Chapter 30 #2
“So instead of being a dick about it, help me. We could figure this out.”
His eyebrows pinch. “How?”
I stand and pace, sipping my beer. Because it helps me think. Plus, the room kind of smells like someone’s lived in it for a few days without a shower. If I move, I won’t gag.
“I was backstage. Mutton was there,” I mutter, mainly to myself. “The ringleader. There was a guy who was wheeling him to the stage around the back area. That was the last person I saw him with. Maybe he knows something.”
Rowan glances up at me, running a hand through his black curls, then rubs his patchy black beard he’s grown out. “What’s he look like? Which fraternity was he with?”
“Uh…” I try to remember, but I wasn’t really paying attention to who he was. “Plain. He was plain. Nothing distinguishable. Brown hair?”
Frustrated, Rowan pierces me with questions. “Tall or short? Big or small? Give me something, for fuck’s sake.”
“He wasn’t big. It was hard to tell with his costume on! It covered him up, you know! I remember his hat. And he was really, um, haughty. In his attitude. I should’ve paid more attention.” But I was more hung up on Aiden that night.
“An average height, not fat guy, with brown hair and a tall hat. Wow. Really narrowed it down there.”
“You’re a dick— Oh!” I snap my fingers in Rowan’s face. “Wait. Did you know that Julien had a hole in his side? Not…not like a bullet, but more surgical. As if an instrument was used to make it.”
“Side? Which side?”
“Here.” I point to my upper right side between a couple of ribs.
“Like a biopsy?”
Rolling my eyes, I frown. “I don’t know what that is.”
Rowan shoves me aside and heads toward his laptop on the messy desk, scooting anatomy textbooks and chemistry equations written on index cards to the side. “Like this?”
On the screen is a gross picture of a small bloody hole in someone’s side, surrounded by a blue surgical tarp.
“Yes! Just like that! In that same spot, too!”
“Why would someone want to biopsy Julien’s lungs?” Rowan mutters with disgust.
My stomach flips. Harvest him like cattle? The scientific-ness of the word tastes like metal on my tongue. “Would that kill him?”
Rowan seems perplexed. Hand around his neck, he tilts his head. “No. Not right away.”
“It’s probably too late tonight, but I could scour Delta’s patio and see what turns up, if anything.”
“Better to go during the day,” he says with a glance out of his darkened window.
“Right.”
“I’ll head over there on my way to campus tomorrow. See if anything is around the area.”
The final words hang between us awkwardly. I glance back at Julien’s side for a fraction of a second before Rowan sighs. “Can you go now? I…want to be alone.”
Our gazes meet. His filled with sorrow, almost pleading. The red-lined rims of his eyes threatening to spill tears again.
“Sure. But let me know what you find.”
“Why do you care?”
I kick at the low-pile depressing taupe carpet before facing him with the truth. “Because he was my friend. And I liked him.” I shrug. “I liked your boyfriend.”
Rowan’s stiff shoulders relax, and the tightness around his worried mouth loosens. “See you.”
By the next afternoon, my brain still hasn’t settled. Even after my final exam. But relief slowly washes over me with every step out of the classroom as I head toward the student center for lunch.
I even perk up at the thought that Aiden is likely in there already. Whatever big plans he has for fixing things haven’t impressed me. Not yet.
I’ll believe it when I see it. Until then? He can go fuck himself and whoever he wants.
I mean, I’ll kill her, then chop off his dick, but still. He can.
“Hey!” a voice startles me as I skirt through the still alley in the center of campus.
Gray huffs a few white-puffed breaths as he catches up to me. “Hello.”
The way he runs belies the nerdy exterior.
There’s something extremely odd about him.
Maybe he does weird drugs. Or secretly injects steroids into his dick.
But the thick glasses, greasy hair, and days-old scruff don’t go with his body.
He’s like one of those secretly ripped guys who no one knows is good-looking until you see them without their clothes.
Cam guy.
Secret porn star.
Heavy equipment operator.
Serial killer.
Something…
“How’d you make out on the psychology final?”
“Okay,” I say as he falls into step with me.
“I wanted to find you alone.” He glances behind us for a tick, but it’s not as if he’s afraid. Just observant.
My head tilts as I look at him curiously. “Why?”
“That guy who accosted me.”
“Aiden?”
“Yeah. Pretty sure he killed Julien Ellery.”
I gasp and pause, facing the man accusing Aiden of murdering my friend. Would Aiden do that?
Well…yes.
But did he have the opportunity? I don’t think so.
“Why do you say that?”
“He gave Julien poison.”
My brow furrows. “How do you know?”
His fingers strangle the strap of his backpack like he’s auditioning for “Nervous Student #2” in a bad drama class. Too rehearsed. And flippant.
“I just do.”
Almost like a robot, he ends the conversation and sidesteps me without a goodbye. Except to say, “Be careful.”
And I’m left cold. Alone.
And confused.