“That was not cool,” Luke reported to Oscar when he got back to his room. Then, as a safety precaution, he went over to his desk, put his iPhone in its speaker dock, and turned the volume all the way up. Seconds later, Vampire Weekend came blasting out of the speakers. Luke went and sat on the edge of Oscar’s bed, where he was spread out, lounging.
“Dean Heckler was there, and now he is totally on to us, or me, really. Just what I need.”
“What happened?”
Luke told Oscar everything that had transpired at Mrs. Heckler’s house, as well as the car ride home. Oscar listened with rapt attention and interjected the appropriate profanities when Luke paused for effect.
“And, check this, I asked him about their trip to Las Vegas, and it turns out he’s never been.”
Oscar perked up. “She was definitely talking to someone about her weekend in Vegas. I heard her!”
“I know. I believe you. But she didn’t go to Vegas with him. Probably with the boyfriend.”
“Do you think the dean knows?” asked Oscar.
“I’m sure. If we know, then she probably wasn’t very discreet.”
Oscar stood up and began pacing. Then he turned to Luke.
“Why do you think he’s still hanging with his ex?” asked Oscar.
“That’s what I want to know,” said Luke. “They were so friendly that it practically seemed like they were still a couple, so I was thinking, what if they did it together? You know, like, coconspirators. He divorces one wife as part of a plan, then marries the new one, maybe takes out some insurance money on her, offs her, then gets back with the old wife.”
“That’s interesting, because based on what I discovered, that could make a lot of sense,” said Oscar, pulling out some printed pages from under his pillow. “Take a look.”
Luke scanned the Google searches that Oscar had printed out. There were tons of articles on Mrs. Heckler’s death, and plenty more about her life.
“Joanna was loaded! Or at least her father was.”
Luke nodded. “That theory would fit, then.”
“Totally. He wouldn’t even need insurance. Now Dean Heckler probably stands to inherit a buttload. No wonder he married her.”
“The better question is, why did she marry him?”
Oscar pulled the papers out of Luke’s hand. “Look at this, it’s textbook. Her dad has been married, like, three or four times. She was married before to another much older guy—who she snatched from his wife, no less. It’s the classic daughter of divorce, ‘love me, Daddy’ routine. Joanna wanted her dad’s attention, so she kept marrying dad-types, acting like a flirty little girl, you know.”
“You think?”
“Yeah. It makes perfect sense. She’d make you feel like, so special, that you were the best, the only one she wanted, and then she’d use you and abuse you.”
Luke examined Oscar’s face carefully. He was talking about Mrs. Heckler as if, well, as if he knew her.
“You got all this from that one time you worked in her office?” Luke casually asked.
“I told you, I know her type,” said Oscar. Then he turned back quickly and looked at one of the articles again.
“God, your rep really takes a beating when you die a gruesome death.”
“All those local reporters are freaking stoked! Finally, something to write about.”
“Okay, so we have to work overtime. We have to come at this from a different angle. We’re the students. We have the advantage of having been there in the woods that night. We know she was having an affair, we know her husband’s ex-wife was there, and we know Pippa was there, along with Mr. Tadeckis. And that Kelsey hated her. That’s all stuff the police probably don’t know,” said Luke.
“I’m sure they know about the affair,” said Oscar.
“Okay, but still. We have to use the resources we have that they don’t have. They’re focusing on you as a suspect.”
“Don’t remind me,” muttered Oscar.
“But we have to prove them wrong. The best way is eliminating the suspects. We have to talk to Pippa—”
“That bitch—” interrupted Oscar.
“—and, we have to find out who Mrs. Heckler was having an affair with. I think that’s the key.”
“My bet is that the dean is the killer,” said Oscar. “Husband spurned? Case closed. And all that CIA stuff. Where was he the night of the murder?”
“Yes, I know you want it to be him, but we need to wait to check him out because he’s already suspicious of me. Let’s try and find the boyfriend next,” said Luke.
“But I thought we agreed he took off that night? Left her alone?”
“But maybe he came back. Maybe that’s who Kelsey saw.”
“Don’t you think we would have heard her say something like, ‘I told you to get lost,’ or something?”
Luke paused. It was true. She had sounded angry, so no doubt she would have made a fuss if the guy came back to try to talk to her again. She definitely seemed like the type who wouldn’t like a guy who was all over her. Luke saw her as a more standoffish type. The dean was actually kind of like that. Reserved, the type who would withhold compliments and be really critical. Someone with low self-esteem might be into that. Thank God Luke had been paying attention during his sisters’ “insights into women” tutoring sessions.
“I think if we find the boyfriend, we might learn more about how or why she died. He’s the key.”
“How can we find him?” asked Oscar.
They both sat quietly for a minute, listening to the music and trying to figure out their next move. Finally, Luke smiled.
“Okay, I have it. Mrs. Heckler and her man knew about the Dip. I mean, they didn’t go underneath it, but they knew enough about it to meet at the wall. The Dip is the place for booty calls. What is the second place where people meet to hook up?” Luke asked, raising an eyebrow to prompt Oscar.
Oscar sat up and snapped his fingers. “The audiovisual equipment room.”
“Bingo!” said Luke.
“Let’s go,” said Oscar.
Luke stood up. “Okay, but on our way, let’s try and track down Pippa before she heads off-campus or something. I heard a lot of the girls are going downtown to hit the movies, and I think we need to ask her a few things in case she takes off.”
“Man, these girls are a lot of work.”
“That reminds me,” Luke said. “Can you please be careful with Kelsey? If she cracks, we’re in trouble.”
“She’s so needy,” Oscar said. “I don’t know how Matt can deal. It was fun at first, making her feel better all the time, but it’s old now.”
“Yeah? Maybe you should go watch one of her field hockey games. Liz says she’s an animal out there, so maybe the whole ‘rescue me’ thing is an act.”
They walked toward Hadden in silence. Luke couldn’t help thinking how so many people, and things, were turning out to be different than they seemed.
* * *
Pippa smiled when she entered Hadden’s common room and saw Luke waiting.
“Hey!” she said brightly.
“Hi!” said Luke.
“Hello, Pippa,” said Oscar, leaning his head out from the armchair he was sitting in. The armchair faced the fireplace so he hadn’t been initially visible to her. It was obvious at once by her deflated look that she was less than thrilled to see him.
“Oh, hi,” she said warily.
“Now, now, if I didn’t know you loved and adored me, I would have thought you were unhappy to see me,” taunted Oscar.
Luke shot Oscar a look. He didn’t want him to be his obnoxious self, which would really rile Pippa. In fact, he had debated not bringing Oscar along at all, but then he thought he might need him. Pippa would be hard to intimidate, and they had to find out what the hell happened in England, then basically accuse her of doing the same here. Oscar would be way better at that than Luke.
“Ignore him,” Luke said. “He’s being an ass. And he’s going to stop right now.”
“I should hope so,” said Pippa.
“Listen, can we talk to you a sec? It’s important. Outside?”
Pippa shrugged. “I have to get my coat.”
“We’ll wait,” said Luke.
She went back upstairs and disappeared for what seemed like hours. Luke was irritated, and sat in his chair fuming. Why did Oscar always have to put Pippa on the defensive? Come to think of it, Oscar had a way of always alienating the girls Luke was dating. Was it jealousy? If yes, why? Oscar could get any girl he wanted. In fact, right now he was thoroughly enjoying flirting with every girl that came through the door. They all adored him; the bad boy myth was alive and well, no matter how intelligent or educated girls were. So why did he have to give the girls Luke liked such a hard time?
“Why are the common rooms in the girls’ dorms so much nicer than in the boys’ dorms?” mused Oscar, swiveling around in the armchair. “I mean seriously, they have a Nespresso machine. We don’t have a Nespresso machine.”
“We don’t drink Nespresso.”
“And look, no stains on the carpet.”
“Ready,” snapped Pippa as she came flying down the stairs. She didn’t wait for Luke or Oscar, so they both rushed to follow her out. Oscar still took one last second to say something to a pretty sophomore before exiting.
The threesome walked in silence over to a bench in a clearing under some trees. It was completely dark now, and most people were getting ready for Saturday-night activities. There were shuttles, accompanied by security guards, going off-campus for the students who wanted to go to the movies or to restaurants, and the snack shop was loaded with people who skipped dinner and just went to eat french fries and hang out. There was usually a dance on Saturday nights, a pathetic event with a local DJ and punch, that was frequented almost exclusively by first-years and sophomores, but it had been canceled out of deference to the deceased.
Pippa sat down on the bench and folded her arms defiantly. Oscar put one leg up on the bench, while Luke stood in front of her. They waited for a security guard to pass. Luke wondered if the security guards even knew what they were supposed to be on the alert for. Or was this guard here because he’d been told Oscar was a suspect and that he should pay particular attention to him? If that were the case, they’d have to make sure they kept their voices down so as not to be overheard.
“What’s up?” asked Pippa briskly.
“We just wanted to talk to you again,” Luke said. How would he bring up the fact that he knew she was accused of murder back home? This was more awkward than he thought. “But I think we should keep our voices down,” he added, motioning to the guard, who now seemed to be hovering by the garbage can about twenty yards away. Definitely loitering.
“What do you want to talk about?”
“Well, it’s about the murder,” said Luke.
“I’m listening,” said Pippa.
Oscar was getting impatient with Luke’s stalling. “We want to eliminate you as a suspect,” he said.
“Me?” she asked with astonishment. “Why would I kill her?”
“We don’t think you killed her,” said Luke hastily.
“Well, Luke doesn’t think so, but I’m not quite—”
“Have you gone mad?” Pippa said to Oscar. “You’re really a wanker.”
“Did you call Tamara a wanker?” asked Oscar with a wicked smile.
Luke watched the blood drain from Pippa’s face. She opened her mouth to say something, then snapped it shut.
“Look,” said Luke in his nicest voice. “We don’t want to be jerks here. But we found out about your past, about your friend who…who was killed.”
He stopped in hopes that Pippa would interject, but she remained quiet. He watched her eyes carefully, to see if she had tears in them, but she didn’t. Her mouth was curled into a frown, her face white, but she displayed no other emotion.
“You have a homicidal past from what we understand, so we want to know, when you ditched Kelsey, did you take a second to kill Mrs. Heckler?” asked Oscar.
Pippa glanced at him and then at Luke, as if debating what to say. Finally, she spoke. “That situation that you are referring to was a truly tragic and horrific part of my past. I had hoped to never discuss it again. I can assure you that things in the paper are not always true, and I could sit here and defend myself, but I won’t. If you think I murdered Tamara, fine, I murdered her. If you think I murdered Mrs. Heckler, fine, I murdered her. You can think what you want and do what you want. I don’t care.”
She paused and turned to Luke. “I’m sorry I ever trusted you. I thought you were a different person, but clearly you’re not.”
And with that, she stood up and walked quickly back to the dorm. Luke and Oscar just looked at each other.
“Why do you always go for these insane girls?” asked Oscar finally.
Luke felt awash with guilt, although he wasn’t sure why. He had been right to question her, hadn’t he? But if so, then why did he feel as if he’d just betrayed her? He probably should have done it without Oscar being there, but then he and Oscar both knew he would have chickened out.
“Let’s go check out the audiovisual room,” Luke said finally.