by Milda Harris
Then I checked out the Pep Club group page for Palos High School that had been set up. It had a little over a hundred online members. Somehow, I was betting not all of these people actually showed up to meetings. I recognized a few names like Ariel and about ten people I went to class with, but I didn't know a lot of the others. I took note that Madison's date to the dance, Sebastian Zane, made an appearance on the list. Maybe Pep Club was the way to find him, although he might be totally irrelevant now, since there had been a second girl murdered that wasn't his date to the dance. Still, it couldn't hurt to talk to him if I got the chance.
As I scrolled through the members of Pep Club my thought was that in general, they really seemed like one happy and cheery bunch. Of course, it couldn't be all true if someone was murdering them, well, unless that person really did have a vendetta against school spirit. I mean, could the answers to these murders be as simple as an anti-high school psycho or misfit? Maybe, but so far, in my experience, I'd guess at something more personal.
I definitely needed to re-up my Pep Club membership and go to a meeting and not just for my college transcripts either. Maybe not all of these people were as happy and cheery as they seemed to be. There sure seemed to be a lot more to Madison and Julia than met the eye. I put it on my list of things to do. Between investigating murders, work, and my pile of homework, not to mention time kissing Ethan, I was going to be a busy girl.
Ethan showed up promptly at 3:30 pm. He had changed clothes and was wearing dress pants and a button down shirt. I looked down at my t-shirt and jeans and wondered if I too should have dressed up to talk to Casey Hunt. I mean, it was a cute t-shirt, but nothing dressy.
"Not at all," Ethan said and then smiled sheepishly, "When we were dating, Casey always used to try to get me to dress up. This is a buttering up technique."
I wasn't sure that I liked the thought of Ethan using his hotness to butter up another girl that wasn't me, but since he knew Casey best, I'd have to take his lead - at least, for now.
Casey lived about five minutes from my house and we were already there before I could get really nervous about this plan. Besides, my brain was still going over the facts of Julia's murder and who I might want to talk to about it. Truthfully, the whole school had access to the parking lot and anybody could have stepped outside for a quick brake line cutting if they really wanted. Still, it was good that I was preoccupied. I could be thinking about other things - like being jealous that Casey used to date Ethan.
"Are you ready?" Ethan asked, getting out of the car in front of Casey's house.
I nodded, even though my stomach was full of freaked out butterflies. We could do this. I could do this. Although, Ethan was actually the one who had the toughest job ahead of him. Well, I was hoping it was going to be at least a little hard for him to talk to Casey, being that they were exes and all.
Ethan walked up to the front door, while I walked around the corner and watched from behind some bushes and a tall oak tree. I hoped nobody would think I was scouting the house out to rob it or something. I saw the door to the house open and after saying something I couldn't hear, Ethan walked inside. He was in. All was going according to plan so far.
I was supposed to wait ten minutes. The ten minutes felt like eons. Ethan thought he was anxious when I had gone off with Troy during our last murder investigation together. That was nothing compared to stamping approval on letting Ethan go off into a house with his ex-girlfriend for ten minutes. My brain kept wanting to imagine what might be happening with the two of them. Nothing, I kept telling myself. Nothing was happening except talking and Ethan conning Casey, well, sort of - most of that part was up to me.
I tried not to run toward Casey Hunt's house when my alarm went off at the ten minute mark. I forced myself to walk calmly up the steps. I took a deep breath, preparing to go into character, glad for once at my insane reputation.
I started banging on the door like there was no tomorrow. I tried not to feel bad for what I was about to do. Ethan had assured me that this was the only way to get Casey to talk to us. Otherwise, I'd feel a little bad at conning a girl who had just gone through a really traumatic event.
The door flew open and I almost fell forward with the force of how hard I had just been banging on the door.
"Is Ethan Ripley here?!?!?" I yelled, like I had gone totally insane.
Casey Hunt looked back at me, face white with shock.
I tried not to let it bother me, "Is Ethan here? Because his car is out front and if he is, he needs to explain to me what he is doing at some other girl's house when he's my boyfriend and... Well, is he here?"
Casey definitely didn't know what to do. I could see the war raging in her head - did she tell this psycho girl that yes, Ethan was in her bedroom or did she lie?
"Uh, no, actually..." Casey started, choosing the lie, hoping I'd believe it.
"Really? Because his car is right in front of your house," I stared Casey down, daring her to challenge me again.
I saw Casey glance at Ethan's car, which was very obviously parked right in front of her house. Casey looked back at me and I could tell that she didn't know what to do.
"Well?" I said. "You want to tell me why his car is in front of your house if he's not inside?"
Casey sighed, relenting, "Yes, he's here, but seriously nothing is going on. It's a long story, but..."
"I need to see him," I interrupted her.
Casey was totally caught off guard, "Yeah, sure. Uh, follow me."
Casey walked up the stairs and her room was the first door on the right. She kept looking back at me nervously, like she was having major second thoughts about letting me into her house instead of just calling the police. Ethan was sitting on her bed. I tried not to feel jealous. It wasn't a pleasant sight for me to see, so this whole acting thing was not going to be too hard.
"Ethan Ripley, what are you doing here?" I asked. I felt like I went a little over the top, though, by using his full name. I saw Ethan raise his eyebrows. So much for thinking this acting thing was easy.
I snuck a glance at Casey as she was looking at Ethan, who was doing his best to appear guilty and surprised. At least Casey seemed to be buying the whole charade. That was good. Ethan's whole theory was that Casey would be super glad to see him, which was good in that she might confide her feelings to him, but bad because she'd probably be more likely to try and make-out with him. So, I was there to put the kibosh on a make-out session and get Casey to talk because Ethan had spent ten minutes consoling her. I glanced at him eyes narrowed, that was all that better have been happening. Wow, I was getting great at being in character!
"I'm just here to talk to Casey about Madison. I wanted to make sure Casey was alright," Ethan said and then added, "I swear."
I believed Ethan and felt the ball of tension building in my stomach disappear, but I looked at him unsurely anyway. Let him worry. Then, I looked at Casey with raised eyebrows.
"Oh, yeah," I paused, trying my best to sound instantly sympathetic instead of the angry girl I had been seconds ago, "You found Madison, right? Are you okay?"
Casey looked suddenly teary as if all of this talking about the murder and her finding a dead body was finally getting to her, but nodded, "Yeah. It was just so awful."
"I'm so sorry," I said and I meant it. It had to be awful to find a dead body.
Casey nodded, "Yeah. Thanks."
I put a hand on her shoulder, sympathetically, "What happened?"
Then it just spilled out of Casey. She must have been dying to talk to somebody, "It was so freaky. I mean, I was walking into the bathroom and I saw Ariel, you know, Ariel Walker? And, we stopped to talk. Then I walked into the bathroom. I really had to pee. I had like three Diet Cokes and I pushed open the stall and there she was...dead. I just keep thinking if I hadn't pushed open that stall..."
"Wow," I interrupted before Casey could get off track and then asked, "Like, how was she dead?"
"Someone had shot her," Casey replied.
"Wow," I said again, thinking that the gossipmongers had been embellishing the murder with their talk of a Kill Bill style scene.
Shooting someone in the middle of a dance worked, though. With or without a silencer, the noise from the dance would probably drown the whole thing out. Or, people would assume it was part of the beat of the song.
Casey nodded, "Yeah, but definitely dead. It was insane. I know Ariel had just walked out, but I don't think she did it at all or anything. Really. I told the police that too."
"Why not?" I asked.
Casey looked at me, "Because she's Ariel Walker. She's beautiful, popular, and she has a college guy boyfriend."
I wasn't sure those reasons would be enough for the police to not think of Ariel as a suspect, much less a judge or jury. I hoped it wouldn't come to that.
"Anything else?" I asked.
Casey hesitated, "Well, there was one more weird thing. I mean, someone had to have been in the bathroom between when Ariel left and I walked in or something. I didn't notice anybody because I was busy looking at Ariel's dress and trying to figure out the designer. Did you see her dress?"
I had seen it, but it hadn't struck me as amazing or anything. I couldn't even remember the color, "Uh, no."
"It was fantastic," Casey gushed and then went on, "Anyway, but in the bathroom when I walked in on Madison, I did notice something."
"What?" I asked.
"In the bathroom stall above her, the killer wrote - Who's peppy now?" Casey said.
Ethan and I both stared at her. This was a detail that hadn't been released to the gossips at Palos High School and it was a definite help to the case. Did it mean that the killer was simply anti-pep club? Or, maybe they just didn't share Madison's school spirit. It was an extra fact that helped set the scene. We just couldn't jump for joy at learning it until we were out of Casey's sight.
"What did you do after you found her?" I asked.
"I screamed and freaked out and ran out of the bathroom to find a teacher," Casey said. "It's kind of a blur. I couldn't stop screaming. It was horrible."
If the murderer hadn't gotten out of the bathroom before Casey walked in or escaped when Casey and Ariel were talking, the killer had another chance to get out of the bathroom after Casey found the body. I supposed they could have crawled into a vent or something too and done a disappearing act that way, but that would have definitely meant planning and premeditation since you'd need a tool to get into the vent. Still, all of this meant that it was possible the murderer had totally gone unseen and with a gunshot, they might not have had any blood on their clothes. The killer could be anyone. That wasn't good for our investigation.
"Okay, Kait, I think we've bothered Casey long enough," Ethan broke the silence.
Casey looked at Ethan longingly. I resisted the urge to pull Ethan out of the house. Casey smiled at Ethan.
"Yeah, I think you're right. I'm sorry for freaking out and banging on your door and stuff, Casey," I said and I really meant it.
Casey nodded, but I had a feeling there would be some more rumors spread about me once she went back to school. It was worth it, though.
Ethan walked over to me, but spoke to Casey, "Feel better and let me know if you need to talk or anything."
"Thanks," Casey managed a smile.
I grabbed Ethan possessively by the arm and dragged him out of the house. Casey followed us to the front door, unsuspecting, and watched us drive away. I didn't think about the weirdness of that - Ethan and I driving away together - because we had come separately to Casey's house, until we were down the street. Oh well, at least we had gotten some information out of her before Casey could start suspecting us of conning her.
When we were out of eyesight of the house, I turned to Ethan, "We got something."
"Yes, we did," Ethan said. "How do you think it fits?"
"Well, it could be a signature..." I said, thinking. "Something the killer does in all his murders."
On TV and in movies, I was sure I'd seen fictional serial killers leave signatures of sorts. Of course, this wasn't like in Dexter where the way the killer drained the bodies of blood the first season was the signature. Maybe this killer wrote pithy comments near their victims. Or, maybe it was just Madison. It was too bad we couldn't get a look at the writing - maybe it would tell us if the killer was more likely to be a guy or a girl. Although, somehow I couldn't picture someone who wore red chucks to the Homecoming Dance writing in bubbly letters with hearts over the i's.
Ethan nodded, "Maybe it really is all about the Pep Club."
"It definitely could be," I said. "She...or he particularly focused on Madison's peppiness for the comment. That has to mean something."
"So what next?" Ethan asked.
"How about we stop for peanut butter banana milkshakes at Wired?" I said, smiling.
"Of course," Ethan grinned back at me, "But I meant, about the murder?"
I turned my brain off of the mouthwatering thoughts of Wired's milkshakes, "Well, how do you feel about joining Pep Club with me?"
Chapter 13: Pep Club Faking
Through Facebook, I found out that we were in luck. Pep Club was having an emergency meeting after school on Wednesday. They didn't say what the emergency was exactly, but my guess was that it had to do with the murder of two of their members and presidents in a matter of days. They were now without a student leader. I wondered who was going to step up to be the next target, er, Pep Club president.
The morning went by in a quick breeze of boring lectures, until I went to Chemistry. There I found Suzie waiting for me outside of class with one of the most good looking guys I had ever seen. I would have stopped short of them in a dead stare of shock if my brain had continued to work at the sight of them looking at me as I walked toward them. I had, of course, seen this guy in school, but we had never spoken. That being said, Ethan was still way hotter in my book, but this guy was an otherworldly super model hot. His name was Logan Collins and he was a senior, easily the most popular guy in his class. Every girl knew who he was, even if they never dared dream that he'd speak to them. How did quiet, shy girl Suzie Whitsett know him? And, what was she doing standing outside of our classroom with him? Kyle was going to freak. Logan Collins blew all guys out of the water with his hotness. Well, except Ethan...to me.
"Kait, we've been waiting for you," Suzie said.
I couldn't help, but glance at Logan. He had been waiting for me. My life had gone surreal again. I felt my cheeks turn pink. No teenage boy should have this affect on a girl just by way of his cuteness.
"Oh?" I think I said. It might have come out more like a grunt or a gurgle because my brain was still trying to process the situation.
"I wanted to talk to you," Logan said, peering at me, "Suzie said you were investigating Madison and Julia's murders? I want to help."
"You want to help?" I repeated. Again, my brain was trying to understand the words that were working to penetrate it. Wow, this guy was hot.
"Yeah, I used to know them when we were kids. We were best friends in junior high. Then we weren't, but I do feel like I know something important to your investigation. I still talked to them every once in awhile and Julia and I went to Homecoming together, actually," Logan said. "Just as friends."
I nodded. What was wrong with me? I couldn't help staring at Logan. Why had Julia complained about not having a date to the dance? Logan was the hottest guy in school, next to Ethan of course, even if they had gone to the dance as just friends. I mean, with Logan on her arm, did Julia even need to try and go after Ethan? Who was that girl anyway? Then I noticed Logan was talking again. I struggled to pay attention. This guy was so good looking it was distracting.
"I think I know who might have done it. I thought about going to the police, but I don't really want to get involved. I mean, people here talk and I'm me, you know, but if you're looking into their deaths, maybe you could check the guy out and see if he and his friends are worth even telling the police about and if
they are, tell them for me," Logan said.
I felt bewitched by Logan. His eyes were staring into mine. It was different from Ethan, though. Ethan made my stomach do flips and I mostly longed to kiss him. Logan sort of floored me and made my mind go numb. He was too handsome for his own good, for my own good. Seriously, no guy should have this sort of effect on a girl. It wasn't good for him...or the girl in question.
"Okay," I said, brain moving forward slowly, "Who do you think did it?"
"It's a hunch," Logan started, "But there's this weird guy that's been following Madison around and stalking her because she was the president of Pep Club. His name's Seth Wilcox. He and his friends are really anti school spirit and they've been giving her a hard time."
"Okay. Like what? And, how do you know about it?" I asked.
"Madison told me. We still talked sometimes. And, I kind of knew this kid from way back in junior high too. She knew that. Madison said that he and his friends had gone so far as to destroy the posters and all the decorations for the Pep Club Homecoming float. Everyone was really upset about it, but they all rallied and fixed something up in time. Madison was amazing like that - she'd just pull stuff together and make it happen the way she wanted to," Logan said.
"Did she report what happened?" I asked. "To the school? Or the police?"
"I don't know. Madison admitted to me that she was scared, but didn't think that they'd do anything serious. Looks like maybe they did and then continued on with Julia, although I guess there's some people who think that will be ruled an accident," Logan said. "Since it was a car wreck and all."
