‘Um …’ There was a long pause. When she spoke again, I could tell the slutty girl act had been compromised when she improvised, ‘Is that another girl you’re doing? Tell me about it.’
Casey had had enough. ‘No, I’m serious. I’m a friend of Liza’s and I want to know if you knew her.’
‘I–I …’ She sounded really flustered. ‘I don’t know what you’re talking about.’
I grabbed the phone from Casey. ‘If you know her, you can tell us, we’re not going to get anyone in trouble.’
The next thing we heard was a dial tone. I guessed we didn’t really think through the ‘call a phone sex operator’ plan.
I poured us both a glass of lemonade to boost our blood sugar and the colour started to return to Casey’s cheeks. I looked at him and said, ‘She definitely knew Liza.’
Casey nodded. ‘Definitely.’
I jammed my bangs back as I thought through the implications. ‘And that means Liza had employees. And the employees knew her. This could all blow up in Delta Beta’s face.’
We both thought about it. ‘I don’t know how we find her employees,’ Casey said.
Then we both came to the same conclusion. ‘Liza’s phone,’ we said in unison.
I looked around the apartment in vain, because I knew it had been empty when I moved in. ‘She lived in an off campus apartment, for some reason,’ I explained to Casey.
‘Because phone sex operators need their privacy,’ Casey said, throwing my words back at me. I closed my eyes briefly. It was all becoming clear now.
‘Right,’ I thought aloud. ‘If I were a phone sex operator, I’d want a cell, right?’
Casey nodded. ‘A land line ties you down too much.’
I had to find Liza’s phone. I thought back to the night of her death. Surely she’d had it on her. Everyone carries their phone with them. If it had been in her pocket, it was still in her unclaimed effects at the morgue.
‘How does someone get into the morgue?’ I wondered aloud.
‘Is that a really bad joke?’ Casey had an edge to his voice.
I shot him a look of apology. I hadn’t meant it like that.
But Casey had moved on. ‘Maybe the police? You could ask that hot police officer.’
The thought of going back to Ty Hatfield for any type of assistance was untenable. I couldn’t trust him to tell me the truth about any of this.
I looked at my watch. ‘Let’s take a break,’ I suggested. ‘We can think about this over drinks with the Alpha Kappas.’
The excited look in Casey’s eyes showed me he thought that was a good plan, too.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
I had just gotten out of the shower when there was a dull roar outside the apartment door, the kind only a bunch of excited women could make. Wondering what it could be this time, I pulled on a tee and running shorts, opened the apartment door and saw nearly the whole chapter headed towards the front door. ‘What’s going on?’ I asked Ellie, a sophomore from Texas.
‘The Eta Eps! They’re serenading us!’
There’s not much that a girl likes more than being serenaded by cute boys. That’s why boy bands and Glee are so popular. It feeds into our feminine delight that there’s a boy who’s overcome his insecurities and decided the way he feels is more important than being told he’s a crappy singer. Or something like that.
So of course, when I heard that the Eta Eps were serenading our chapter, I got a little flutter in my chest, even though it was probably completely inappropriate and cougar-like. But right as I joined the flood of women heading outside, something else fluttered in my head, a memory from my sophomore year.
‘HOLD IT!’ I yelled, stopping dead in my tracks. ‘NOBODY MOVE!’
But nobody listened to me. They just kept rushing towards the front door, giggling and anticipating the Tom Cruise as Maverick vocal stylings they’d no doubt be treated to by the Eta Eps.
I tried again, this time with feeling. ‘SERIOUSLY! STOP!’
All I managed to do was confuse a few of the girls in the back. The rest pushed through and lined up on the front porch. The only way I was going to get their attention was to be in front of them, preferably singing You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feeling. I had a bad, bad, feeling about this. Eta Eps weren’t known for their chivalric conduct. Just ask the Tri Mus my senior year after they were sprayed with fire hoses during a faux fire drill.
I peeked through the front window and, sure enough, twelve Eta Ep pledges were standing on the lawn, dressed in suits and bow ties and top hats. That little excited pitter-patter started in my cougar heart again. Damn it. I looked up, trying to confirm my suspicions, but I was at a bad angle and couldn’t see much besides the backsides of Debs and, in the distance, the goofy Eta Eps.
Think, Margot!
I had two options. I could push my way through to the front porch, cause a big commotion and totally disappoint everyone if I was wrong about the motives of the Eta Ep pledges. Or I could slip out the Chapter Advisor apartment door, nonchalantly come around the front of the house and double check the situation before I made a big deal over nothing.
I chose the first option.
What? I favour efficiency over discretion.
The front door was still open and sorority sisters packed the entry, all scrambling to see and hear the show. As predicted, the Eta Ep pledges opened with ‘You never close your eyes anymore when I kiss your lips.’ It wasn’t terribly creative, but I had to hand it to them. It was a classic for a reason. There were lots of sighs and giggles and a few catcalls, about which I’d have to speak to the ladies.
‘Excuse me,’ I said, shoving my way through. ‘I need … to … get …’ The girls were packed tight, all jostling and moving, but soon I had stepped over the threshold. Looking up, I saw what no other Delta Beta did, as entranced as they were by gangly eighteen year olds sacrificing all their street cred for a fraternity prank.
I had a brief internal debate about what to do next. I couldn’t see who held the cord that was connected to the net holding a hundred water balloons above the Delta Beta chapter’s collective head. If I started screaming about an ambush, someone could easily pull the cord and we’d all be doomed to a bad hair day. If I could be sneaky, I could find the guy holding the cord and just tackle him, pin him to the ground and somehow ensure he didn’t pull the cord in the fracas.
Neither option worked for me, so I decided to just enjoy the show until an opportunity presented itself. Maybe there would be an intermission.
But the pledges wrapped up their first song and were headed into a Billy Joel doo-wop number (which was adorable, if a little clichéd) when I saw movement along the right side of the house. Two Eta Eps out in the yard held up cell phones to capture the upcoming ambush. The signal must be soon. I knew I had to act fast to avert crisis.
‘AMBUSH!’ I screamed. ‘BACK IN THE HOUSE! NOW!’ I waved my hands at the net of water balloons above our head and enough people looked that it caused a chain reaction. Sisters looked, screamed, starting pushing each other and moving in all different directions.
The problem with the plan was the one I’d previously identified. By alerting the chapter to the threat, I alerted our enemy. In the next second, the cord was pulled from somewhere stage left. The balloons fell from the front porch ceiling and nearly fifty young women were drenched. Hair plastered, shirts transparent, just the way fraternities like. Those jerks.
They weren’t going to get away with this. Eta Eps lined up in the yard, taking pictures and laughing while my girls were wet and mad and … sticky? Really sticky. Sticky like … I lifted my shirt and smelled. Grape? Lemons?
I felt coated in a gluey-substance and … I gasped, reaching up to my hair. Other women were doing the same. I wasn’t one hundred percent sure, but there was something else in those balloons besides water. Something that felt a lot like flavoured gelatin. Something that was going to be a bitch to get out of fifty prideful heads of hair.
As nearly every
one tried to cram back in the front door, I moved to the porch rail instead, ignoring the crowd of Tri Mus that had innocently wandered over from their house (yeah, right).
‘You!’ I pointed at one of the Eta Eps in a top hat who wasn’t taking pictures, the gentleman that he was. ‘What’s your name?’
‘Clark?’ His voice raised as if he was uncertain about his name, but I knew that wasn’t it. He just wasn’t sure if I was about to kick his backside.
‘Tell your brothers that this was not funny.’
One of those brothers snickered at me from nearby. I focused my Chapter Advisor death glare on him instead. ‘One day, when you least expect it, someone will get revenge. I guarantee it.’
The Eta Eps listening to me were not impressed. ‘Yeah right,’ one called out.
‘Girls don’t prank,’ another one said. ‘They get pranked.’
‘That doesn’t even make sense,’ I said, sounding entirely too much like a grown up. ‘What’s the point of pranking us, then?’
‘Respect!’ One yelled.
‘Honour!’ Another one called out.
‘Legacy!’
I rolled my eyes. Some legacy, filling water balloons full of jelly. Fraternities were so weird.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
The Moneymaker was just as I remembered it from my own college days. One of the three bars allowed on the north side of campus, it sat in the middle, with Pete’s Downhome Saloon on the west and Shotz, the shot/sports bar on the east. Pete’s Downhome was a casual type of place that served ice-cold drafts and burgers between two and seven and peanuts in the shell all day long. Shotz changed themes and names every three years or so. When I was a freshman, it had been a Daiquiri bar named the Easy Go. Someone in town had objected to the name Easy Come. My senior year, it changed to a martini bar, Manhattan Social. From what I heard, the college kids hadn’t taken to seven dollar martinis. Shotz looked way more appropriate for the demographic.
But the Moneymaker was a venerable Sutton College tradition since 1973. It was the only one of the three with a dance floor big enough to host fraternity and sorority events. As such, it was home to the Greek community and I had spent a lot of time within its hallowed halls.
It was dark, lit with neon signs and sconces that looked vaguely like fishing nets draped over bared breasts. I stood inside the door for a moment, letting my eyes sweep over the familiar wide plank floors, the rough bar tables inscribed and carved with every symbol, number and letter imaginable. As Chapter Advisor, I arrived early. The rest of the chapter wouldn’t be here for another hour or so, when it got cool to arrive fashionably late.
Women join sororities for three major reasons, in my experience: friends, boys and fashion. While the order differs for each individual woman, these are the top three, for sure. And tonight, there would be all three. The ladies would party and have fun with each other, dressed to the nines and there would be lots and lots of cute Alpha Kappas to dance with.
I couldn’t be on the prowl for ‘boys’ tonight though, and I couldn’t hang out with the girls as friends, but I could definitely hold my own in the sartorial department. After I had triple washed the gelatin from my hair, Casey helped me pick out my tank dress. It was the only bar-type dress I had in my suitcase. Sisterhood Mentors didn’t get out much. My heels added three inches to my already tall frame. Casey was a genius with hair, but even he couldn’t help with my bangs. It was all Zooey Deschanel’s fault.
As I expected, Casey left my side soon after we arrived and began to circulate, and as more and more Debs and Alpha Kappas entered, I got busier and busier. The underage sisters and brothers were checked and not given the stamp on the back of the hand that their elders were.
When the party warmed up, I circulated to people-watch in both an official and unofficial capacity. Casey was captivating a group of girls by the bar, which wasn’t fair to the Alpha Kappa brothers who wished they could get some female attention. Jane and Asha hit the dance floor, jumping and singing along to songs and pulling in their sisters to form a wide circle, as girls had done since time immemorial.
I saw a blond head, ducking down as I circled by a booth. ‘Aubrey!’ I called the Chapter President’s name. ‘AUBREY!’ I had to yell over the music when she pretended she didn’t hear me. ‘I need to talk to you.’ I crossed my arms and tapped my foot, making it clear that she wasn’t getting away from me this time.
With a quick, embarrassed glance around, she slid out of the booth more gracefully than I had ever seen anyone get out of a booth. And her dress fell perfectly, as she stood, without a wrinkle in sight. Really impressive.
Once I had her undivided attention, I started in. ‘Look, you need to answer for your behaviour today.’
She looked around again quickly. ‘Do we have to do this here?’ Her voice was a desperate plea. I would be embarrassed, too, if I was caught in Tri Mu letters, which is exactly what I said.
I continued yelling over the music. ‘What in the world were you thinking?’ I knew people could hear me, but after what I’d learned today, Delta Beta’s reputation was at risk. ‘We can’t have our sisters pulling pranks like that. It makes us look like we’re stooping to their level.’
Aubrey looked stunned. ‘You saw me? In Try Moo letters?’‘And they were hideous,’ I added for good measure.
‘That wasn’t me, Margot, I swear.’ She wrung her hands roughly. ‘It’s … I mean, I should have told you. Everybody knows. But I don’t know how people will take …’
I made a motion that she should speed it up.
‘You see, I have an identical twin.’ Aubrey bit her lip in a gesture that would have been adorable if I hadn’t seen it on a Tri Mu just hours before.
I was shocked. This was so Law & Order. I never knew this happened in real life. ‘Really?’ I wasn’t sure I could believe this. ‘What’s her name?’
Aubrey swallowed, hard. ‘Ainsley. St. John,’ she added. ‘We rushed together as freshmen and because everyone had mixed us up our whole life, she decided she wanted a different sorority. You can ask anyone,’ she added in a rush, before closing her eyes, clearly mortified. ‘It’s hard to hide the fact that you have a twin sister at a campus this small.’ Her perfectly glossed mouth flattened. ‘Especially when she’s President of another chapter.’
‘Your identical twin sister is President of Tri Mu?’ I asked again, just to make sure.
Aubrey nodded glumly and I took her in my arms. ‘You poor, poor thing,’ I said, stroking her hair. I couldn’t imagine the trauma that Aubrey had to endure on a daily basis, especially when idiots like me mixed them up. Having a Tri Mu identical twin? Could it be worse? ‘I’m just so relieved. Pale pink and bright orange are not your colours.’
Thankfully, Aubrey accepted my apology and I resolved to watch what I said about Tri Mus around her in the future. I didn’t want to add to her heartache and humiliation.
When I let Aubrey go back to her table, I turned and found myself face to face with Ty Hatfield. Before I could get a word out, he had wrapped his arm around my waist and pushed me back three steps onto the dance floor.
Out of his police polo, Ty wore a dark blue plaid button up tucked into jeans with scruffy boots. He smelled like pine trees and soap, and pressing up against him was unfortunately one of the better experiences of my day. I could have fought him off, but it wasn’t often I got to dance, much less with a hot cop, to a slow country song.
I linked my hands around his neck, his hair still slightly damp from his shower, brushing the back of my hands. Thanks to my high heels, I didn’t have to look too far to watch his face in the dim light as we slowly rotated in our own little circle.
Even as I was enjoying the feeling of being in a man’s arms again, I hadn’t forgotten that Ty Hatfield had not been forthcoming with information to me. In fact, I had the distinct feeling he was playing some game of his own, one that I didn’t understand.
‘What are you doing here?’ I asked, proud that I seemed so level heade
d and calm while pressed up against a hot John Wayne-esque rookie.
‘I heard there was a party.’ I felt his shrug, up close and personal as his chest and shoulder muscles rubbed up against me.
I pulled back a little to get a better look at him. ‘You don’t seem like the party type.’
There was the patented Ty Hatfield squint. I was a little concerned I was getting used to his facial expressions. I could almost tell the differences between his squints. Like this one, it was his ‘slightly interested’ squint.
‘What type do I seem like,’ he asked. I could feel the rumble of his deep voice from his chest as it pressed into mine.
I pretended I was thinking about it. But I knew my answer already. ‘You’re the Law & Order type.’
A rare smile was pulled out of him. ‘Like Elliot Stabler?’
My heart thumped extra hard at the name of my crush. ‘You wish,’ I said. Although if Stabler wasn’t available, Ty Hatfield would probably do at a pinch. If he wasn’t on my shit list.
‘Seriously,’ I said, focusing back on the job at hand. ‘I’m Chapter Advisor and it’s my duty to make sure no uninvited boys are at our events.’
‘Boys?’ Ty lifted a brow at me and damn if my heart didn’t thump extra hard again.
‘Uninvited guests,’ I amended, not wanting to give him the satisfaction.
After a beat, Ty answered my question. ‘I’m an Alpha Kappa.’
‘Which chapter?’ I asked, after I was momentarily distracted by his hand gently sweeping up my back.
‘This one.’ He tilted his head toward the group of young men currently dancing to a new Miley Cyrus song. The answer stunned me. Ty had to be around my age and if he was an Alpha Kappa who went to Sutton around my time …
I searched his gaze, racking my memory. Ty Hatfield. I wondered if Ty was a nickname, short for Tyler or Tyson or Tyrion. Maybe I would have known him by a different name? Before I could remember anything, there was a commotion coming from the booth where I had left Aubrey.
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