The Riley Curse | Ethan Landry

05. Partner In Crime Til The End

Tatum sat in the living room of the trailer, working on some homework. Even though in-person classes were canceled, she still had to turn in work online.

"You pointed out some good suspects," Dewey said.

"Thanks. I don't know what it is, but I really don't like Sam's boyfriend. There's something off about him and mom told me to follow my instincts about this," Tatum said.

"What's setting you off about this guy?" Dewey asked.

"He's too nice and he knew the rules before Mindy explained them. You could tell. And he had this weird look on his face while I was explaining why he could be a suspect. Like I made him angry," Tatum said, Dewey nodded along.

"I agree. Something seems off, but you can't write off any of your other friends," Dewey said.

"I know. And Ghostface attacks always have two killers so if I'm right about this one there's still one more to figure out," Tatum said and she went back to her homework.

As she read over her Calculus homework, she heard the volume slowly turning up on the TV. "Woodsboro Sheriff and son have been found stabbed to death in their home," the reporter said and Tatum's head snapped up from her homework to look at the TV. Who she saw made her heart drop to her feet. Wes and Mrs. Hicks's photos were on the screen.

Tears started to form in Tatum's eyes as she stared at the photo of one of her friends. "No. This can't be true. It wouldn't make sense. It doesn't make sense. He was supposed to be safe," Tatum said as she looked at her dad, who was staring at the TV in shock. Then he grabbed his car keys off the side table.

"Come on. We're figuring out who's behind this," Dewey said and Tatum nodded, wiping the tears from her eyes. She followed her dad out of the trailer and into his truck. "Okay, Tatum, I want you to think about each one of your friends. What they dislike, who they dislike, how their family life is, are they fanatics, that type of thing," Dewey said.

"Okay. There's Mindy, who's a fan of every single horror movie. She's related to Randy, but other than that she has no other connections or motives. There's Chad, classic Jock, related to Randy, that's pretty much it. But, there is Amber, she's not really a fan, but she does have a pretty solid hatred towards Sam," Tatum said.

"Look into her. Even as we start narrowing the suspect list, we could still be wrong," Dewey said and Tatum nodded. "How do I look into her?" Tatum asked.

"Look into her social media stuff," Dewey said and Tatum nodded as she pulled out her phone. She started looking over Amber's social media and couldn't find anything incriminating. That is until Tatum pressed on to a recent photo. Just barely in the frame was a piece of white on her floor. Tatum zoomed in and it almost looked like the mask. "Did you find something?" Dewey asked.

"Maybe. I found the top of something white in this photo. There's not much to go off of, but it looks like the forehead of a Ghostface mask," Tatum said, there was one thing. If Amber is Ghostface, she wouldn't be stupid enough to leave the mask laying on her floor. She would be asked about it.

"I don't know. Maybe I'm looking into it too much," Tatum said.

"What's making you overthink?" Dewey asked.

"If she is Ghostface, she wouldn't leave the mask laying around her room. Her parents would question her about it. Especially now," Tatum said.