Killer Connections Read online

  Feeling a bit uneasy, I opened the folder, ready to click away again if I found only a bunch of romantic e-mails between Darity and whoever.

  But it was nothing like that at all. The folder was packed with dozens of angry e-mails from alumni. Most of them were complaints about the changes Darity had made since taking over.

  I scanned a few of them. Some of the writers seemed really angry.

  Was this a clue? The complaint letters certainly brought up a motive we hadn’t thought about much. Could one of these irate alums be trying to make Darity look bad in order to push him out?

  I was still pondering that when I noticed another file. It was tucked away in the corner between a couple of boring ones, so I hadn’t spotted it at first. It was labeled BoE.

  “Brothers of Erebus?” I breathed, clicking on it.

  Sure enough, the mysterious secret society’s name was spelled out on a couple of the documents inside. I checked around, but there wasn’t much to see. There was a map of the tunnels under the school. The tunnel system had been long forgotten by everyone except the Brothers of Erebus. We’d recently discovered that the group was still using them to sneak around and perform their rituals.

  There were also lists of current and recently graduated students who were BoE members. I scanned the names, seeing no huge surprises. Spencer was there, of course, along with several other senior GTT brothers. Lee’s name was at the bottom of the list of current students.

  That was about it. Nothing we didn’t already know from ATAC’s research. But even the crack team at HQ hadn’t been able to turn up much more than this. The BoE really put the “secret” in “secret society.”

  I sat there, staring at the computer screen. When we’d busted Ellery, Darity had claimed to know nothing about the Brothers of Erebus. He’d looked as shocked as anyone to hear of the group’s very existence.

  Was he telling the truth? Had he created this folder after that? Or was he still lying to us?

  I was about to forward the whole BoE folder to ATAC HQ when I heard the sound of rushed footsteps in the hallway outside the office. Uh-oh. It was probably Darity returning to check on me. Or maybe someone stopping by to drop something off, or a member of the cleaning staff or something.

  Clicking away from the incriminating BoE folder, I opened my mouth to call out a cheerful (and totally innocent-sounding) greeting.

  But something made me hold back. Maybe it was the slow, careful way the door started to glide open. Holding my tongue, I dove behind one of the long, dusty curtains on the windows at the back of the room.

  Just in time. Lee Jenkins stuck his head into the office and glanced around. I stayed where I was, frozen with surprise.

  Lee didn’t see me. Darting into the room, he scrabbled around near the coatrack. Then he ducked out again just as quickly, pulling the door shut behind him.

  I waited until I was sure he was gone. Then I emerged from my hiding place and hurried over to see what he’d been doing.

  Right next to the coatrack was a key rack. And judging by the dust spot on the wall, I was pretty sure that Lee had just taken one of the keys.

  Sink or Swim

  What are you doing, young man?” Dr. Montgomery called out, sounding confused. I vaulted through the open lab window. Killer jumped out after me. Explanations would have to wait. That scream had come from somewhere close by. As soon as I got outside, I realized where. The pool complex. It was right across a narrow alley from here.

  Sprinting over there, I let myself and the dog in through the closest door. That put us in the main lobby. The whole place smelled like chlorine.

  The filters hummed from the direction of the lap pool, visible through an open doorway off to the left. But the scream had come from the other direction.

  I pushed through a door on that side and found myself in a hallway leading to the locker rooms. Destiny Darity was standing there. She was dressed in a sporty one-piece swimsuit. A damp towel was wrapped around her torso.

  Even with that towel covering most of the interesting parts, I was so distracted by the sight of her in a bathing suit that it took me a few seconds to realize that she was the one who’d screamed. She wasn’t screaming anymore, though. Now she was standing there, yelling at someone. Nigel Nabb. Killer let out a low growl as he sank to his haunches beside me.

  “… and if that’s the kind of so-called story you go for, you’re an even bigger loser than you seem on TV!” Destiny was shouting. Spotting me, she whirled around, her eyes spitting fire. Based on her expression, I guessed she was expecting me to be one of Nigel’s backup cameramen or someone.

  “Hi,” I said mildly. “Something wrong here?”

  “Yeah—him!” Destiny jabbed a finger in Nigel’s direction. “Can you believe this creep? He sneaked into the locker room and started filming while I was getting ready to change after my swim. Pathetic!”

  She turned and spat the last word right into Nigel’s face. He kept right on smiling, aiming his camera at her.

  “Care to repeat that, sweetheart?” he said in his smarmy accent. “I’d love to get a better angle on your face this time.”

  Destiny responded with a few words I was pretty sure weren’t allowed on TV. Not even cable.

  I didn’t blame her for being a little on edge. It couldn’t be easy being her these days. She’d had her blood supply stolen. Been burned in effigy. Almost been run over. Nearly been poisoned. And finally found out that someone she’d thought was her friend had done most of it.

  That reminded me. I was supposed to be trying to figure out who’d been responsible for the rest of it. But first I needed to defuse this situation. Otherwise I had the feeling Destiny would soon be adding to the campus body count by strangling Nigel with her bare hands.

  “Look, I’m sure this is just a misunderstanding, right?” I said, trying to channel Frank’s best Mr. Diplomat tone.

  “Of course it was,” said Nigel, still sporting that fake-looking smile. “This young lady was swimming alone and I was concerned, that’s all. After all that’s been going on at Firth Academy lately, it wouldn’t do for the headmaster’s daughter to come to any harm, would it?”

  I was careful to keep my expression neutral. So Nigel knew there’d been some recent trouble on campus, huh? Interesting.

  “Well, she seems to be all right,” I said. “So how about deleting whatever footage you have of her and calling it a day?”

  “How about not.” Nigel’s smile morphed into a smirk. “This camera is private property. So is any footage that might happen to be on it.”

  “Oh, yeah? Well my hands are my private property,” Destiny countered. “And if I can get them on your private property, it’s not going to be pretty.”

  I could only hope she was still talking about the camera. Either way, things were really getting tense.

  Then I remembered something. I had a secret weapon right there at my side. Killer.

  “Look, Mr. Nabb. We’ve tried being reasonable, but you’re making it difficult,” I said in as James Bond a manner as I could. Then I glanced down at the dog. “Isn’t that right, Killer?”

  For once Killer seemed to catch on to what I wanted. And more surprisingly, to go along with it. He let out an impressive growl and took a step toward Nigel, his eyes locked on the man’s ruddy face.

  “Hey, hey, now, kids.” Nigel immediately sounded a lot less smug. “Let’s not do anything we’ll regret here… .”

  He was watching Killer carefully. That was all the opening I needed. Jumping forward, I grabbed the camera right out of his hand.

  “Hey!” he shouted, lunging after me.

  But Killer stopped him in his tracks with a loud, commanding bark. Nigel jumped back again. Killer’s hackles were up. He looked pretty scary.

  Destiny wasn’t paying any attention to the dog. “Give me that camera,” she exclaimed. “I want to throw it in the pool!”

  “That shouldn’t be necessary.”

  I spun around as she da
nced around me, poking me—hard—in the shoulders and trying to snatch the camera out of my hands. Good thing my ATAC training taught me to multitask. And to work almost any piece of electronic equipment out there. Nigel’s camera was pretty standard issue. Within seconds I’d erased everything on the memory card.

  And yeah, I was good. I didn’t even try to peek.

  “There we go. All gone,” I said, dodging Destiny. “Heads up, pal.”

  I tossed the camera in Nigel’s direction. He scrabbled for it, barely managing to keep it from falling to the hard tile floor.

  “Are you mad?” he snapped. “That’s an expensive piece of equipment! Then again, I suppose you prep-school brats wouldn’t know anything about what things cost.”

  “Shows how much you know, loser,” Destiny told him. “He’s not a student. He’s just the school dog walker.”

  “Is that so?” Nigel shot me a very unpleasant look. “Well, I hope that gig pays you enough to retain a good attorney. Because I won’t have anyone messing with my livelihood. Not to mention the public’s right to know.”

  “Since when does the public have the right to know what color underwear Destiny’s wearing?” I challenged him.

  Nigel let out a curse and took a quick step toward me, his hands clenched. But Killer blocked him, punctuating the move with a low growl.

  “Never mind. You’re not worth it,” Nigel spat out. “But you haven’t seen the last of me, mate. Count on it.” He whirled on the heel of his expensive-looking loafer and stomped off.

  “Good work, boy,” I told Killer with a smile. Then I glanced at Destiny. “You okay?”

  She shrugged. “Whatever. Are you sure you erased everything? My dad will freak out if I get in any more trouble. He said the trustees are already having heart attacks over everything that’s happened. As if any of it were my fault!”

  Before I could answer, I heard footsteps. I turned, expecting Nigel again. Instead I saw Dr. Montgomery huffing and puffing as he pulled himself along with his cane.

  “So this is where you ran off to,” he panted at me. “What’s all the commotion?”

  “A TV reporter has been hanging around all day,” I told him. “From one of the gossip shows. Name’s Nigel Nabb. He was harassing Destiny by taking unauthorized footage of her.”

  Dr. Montgomery was Firth’s biggest cheerleader. “Firth First” was practically his middle name. I was hoping that if he heard about Nigel, he might do something about him. The sooner the reporter left campus, the better.

  But the former headmaster barely seemed to register that part of it. He was gazing at Destiny with a disapproving look in his pale, watery eyes.

  “And what are you doing out in public in that getup, young lady?” he said sternly. “True, we don’t have much experience with students of the female persuasion here at Firth. But I would expect any Firth student to show a bit more decorum than you’re demonstrating at this particular moment. This is a public gymnasium, not your private boudoir.”

  Destiny just goggled at him for a moment. “But I—he was—,” she sputtered. Then she threw both hands in the air. “Whatever!” She spun and stormed off through the locker room door.

  Montgomery watched her go, tut-tutting softly to himself. Then he checked his watch.

  “Oh, dear,” he said. “I’m supposed to be home by now. I’d better be off or Mrs. Wilson will worry.”

  Mrs. Wilson was Dr. Montgomery’s faithful longtime housekeeper. Everyone said the stout, stern woman had been at Firth almost as long as Montgomery himself. From what I’d seen since arriving on campus, he could do no wrong in her eyes, though she disapproved of just about everything and everyone else in the world. I doubted she’d hold it against him if he was a few minutes late.

  “Listen, sir,” I said. “About this Nigel Nabb guy—”

  “That sounds like an issue for Dr. Darity to handle,” Montgomery cut me off before I could finish. “Perhaps you should alert him to the problem. Good day, young man.”

  I shrugged as he hobbled off. “Oh well, I tried,” I told Killer.

  The dog barely spared me a glance. Whatever moment of teamwork we’d had seemed to have passed. With another shrug, I turned and headed for the exit myself.

  When Killer and I got back to my cottage, Frank was waiting. “Glad you’re here, bro,” I told him, collapsing on the sofa. “I’ve had an interesting afternoon.”

  “Me too.” Frank scratched Killer behind the ears as the dog pressed up against him like an eager puppy. “What’d you find out?”

  We updated each other on our investigations. Frank looked thoughtful when he heard about Nigel’s antics. And especially his comment about the campus troubles.

  “Sounds like we need to add him to the suspect list,” he said.

  “Sounds like our suspect list is getting pretty long again,” I said as I watched him dash off an info request to HQ.

  “So what else is new?” Frank countered with a wry smile. “Let’s go over what we’ve got and see if we can narrow it down any.”

  I kicked up my feet on the coffee table. “Okay, so who’ve we got?” I said. “There’s my new buddy Nigel Nabb, of course.”

  “Except that he just arrived on campus today. How could he have spiked the Winner’s Cup yesterday, or messed with the soccer truck last week?”

  “Maybe he was here and we just didn’t know it,” I said. “If the rumors are true about his show planting fake stories, he—or someone else from the show—could’ve sneaked up early and done that stuff.”

  “Just in time for the intrepid reporter to show up and film the scandalous aftermath,” Frank finished. “Seems a little far-fetched. But I suppose it’s possible. Who else have we got?”

  “Destiny, Lee, maybe Darity or Spencer …”

  “Don’t forget Patton. Actually, I was wondering if he could be the one who called in Nigel.”

  I sat up. “What makes you wonder that?”

  “I was thinking about that confrontation earlier today on the Green. Things were pretty tense, but when I looked over to see how Patton was reacting, he wasn’t paying much attention. He was checking his watch and looking kind of distracted.”

  “Think he was waiting for Nigel to show?” I guessed. “Maybe because he knew he was coming?”

  Frank shrugged. “Nigel did turn up just a minute or two after that.”

  “Interesting.”

  “Yeah. It could explain how Nigel could be involved even though he wasn’t even here when some of the stuff happened.”

  “Okay, sounds like a theory,” I said. “But after what you found in those medical records, do you think we need to add your roomie to the mix too?”

  “Zeke?” Frank looked uncertain. “It does seem odd that he’s listed in there as an epileptic. I’ve been living with him for a couple of weeks now and had no idea.”

  “And he doesn’t exactly seem like the secretive type.” I smirked, recalling some of Zeke’s antics. He was the type of guy who would think it was a blast to stroll into the dining hall totally naked just to get people to react. Probably the only thing holding him back was the cold.

  “I’m not sure what his motive would be, though. And he seems way too lazy to hold a grudge and do anything about it.” Frank looked thoughtful. “Anyway, much as I hate to say it, I’m thinking Lee is our best suspect right now.”

  After hearing about Lee taking that key, I had to agree. “Any idea what the key opens?” I asked.

  “Nope. You’ve seen Darity’s office—it’s not exactly super organized.”

  I grinned. “Yeah. Aunt Trudy would faint if she saw it.”

  “Don’t mention her name.” Frank shuddered. “It reminds me how long it’s taking to wrap things up here. And how much explaining we’ll have to do when we get home.”

  “Let’s not worry about that now,” I said. “Let’s focus on the mission.”

  “I guess you’re right.” Frank still looked anxious. What can I say? He was born to worry. “So w
hat’s our next step?”

  I checked my watch. “There’s still time before dinner. Let’s take another look around for Lee.”

  We left Killer in his kennel and headed across campus toward the dorms. When we reached the Green, we heard a commotion.

  “What now?” Frank muttered, glancing at a mob of students near the dining hall.

  “One way to find out.” I led the way over there.

  A couple of dozen students were marching in a circle. Several were waving handmade signs. Most were chanting in unison. Something about broccoli.

  “Broccoli?” I said, confused.

  Frank pointed at the closest sign. “Check it out,” he said. “Looks like they’re protesting some new vegetarian menu in the cafeteria!”

  Voices of Dissent

  Vegetarian menu?” Joe said. “Things are really getting tense around here if people are getting worked up about something like that.”

  I nodded, taking in another sign. This one read firth first, tofu never. I was distracted from that by hearing a kid I vaguely recognized from my history class shouting something about lentils being people too. A few students near him cheered.

  Glancing over, I saw a counterprotest forming. It was a little smaller in numbers than the main protest, but its members looked just as irate.

  Joe grabbed a passing protester. It happened to be my roommate, Zeke. As usual, he was right in the thick of things.

  “Dude,” said Joe. “What’s up with this? Why do you even care if they add veggie burgers to the caf?”

  Zeke scowled. “It’s not just about cafeteria food, man.” He held up his sign, which read fight the power! in scrawled marker. “I heard this food thing is only the start. If Darity gets his way on that, he’s planning to ban TV and Internet access in the dorms next. And who knows what after that. Slippery slope, man, slippery slope!”