The next few days were all catch-up for Luke. He was so behind in all of his schoolwork that he buried himself under textbooks. For the first time he was glad that they had mandatory study hall. Sometimes, without parents to crack the whip and tell you to get your stuff done, it was easy to fall behind. But in general Luke enjoyed being away from home. Nothing against his parents, he just appreciated the independence. And he generally liked boarding school life. Sure, Saturday classes were a drag. But it was fun living in a dorm, and the sports teams were more competitive than at his school back home, so that appealed to Luke too. It was also more intimate living with your teachers day in and day out. You knew their kids, their spouses. In fact most of the spouses were teachers too. It was almost like an extended family.
But with all of this going on, school became strange. It was odd for Luke to be living in the midst of all this, and unable to leave. It was oppressive. Not to mention lonely with no Oscar around to hash it out with. His texts and Facebook messages to Oscar had gone unanswered. He called Oscar a few times on both his cell and his home phone, but every time Mr. or Mrs. Weymouth said he was unavailable. He’d even tried emailing him, but those weren’t replied to either. It seemed they were really locking him down. How about a little benefit of the doubt?
The rumor mill was in overdrive. Everyone had theories about who killed Mrs. Heckler, why she was killed, and who was going to be arrested. Luke listened to everything with skepticism. Although she hadn’t been at St. Benedict’s that long, it seemed that everyone had a story about Joanna Heckler, and as often happens with the dead, she had been elevated to sainthood. Stories of her letting students off for minor infractions dribbled in, as well as small acts of kindness and words of wisdom that she bestowed upon people. Luke found them all hard to believe.
There was one story that piqued his interest. Liz told him that she had gone to the Palmers’ house to babysit their kids and overheard Mr. P. and his wife arguing about Joanna Heckler.
“They didn’t hear me come in,” explained Liz. “Their daughter, Becky, let me in, and they were upstairs. I heard voices, and then they got louder and it was clear they were talking about Mrs. Heckler.”
“What did they say?” asked Luke.
He and Liz were sitting in their usual spots at the table in the Spanish classroom waiting for Señor Diaz. A light fall rain drizzled outside. Liz had been giving him the cold shoulder ever since the episode at the pond, so Luke had decided to apologize for offending her. He was glad he did; he had missed hanging out with her, not to mention she was turning out to be a pretty decent source of information.
“She said something about refusing to go over to Dean Heckler’s with him—I guess there was some sort of reception to greet people or something. She was like, that whole marriage was a disaster, and Dean Heckler was a bad guy for ditching the first wife and leaving her out in the cold.”
“She said that?”
Liz nodded before continuing. “She also said Joanna was immoral and after everyone’s husband and there was no way, no matter how Christian it was, that she would be a hypocrite and go over there and pretend to be sorry that she was dead.”
The words stuck with Luke for the next few days. He wondered just how many people were pretending to be sorry that Joanna was dead but were secretly pleased. It’s not something many people would admit. He was deep in thought as he stood in the hallway, waiting for the previous history class to be let out, when Pippa tapped him on the shoulder.
“You’ve been avoiding me.”
Luke was psyched to see Pippa. His stomach gave a funny kind of flip. “I haven’t been avoiding you. I’ve just been busy with homework and stuff.”
Pippa looked at him in disbelief.
“I swear.”
“Does that mean you haven’t done any investigating since we were last together?”
Luke took Pippa’s arm and gently escorted her away from the door, where student traffic was streaming in and out. It struck him that she smelled good. She was wearing that rose perfume again; not the overbearing stuff that you’d smell in a magazine or the kind they spray in the department stores his sisters sometimes dragged him to, but a light, summer’s day kind. It was nice.
“I have been totally slammed with work, so I haven’t done jack. Not to mention, they booted my roommate, so I’ve been dealing with that fallout.”
Everyone over the past few days had been bombarding Luke with questions regarding Oscar. There was a lot of speculation. The school said it was an academic suspension and nothing to do with the murder, but rumors were still flying. Luke shot down every one of them and refused to engage with anyone who was accusing Oscar of killing Mrs. Heckler. He avoided all of their texts and stayed off all his apps. No Snapchat, no Facebook, no Instagram, nothing. It was strange not to be checking those things every few minutes, but at the same time it was sort of liberating. He didn’t mind being out of touch as much as he thought he would.
“How is Oscar?” asked Pippa.
Luke raised an eyebrow.
“Look, we both know there’s no love lost between me and that dumbass, but I know he didn’t kill Mrs. Heckler,” said Pippa with genuine sincerity.
“He’s fine. I mean, I guess he’s fine. They won’t let me speak to him.”
“So odd. Do they really think he was capable of that? I don’t see any motive.”
“Me neither. I have to admit, the only good thing about him being away is that I don’t have to worry about him making Kelsey so mad she does something to retaliate.”
“Would he do that? They were all over each other at the Dip.”
Luke gave her a sheepish look and shrugged.
Pippa rolled her eyes. “Wow. Nice guy. I really don’t understand your friendship.”
Luke thought for a second. “Oscar’s always had my back. I mean, look at the situation now. Anyone else would have ratted us out, told the deans that he wasn’t out there alone. We’re his alibis, and he’s not exposing us! That’s the kind of stand-up guy Oscar is.”
“I think ‘stand-up guy’ is way too generous of a description for Oscar,” said Pippa. “And you have to wonder what Oscar’s motive is. Why isn’t he telling them that we were all out there? Maybe he doesn’t want them to question us.”
Luke hadn’t thought of it that way. She had a point. “I don’t know. Honestly, it’s hard for me to reconcile the two supposed sides of Oscar. I’ve only seen one side in the three years that I’ve lived with him. That’s the person I know and the person I’m inclined to help as much as I can.”
Pippa smiled. “You’re a good friend, Luke.”
The bell rang, and Luke motioned toward the door. “I’ve got to bolt.”
“If you want me to help you out, let me know. I’ll poke around and see if I can learn anything else.”
“Thanks.”
“I assume you’ve already talked to your buddy who worked in Mrs. Heckler’s office?”
Tariq! He headed up the student-alumni committee and worked closely with Mrs. Heckler. Luke had forgotten to talk to him. “I’m on it.”
“All right then,” said Pippa, turning to go.
“Hey, Pippa,” Luke said. “Thanks.”
She smiled, and Luke watched her walk down the hall. He enjoyed the view.
“You coming, Mr. Chase?” asked Mrs. DeStefano, poking her head out of the classroom.
“Yes, ma’am.”
* * *
“Dude, I’ve told everything important to the police. Mr. P. also gave me the third degree. There is nothing else I can think of.”
“Tariq, there has to be something,” insisted Luke.
It was study hall, and Luke had spent the last twenty minutes in Tariq’s room, trying to get him to remember something about Mrs. Heckler. Tariq was not being very helpful. He was one of those self-righteous, annoying types, who was always complaining about getting left out of group chats and that sort of thing. He would be cool if he would just drop the chip on his shoulder.
“Nothing. I could always tell when she had a personal call because she’d start whispering, but frankly I wasn’t that interested in her social life, so I didn’t pay much attention,” Tariq said, leaning back against the wall and blowing a lock of his dark hair out of his eyes.
“Okay, well, tonight after study hall we’re going to the alumni office,” said Luke.
“Dude, not cool. The police were all over that place. They won’t want me snooping around.”
“You can tell them you forgot something.”
“But the security guards…”
“Come on, everyone knows the security guards are a joke! First of all, they’ve totally reduced the number, there’re only, like, five left, and they are totally clueless.”
“I don’t know. What if they ask why I’m bringing you there?”
“They won’t. But if anyone does, we can pretend that we were just hanging out, and you remembered you needed to come back for something, so I came with you.”
“I’m not sure…”
“Tariq, I’m not taking no for an answer.”
* * *
Main Hall thronged with students during Animal Hour. It seemed like it had gotten more popular than ever since the murder. There was an urgency to everyone’s socializing that hadn’t been there before.
Luke followed Tariq around the corner to the hallway perpendicular to Main Hall. Mrs. Heckler’s office was located at the very end on the right, past a giant bulletin board advertising upcoming alumni events. Luke could tell that Tariq was nervous even though he was trying to play it cool. He kept glancing furtively over his shoulder as if someone would nab him. Tonight, Mr. Hamaguchi was on duty, but he had his head down as he sat at the front desk, reading a book. A few security guards passed through, but everything seemed secure under the fluorescent lighting so they kept on moving into the shadows of the building.
Tariq took the key out of his pocket, snuck a surreptitious look from side to side to make sure the guards had passed, then opened the door.
“I’m surprised the police didn’t change the locks,” said Tariq.
“They probably took what they thought they needed.”
The office was dark so Luke flicked on the light and closed the door.
“I think we should turn off the light,” said Tariq nervously.
“That’s way more suspicious,” said Luke, scanning the room. It was a straightforward office. There was a main desk with a chair and a computer. Luke walked around to the back of the desk and examined it. He was sure he wouldn’t find anything majorly incriminating, but he needed to see it. There were no framed pictures, which for some reason, relieved Luke immensely, and the only personal item was a St. Benedict’s coffee mug. Luke felt sad, the way he had when he’d seen the crime scene photos. Did Mrs. Heckler feel anything differently when she took her last sip of coffee? Probably not.
“Okay, can we go now?” asked Tariq in a high voice.
“Relax.”
“Dude, I’m the one who will get busted, not you.”
“I’ll take responsibility, don’t worry.”
Luke suddenly noticed a startling lack of paperwork on Mrs. Heckler’s desk. He opened her drawers, and aside from some old yearbooks, they were empty.
“Did they take all of her stuff?”
Tariq walked over to the desk. “Well, she had alumni files in the file cabinet.”
Luke opened the file cabinet. “Empty.”
“They probably have to go through everything. Hey, maybe some mad alum killed her.”
“Did she have a datebook?” asked Luke.
“She had a calendar on her desk.”
“Gone,” said Luke, once again checking the drawers.
“Hey,” said Tariq, snapping his fingers. “She also used Outlook on the computer.”
Luke started to turn on Mrs. Heckler’s computer.
“No, not this computer. She used my computer—well, the student computer.”
Luke stared at Tariq.
“Why would she use the student computer?”
It started to dawn on Tariq. “I don’t know. The first time she said she was having problems with her computer, and then it just became a habit. But maybe she was emailing with someone or making appointments and didn’t want anyone to see.”
“Did you tell the police this?”
“No!” said Tariq with growing excitement. “Should we call them now?”
Luke got into Tariq’s face as closely as possible. “Are you insane? No. We can’t tell them.”
“Why?”
“Listen, don’t worry. Just show me where the student computer is.”
Tariq took a deep breath. It was moment of truth time. Would he be a total loser and not go along with it? Luke stood up straighter.
“It’s not here,” said Tariq.
“Don’t be a—”
“I mean, it’s in my room. I have it. I’m not technically supposed to remove it from this office, but I had so much work to do that I brought it home with me last week. I figured with Mrs. Heckler dead, no one would notice.”
“You, my friend, are a genius.”