She picked it up and noticed that it was addressed to her.
SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA DISTRICT GYMNASTICS INVITATIONAL
Opening it quickly, realizing the enormity of the situation, she read the first lines.
CONGRATULATIONS, YOU HAVE BEEN NOMINATED TO PARTICIPATE IN OUR REGIONAL COMPETITION. SINCE YOU HAVE NOT RESPONDED TO OUR PREVIOUS NOTICES, WE HAVE EXTENDED YOUR DEADLINE ONCE AGAIN...
Victoria was extremely confused. "Since you have not responded?" she read to herself again, and she decided to call her parents up.
"Hello?" her mother answered. "Vic, is this you?"
"Yes mom. Have you seen this letter from the Southern California District Gymnastics Invitational?"
Her mother sighed into the phone.
"Vic, those things cost a lot of money, and we don't have that," she replied. "Besides, you'll be busy with cheerleading."
"That doesn't start until the school year. You let Donovan go to that expensive soccer camp two summers ago," Victoria said accusingly.
"He had just beaten cancer, honey, he deserved to be happy."
Tears were quickly welling up in Victoria's eyes.
"Don't I deserve something?" she cried, hanging up the phone.
She held the letter in her hands, trembling from the crushing blow. Once Matt would return, they would make some more future plans, and maybe she could forget about this.
Matt was meanwhile returning home to get a couple changes of clothing. The police were still hustling about his house, so he also was hoping for some information.
"Matt Mcguire. You returned," the officer he had spoken to earlier said. "We have some information on the case."
Matt sat down at his kitchen table anxiously.
"So?" he asked. "What were they looking for?"
"Were you aware that your mother was blackmailing somebody?"
The news hit Matt, leaving him shocked and stunned.
"I had no idea," he replied, watching the officer put a big box onto the table. "Who?"
"We have a reasonable suspicion. This box right here was what they were looking for."
"Why didn't they get it?" Matt asked.
"No time, I suppose. We think that you and your girlfriend interrupted him, because we found a back window open, with this box on the ground."
The two sat in silence for a second, amidst the business of the crime scene.
"Don't tell me who it was, I don't want to know," Matt suddenly said, standing up and ascending the staircase towards his room.
Grabbing only a few shirts, Matt looked at himself in his wall mirror. Tucked around the edges were several pictures; mostly of him and Victoria, but a few with Lizzie, some with his soccer buddies, and one with his mother when he was a toddler. Impulsively, overcome by a strange feeling, he snatched each picture one by one, and stuffed them into his backpack.
Saying goodbye to the officers, he sped away in his car, leaving them to only wonder about his sudden departure.
Turning down the radio, he dialed Victoria's home phone number on his cell phone. At one ring, she answered.
"Hello?"
"Victoria, I know something that I need to tell you when I get to your house."
"Why didn't you just wait then?" she responded, bewildered by his actions.
"I'll see you then. I love you," he said quickly. "I seriously love you so much."
"I love you too," she said, still bewildered.
"Victoria?"
"Yeah?"
"Be careful."
Matt hung up the phone, leaving Victoria puzzled with his crytic message.
Meanwhile, down her street, a mysterious black car sat parked by a mailbox.
Inside, one man sat by himself, keeping a watchful eye on who entered and left the street. He was only waiting for his son, Matt.
It was Sam Mcguire, and he was not only watching the street, but he was carefully listening to the bug that he placed in his own house.
He heard that they suspected him for not only the ransacking, but the death of Lizzie and his own wife.
He heard Matt being briefed on some of what had happened.
And when he heard his son leave, he waited for a little while before pressing a button to activate the bomb inside his house.
Everything was unraveling around him. The police were quickly closing in on him before he broke into the house to try to find everything that could incriminate him. He placed it into a box, but after hearing his son in the house, he was not able to bring it with him.
Everything that could bring him down was in that box. Every newspaper clipping that Jo had saved about the crime, the divorce papers that "instigated" her suicide.
He knew from listening to his bug that the police strongly suspected him. And he also knew that they had been at his house, as he knew from the messages on his house.
So he stole a car that would throw off the police, because he replaced its plates from the ones off of his car from high school that he had saved. And after carefully planting a bomb in his house, he was trying to eradicate everything and everyone that knew his secrets.
Including his son, who was pulling into Victoria's driveway.
Matt locked his door, but he was still shaky from his visit to his house. Because of his trembling, he dropped his keys on the ground.
After standing up, he turned around to see a masked figure, who put his hand around his mouth, and a gun to his head.
"Get back in the car, and follow me," the voice threatened.
"Or what?" Matt protested, after the masked figure removed his hand. "What if I call the police? Or drive away?"
"Then Victoria dies," the voice replied menacingly.
Matt gulped, and climbed back into his car. He drove off, following the masked man in the black car very closely.
Victoria sat on her countertop, clutching her phone and biting her nails nervously. Matt said that he was on his way to her house, but he should have arrived by then.
Just then, she heard two voices on her driveway. She quickly climbed off her countertop, took the phone, and slowly crept into the front foyer. Victoria was careful to avoid any windows, as if not to startle the people outside in case they had weapons.
The voices silenced, and Victoria heard their cars pull away. Slowly, she pulled back the curtain and saw nothing in her front yard.
Breathing a sigh of relief, she jumped onto their couch. Suddenly, a loud noise rang through the living room.
She jumped up, but then realized that she had merely just jumped on the remote control and turned on the TV.
Calm down, Victoria, she said to herself. You're just jumpy. There is not a need for this.
Soon after she had comforted herself, the phone rang. Her heart leaped into her throat, until she saw the caller ID.
It was Matt's number.
The black car brought Matt to a deserted shack in the woods. Matt sat in his car for a second, trying to gather his thoughts or formulate a plan. But then the masked man unmasked himself.
It was his dad.
"Get out of the car," he yelled. "Call your girlfriend and tell her it's over. I don't want her on my tail."
Matt hesitated, but sonn enough, Sam whipped out his gun. Nervously, Matt dialed her familiar number.
"Hello?" her voice on the other line said. "Matt, where are you?"
"Victoria, I have to end our relationship right now."
"What are you talking about?" she asked, obviously distressed. "Tell me where you are."
Sam pressed the gun into Matt's back.
"I can't," he said, and an idea sprang into his mind. "But mark my words, if a black cat crosses your path, it's sure to mean bad luck."
"What are you talking about?" she replied. "Are you high?"
"No," he nervously replied. "Just following Nancy Drew."
"Are you speaking in code? Should I write this down?"
"Yes," he said, craning his neck to read Sam's "plates." "Just follow the road less traveled down the eight-fold path, two times, F whoever comes in your path, especially UFO's. It's MIA way or the highway."
"I got it," she said. "Don't worry."
"Bye," Matt retorted, and hung up the phone.
"What kind of crap was that?" Sam yelled at his son. "What were you talking about?"
He then bound Matt's ankles and wrists, and threw him into the closet of the shack.
