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THIRTY-NINE

I arrive at my office door and see someone is already waiting in the hallway. My stomach turns when I realize it’s Joanna. Amidst all the drama in the parking lot with Kyle, I’d temporarily forgotten about my own personal crisis.

As soon as she hears me, she stands. “Cass, I wanted to talk with you?—”

“There’s nothing to say.” I maneuver my body so that I don’t have to face her as I unlock the door. Evie has been my priority in everything that’s happened this week, which makes the shock of remembering Joanna’s betrayal more jarring.

“I want to apologize,” she says, refusing to back off. “I can’t even imagine how you feel right now.”

“No. You can’t.” I turn to face her, pinning her with a merciless stare.

Joanna’s betrayal hasn’t fully sunk in yet. I never contacted her after watching the video yesterday, which means Connor must have reached out. The idea of the two of them messaging back and forth, even about this, makes me angry.

“I should have come to you months ago,” she says. “You have to know how much it’s been killing me to keep this secret.”

Now inside my office, I drop my belongings on the desk and turn to face her. “And what would you have said? That you were sleeping with my fiancé? Do you think finding out about it back when it started would have made this any easier?”

“No,” she says, defeated. “The whole situation is horrible, and it’s my fault. I want you to know I know that.”

“Your self-awareness is inspiring,” I say, sitting in my chair and charging up the computer. “Now that you’ve gotten that off your chest, do you think you could leave? Clearly, I’ll be hiring a new assistant coach for the new season.”

I wield my power like it’s invincible, but as the words leave my lips, I wonder if I have the influence I once did. Who knows if Mr. Lake and the rest of Manning Academy will want anything to do with me by the time this whole ordeal is sorted? I could end up a nobody, like Joanna. Like Michelle Collins.

But at least I’m not a cheater.

“I appreciate everything you’ve done for me in the past year,” Joanna says, lowering her head. “I’m ashamed of myself.”

I’m relieved when I hear a knock on the door, interrupting me from saying something I might regret. The door creaks open, and Mr. Lake pokes his head inside. His eyes go wide when he sees Joanna.

“Am I interrupting something?” he asks.

“Joanna was just leaving,” I say. “For good.”

She lowers her head again, chin to chest, as she shuffles past Mr. Lake. The awkwardness from our conversation lingers, as I once again itch with shame over the fact Mr. Lake knows almost as much about my fiancé’s infidelity as I do.

“What do you want?” I ask him, once the door is shut again.

“Did you hear about what happened in the parking lot this morning?”

I refuse to look at him. Mr. Lake will find out that one of the employees at his school was messaging students soon enough, and when he does, he’ll be angry I didn’t come to him first. “I was there when the police arrived and asked him to come downtown.”

“Do you know what it was about?”

I don’t confirm or deny, simply shrug my shoulders. Mr. Lake has lost my respect in the way he’s handled everything from Evie being bullied onward, choosing when to share information and when to cover it up.

He sighs. “I have to talk with the police. I need you to go to the gym for a team meeting before first period.”

“I thought you didn’t want me speaking with the girls anymore,” I say, still refusing to meet his eyes.

“Detective Fields is the one calling this meeting,” he says. “She wants to confront the team about some new information that came through last night. As soon as I finish with this Kyle mess, I’ll join you.”

I sit up straighter. Knowing that Detective Fields is involved gives me enough hope to push through everything else that’s hurting me.

Within the hour, the school building is full, buzzy energy bursting at the seams. As most of the students clank around their lockers and migrate to their classrooms, the basketball team makes their way to the gymnasium. Detective Fields is already there. I’m happy to see no parents are in sight. We get more accurate information from the girls when they’re not involved.

Just as the final tardy bell rings, my phone buzzes. Nadia is calling. I haven’t talked to her since I hung up last night. I’m sure she’s as eager for a development as I am. Regardless, I ignore the call, ready to hear what Detective Fields has to say.

“Is this the entire team?” she asks me before we get started.

I nod my head, eyeing each of the girls. Given Evie’s absence, my answer feels like a lie. “Shouldn’t you be talking with Kyle?”

“One of my colleagues is with him now. I’ll get to him later, but I wanted to address the team first,” she says. She raises her voice so that it carries across the gymnasium. “I understand you all opened up to Coach Cass yesterday about conversations Evie was having online with an older student.”

Some of the girls nod their heads, but most stare ahead blankly.

“Can anyone tell me how long Evie was in contact with this individual?”

Now the girls look at each other, trying to decide how much they should say. Finally, Beatrice is the one to speak.

“She told me they’d been in contact since January,” she says, confidently.

“Did anyone else on the team have contact with them?”

“She showed us the messages,” Amber says.

“But did any of you talk to this person directly?”

The girls shake their heads.

Detective Fields looks down at her phone and unlocks the screen. She pulls up a picture of the phony boy Evie had been talking to, walking down the line of bleachers to let all the girls see.

“Have any of you ever seen this person before?”

Each girl sits up straighter, craning their necks to get a better look at the photograph on the screen. Just as quickly, they look away.

Detective Fields smiles, her expression equal parts amusement and sadness.

“This is the person Evie was talking to online,” she says. “After looking into it further, we uncovered she wasn’t speaking with the teenage boy you see in this picture. She had been messaging a grown man.”

I pay close attention to how Detective Fields shares this information. She isn’t telling them the adult with whom Evie had been speaking is their teacher, although I’m sure word will soon spread like wildfire.

Some of the girls roll their eyes or mock gag, unable to hide their disgust. Others gasp. Beatrice jumps back, covering a hand to her mouth. “There’s no way.”

“I’m afraid it’s true. Coach Cass did some digging and uncovered it last night,” she says, nodding at me. “We looked into it ourselves. This man has a handful of fake profiles he uses to talk to teenage girls.”

“What are you saying?” Amber asks, her face noticeably pale. “That Evie was talking to some creep the whole time.”

“Yes. There’s two reasons I wanted to talk with all of you today. Number one, if there’s anything else you know about Evie’s connection to this individual, we need you to come forward. Now. We’re already aware she was in contact with him the night of the lock-in. We don’t know anything for sure in this moment, but that communication could be connected to her disappearance.

“Number two, this should be a warning to the rest of you. Evie wasn’t the first girl to get carried away online, and she won’t be the last. But you need to be aware of the dangers out there. I know it seems unlikely when you hear about it in school or see it on television, but this should show you just how real these situations are. How dangerous they can become.”

The girls are dead silent aside from the occasional sniffle. I’m not sure if they are crying for Evie or their own foolishness. Maybe it’s the loss of their innocence. As much as they want to believe they live in a world that’s safe, this entire ordeal with Evie has ruined that forever.

“We’re continuing to look into the leads we have,” she says. “But again, if there’s anything else you know about Evie or the night she went missing, come forward. Even if you don’t think it’s helpful, it might make all the difference.”

The girls stand, carrying their books and binders as they head to the gymnasium doors. Mr. Lake still hasn’t joined us, which means he must still be busy talking to the police about Kyle.

“I still can’t believe the girls were being targeted by one of their teachers,” I say.

“There’s still no telling if he’s connected to Evie’s disappearance,” Detective Fields says.

“He’s the person who was messaging her! And he knew about the lock-in. He knew how to manipulate Evie into leaving with him.”

“I agree with all of that. Right now, messaging an underage girl and abducting one are two separate crimes, and we’re treating them as such,” Detective Fields says to me. “For now, I want you to tell me exactly how you came across this information about Kyle.”