the man with the camera.
“No,” Dani said. “I think he’s been stalking me though.”
“Tell me what happened.” Officer Leeland gave her another good-guy smile. Dani flinched and glanced at the man in the back of the cruiser. He glared at her as she gave her report.
“I’ve been getting some threats, and just an overall uneasy feeling like I was being watched.”
“What kind of threats?”
Dani bit her lip and thought about Officer Owens. How much should she tell this officer about her past? About who she really is? Who could she really trust? Before she could respond, the other officer approached and tapped Officer Leeland on the shoulder.
“I ran the ID on this guy,” she said. “Tyler Evans. He’s got an outstanding warrant, so we’re gonna take him in.”
Officer Leeland nodded. “Well, Professor, looks like you helped us catch a bad guy.”
Dani’s gaze flicked to the cruiser. Tyler wasn’t looking at her anymore. “Wow. Okay.”
“We’ll be in touch if we need anything else from you,” Officer Leeland said.
“So that’s it?”
The officers exchanged glances. “Yep. Take care now.”
Dani dusted herself off, unsurprised. Of course that’s all that they would do. She spied the scrunchie in the dirt, picked it up and pocketed it as the officers drove away. She was invigorated once more by her desire for revenge. Her sleepless haze had broken, her mind fully alert as pure, unfiltered anger tapped against her skull. The VHS tape. The scrunchie. He had been trying to intimidate her, but she won. She was smart enough to know that this was only the beginning, though. There would be more armchair conspiracy theorists and podcast gods coming after her. More accusations. More stalkers. It was time for her to move on again.
She kept one eye on her rearview as she drove, and the nerve in the center of her forehead began to tick. She massaged the tense areas of her face with her fingertips, but the nerve spasms wouldn’t stop.
Tick. Tick. Tick.
