Ty Hatfield was (unusually) right. I had to protect and serve myself.
CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR
At the police station, I demanded to see the officer in charge of the Liza McCarthy investigation. That sounded really official.
Unfortunately, no one was there to hear my authority in person.
Seriously, what was with this town?
I stumbled down the hall to Ty Hatfield’s office. Was it bad that I now knew how to find it on my own? I opened the door and saw Ty behind his desk, but he wasn’t alone.
Professor Dean Xavier sat across from Ty, turned, pointed at me and said, ‘That’s her. That’s the one who blackmailed me.’
I’m not ashamed to say I shut the door pretty quickly.
Of course, I didn’t go anywhere. I was still frozen in the hall wondering what the heck the sociology professor meant by that when Ty came out in the hall. ‘Come with me,’ he said. We went two doors down to another office. It was the same as his, with a window, a bookshelf, a desk and two chairs, except you could tell this one was currently unoccupied. ‘Stay right here. Do not move.’
He left before I could tell him why I had come.
Five minutes later, Ty returned. ‘Come with me,’ he said again. But this time, I didn’t feel like obeying his every little order.
‘Look,’ I said, holding my cell phone up to emphasise. ‘I don’t appreciate being ordered around. I came down here to have a civil conversation about the Liza McCarthy investigation. I don’t appreciate being held in custody in an office with no Wi-Fi!’
He took a step towards me, his tall body seeming taller when he was looming so impressively. His finger went up too, presumably to emphasise. ‘I don’t appreciate spoiled sorority girls withholding relevant information to a murder investigation. Come. With. Me. Now.’
I went, although I didn’t appreciate being called a girl. I was clearly a full grown, twenty-seven-year-old woman. I really wished he would treat me as such.
We returned back to his office and Dean Xavier was still there. He looked nervous when he saw me. I really didn’t understand why. Here I thought we’d left on good terms.
Ty took charge of the room. He pointed at me. ‘Professor Xavier, are you sure this is who you’re talking about?’
Xavier licked his lips and his eyes blinked quickly. ‘Yes, this is who I was telling you about.’
‘You’re making a positive identification that this woman blackmailed you.’
‘WHAT?!’ I couldn’t help but exclaim. I had never officially blackmailed anyone in my whole life.
But Dean Xavier apparently disagreed. ‘She came to my office and said she had Liza McCarthy’s records and would expose the department if I didn’t do what she said.’
I couldn’t believe it. It was a complete falsehood wrapped up in just enough truth to make it dangerous.
‘What did I want you to do?’ I asked him because I was curious. I had no clue what he was talking about.
Ty looked at me like I shouldn’t have said anything. But really, did he expect me to come in here and not talk? He obviously didn’t know me that well.
Dean swallowed, hard. It was so obvious he was nervous. What could he possibly be scared of? Me? No one had ever been scared of me. Except that chapter in Miami. They had been in big trouble.
‘You wanted a permanent position in the sociology department,’ Xavier said. ‘You said if I didn’t hire you, you’d tell everyone that we knowingly approved of Liza McCarthy’s unethical research.’
I couldn’t help but laugh in his face. ‘That’s so stupid! One, I’m a philosophy major. Two, if I was going to blackmail you, I wouldn’t publicise Liza McCarthy’s research, I’d let everyone know about how you like to tie girls up and [redacted due to sorority standards].’
Dean’s eyes nearly popped out of his head. Ty’s eyes closed, with an ‘I wish I hadn’t heard that’ expression. Me? I wished I had thought through that statement before sending it out of my mouth.
There was an awkward silence. Ty was the first to speak. ‘Thank you for coming down, Professor Xavier. We’ll stay in touch about the investigation.’ He led the still gaping professor out and when he returned to the office, I had some choice words to say.
‘Him? You’ll stay in touch about that investigation? But you won’t keep me updated about our investigation?’
He ignored that question. ‘What he had to say looks very, very bad.’
‘Why won’t you talk to me about Liza’s murder? It involves our chapter and the girls I’m in charge of. And I need to be able to protect them and I can’t if we’re constantly afraid that there’s a murderer or a fraternity out there …’
I paused, my mouth dropping as the craziest thought occurred to me.
‘A fraternity …’ I repeated. My stomach dropped like I had been on a rollercoaster. Could it be? ‘What if this was all a stupid, misguided prank?’ I voiced the crazy thought out loud. Ty shook his head at me.
‘No.’
But it made brutal, sickening sense. ‘Maybe they just were playing a joke on Liza and it went horribly wrong.’
Ty cut me off. ‘We know what the murder weapon was.’
That was news to me. ‘What was it? Did it come back in the tests?’
Ty nodded slowly, watching me closely. ‘Botox.’
I laughed at the very unfunny joke. Then I saw he wasn’t joining in.
‘Wait. Are you serious? You can die from that?’
‘When it’s injected into someone in a large enough amount.’
‘So someone can just walk up to me and inject me with a huge amount of Botox and I’ll die?’
Ty made a face like that was no big deal.
I put my hands on my hips and stared at him.
‘Well, you’d think you’d notice that,’ he allowed.
‘Why didn’t Liza notice it?’
‘Maybe she did and didn’t know it would hurt her.’ His face shuttered after that. ‘I’m talking way too much.’
‘No, you’re not,’ I said. ‘You’re, like, the opposite of talking too much.’
‘Do you have a response to Dean Xavier’s statement?’
I saw what he did there. Like I wasn’t going to notice a change in topic of conversation. But I had to respond to his question. I most definitely had a response. ‘Bee. Ess.’
‘Really?’
‘Really. That’s my official response. You can write it down. Seriously. It’s so ridiculous, I shouldn’t even have to respond. Like someone like me would want a job in a sociology department.’ I shuddered. It wasn’t an affectation. I literally shuddered at the idea of working in a sociology department. And I wasn’t even sure what that would involve.
Ty picked his words carefully, his eyes alert. ‘But you knew about his … preferences.’
That was one way of putting it. I really didn’t want to explain how I knew about Dean Xavier’s ‘preferences.’ And certainly not to Ty Hatfield.
My hands went back on my hips. ‘Girls talk. I don’t know. You can ask Amanda Cohen.’
‘The woman who was assaulted by Stefanie Grossman?’
‘And my friend. She’s dating Dean Xavier. Although I don’t think anyone’s supposed to know about that.’
Ty raised his eyebrows. ‘College policy,’ I said but when I did, I realised I wasn’t sure that was it. Amanda had never said why they were keeping their relationship hush-hush. ‘And she’s a Delta Beta.’
‘You don’t say,’ Ty said in a flat voice.
‘I have lots of friends who aren’t Debs,’ I said.
‘Name one.’
‘Casey Kenner.’ Technically, that was true. Which was a shame because he would be such a good sister.
‘Is that the guy you were with at the mixer?’
Something in his voice made me remember the dance we’d shared. There had been something there, I thought. And I felt maybe there still could be, if I didn’t keep finding dead bodies and being accused of blackmail.
CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE
I was upstairs in Asha’s room going over some receipts for a date party when a pledge knocked on the door shyly.
‘There’s someone downstairs who needs to see you.’
That wasn’t unusual. There was always someone who needed to see me. ‘It’s the police,’ she added. That wasn’t unusual either, I thought glumly.
Ty and Officer Malouf were waiting in the two-storey foyer with the curving staircase. I descended down the staircase as Debs ran up and down and all around. It said something about a chapter when two police officers didn’t even make them blink. I was proud of their composure.
Finally, I reached them and knew something was up when Ty looked at me with a regretful resolve in his eyes. ‘You have the right to remain silent.’
He stepped closer to me and took something shiny out of his back pocket. ‘Anything you say can and will be used against you.’
It was unreal, like I was in my own personal episode of Law & Order.
‘You have the right to an attorney or one will be provided to you if you cannot afford an attorney.’ He went a bit off script there, I thought vaguely. This wasn’t real; it couldn’t be real. But then the cuffs wrapped around my wrists and I felt their cool bite.
I couldn’t understand it. Delta Betas did not get arrested for murder. Speeding tickets, sure. Public intoxication? On rare occasions. Streaking through campus? Only once. But murder? That just didn’t happen.
But this was happening. The weight of a hundred eyes was heavy on my shoulders as Ty led me to the cruiser and put me in the back – on purpose this time. I could only hold my head up and pray that someone up there gave me a Greek judge.
Ty didn’t speak to me during the drive to the station, or when he walked me in the back door and put me in the holding cell. At least I wasn’t alone. Hunter was in there, too.
I sat down on the opposite side of the cell from Hunter, staring down at the drain in the middle of the floor, wondering if it was used for what I feared it was used for.
‘What are you in for?’ Hunter said, in a tone that was maybe, kind of joking. I flashed my best prison mama don’t-mess-with-me look. He shut up after that.
Time went by very slowly on my Michael Kors watch. Finally, Ty appeared at the bars. There was a deep furrow between his eyebrows. I hadn’t been fingerprinted, or arraigned, or had a mug shot taken. I wasn’t sure in which order these things were supposed to go and there was a part of me that was dying to know. But there was also a part of me that didn’t want to remind him. If I could just stay here, with Hunter, in the cell, I could pretend that I was accidentally locked up again, that this was all a bad joke.
The expression on Ty’s face showed it wasn’t a joke. He wrapped his hands around the bars.
‘How bad is it?’ I asked. Might as well know.
Ty flinched. Ouch.
‘You had motive. You heard about the phone sex ring and you wanted to keep it quiet.’
That was true.
‘You had opportunity. You were with Liza McCarthy before and during her death.’
As were fifty other sisters.
‘The murder weapon was in your apartment.’
The Botox vial in the medicine cabinet.
‘Is that all?’ I tried making a joke about it. Ty didn’t laugh.
‘Murder?’ Hunter asked incredulously. I had forgotten he was there so I turned around and gave him a shut-the-hell-up-before-I-shiv-you-in-the-shower look.
I turned back to Ty who continued spelling out the case against me. ‘Dean Xavier’s statement is a pretty damaging testimony.’
I shook my head. It was complete horse dookie. But good luck with proving that.
‘Then you found Stefanie Grossman’s body and Amanda Cohen’s statement puts the final nail in the coffin.’
I froze. ‘Who?’
‘Amanda Cohen.’
‘She’s my big sister!’
Ty really looked regretful now. ‘I’m sorry, Margot.’
What could Amanda have possibly said?
He answered my unspoken question. ‘Your altercation with Ainsley St. John.’
I gaped at him. ‘My what? We had a discussion on a public sidewalk and both times Ainsley approached me, I never laid a finger on her.’
Ty’s gaze didn’t waver. ‘Am I a suspect in her accident, too?’ My voice was way calmer than it should have been.
‘We can see what she says when she wakes up.’
‘If she wakes up,’ Hunter added. Then he apologised after he felt the wrath in my glare.
I let it all sink in and that’s when I did a very un-Delta Beta thing. I swore. Loudly and colourfully.
I stood up and faced Ty at the bars. He was just inches away. ‘I didn’t do this, Ty.’
He took an uneven breath. ‘I think I agree.’
‘YOU THINK?’ As a suspect and a citizen, those words were not comforting.
He chewed on his lip and then decided to say something. ‘We were freshmen. It was some pledge mixer. Ice cream social, I think. And there were some girls who were straight up bitches.’
‘Why?’ I asked. It would help me narrow down the pool of potential bitches.
He shrugged. ‘It doesn’t matter anymore. The point is, you marched over and you lectured them for a good fifteen minutes on their conduct. Told them they should respect and represent their letters.’ His lips quirked up at the memory. ‘That they should be ladies.’
I shook my head. It was a nice story but I didn’t see his point.
Ty frowned at the floor, his hair hanging down, partially obscuring his eyes. ‘Seems like someone who cares that much about proper behaviour wouldn’t poison a sister with a hefty dose of Botox.’
For the first time, I felt a wave of hopelessness wash over me. Maybe a sister who cared about proper behaviour would do exactly that. To protect the sorority she loved from a phone sex operation that could ruin its reputation forever.
My head dropped and my forehead rested against the bars. They were cool and comforting, you know, for jail. I had nothing to say. No way to convince anyone that I hadn’t murdered Liza. Or Stefanie. Or attacked Ainsley.
And even if I did have something to say, my Miranda rights were there for a reason. Only the guilty start blabbing to the cops. I knew that much from Law & Order. I also knew something else.
‘I want a phone call.’ I glanced up and saw Ty staring, just inches away from me.
Ty sighed heavily. ‘I don’t want to have to do that.’
I pushed away from the bars and put my hands on my hips. He was the one who put me behind bars; he had to deal with the consequences.
In short order, I was given access to a phone where I promptly called Casey. Mostly because his was the only phone number I knew. I always wondered about that while watching Law & Order. How did people know their lawyer’s numbers off the tops of their heads? Or their mother’s, for that matter? No one memorised phone numbers anymore in this day and age. But Casey also had two semesters of law school under his belt and as public relations director for Delta Beta, he knew more lawyers than Lindsay Lohan. (No comment on why he knew so many lawyers.)
While I was waiting for Casey’s wheels of justice to start turning, I found myself face to face with a real criminal: Hunter Curtis.
I tried avoiding him for a while, but that was hard in a bare room, twelve by twelve with white walls and yellowed linoleum on the floor. I could only avert my eyes towards the drain so many times before I was completely grossed out.
Finally, I couldn’t avoid him anymore. ‘Humph.’ It was pointed sound, exaggerated and obvious.
Hunter immediately looked guilty. Good. ‘What do you have to say for yourself?’ I demanded.
He shook his head, looking stricken.
‘That’s it? You don’t have anything to say for yourself? You betrayed us, Hunter. We trusted you. The sisters of Delta Beta trusted you. And what did you do with that trust? You trashed it just like you t
rashed the office.’
‘Miss Blythe, I’m sorry.’ Hunter shook his head again sorrowfully. ‘I can’t tell you how sorry I am.’
‘But you did it anyway. Just because some stupid boys asked you to.’ I remembered my conversation with Callie the night before, about stupid boys and how we didn’t need them.
‘Boys?’ Hunter lifted tortured eyes toward me. ‘What boys?’
‘Okay, fine, men,’ I snapped, remembering that frats preferred being called men. Not like they acted like it.
That didn’t change the confusion on Hunter’s face. ‘What men?’
‘Your brothers, the ones who asked you to help them with their fraternity prank.’
‘I didn’t …’
‘And what did you do with the file, Hunter?’ I demanded, remembering the sensitive information contained in it. ‘Did you post it in your house? Who did you share it with?’
‘God, no!’ I had to say, Hunter seemed convincing in his tortured guilt. ‘I would never do that. I love …’
He broke off and swallowed hard, turning his face away from me.
‘Who?’ I asked, more gently this time. Then I realised. ‘Stefanie? You loved Stefanie?’ Everything clicked into place. ‘You loved her and were trying to protect her, weren’t you?’
Hunter paused, then closed his eyes tightly and nodded. My heart melted for him. This was true love I was dealing with. Of course he was being brave and defiant. He had broken into the Chapter Advisor’s office and stolen Stefanie’s file to protect her.
‘You were the boy at the football stadium.’
The words seemed to sink Hunter into a deeper, mournful guilt. He nodded glumly.
Then a horrible, horrible thought occurred to me. Did he know about Stefanie’s death? I moved across the cell and placed a gentle hand on his shoulder. ‘Hunter, did you hear about what happened, to Stefanie?’
He nodded slowly. ‘When Officer Hatfield said you were the one who found her.’
Oh yeah. I had forgotten he was there. ‘Lieutenant. Lieutenant Hatfield.’ I corrected him. ‘But …’ I searched his face. ‘Are you okay?’ He didn’t seem that broken up about his true love dying.
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