arm. “Sorry, I wasn’t making fun of you or implying anything. You’re right. There’s always a room party somewhere. I’ll find out who hosted.”
I offer a small smile. “Also, Emma came back to the room at some point. Her sweater was there, and she left the door open. I think it was after midnight. Any earlier, she would have woken me up.” Now I’m the one fidgeting. “I should check with Paul in security. The feed outside Whitley wasn’t tampered with—Cataldo saw me—so Emma should be on camera leaving.”
Ethan shakes his head. “Not if she went out the back and stuck to the woods side. You’ve never snuck in or out of Whitley?”
“I haven’t had reason to,” I mumble. Code for I don’t have a boyfriend. I can’t bear to meet Ethan’s eyes.
His reply is nonchalant, not judgmental. “There’s a maintenance door in the basement with a busted lock. Advantage of one of the older buildings. We don’t have to climb in and out of windows.”
I raise a brow. “You sneak out of the dorms at night?” Does Ethan have a secret girlfriend in Bay? Or worse, Kisner Hall? Is he one of those skeevy guys who likes freshmen and sophomores?
“Uh, no.” He laughs. “But my roommate does. He’s dating Nora Patrick.” Ethan uses air quotes around the word dating.
“Okay, so what about Tyler and the cheating angle?” I steer us back on task. “We can’t go around asking people, Hey, were you hooking up with Emma?”
“Like you asked me?”
“And see how well you took it. And I had to ask. You said they always look into the boyfriend. Same goes for secret boyfriends.”
“Hookups aren’t worth killing over.”
“And college admissions are? See what you can find out. They’ll tell a guy, brag about it, but if I ask…”
“Are you trying to shunt all the investigation work onto me?” Ethan teases. I like this, us being playful with each other. It’s distracting me from being terrified.
“No.” I grin at him. “I have the hardest job of all.”
“And what’s that?”
“Going to war with the Ivies.”
Ethan and I transfer the whiteboard to a shared spreadsheet so we can keep track of who is doing what. It feels like the weirdest group project of my life. My short list includes talking to Autumn, Seth, and Jason Wang ASAP. I put an asterisk next to Kaila Montgomery. I don’t know where to start with her. We haven’t seen her in years.
The rest are easy enough. I shoot Autumn a text asking if she has a moment after exams today. I throw in an offer to buy her coffee to sweeten the deal, and push down the panic from burning through my incidentals budget with all this coffee bribery. I’m not super close to Jason, so I send a more formal email. I give him a cover story about interviewing him for a Ledger article. As for Seth, I can pretend I talked to him and then feed Ethan a version of the truth. Avery catfished him. Keep me out of it.
The text from Autumn comes a minute later.
Drop dead.
Okay, so not easy, then. I shoot back a response, but Autumn remains decidedly quiet. I send a text to Ethan instead.
SOS. Whatever the Ivies did to Autumn is way worse than I expected. She won’t return my texts.
I send a screenshot of her message for good measure.
My phone buzzes a moment later.
Oof. Must mean your friends are pretty bad. But good news is it’ll make a great story if we can get Autumn and the others to talk.
Ha. That’s a big IF. And I have an exam in 5. Autumn may be off campus before I even find her.
Leave it to me.
What are you going to do?
I AM co-editor for a reason. I’m not just another pretty face, you know.
I smile in spite of myself. Oh, I know.
* * *
—
After my final exam for the day, I emerge from Colchester into the late-afternoon sun, which is already sinking over the horizon, even though it’s barely three. Freshmen and sophomores push across the quad, dragging heavy suitcases behind them, the grinding of luggage wheels against the concrete a rough symphony to the contrast of my clicking heels as I cross over to Austen. Less time sensitive, their exams have been pushed to next semester, and it’s clear anyone who can leave is fleeing murder campus at their earliest