What's Done in Darkness (16 page)

“What if I met you there?”

For a moment I was speechless. “What?”

“I have to head back to Akron, show my face at my job. But if I can swing it … sure, I'd meet you in Mexico. Which part?”

“Cancun.” I said the word slowly, not sure I could believe what he was saying.

“Why don't you let me know the details. When, where. I'll see if I can make it.”

My eyes misted, but this time because I was happy. Brian had come into my life and changed everything for the better.

“Okay,” I told him. “I'll let you know.”

*   *   *

After talking to Brian, I popped two painkillers to help alleviate the throbbing in my head. The conversation with him had brightened my mood, but I'd still had a stress headache.

Thankfully, I fell asleep. A solid ninety minutes of rest helped me to wake up feeling refreshed.

And with a whole new positive outlook on life.

Brian might join me in Mexico. I was over the moon.

*   *   *

I went back downstairs to work shortly after six that evening and immediately approached Katrina, who was behind the counter. “About Mexico,” I began without preamble, “you guys leave on Monday?”

“Uh-huh.”

I bit the inside of my cheek before continuing. “I've been reconsidering your invitation.”

Her eyes lit up. “You changed your mind about coming with us?”

“Maybe you were right. I think I
could
use a vacation. A real one. And what am I going to do here by myself with the shop closed down and Alexis in Miami?”

Squealing, Katrina threw her arms around me. “Yes!”

As we broke apart, I said, “Seriously, though, you're not bothered about me being a third wheel?”

“I wouldn't have invited you if I didn't want you along.”

“And Christian?”

“Is totally cool with it.” Katrina looked at me expectantly. “You're going?”

“I got my passport last year,” I replied. “I may as well use it.”

“Yay!” Katrina threw her arms around me again. “Oh, I'm so happy. We're gonna have a blast!”

“Obviously I'm going to get a separate room.” But I hoped I wouldn't be alone. I hoped Brian would be with me.

“Duh.” Katrina giggled. “I've already spoken to a travel agent about the trip. I can give her a call and find out the price for you.”

“Four days,” I said, sighing softly.

Katrina draped her arm across my shoulder. “In four days, we'll all be in paradise, without a care in the world.”

 

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

SHAWDE

Shawde tossed her research binder onto the bed beside her, then rubbed her eyes with the heels of her hands. Her vision was blurring from going over the information she'd compiled on Katrina again and again—only to find nothing new.

Reaching her hand over her shoulder, Shawde tried to massage a knot in her spine below her neck. But she couldn't quite reach the spot. And then she sighed, wistful, missing Maurice. He used to give her the best massages.

Her eyes ventured to the empty side of the bed, where Maurice used to sleep when they were together. Now the binder lay near his pillow.

Why are you choosing the past over me?
Maurice had asked her. Shawde had argued the point, telling him that it wasn't fair for him to make her give up her quest to see her brother's killer brought to justice. But as she looked at the binder on Maurice's side of the bed the reality of his words hit her full force. Instead of the man she loved being with her, she had that damned binder of information that hadn't helped her one iota.

“Did I make the right choice?” she asked aloud.

She was no closer to nailing Katrina. And Shawde's quest for justice had cost her Maurice. Had the price been too steep?

“I know you wouldn't want this for me, Shemar,” Shawde said softly. “For me to be here alone and brokenhearted. But shouldn't Maurice love and support me one hundred percent?”

As pain filled her heart, Shawde's eyes ventured to her cell phone on her night table. Was he missing her right now, as she was missing him?

Maybe she should call him. Or at least send him a text to let him know that she was thinking of him.

Summoning courage, she reached for her phone. Then flinched when it started to ring in her hand.
Maurice?

A quick glance at the screen told her that it wasn't Maurice. Someone with a 323 area code was calling, a number she did not recognize. Shawde swiped her screen to accept the call, wondering who was calling her after 11:00 p.m.

“Hello?”

“Shawde Williams?” a woman asked.

Shawde crossed her legs. “Yes?”

“I'm Monica Langdon. Sorry to call so late, but I'm on the West Coast and your messages sounded urgent.”

“Monica, hi.” This was why Shawde answered all calls, no matter the hour. Because it could be someone calling her about Katrina. “No worries regarding the time. I'm just glad you got back to me.”

“I've been out of the country,” Monica explained. “I was in Chile for the past few months working as a missionary.”

“Wow. That's wonderful.”

“Which is why I couldn't return your calls sooner.”

“Of course.”

“You wanted to talk to me about Katrina Hughes?” Monica said.

“Yes.” Shawde's stomach tensed with nervous energy. “What do you remember about her?”

“I was the treasurer for the Alpha Sigma Pi sorority, so I worked with her a lot, as she was the sorority president.”

“So you know her well.”

“As much as anyone could get to know her,” Monica said.

“What does that mean?”

“Just … she could be aloof. People tried to impress Katrina, get close to her, but she only let a few people into her inner circle. I tried to get close to her, and superficially we seemed to be, but it was like there was a glass wall between us.”

So she wasn't particularly warm and fuzzy.
“What else can you tell me about her?”

“I definitely remember that Katrina was power hungry. She took her role as sorority president way too seriously.”

“What do you mean?”

“Everything had to be her way. If it wasn't, she'd dole out punishments for the girls. Stuff like that.”

“These punishments … how bad did they get?”

“You mean did anyone get hurt?” Monica clarified.

“Yes.” There was no point in sugarcoating the issue. Shawde needed proof, and she needed it now.

“Before I tell you anything else,” Monica began cautiously, “exactly who are you and why do you want to know?”

“Katrina used to date my brother. Shemar Williams.”

“Right. He died in a car crash.”

Shawde swallowed. “Yes. He died. But I'm not entirely convinced it was an accident.” She blew out a frazzled breath, then continued. “Look, I want to know if there was ever anything about Katrina that scared you. Or anyone else.”

Monica didn't answer right away, and Shawde feared she was going to end the call. “She could be intense,” Monica finally said. “There was always this sense of fakeness around her, like her smile wasn't real. If she liked you, she liked you. But if you were on her bad side…”

Like my brother.
“What happened if you were on her bad side?”

“You'd get extra punishments, attitude.”

“What do you know about her relationship with Shemar?”

“Not much. They seemed really close. But if I remember correctly, in the weeks before his death he wasn't coming around the sorority house as much. I figured they were having relationship issues. And…”

When Monica's voice trailed off, Shawde sat up straighter. “And what?”

“I don't know if this is true.…”

“If what is true?”

“It's just … I'd heard from someone that Katrina thought Shemar was seeing one of our sorority sisters. He wasn't. I was friends with the girl in question—”

“Who?” Shawde asked.

“A woman named Angelina Wright.”

“Angelina!”

“What—you've heard something?” Monica asked.

“Actually, I wanted to ask you about her. What I heard was that she was attacked on campus. Shortly afterward, she left UB.”

A beat. “She was. There was a rapist on campus—”

“And that's why she left?”

Monica paused. Then she sighed and said, “No. She let people believe that, but that's not why she left.”

Shawde got to her feet, too tense to sit. “Why did she leave, Monica?”

“Angelina didn't trust too many people in our sorority, and she didn't even trust me with the truth until years later. She made me promise not to say anything.”

An idea was formulating in Shawde's head. Had Katrina believed that Shemar was involved with Angelina? Was that why Katrina had murdered Shawde's brother? Mere jealousy?

“Katrina thought Shemar was cheating on her?” Shawde said, a question in her tone. “And you just told me that when you got onto Katrina's bad side you were treated badly.”

“Angelina wasn't sleeping with Shemar,” Monica said.

“Then why did Katrina believe that?”

“Angelina and Shemar got together to talk a few times. Katrina apparently saw them once, and assumed the worst. I heard her confront Angelina in the sorority house—who denied a relationship with Shemar—but Katrina became insufferable toward her.”

“Something else was going on,” Shawde surmised. The phone call from Shemar, his cryptic words about Katrina … If he'd simply been sleeping with someone else, he wouldn't have called Shawde and told her that he needed to discuss something important. “Do you know what it was?”

When Monica said nothing, Shawde continued. “My brother is dead, and I think Katrina may be behind it. Please—you have to tell me what was really going on.”

“Angelina was afraid. That's why she left UB.”

“Afraid for her life, you mean?”

“Yes.”

“Afraid of Katrina?”

“Look, I really can't betray her confidence.”

“Why, Monica?” Shawde pressed. “Shemar was killed, and Angelina was afraid for her life. What's the connection?”

“There was a lot going on that year. One of our sorority sisters had been murdered. Another, a girl named Phoebe, had been implicated. And on top of all that, there was the rapist on the loose.”

“Phoebe … does she have something to do with this?”

“We had more drama that year than we could handle, and I think all of it influenced Angelina's decision to leave.”

Monica was backtracking. Was she afraid, too? “If you're worried that I'm going to tell Katrina that I talked to you, rest assured I won't. Please, I need answers. You believe Katrina's dangerous; I know you do. I need to know why.”

“I didn't, at first. I just figured that Katrina was frosty toward Angelina because of Shemar, and that Angelina left because of the rapist, the murder. With all that was going on, I didn't make the connection. Not until I talked to Phoebe once things began to return to normal. She said something, questioned the timing of Shemar's death. She wondered if it was really an accident. What she said to me, it was like she was hinting at something bigger. So I started to rethink things. Katrina's insistence that Angelina and Shemar were involved, the attack on Angelina, then Shemar's death … I started wondering if Katrina had committed a crime of passion.”

Shawde wrote the name Phoebe on a notepad and circled it. She would try to talk to her. “So it
was
about jealousy? That's what you're saying?”

“That's what I speculated. But as time passed, I figured my imagination was simply running wild. And then, two years after Angelina had left and cut me and everyone at our sorority off, she contacted me out of the blue. I finally had a chance to ask her some questions. She filled in some blanks, but honestly she hasn't told me anything more than vague details.”

“Give me something,” Shawde said. “I need to know if I'm grasping at straws.”

“All I'll tell you is that Angelina was going to report Katrina to the National Pan-Hellenic Council—the national sorority board—because of an issue. She didn't give me details—she felt it was better to keep me out of it.”

“Even years later.”

“Even years later,” Monica echoed.

“But Shemar knew about it. That's why he and Angelina were talking.”

“Yes. And right after Angelina threatened to go to the Pan-Hellenic Council, she was viciously attacked. Everyone suspected the Bike Path Rapist, but Angelina told me that she knew it wasn't him. There was no attempted rape, no sexual assault of any kind—which was atypical for the Bike Path Rapist.”

“Why didn't she report Katrina to the police?”

“Because she didn't see her attacker. In fact, Katrina had been in the sorority house with a ton of alibis during the attack.”

Shawde frowned. Then it came to her.
Of course.
“Katrina had someone else do her dirty work.”

“Angelina suspected Katrina's best friend, Rowena, was involved. But Angelina couldn't prove anything. However, after Shemar died, she was sure that there had been a plan to kill her.”

Shawde wrote down the name Rowena. Then she frowned. What were the missing pieces? “You don't know why she was going to report Katrina?”

“Even years later, she was afraid to tell me everything. I guess she saw in Katrina something the rest of us didn't. That she was truly dangerous. So dangerous that thousands of miles between them hasn't made Angelina feel safe.”

“Wow. So she's afraid that Katrina will
still
hold a grudge at this point?”

“I don't know about now. I haven't talked to her in over two years.”