Adventures In Murder Chasing (Funeral Crashing #3) (16 page)

Marissa immediately turned to look at Kara, who nodded again. Marissa sighed, but didn't say anything.

"It's okay, Marissa," Kara said. "Tell her about him."

Marissa nodded and looked at me. "It's just hard to talk about Nico. I know we were broken up, but I still loved him, you know?"

I nodded, but didn't say anything. I didn't want to interrupt Marissa now that she was actually telling me something.

"We met in World History class. You have to take it and we both hated history. Our teacher was so boring. It was one of those classes where I could barely stay awake. He'd poke me when I was falling asleep. He always seemed to be sitting near me. Then we started talking and passing notes in class. He totally kept me awake. Plus he was really funny. I practically died trying not to laugh for the last half of that semester. Then one day Nico asked me out and it was really great for like five months. We fell in love, like the real thing, you know? And, then..." Marissa stopped talking and held back a sob.

I was silent, waiting for her to continue. Kara handed Marissa a tissue. Marissa took it and pressed it to her eyes. Marissa did seem genuinely upset. Either that or Marissa was a great actress.

A moment later Marissa continued, "And then Nico broke up with me. It was out of nowhere. We were so good together. There was nothing wrong. We always had a great time with each other and then, nothing. He just called me and said we were over. It was out of nowhere. We had a date the night before and things were fine, so I had no idea what went wrong. I asked him and he just said that he didn't want to be tied down right now. It was ridiculous, you know? He told me that he loved me first. I didn't say it. He said it. He asked me out. Then suddenly he didn't want to be tied down? What the heck?"

"It's okay, Marissa," Kara broke in, putting a hand on Marissa's arm in an effort to calm her.

Marissa took a deep breath. She was trying to breathe and calm down, but I could still see the anger in her eyes.

Marissa looked at me, "He had no reason to break up with me. I went a little crazy after that for a couple of weeks. I was just so mad at him. I shouldn't have let it get to me like that, but I felt like an idiot. I was really angry."

"There was a lot of ice cream involved," Kara interjected, trying to lighten the mood with humor.

"Ice cream didn't help, though. I just wanted to get back together with him, but I ended up making things worse," Marissa said. "It was awful."

"So you weren't dating anyone else at the time?" I asked, carefully. "When you were dating Nico?"

"No," Marissa said. "Why? Did someone say that?"

"Well, Tim kind of did," I said and then clarified, "Nico's roommate."

"Tim said that I was cheating on Nico?" Marissa asked, eyes wide.

"He said that was why Nico broke up with you," I clarified.

"Seriously?" Marissa said.

"Seriously," I replied.

"He sabotaged me!" Marissa exclaimed. "That dirt bag!"

"What?" I asked.

"Tim is such a dirt bag. He has eyes for other girls and oh, I know he has a girlfriend. She is so all about him too, but he has a wandering eye. He's a total player. He made a pass at me one night when I came to see Nico. Nico wasn't there, but Tim invited me in to wait for him. Nico was supposed to be back from work any minute. Tim totally tried to kiss me while I was there, waiting. He made me swear not to tell Nico or his girlfriend and I didn't, but I can't believe he told Nico that I was cheating on him. I was so not," Marissa said. "I can't believe him. Wow. Wow. Wow."

My mind took in what Marissa was saying. If it was true, Tim had potentially caused Nico and Marissa's breakup. That could be an interesting development.

Still, I felt like I should backtrack a little. Marissa was really upset and I needed her to keep talking, "Did you date someone right after Nico, though? Maybe that's what..."

"Yeah, to get back at Nico for dumping me, but I was not cheating on him. And yeah, I went a little nuts the first couple of weeks like I said and then I just didn't want Nico to think that I was sitting at home pining for him or anything. I am not a total loser, so I went and found a rebound boyfriend," Marissa said. "That's normal, though. I didn't want Nico to start dating someone else first. I wanted him to regret dumping me."

"And try and get you back?" I offered.

"Yeah," Marissa said and sniffed, "But that's not gonna happen now."

"What happened to the rebound boyfriend?" I asked.

"Oh, we're still going out or whatever, but it's not like I really like him or anything," Marissa said. "I don't mean that in a mean way, I just... He's okay to hang out with. I've been really kind of depressed, though, since Nico, you know, so I haven't seen too much of him."

I nodded. Marissa definitely had some issues. Still, she had lost forever the guy that she had a major crush on. She deserved some freak out time, if she needed it. I just couldn't help but wonder if she was like this all the time - a drama queen.

"What's his name? The rebound guy?" I asked.

"Dex Cutler. Why?" Marissa asked and then it seemed to dawn on her. "Oh, he didn't kill Nico. Believe me. He's such a geek. I mean, he's nice and all, but he's kind of the total opposite of Nico. He's into school and computer games and stuff and he's just a freshman."

I nodded. "I need to check out everyone."

Marissa nodded. "Well, he's a dead end."

"Okay," I said, but I knew I'd want to form my own opinion. "Can you at least tell me where I might find him? I'd still like to talk to him."

Marissa frowned and looked a little pouty, but said, "He lives over in Keller Dorm, 508."

"Thanks," I said.

"But please don't say anything about what I said if you talk to him. He's a nice guy and I don't want to hurt him," Marissa said.

I had to stop myself from telling Marissa that if Dex was a rebound guy he was already going to get hurt. Instead I started to say, "Well I'll..."

"And I think that's all Marissa can take," Kara interrupted.

I glanced at Marissa who looked at Kara. I wondered if I should protest, but I didn't. I felt like I had at least learned a little bit. I definitely wanted to check out Dex Cutler. I also wondered if I should question Tim again. Did he really make a pass at Marissa? Maybe Nico found out and there was a fight. I also made a mental note to come back to talk to Marissa when Kara was somewhere else if I needed to talk to her again.

"Okay," I said. "Thanks for your help, Marissa."

Marissa nodded. "Let me know what happens, okay?"

"Okay," I said.

Kara was already ushering me toward the door. She opened it and was waiting for me to walk out. I took my time, taking a last glance around the living room for anything that might be of interest. There wasn't anything out of the ordinary except wads and wads of tissues from Marisa's crying jag. Maybe she was telling the truth. She was pretty upset.

"Thanks, Kara," I said as I walked out. "For letting me in to talk to Marissa."

"No problem," Kara said. "Marissa didn't do it, though. You can see that, right?"

I nodded, but didn't say anything. It did seem like Marissa was genuinely distraught, but I'd have to form my own opinion on her guilt or innocence when I had time to think about it some more. I was on information overload and I'd need some time to process everything and see how it all fit together.

I turned to go, but then stopped and looked back at Kara, "Hey, Kara."

"Yeah?" Kara said.

"Do me a favor and don't tell your dad I'm investigating Nico's death," I said.

"Why not?" Kara asked.

I hesitated, trying to think of the right way to phrase it, "Well, he might not be too happy about it."

"No, he probably wouldn't be," Kara smiled. "Just so you know, though, he thought you'd make a good detective someday, when it could actually be official."

"Really?" I asked.

I was surprised. I thought Detective Dixon mostly considered me a meddling teenager. He may have said some nice things about me to Kara, but that was beyond nice. That was a huge compliment, actually, and I mean, I totally was a meddling teenager. Still, if Detective Dixon really thought that about me too, that I had potential to be the real thing one day, that was pretty cool. Is that what I wanted to do? Be a real official detective one day? Hmmm...

"Yeah, really," Kara said breaking into my thoughts.

"Okay," I said and walked out of the door with a smile on my face.

Kara shut the door behind me. I was alone in the hall. I was still nowhere near done with my investigation on Nico's death, but I felt suddenly elated. If Detective Dixon thought I had the potential to be a good detective, maybe my instincts were right and I should stop doubting them. Maybe Nico really was murdered.

I had a little over forty minutes to kill before meeting up with the others. I decided to make use of it and see if I could find and talk to Marissa's rebound boyfriend, Dex Cutler.

I walked over to Keller Dorm after consulting my campus map and was finally met by a security guard. I was surprised. He didn't look much older than me, but he wouldn't let me up to Dex's room and pointed me to a phone with a directory. He told me to call up for Dex. I wondered why some dorms had security and Nico's hadn't. Could a security guard have saved his life, by not letting his killer enter the building? Of course, if his killer was a friend or his roommate, that wouldn't have mattered.

The phone rang twice before a male voice answered.

"Hi. Dex?" I said into the phone.

"Oh. No." The male voice on the other end of the line said. I had the distinct impression that he had been asleep even though it was the middle of the afternoon, "Dex is at work."

"Oh," I said. I didn't have time to wait for Dex to get back from work. "Maybe I can meet up with him at work. He's in one of my classes and I have a question for him. Can you tell me where he works? I really need to talk to him."

"He's at the front desk of Mycroft."

"Is that a dorm?" I asked.

"Yeah," The guy said.

"Thanks. I really appreciate it," I said and hung up the phone.

As if on cue my cell phone buzzed. I had a text.

It was Ethan:
Done talking to Aryana. You done yet? All ok?

I just needed fifteen more minutes:
All good. Almost done. See you in fifteen or so.

I ran across campus. I didn't want to be late seeing Ethan and I still wanted to talk to Dex. I made it to Mycroft Dorm in record time. I was a little out of breath, though.

I walked into the building and felt a little turned around. There was no front desk. It looked like I was at a back entrance. There was just a row of mailboxes and the doors to the stairwells were locked. I walked back outside. I was in the correct building, right? I pulled out my campus map and took another look at it. Landale College had a way bigger campus than my high school. I didn't have time for this. Ethan was going to start freaking if I didn't show up at our meeting spot in fifteen minutes. I had to hurry.

"Lost?" A guy asked me. His nose sounded stuffed up.

I looked up from my map. The guy had curly brown hair with a cap on and a grey hoodie. He was wearing grey pants too. He actually kind of looked like he was in maintenance, but he looked too young for a job like that, like maybe he was just a sloppy freshman. He was putting a tissue up to his nose. Gross. I stepped back from him, not wanting to catch his cold. I couldn't miss more days of school. Wait. He'd have to know where the front desk of Mycroft Dorm was, right? College campuses were confusing.

"I'm looking for the front desk of Mycroft Dorm?" I said, my voice raising an octave at the end and turning my statement into a question.

The guy nodded and pointed around the building. "The main entrance is around the corner."

"Oh," I said and nodded. "Thanks. Wait. Do you live here?"

"Maybe," the guy said, giving me a questioning look. "Why?"

"Do you know Dex? He works the front desk?" I asked.

The guy frowned at me, "Uh. I think I've seen him."

"What's he like?" I asked.

"Are you hot for him or something?" The guy asked after blowing his nose in a tissue again.

"No," I said feeling my cheeks burn anyway. "Just curious about him."

"He's given me toilet paper and that's about it," The guy said. "You're not going for a job there are you?"

"No," I said, thinking that a job that sounded as easy as a desk assistant's wouldn't be bad, though, when I went to college and had to quit my video store job.

"Good," He said. "They don't do anything. Good luck."

"Hey, wait," I said before he walked away. Maybe another student would have some insight into campus security. It was probably better that I ask him than a desk assistant at a dorm who might think that I was going to stage a break in with the information, "Is it pretty easy to get into on campus apartments?"