Adventures In Murder Chasing (Funeral Crashing #3) (18 page)

"You mean, what?" Ariel said. "Is this really where you want to talk about where we stand?"

"Um," I said and looked around the bathroom. Our location didn't seem as funny anymore. Still, I did want to talk to her. Shouldn't that count for something? "Uh."

"Look, I'm just here because of Troy. We're not friends," Ariel said before I could think of anything to say. "I'm here to help him."

"But why'd you meet me at Wired the other day then?" I asked.

"Well, I wanted to thank you for saving my life and..." Ariel stopped short.

"And what?" I asked.

"And nothing," Ariel said. "I was just thanking you for saving my life."

"Oh. Okay," I said. It wasn't okay, though.

"I'm done with my makeup," Ariel said.

She had been done for the last few minutes. We stared at each other and then Ariel turned around and walked out on me. I was left standing in the bathroom alone. I locked the door behind her. I needed a moment. Okay, maybe I needed two or three moments.

Ariel was already sitting next to Troy when I walked out of the bathroom. She didn't look at me as I walked by her and snuggled up next to Ethan. I tried not to look like I was upset. I needed Ethan's moral support, but this wasn't the time to tell him about it. Regardless, if I thought about it, what was there to be upset about, you know? It's not like Ariel and I were really friends anyway. So why did I feel so hurt? Like I had opened up a can of worms that maybe should have stayed closed? I put my head on Ethan's shoulder.

"You okay?" Ethan whispered in my ear as he stroked my hair.

"I'm fine," I said. "Just tired."

The four of us then proceeded to sit in awkward silence while we waited for the others to show up. Ariel was texting away. Troy was sipping on a coffee and looking at a newspaper that someone had left on a nearby table. I tried not to care, but the only way I was able to stand it was because of Ethan. I held his hand and let him continue to stroke my hair as I concentrated on my breathing. I could not cry. There was no way I could let Ariel see me do that.

Suzie and Kyle showed up about ten minutes later, giggling, and holding hands. I took a deep breath and sat up. I tried my best to push thoughts of Ariel out of my mind even though she was sitting almost next to me. I had to focus on the investigation. I waved at Suzie and Kyle to come and join us.

"Hey, guys," They said almost in unison as they walked up to us.

We all returned their greeting, except Ariel, who looked at me and said, "Can we tell you what we found out now? I want to go home."

"Go for it," I said. I bit my lip to keep myself from saying anything else.

Suzie and Kyle sat down next to Ethan and we all focused our attention on Ariel and Troy. Actually, I looked at Ariel's hands. I was still having some trouble reeling in my feelings.

"Well, we went to talk to Pete, Nico's friend, that Tim mentioned," Ariel said. "And he wasn't there. Can we go now?"

I shot Ariel a look. I couldn't help myself. She ignored me.

"We looked all over for him," Troy said, glancing at Ariel too. "We did talk to his roommate and he had met Nico, but didn't really have anything to say about him except that Nico and Pete were good friends. He had never seen them fight or anything. He told us to go find Pete after his English class, but Pete never walked out. So, he was a dead end. Nothing."

"That's too bad," I said. "But, alright, moving on. Ethan?"

"Okay. Well, Antonio's girlfriend, Aryana, got really upset when I talked to her. She said that Antonio was not with her that afternoon. He lied," Ethan said.

"Where was he then?" I asked.

"She didn't know," Ethan said. "She thought he was studying."

"Interesting," I said.

Why had Antonio lied about his whereabouts? Had he killed Nico after all? Was he really that competitive with his cousin? I hoped I didn't have to involve Fiorella. She had already lost a lot. Wait. Antonio wasn't jealous that his sister thought of Nico as more of an older brother than him, was he?

"Okay, let's keep moving. Kyle, Suzie? What did you find out?" Ariel asked. "I need to get home."

I shot Ariel another look, but again she ignored me. She was focused on Kyle and Suzie. Did Ariel really want to get away from me that badly? Had I offended her that much by wanting to finish the discussion about our friendship or lack thereof? I mean, I definitely had the answer to my question. It's why I was so upset. Ariel and I were obviously not friends at all. We were still what we had been: ex-bffs.

"We actually found out a lot," Kyle said. "Suzie?"

"Okay," Suzie said, pulling out a notepad from her purse, "First off, there's been six robberies. I have the details, but in general they've all been in public places like we thought. Stuff like backpacks and purses, just taken when their owners weren't paying attention."

"Snatch and grab type stealing," Kyle said. "No official leads, though. Some witnesses have said that they think they saw a girl near their stuff and others saw a guy. They all left their things sitting on a table or a bench or whatever, though, so who knows who actually took their stuff when the opportunity presented itself. None of them actually saw anything. Their things were just gone."

"Okay," I said. "Well, at least we know they're probably not related to Nico since he was in his room and it sounds like all of the thefts have been in public places."

"Yeah," Kyle said. "They're probably not related. Plus, nobody ever saw the thief."

"Moving on," Ariel said.

Her voice was starting to annoy me. It was good we weren't friends.

"Okay," Suzie said. "After that, we went down and talked to someone in the main office about the all A's clause if your roommate dies."

"We said we were writing an article," Kyle said.

"They laughed and then confirmed that there was no such clause," Suzie said. "And that there is no benefit at all to the roommate of someone who dies as far as any sort of gain. We made sure, just in case there might be some perk if your roommate died."

I nodded. Well, that was a dead end then too as far as Tim went, although he did still end up with a room to himself. I'm not sure that a ton of people would be knocking on his door either, to be his roommate, knowing that someone died in that room. I know I wouldn't sign up.

"Okay," I said. "Well..."

"Oh, and we found out one more thing," Kyle said. "I think you'll want to hear this."

"What?" I asked.

"Since we were already pretending to be writing an article, we tried to dig a little deeper," Suzie said. "We went to talk to campus security and we found out something pretty crazy. I think we got lucky because the guy we talked to was totally chatty."

"I think he had a crush on you," Kyle said. "I'm pretty sure he wasn't supposed to give us any information."

"Really?" Suzie asked, incredulous.

"Definitely," Kyle said. "Didn't you notice that he had put his hand on your arm?"

"Not really," Suzie said. "He was just talking to me."

"Uh-huh," Kyle said.

I'm glad I wasn't the only one who didn't notice if a guy was hitting on me. Then again, maybe Suzie and I just had boyfriends who were way too sensitive about other guys talking to their girlfriends. Nah, Suzie was super cute. He probably was hitting on her.

"What did you find out?" I asked, dying of anticipation.

Kyle and Suzie remembered that we were all still there.

"Sorry," Suzie said. "Go ahead Kyle."

"We found out that Nico was still alive when they found him," Kyle said.

"What?" Ethan, Ariel, Troy, and I all exclaimed in unison.

"He died at the hospital," Suzie said.

"But Tim never mentioned that," I said, still reeling from shock.

"Maybe he didn't know," Kyle said. "Or he didn't want to tell us. The guy we talked to said that Nico was unconscious until the paramedics came and lifted him onto the stretcher."

"Really?" I asked, feeling a sudden hope that we might have a very big lead in the case. "Did he wake up?"

"Yes, he did," Suzie said.

Kyle continued for her, "He woke up, looked around and said something like: Bookshelf. Sorry. Fell. Where is he? Accident. Mom. Dad. Hurts."

“Basically he was rambling,” Suzie finished. “Still, he did say accident. Do you guys think it just fell and maybe he wasn’t murdered?”

"Was the guy sure that was what Nico said?" I asked. "Maybe he didn't remember it right."

Kyle shook his head, "He was pretty adamant. Said he'd never heard someone's last words before and couldn't forget them."

“Sounds like Nico wasn't murdered then,” Ariel said. “He did say accident.”

I stared at Kyle and Suzie, completely ignoring Ariel’s comment. Seriously? Did Nico really just have an accident? I looked around at the others. They all looked like they were thinking it over. I could read it on their faces, they were quickly moving to the: it was only an accident conclusion. This latest tidbit had pushed them over the edge and into that camp. Regardless of if Antonio was where he said he was going to be, if Tim wanted a room to himself or not or was a total player, if Dex wanted to kill his girlfriend's ex that she still loved, if Marissa wanted to kill Nico because he didn't want to date her anymore, if Nico had someone from his past out to get him, or any other scenario that I hadn't come across yet or forgot, it looked like it was all for naught. I had just investigated another tragic death that looked like it was not a murder. I mean, the truth had come from Nico's own mouth before he died. Accident. That said it all. Should I really give up?

I noticed that everyone was looking at me. They must be thinking the same thing I was, that we had just wasted an entire college day on nothing. I felt bad. I looked at Troy. He was looking at me.

"It was worth a shot," Troy said.

“You think it’s an accident after all too?” I asked. He was my most important ally in all of this. I was investigating for him, after all.

“It’s sure sounding like it,” Troy frowned. “Nico said the word accident, not killer or attack or murder. Plus we haven’t found anything else that suggests murder. Everyone thinks it was an accident. This sounds like the last of the proof. It’s time to give it up.”

I nodded, but looked at Kyle. “What did Nico say again?”

Kyle referred to his notes, “Bookshelf. Sorry. Fell. Where is he? Accident. Mom. Dad. Hurts.”

I repeated those words in my head. “What about the where is he? That could mean something, right?”

Ethan took my hand. “He was probably looking for Tim. Tim found him after all and called for help. Plus he was the closest familiar face.”

I nodded. Ethan was right. Accident. It was an accident. I tried to let it sink in, but it didn’t want to. The others all murmured their agreement. They were all on board with the accident theory. I didn’t want to, but I guessed it was time to throw in the towel. I couldn’t think of where I might find more proof that it was murder. I supposed if something else came my way, I could try and investigate it again. I’d have to do it in secret, of course. Or maybe I should really just let it go. An accident, however tragic, was always just an accident in the end. I sighed. My gut was conflicted, but everyone else’s gut was saying accident.

"Sorry guys," I said. "I really thought that this one was strange enough to be murder."

"It was," Ethan said letting go of my hand and putting his arm around my shoulders, pulling me closer to him in a sort of side hug, "It just turned out not to be. You still did what you set out to do - find out for sure what happened to Nico."

"Still, I'm sorry that I wasted everyone's time," I said.

"You didn't," Troy said interrupting me before I could continue. "Seriously. Thank you for trying. I..."

Troy broke off and looked emotional. I shot Ariel a look, but she was looking at her phone and totally oblivious. Someone had texted her again and she was replying.

"Ariel," I hissed, kicking her leg. Even if we weren't friends, someone had to remind her that she needed to pay attention to her boyfriend in his time of need.

She looked up at me immediately and I purposely looked over at Troy, who was still having a hard time continuing. Ariel put a hand on his arm. He looked up at her and smiled and then looked back at me.

"It really means a lot to me," Troy said. "That you even tried, that all of you tried because now I know."

I nodded. I knew what he meant. Still, it's not that I wished that Nico really had been murdered, but it just felt like there should be more to the story, you know? Maybe I needed to get out of the sleuthing business. Maybe I was too obsessed like Ethan said. I should just focus on being a normal teenage girl with a really great boyfriend. That was my new plan. No more murder mysteries for me. I just wanted life to get back to normal. It was time for all of us to go home.