Killer Mission Page 3

  “Our dorms are all named after well-known Vermonters,” he explained, handing over a key and a packet of papers. “Speaking of names, I understand you’ll be enrolling here under your real name, Frank.”

  “What about me?” I asked.

  Darity consulted a sheet on his desk. “Says here you’ll be going by the name Joe Fenton.”

  I grinned, guessing Dad had had something to do with that particular alias. “Got it.”

  Frank looked worried. “Are you sure this cousins thing will fly?” he asked the headmaster. “If you think it might raise less suspicion if Joe and I don’t know each other . . .”

  “Don’t worry about that,” Darity assured us. “Nobody will think twice about that sort of thing here. For instance, our English teacher, Mr. Westerley, was the one who recommended our current head custodian—he was some sort of childhood babysitter or some such.” He leaned forward and rested his tweedy elbows on his desk, gazing at us earnestly. “You must understand, Firth is a very insular little community. Families come here for generations. It’s a given that if your father went here, you’ll be accepted too. Or to take it a step further, if your father was on the fencing team, you’ll fence as well. Or if he was the head of one of the fraternities, you’ll probably be the same.” He grimaced slightly as he said the last part.

  I shot Frank a quick look. Was it my imagination, or did Darity seem kind of down on the frats here?

  “So when do I get to meet my new roomie?” I asked the headmaster.

  “You mean Killer?” Darity smiled. “He’s waiting for you in his kennel at your cottage.”

  My cottage. Sounded a little quaint. Then again, this whole place was pretty quaint.

  Darity gave me some quick directions. Then he handed over a bag of liver snaps.

  “Those are Killer’s favorites,” he said. “He’ll do anything for one.”

  “Cool.” I pocketed the treats and stood up. “Ready to go, cuz?”

  “Ready.” Frank stood too. “Thank you, Dr. Darity. We’ll be sure to keep you posted on what we find out.”

  “Please do. My door is always open.”

  We hurried outside. We’d handed over the keys to our rental car when we first got to Darity’s office, and the secretary had told us someone would deliver our bags to our new rooms. All we had to do now was get ourselves there.

  “Okay, so what’s the plan?” I asked.

  Frank looked thoughtful. “First thing I’d like to do is track down this Ellery Marks. Get his take on what happened with the dog.”

  “Sounds good. Maybe I’ll check out the office where the swim coach fell. Talk to both coaches if I can.”

  We parted ways. Frank hurried off down the path along one side of the Green, while I turned the other way. The weather was cool but sunny, and plenty of students were hanging out on the lawn.

  I decided finding my cottage could wait. I wandered around for a while just getting the lay of the land. Then I got directions to the gym from a passing student. Unfortunately, neither coach was around, and the soccer office was locked.

  “Oh, well,” I murmured as I came out of the building. Checking my watch, I saw that it was getting close to dinnertime. Oops. Probably past time to walk good old Killer.

  There was just one problem. I hadn’t paid that much attention when Dr. Darity was giving me directions to my cottage. And now that I’d left the Green, I was even more clueless about how to get there.

  I hailed another passing student. This one was a tall, good-looking black dude with a preppy look. Okay, so most of the people at Firth had a preppy look. But this guy was even preppier than most. He could have been in a catalog.

  “Excuse me,” I said. “Could you point me to the staff cottages?”

  The guy gave me a friendly smile. “Sure thing. You new here?”

  I nodded. “Just got here. I’m the new dog handler.”

  “Cool. Welcome to Firth. I’m Spencer Thane.” The kid stuck out his hand.

  “Joe Fenton,” I said as we shook.

  Spencer pointed down a twisty path by some snow-covered tennis courts. “The staff cottages are that way,” he said. “Just keep going past the cafeteria and you’ll see them.”

  “Thanks.”

  I took off down the path and eventually reached a little cluster of houses. They were in all different shapes, sizes, and states of repair, from a tiny place with peeling paint that couldn’t be much bigger than my bedroom at home to a couple of large, attractive bungalows that looked like luxury vacation rentals.

  So which one was mine? A guy in his twenties was hurrying past carrying a weed whacker. It didn’t take an ATAC agent to guess he was one of my new neighbors.

  “Hey,” I called to him. “Can you help me out? I’m the new dog handler, and I heard my digs are around here somewhere.”

  The guy stopped and stared at me. He didn’t crack a smile.

  “Find it yourself,” he snapped. “I just work here.”

  I was so surprised by the hostile reaction that I wasn’t sure how to respond. The guy took off before I could recover, disappearing down an alley between two of the smaller cottages.

  “Weird,” I muttered.

  I looked around for someone else to ask. There was nobody in sight. Luckily, though, I noticed something else: a large wire dog kennel built alongside one of the cottages.

  “Sweet,” I whispered, noting that the cottage was probably the largest and nicest of the bunch.

  I went over and took a peek into the kennel, which was huge and spotlessly clean. It was empty.

  “Doggy must be inside,” I murmured to myself.

  Pulling out the key Darity had given me, I hurried around to the front door. The key slid in easily. I pushed the door open and stepped inside.

  “RRRROWR!”

  A mass of fur and sharp teeth leaped at me. Before I could react, I was pinned to the wall by a hundred pounds of snarling German shepherd.

  Puppy Love

  Who are you?”

  I’d just entered my new dorm room in Chittenden house. A guy was lounging on one of the twin beds. He was big and beefy, with dark hair that looked overdue for a trim.

  “Hi.” I stepped toward him with my hand out. “Frank Hardy. I’m your new roommate.”

  “My what?” The guy sat up straight, ignoring my hand. “Yo, they didn’t tell me someone was moving in! Now where am I supposed to store my laundry, dude?”

  He gestured toward the other bed. It was piled with dirty socks and underwear. Nice.

  My bags were stacked neatly out in the hallway. I grabbed them and dragged them in.

  The guy regarded me with a look of lazy annoyance. “Seriously, dude,” he said. “You’re not really moving in here, are you?”

  “Seriously, I am,” I told him. “So what’s your name?”

  “Zeke.”

  Zeke clearly wasn’t happy to lose his single room. But that wasn’t my problem.

  “I’m going to take a look around,” I told him. “You know Ellery Marks?”

  “Sure, everyone knows him. What d’you want with Marks? You friends with that dude? You rich as him, man?” Zeke peered at me with a glimmer of interest. “If you are, you should demand a single room, right?”

  “Does Ellery live in this dorm?” I asked, ignoring the rest.

  “Naw, bro. He’s over in Arthur.” Zeke grabbed a cell phone from among a pile of crumpled food wrappers on the bedside table. “Listen, I’m gonna call Darity’s office. This room thing’s got to be a mixup.”

  “You do that. I’ll catch you later.”

  I let myself out of the room and headed down the hall. It would be dinnertime in a little while, and I really wanted to get a jump on this case. Talking to Ellery was step one.

  Outside Chittenden House, I stopped to look around. Darity had given me a map of campus along with my class schedule and some other info. I’d taken a look at the map during my walk over to the dorm, and I had a pretty good handle on the layout
. But I had no idea which dorm building was which.

  A passing student glanced at me curiously. I smiled at him.

  “Hey, how do I get to Arthur House?” I asked. “I’m looking for a guy named Ellery Marks.”

  “Ellery?” the guy said. “Oh, sure. You here visiting him?”

  “Not exactly,” I said. “I’m new here. I just wanted to meet him and talk to him about something.”

  I was starting to get the sense that everyone at Firth knew everyone else. That could make our task here easier in some ways. But tougher in others.

  The kid pointed me in the right direction. I was halfway to Arthur House when I heard raised voices. One of those voices was female.

  Glancing over, I saw Darity’s daughter facing off against a tall guy with a big nose. She looked pretty irate. Then again, maybe that was her natural look. I certainly hadn’t seen her look any other way so far.

  “I can’t believe you’d do something like that!” she ranted at the guy. Then she let loose with a torrent of swearing that would make a rapper blush.

  “Listen, Destiny,” the guy said. “I don’t know why you think I’d do something like that, but—”

  “Shut up! Just shut up, okay?” She rounded off and slapped him hard across the cheek. Then she stormed off.

  “You okay, bro?” I asked, taking a step toward the guy.

  He put a hand to his cheek and looked at me. “I’ll live,” he said, sounding rueful rather than angry. “Just don’t tell anyone I got smacked down by a girl, okay?”

  I laughed. “Deal,” I said. “I’m Frank, by the way. New here.”

  “Lee Jenkins. Welcome. I’m still kind of new around here myself. Just started at Firth this semester.”

  I glanced in Destiny’s direction. “She seemed pretty angry. You break her heart or something?”

  Lee rolled his eyes. “Not hardly. She’d never look twice at a guy like me. Well, not unless she was trying to upset Daddy, that is.”

  I wasn’t sure what that meant. But I wasn’t too concerned with this guy’s dating life. I was much more interested in what the deal was with Darity’s daughter—and whether she might be angry enough to cause trouble for the school. It did seem awfully coincidental that she’d arrived on campus at around the same time as all the trouble had started. . . .

  “So what’d you do, then?” I asked, trying to sound casual. “Kick her puppy or something?”

  “I didn’t do anything.” A note of frustration crept into Lee’s voice. “She just thinks I did. See, we’re both on the soccer team, and someone told the coach she flunked her last English quiz. She thinks that someone was me.”

  “And was it?”

  “Nope.” Lee shrugged. “I already knew Mr. Westerley was going to give her a chance to make up the grade before he notified the coach.”

  “So why’d she think you ratted her out?”

  Lee sighed and kicked at a stone on the path. “For one thing, she thinks I’m some huge Goody Two-Shoes,” he said with a grimace. “Plus, she seems to think I’m out to make her look bad on the team or something.”

  “Sounds like she’s got issues,” I said.

  “You’re telling me!” Lee said. “I heard she got kicked out of two other schools before she came here.”

  Interesting. But before I could ask Lee any more questions, an elderly man emerged from the nearest building. He was leaning on a cane and moving slowly. But he looked impeccable in a three-piece suit, complete with a flower in his lapel.

  “Good afternoon, young men,” he said in a quavery voice. “Fine day, isn’t it?”

  “Hello, Dr. Montgomery,” Lee said politely. “How are you today?”

  Dr. Montgomery. Where had I heard that name before? Then I remembered. Dr. Darity had mentioned him. He was the school’s former headmaster. I hadn’t realized he was still around.

  “Just fine, just fine.” Montgomery peered at Lee through his spectacles. “And I needn’t ask to know that you’re doing well, Mr. Jenkins. I hear through the grapevine that you’re doing just as well rushing GTT as you are in the classroom and on the soccer field.”

  Lee shrugged, looking sort of sheepish. “Oh, I don’t know about that,” he said modestly. “They are a great bunch of guys, though.”

  Meanwhile Dr. Montgomery had turned to gaze at me. “And who have we here?” he asked.

  “This is Frank. He’s new,” Lee said before I could respond.

  “Oh? I hadn’t heard there was a new student on campus,” Dr. Montgomery said.

  “I just transferred in,” I said. “Frank Hardy.”

  Dr. Montgomery offered his hand. “Welcome, young man,” he said. “I’m sure you’ll find a home away from home at Firth. It’s the finest place on earth.”

  Lee checked his watch. “Sorry to rush off,” he said. “But I’m about to be late for soccer practice.”

  “Ah, go on then, my boy,” Dr. Montgomery said. “And don’t hesitate to call on me if you need any help settling in, Mr. Hardy.”

  “Thanks.” As they moved off in opposite directions, I checked my own watch. Maybe finding Ellery Marks could wait. I wanted to talk to Joe about Destiny Darity first.

  A stout middle-aged woman carrying a bucket of cleaning supplies wandered past. “Excuse me,” I called to her. “Can you tell me how to get to the dog handler’s cottage?”

  She stopped. “You’re not the new prince of dog poo, are you?” she asked sarcastically.

  “Uh, no,” I said. “Is there a problem with the dog handler?”

  She shrugged. “Only if you consider cheating a problem.”

  “Cheating?”

  She regarded me uncertainly. “You’re new around here.”

  It was more of a statement than a question. But I nodded anyway.

  “So what do you mean, cheating?” I asked. “Who cheated?”

  She shrugged. “Not sure who’s responsible. All I know is whenever a staff member leaves, their cottage is supposed to go back in the lottery. This time it didn’t. Cheating.”

  Now I was starting to catch on. It sounded as if Joe had landed some primo accommodations, and the rest of the staff wasn’t happy about it.

  After that the woman finally gave me directions to the staff area. I hurried on my way, hoping this cottage thing wouldn’t get in the way of our mission. Leave it to Joe to accidentally make a bunch of enemies on our first day. . . .

  “Joe!” I blurted out. I’d just rounded some trees, coming in sight of a large, well-appointed bungalow. The door was standing open. Immediately inside, Joe was pinned to the wall by an enormous German shepherd!

  Neither my brother nor the dog was moving at the moment. But the situation looked tense, to say the least. The shepherd’s paws were on Joe’s chest, and its bared teeth were inches from his throat.

  I strode forward. “DOWN!” I thundered.

  The dog obeyed instantly, dropping all four to the floor. It turned toward me as Joe staggered a few steps away.

  “Watch out!” he called hoarsely. “That thing’s a loose cannon!”

  I looked at the shepherd. He was staring back at me, looking alert but not at all loose-cannonish. His tail wagged tentatively.

  “Come,” I ordered him sternly.

  Killer trotted toward me. He stopped a couple of feet in front of me, tilting his head up attentively.

  “Sit,” I said.

  The dog dropped to his haunches. Joe was rubbing his chest where Killer’s paws had been.

  “Hey,” he said. “How’d you do that?”

  I reached down and gave Killer a pat. He wagged his tail again.

  “At ease, soldier,” I said.

  I was kind of joking. But Killer seemed to read my intent. He jumped to his feet and sort of danced around in front of me. He looked more like our neighbor’s goofy Lab puppy than a fine-tuned law enforcement machine.

  Joe was looking annoyed. “Killer, come here!” he ordered.

  Killer ignored him. His eyes remained
on me.

  “I think he likes me.” I reached down again to ruffle the fur at the dog’s neck. “He seems pretty cool. I bet he knows a ton of commands, being an ex-police dog.”

  “Okay, but what good does it do if he doesn’t obey any of them?” Joe stomped over, positioning himself in front of Killer. “Listen, Killer. Sit!”

  The dog looked at him. He stood there for a moment, then finally—slowly—sank down onto his haunches again.

  “There you go,” I said helpfully. “You two just need to get to know each other a little better.”

  Joe didn’t look amused. “Right,” he said. “Like maybe next time he won’t attack me when I try to go into my own house.”

  “He was probably just protecting his territory. Dogs do that, right? He’ll be fine now that he knows you belong here.”

  “Whatever.” Joe frowned at the dog, then shrugged. “So what are you doing here? Did you find that Ellery kid?”

  “Not yet. But I wanted to talk to you about another theory.”

  We headed into his cottage, with Killer at our heels. Well, actually at my heels. He really seemed to have taken a shine to me.

  The cottage was tidy and spacious. There was a list of doggy duties pinned to a bulletin board near the door.

  “Great, I’m already behind,” Joe said as he scanned it. “Looks like I’m supposed to take Killer on something called exercise walks at least three times a day. Plus additional potty breaks if needed.”

  “Grab his leash and let’s go,” I suggested. “We can talk while we walk.”

  Soon we were wandering down a quiet path near the edge of the woods. I told Joe what I’d witnessed between Destiny and the other student.

  Joe looked dubious when I mentioned my suspicions. “You really think Destiny could be a suspect?” he asked. “She doesn’t seem like the type.”

  “Says who? Just because she’s a pretty girl doesn’t mean she can’t be up to no good.”

  Just then a squirrel darted across the path in front of us. Killer pricked his ears but didn’t react otherwise.

  “Good boy,” I told him. He wagged his tail.