When they got to the final door, Dan felt he was done with the basement for good. What mattered now was Abby, and how warm her hand felt in his own. They would fix things with Jordan, and he would finish the summer with his best friends, out in the sunshine, away from all this gloom.

Dan’s euphoria was short-lived.

Something had gone terribly wrong on the first floor. Police were swarming everywhere, and the entrance hall was flooded with students. One girl was crying hysterically. The lights made Dan’s eyes hurt after the blackness of the basement.

Exchanging a worried glance, Dan and Abby did their best to blend in with the crowd. A tall police officer crossed in front of them, almost bumping into them. He barely spared them a glance and rapidly moved across the hall, shouldering students out of the way. The crowd parted for him slowly. He reached the crying girl and took her by the shoulders, talking to her gently.

“What the . . .” Dan and Abby tried to see what was going on, but the crowd was just too dense to move more than a few feet.

Another police officer rushed in through the front door. Dan could see the flashing blue-and-red lights of the police cars parked outside. It looked like there were four or five of them.

“Move out of the way!” the officer thundered. “This is a crime scene! Move outside, now!” She and the tall policeman started herding the kids outside onto the lawn. The students shuffled slowly, bottlenecking at the front door. Dan and Abby moved along with the crowd, following the officer’s instructions.

“Police?” Abby whispered. The color had drained from her face.

“Let’s try to find out what happened.”

Outside, a third policeman was now talking to the crying girl. Everyone else stood in groups, conversing in hushed whispers. Dan finally spotted Yi and Jordan. Jordan didn’t look too good. He glared at Dan and Abby and then disappeared into the crowd.

“What’s going on?” asked Dan.

Yi looked at Dan with surprise. “Your roomie found a dead guy on the stairs. One of the hall monitors. Jake . . . George . . .”

“Joe?” Dan blurted out, and Abby covered her mouth.

“Yeah, that’s it. Joe. Your boy Felix was coming back from a late-night run and found him. It looked like he’d been dead for a while.”

A while couldn’t have been that long, surely. Dan had seen Joe in the halls just before he went into the basement. That was what, an hour ago? Maybe less? Dan needed to figure out how long he’d been down there.

Yi was saying, “At least, that was what it looked like when I saw him.”

“You saw him?” Abby said, horrified.

Yi nodded. “Just a glimpse, after Felix started screaming. Eyes open, wide open. Just . . . staring. It was so freaking creepy. Jordan saw him, too. Joe was standing, propped up in the stairwell with one hand on the railing, and another holding his cell phone. . . .”

Like a sculpture . . .

“Hey,” Yi said suddenly, startling them both. “Where were you guys anyway? How is it you didn’t know?”

“We weren’t doing anything,” Abby said too quickly. Then she glanced up at Dan.

“Yes,” he said, “that sounded as guilty as you think it did.”

“Crap. All right, fine. You’re right.” She looked at her feet. “We were making out, okay?”

Dan wasn’t going to argue with that exaggeration. He liked it quite a lot, in fact. It was a clever cover, too—this way no one would know they’d actually been exploring the old wing.

“In the old wing?” Yi asked.

Abby shrugged.

“You two are weird as hell,” Yi muttered. Then he said, “You know, I’m worried about Jordan. Seeing Joe definitely freaked him out—I mean, it’s freaked all of us out. But he wasn’t looking too good before. These days he hardly talks to me, and he’s always working on math that I’m pretty sure is not even for a class.”

“Do you think his nightmares are getting to him?” Abby asked.

“Yeah—he keeps waking up in the middle of the night. And I think there might be stuff with his parents, like they found out he was here or something. Anyway, I get the feeling it’s way worse than he’s letting on. I just hope he’s got a place to go back to, you know?” Yi paused. “Are you two keeping an eye on him?”

Abby and Dan exchanged a worried look. Since they’d all gone their separate ways, they had no idea that Jordan had gotten this bad. Dan felt guilty—he should have checked on Jordan, even though Jordan had withdrawn.

“Yeah, we’re keeping an eye on him,” Dan said. We are now, anyway.

More policemen arrived. They began sectioning off the students, arranging them in smaller, more manageable groups. Probably for interviews.

Shit, why did he feel so guilty?

“Dan, buddy? You feeling okay? You just got a little green. . . .” Yi punched his arm lightly.

“Me? I’m fine.”

“What are you talking about?” Abby demanded, looking up at him. “Clearly, none of us are fine.”

Two cops, the tall one and the police officer who had moved everyone outside, reached where they were standing and herded their group over to a tree.

“Better come up with a believable story,” Yi said softly. “Before Mulder and Scully over there get a go at you. You don’t want them knowing you were in the forbidden zone.”

Yi turned to talk with another kid, but Dan could hardly move. What if Yi was right? Were they really going to be interrogated? Of course they’re going to question you, someone was murdered.

“We weren’t in the old wing,” Dan said, grabbing Abby’s arm. “We were in the second-floor lounge, the one by your room. We have to get our story straight or they might think we had something to do with . . . with . . .”

He couldn’t bring himself to say it.

“But we weren’t anywhere near the second floor.” She looked at him strangely. “Why would we need a story?”

He took her by the forearm, tugging her away from the other students. “Just trust me, okay? Think about it—we were both out wandering late at night. Joe’s a big guy, so they probably won’t suspect you could overpower him, but the two of us—”

“Hey, I resent that,” Abby said, yanking her arm out of his grasp. “I might be a little on the petite side—”

“Tiny.”

“Whatever. It doesn’t matter, Dan, I’m stronger than I look. And it’s not like you’re some kind of muscle-bound hulk, so I don’t see why you’d be a suspect and I wouldn’t.”

“Why are we arguing about this?” he whispered. “You’re Wonder Woman, okay? You’re . . .”

“Say I’m Black Widow.”

“Abby—”

“Say it.” She crossed her arms, cocking one hip to the side.

“You’re Black Widow. Times ten. Happy now? And Jesus, why aren’t you more freaked out?”

“I am freaked out,” Abby squeaked, giving him a little shove. “I’m seriously freaked out. This is what I do when I’m freaked out. I babble. Inanely. I babble inanely to distract myself from the freaking out!”

“Okay, okay.” He hoped nobody had heard that. They both sounded guilty, even if they weren’t. Well, not guilty of murder, just guilty of having poor judgment and a blatant disregard for the loose curfew rules. He knew that at least. Right?

“Poor Felix. I hope he’s not too traumatized,” she said, turning to search the crowd. “Do you see him?”

“No,” Dan said. “I’m sure he’s being questioned by the police.”

“Gird your loins.” Yi was back. He slid up to them, talking out of the corner of his mouth. “I got Mulder and Scully on my six.”

Dan took a deep breath, preparing to unleash a whole mouthful of bullshit on officers of the law. They separated him from Abby, the policewoman taking her aside while Dan went with the tall guy. The whole process was surprisingly quick and painless. He was asked standard questions—where he was, what he heard and saw, if he could remember any strangers around the dorm that day. Dan answered vaguely, mentioning he was on the second floor with his friend, that he had seen Joe “earlier that day” but hadn’t noticed anyone suspicious loitering in Brookline.

“Thanks,” the cop told him when the questions ran out. “If you see anything strange, anything at all out of the ordinary, you tell someone. Okay, son?”

“Okay. Thanks, sir.”

Dan wandered away, numb. He had just lied through his teeth to a cop. Why? Exploring the basement wasn’t the same as murder, it just wasn’t. He had to keep reminding himself of that over and over again. Forget about your freaking alibi, whoever did this is still out there.

The officer finished speaking to Abby a moment later. As Dan waited for her, he heard one of the cops talking to another in low tones.

“Probably some bum,” he was saying. “They’re always getting blind drunk and wandering up on to campus. We’ll find him in a bush outside, just you wait.”

Dan wondered how a stranger could get into the dorm, considering the front doors locked automatically from the outside.

“Could I have your attention please?” Dan recognized the director from the first couple of days. He had been all smiles then. Now he looked ragged, still rumpled from sleep, and shaken to the core.

“If I could have your attention,” he repeated, standing on the first step of the entranceway. The students quieted down and the police officers moved away.

“Thank you. All right, I know it’s been a difficult night for everyone. First thing in the morning, your parents will be notified of the situation. Right now, we need to do what’s best for you, our faculty, staff, and of course what’s best for Joe McMullan’s family. The police will conduct a full search of the building tonight, and an officer will be stationed on each floor to make certain you are all safe. I’m sure many of you have questions, and I’m happy to stay and assist you however I can. To the rest of you, be safe and vigilant, and cooperate fully with the Camford Police. And let us keep Joe’s family in our thoughts tonight.”

At this, the sound of crying rippled through the crowd. In front of Dan, two girls clung to each other, sobbing. Students swarmed around the director, shouting questions until he ordered them to calm down and speak one by one.

Dismissed by the policewoman, Abby walked over to Dan.

“I don’t think she even wrote down half of what I said. Whatever, I’m so ready for bed it’s not even funny, although I don’t suppose there’s any way I’m going to fall asleep.” She shuddered. “I wish this were just a nightmare that we could wake up from. Anyway, see you tomorrow?”

She took his hand and squeezed it. Dan squeezed back. “Yeah. Try to get some sleep. We’ll talk tomorrow. Text if you need me.”

With heavy steps, Abby followed a police officer who was leading the students to a back staircase to their rooms, since the main stairs were cordoned off with police tape. The body had been moved, but for the time being it was still a crime scene. Dan trudged up the stairs behind her, beyond exhausted, wishing he had a moment to properly remember their kiss and forget that he was at Brookline altogether. At Brookline where a murderer was wandering free.