Adventures In Murder Chasing (Funeral Crashing #3) (17 page)

The guy frowned. "You can get in anywhere if you want to."

"But is there security cameras or anything like that?" I asked. "Or guards or anything?"

"Well, the freshman dorms all have a security guard and you have to sign in, but the upper class dorms and apartments are just swipe key locks. And the cameras, doubt it. All the guards are students anyway," The guy said.

"Cool, thanks," I said. I already knew how easy it had been to get up to Nico's apartment. It was kind of scary to think that his killer could get to anyone that easily. Of course, that was if Nico was murdered. I had to keep remembering that if even though my gut wanted to forget it.

The guy nodded and walked away, taking another blow into his tissue. Gross. I'd have to drink some orange juice later and make sure I didn't get sick. I walked to the other side of the building where he had pointed me and finally found the front desk. I saw three employees behind the large front desk. One was a lady who was older, like forty or something, so I guessed she was the supervisor or whatever. The other two were college age. I couldn't see their nametags from where I was at, but I had a good idea who Dex might be from what Marissa had told me about him.

I thought for a second about what I was going to do, made a quick decision, and walked up to the counter. The one I hoped was Dex walked up to me. He was wearing hipster glasses, skinny jeans, and a contrasting uniform polo that was emblazoned with the words: Mycroft Dorm.

"Hi," I said.

"Hi," The guy I hoped was Dex said and smiled at me. "Can I help you?"

"I'm kind of lost," I said. "My cousin Marissa lives in this dorm. I think. I mean, I'm kind of lost, so yeah. Can you tell me if she lives here?"

"Marissa?" Dex looked at me questioningly. "What's her last name?"

"Marissa Dayton," I said, trying to look completely and utterly innocent.

"Wait, uh," Dex seemed confused. "Uh, actually, this is random, but she doesn't live in this dorm. I know her. She lives over at Brayden Apartments. It's technically an off-campus apartment. This is a freshman dorm."

"What?" I tried my best to look surprised. "But. Are you sure? Do you know her or something?"

Dex smiled. "It's funny. I'm her boyfriend."

I plastered an excited smile on my face. I hoped I was at the very least a decent actress, "Oh my gosh! It's so good to meet you. Nico, right?"

Dex's smile froze. "Uh..."

Before Dex could say anything, I interrupted him, wanting to drill my point home, "She has talked so much about you, Nico. It's so great to finally meet you. Seriously."

"Uh, actually, I'm Dex. I'm Marissa's new boyfriend. We're going out now," Dex said. "Nico is her ex-boyfriend."

I noticed that he didn't mention that Nico was dead. I feigned complete and utter horror. I mean, if this was a real conversation, I had just made an incredibly horrible faux pas. I hoped it didn't backfire on Marissa. Although, truth be told, if she didn't really like Dex, they would probably break up anyway. I tried not to feel too guilty. I had to keep up the charade.

"Oh my gosh. I am so sorry," I said. "She just...I just... Well, Nico was the last guy she mentioned to me and I thought... Wow, I am so sorry."

Dex smiled, "It's okay. They only broke up recently. And yeah, I know she's still hurting about him, but between you and me, I really like her. I think she'll come around."

I nodded, mind reeling. Dex was acting really nice about it. I peered at him, looking for any subtle cues that he was faking his niceness. Could he have killed Nico to have Marissa all to himself? Was that his eye twitching? Was he holding back anger? Or was he just blinking? I really couldn't tell.

"Anyway, don't tell her I said that," Dex said. "I don't want to freak her out. We're still just getting to know each other. We're just hanging out."

"Oh, I won't say anything," I said. "Don't worry. I'd be too embarrassed. I'm so sorry."

"It's okay," Dex said.

"Not really. I feel so terrible," I said. "Wow, she and Nico broke up. Do you know what happened?"

"No idea," Dex said. "We don't talk about him. I mean, we both knew him, so..."

"Wait. What?" I asked. "You know Nico?"

"Well, yeah. He worked at one of the other residence halls and we have competitions and meetings and stuff together sometimes. We all kind of know each other," Dex said.

"And you didn't like want to kill him or anything for having gone out with Marissa?" I asked.

"What? No. Of course not," Dex said, looking horrified.

"I mean, I'd understand if you did," I said.

Dex looked torn, "I wouldn't and actually, there's something you should know. I mean, Marissa is really broken up about it, so don't say anything, but Nico died. Like really died. It was an accident, but still."

I tried to look shocked again. "Wow. I didn't know. Wow. I'm just having one of those days, you know? Uh, I'm going to go now, actually. Sorry, again."

I turned to leave.

"Wait," Dex called after me.

I froze, worrying that somehow Dex knew who I was and that I was caught. I turned to look back at him.

"What?" I asked.

"Let me give you the instructions to Marissa's," Dex said and then proceeded to give me instructions on how to get to her apartment.

I feigned interest and then got away from him as quickly as I could. I was a little worried that he would call Marissa and blow my cover before I got far enough away. I didn't relax until the building was far behind me and I was halfway to the spot that I had designated for everyone to meet after each of their investigations was wrapped up.

There was a campus coffee shop, according to my research, in the middle of campus. It was already crowded inside when I got there with students studying. College was looking more amazing by the moment. There was something so cool about being able to just hang out in a coffee shop in the middle of your school campus and do your homework. I wondered if they had a peanut butter banana milkshake. I ignored my craving. I looked around and spotted Ethan at a corner table. He was the only one there ahead of me.

He saw me at the same time I saw him and grinned. I smiled back. Every time I saw him it hit me how much I lo...liked him. Whoa, I need to stop doing that. I walked as quickly as I could toward him without breaking into a run.

"Hey," Ethan said as I walked up, automatically reaching out to pull me into a kiss.

I relaxed into it and for a moment I was in pure and utter bliss in his arms as I kissed him back. Murder mysteries, peanut butter banana milkshakes, and everything else was put out of my mind and all there was, was Ethan and me kissing. I could have stayed in that moment forever, but my brain kicked on and reminded me that we had work to do.

"Hey," I said, as we broke apart. I smiled up at him.

"So, how'd it go?" Ethan asked. "Everything okay? No problems?"

"Were you worried about me?" I grinned.

"Of course," Ethan said and tried to tickle me.

I wiggled out of his grasp and almost fell out of my chair. He caught my arm. I gazed into his eyes.

Ethan's look turned serious, "But you already knew that. You've gotten yourself into way too many hazardous scrapes for me not to be worried about you. So, did you find anything out?"

"Well..." I started and then stopped. "Let's wait until everybody gets back. Then I'll tell everyone at once."

"I definitely found out something interesting," Ethan said.

"Oh?" I asked.

Ethan smiled at me, "But you're going to have to wait until everyone gets back."

I made a face at him. He made a face back. We both burst into giggles. I loved...oh geez.

"What's so funny?" Ariel asked as she and Troy walked up to us.

"Nothing," I said quickly, sobering up. Ariel couldn't read my mind, right? Plus I felt a little weird being goofy in front of Ariel. I felt, instead, like I should always be on high alert. "We're just waiting on Suzie and Kyle then, um, before we talk about what we found."

"Alright," Ariel said, grabbing Troy's hand and sitting down, pulling him down with her.

"So..." Troy said and then stopped.

"So..." I said trying to cover the awkward silence that was now permeating our group.

What were we all going to talk about until Suzie and Kyle arrived? The case was all we seemed to have in common. No, there had to be something we could all talk about. I looked at Ethan. He met my eyes and shrugged. I looked at Ariel. She looked away. Troy was watching me. I looked back at Ariel. She turned her head again. Was I wrong in thinking that we could reconnect and be friends? Would it just remain this awkward? Wait. Did I really just think that? Did I think that Ariel and I could honestly be friends again? I had to think of something to say. Ariel pulled out her cellphone and started tapping on it. I wondered if she was texting again.

Ethan and Troy weren't saying anything. The table was quiet. I looked back over at Ariel, who was still texting. Why did Ariel get in my head so much? I kept going over and over what was going on with her in my head. Maybe I should just ask her. I mean, she kept getting into my brain. I had other things to think about, like the murder investigation. Nobody was talking. I couldn't think of anything to say. I couldn't take it. I had to do something.

"Hey, Ariel, want to walk to the bathroom with me?" I asked, interrupting her texting.

Ariel looked up from her phone and met my eyes, "What?"

"Walk to the bathroom with me," I said.

Ariel gave me a funny look, studied me a moment before she answered, and then put her phone back in her pocket, "Sure. I should fix my makeup anyway."

We got up and walked to the bathroom. I felt myself start to sweat as we made our way to the back of the coffee shop where the restrooms were located. I got to the door first and opened it, expecting a normal bathroom with a bunch of stalls, but found that it was just one single room with a toilet and a sink.

"I just need to fix my makeup too," I said, awkwardly, walking inside and holding the door for Ariel.

"Okay," Ariel said, walking in after me.

Ariel set her purse on the sink. Then she proceeded to dig for her makeup, pulling out a compact and refreshing the powder on her face. I opened my own purse. I hadn't brought any makeup with me, actually. I didn't usually carry it around. I mean, sometimes I had lipstick. I dug for it and then remembered that I had accidentally destroyed it a couple of days ago. It broke off when I was applying it. Yes, that only happened to me. I did find a cherry lip balm, though, and quickly applied it to my lips like I was putting on real lipstick. I saw Ariel give me a strange look in the mirror.

Ariel might think I was weird, but, seriously, my lips did feel better after using the lip balm. Plus they now tasted like cherries. Ethan and I definitely had to kiss again sometime soon. I stopped myself. I could not start thinking about kissing Ethan. I was here with Ariel and this was maybe going to be a very important conversation.

"Actually, I just wanted to talk to you," I admitted, putting the cherry lip balm back into my purse.

It fell on the floor instead and I had to reach down and pick it up. I rinsed it quickly off in the sink. Some water splashed on Ariel and she jumped back.

"Hey," Ariel said.

"Sorry," I said and stuffed the lip balm in my purse.

Ariel gave me a look and continued to fix her makeup. I remained silent and watched her. Now I felt awkward. Spilling water all over Ariel was probably not the best way to start this conversation. Did I just drop it?

"So what did you want to talk about?" Ariel asked a moment later as she was finishing the last touches of her makeup.

I gulped. I'd take the chance. I couldn't take this anymore.

"About what we were talking about the other day at Wired," I said.

"You want to talk about that now?" Ariel asked, giving me a look. "In the bathroom? After you threw water on me?"

I was already sorry about the water, but I hadn't thought about the bathroom thing. I looked around. It was kind of funny, actually. Me and Ariel talking about our friendship in a cramped one person bathroom.

"Yeah," I said, feeling bold. "I do want to talk about that now."

"Seriously?" Ariel asked. "While you're looking into one of your case thingies?"

"Yeah," I said trying not to take offense at Ariel's obvious lack of belief in my investigative skills. "Seriously."

I had to resolve this or I wouldn't be able to totally focus on the investigation. I wasn't going to tell Ariel that, though. If I thought about it, I guess it was weird that I wanted to talk about our friendship right now. Still, I couldn't take it anymore. We were either super awkward around each other or awful to each other. I had to know where we stood. I needed to know how to act. I couldn't have Ariel interrupting my thoughts all the time.

"Well," Ariel gave me a funny look. "I don't want to talk about it or finish it or whatever. It's weird. We're next to a freaking toilet."

"What?" I asked and there was a funny pang in my heart. "But we should finish the conversation. I mean..."