Free Almost Dead by T.R. Ragan

wasn’t here to lecture the woman, so she kept that one to herself. One thing she never understood or cared for, though, were bullies. “OK, so you started this exclusive group, but it somehow became more of a mean-kid group?”
    “Yes,” Melony said. “More or less.”
    “And now you think somebody on the other side of the Ambassador Club’s backlash is coming after every single one of you?”
    “I do.”
    “Any idea who that might be?”
    Melony began to pace the room. “It’s not easy to narrow the list down. I’ll be the first to admit that we got carried away. By the time our class graduated, I would chance it to say that there weren’t too many people who liked us.”
    “That must have been painful.”
    “Not really. We had each other. At least in the beginning.”
    “And then what happened?” Please tell me you all grew up.
    “It wasn’t until our ten-year reunion two years back that I realized how deeply the scars ran. Dean Newman, one of the boys in our club, talked to me at the beginning of the night. He wanted to know how I was holding up and whether or not the guilt was getting to me. He went on to tell me that he had become an alcoholic and recently joined AA. A few weeks ago, I heard from Dean again. As part of his treatment, he’d vowed to apologize to every single person he might have caused harm.”
    “And he just called you out of the blue recently to let you know?”
    “Not exactly. He called me because he wanted names.”
    “Of the victims of your abuse?”
    “Yes,” she managed, unable to look Lizzy in the eyes.
    “Did anyone in your group cause verbal and physical harm?”
    “A few.”
    “Did you?”
    “A shove there, a push into the locker every once in a while. Nothing to get worked up about.”
    Lizzy held in a moan.
    “Mostly just the usual kind of stunts kids pull in high school.”
    Lizzy cocked her head. “Could you fill me in, please? What are the usual stunts?”
    “You know, taking someone’s clothes while they’re in the shower or taking the older kids’ keys and moving their car to a spot a few blocks away. Things like that.”
    Lizzy was making notes. When she looked up, Melony was chewing on her bottom lip.
    “There’s more, isn’t there?”
    “I wasn’t involved, but two of the guys and Rachel did kidnap a girl once and take her on a ride.”
    Lizzy tried to remain calm. “What was the girl’s name?”
    “I don’t know. I was going to ask Rachel when we met up, but like I said, she was dead by morning.”
    “Do you know what happened to the girl you’re talking about?”
    “I just know it was bad.”
    Lovely. “Anything else?”
    “It all happened so long ago. I’m sure there were other incidents, but I’ll have to think some more.”
    “You do that. As things stand right now, if someone really is causing these accidents, from what you said it could be almost anybody.”
    Melony pointed at the notebook next to Lizzy. “I also included a list of students who I believe were picked on the most, including people I consider to be unstable, based on things I’ve heard.”
    Melony disappeared for the second time. This time she returned with an envelope and handed it to Lizzy.
    “What’s this?”
    “A thousand dollars. A deposit. If my douche bag of an ex-husband wasn’t hiding all of his earnings, I would be able to give you more up front. As it is, I was planning on remodeling the kitchen, but that will have to wait. For now, I’ll have to set my budget at ten thousand dollars.”
    Lizzy held up the notebook. “You’ve given me a long list of names of people who were affected by the Ambassador Club’s tormenting. This could take forever and a day to reach out to all of these people, let alone narrow the list of suspects down to ten . . . or one. In two or three months’ time, your money could be spent and you might not be any closer to the truth than you are right now.”
    “Are you saying you won’t take the job?”
    “No. I’m