Killer Mission Read online

  The next night at nine forty-five, Frank and I were at my cottage talking over the latest developments. It was Saturday, which meant Frank had had the entire day to investigate. Aside from Killer duty, so had I.

  We’d finally talked to the two coaches. Unfortunately, we hadn’t learned anything useful. The swim coach hadn’t been able to tell us much more than we already knew, seeing that he’d been out cold. And the soccer coach had seemed worried about the incident but distracted by fiddling with his computer, which seemed to be having some technical difficulties.

  After that we’d tried talking with some of our other suspects. But most were off campus for the day, shopping or otherwise entertaining themselves in Sugarview or elsewhere.

  “We’d better get over to the GTT house.” Frank checked his watch.

  I nodded. Since I wasn’t invited to the frat function, I was going to have to just lurk around nearby and wait for Frank to give me updates.

  “Are you sure I should take Killer?” I glanced at the dog, who was snoozing at Frank’s feet. “It’ll be a lot easier to stay out of sight without him tagging along.”

  “With him along, you won’t need to stay out of sight,” Frank pointed out. “Nobody will question you if they think you’re out walking him.”

  I had to admit he had a point, though I wasn’t thrilled about it. “Fine,” I mumbled, reaching for Killer’s leash. “Let’s go.”

  The party was in full swing when we got there. Frank headed inside, leaving me and Killer out in the dark, cold night.

  “Guess we’re in for a long, boring night, fella,” I told the dog.

  As usual, he barely acknowledged my existence. This time, though, it was because he was watching a pair of students heading up the path toward the frat house.

  One of them spotted us. “Hey, check it out, it’s Killer!”

  “Killer! Dude!” the other cried cheerfully.

  Killer wagged his tail as the pair hurried over. Figured. He really did like everyone except me.

  “Hey, you should come join the party, Killer,” the first guy said. Finally noticing there was someone on the other end of the leash, he grinned. “You too, dude.”

  “Yeah,” his friend added. “Big GTT bash tonight. Come on in. Spencer won’t mind—he likes Killer.”

  “Sure,” I said quickly. I had no idea whether Spencer would, indeed, mind or not. But I wasn’t going to pass up the chance to join the party instead of hanging around outside all night.

  In fact, Spencer did seem fine with our arrival. He gave Killer a pat and invited me to help myself to the refreshments. Nobody else paid much attention to me. Well, except for Frank, who looked surprised. But just about everyone came over to say hi to Killer. That was one popular dog.

  The party was fun. Everyone was there—not only frat president Spencer, but also soccer superstar Lee, bored rich boy Ellery, good old Peachy Patton, Food Fight Lewis, and countless others. I kept an eye on our various suspects, though I wasn’t really expecting to learn much in this setting. Not that I was complaining. If there had been any girls there, it would’ve been an awesome evening. As it was, it was still pretty cool.

  Some time later Spencer turned off the music and called for attention. “It’s almost midnight,” he announced. “Time for us to get down to business.”

  Several of the other seniors started snickering. “What business?” a pledge called out, sounding nervous.

  “It’s one of GTT’s finest, most esteemed traditions,” the senior who’d been bossing Peachy around yesterday said with a grin.

  “Right,” said another senior. “The deal is, the first pledge who returns with the toilet seat from the headmaster’s bathroom in Firth Hall is named Head Pledge.”

  “Head Pledge?” Patton echoed. “What’s that mean?”

  “It means you get to order the rest of the pledges around for the entire week,” Spencer told him.

  Patton smiled. “What are we waiting for? Let’s go!”

  Everyone raced out of the house, whooping and laughing. I grabbed Killer’s leash as we were swept along with the excited crowd. Even lazy Lewis was keeping up.

  The entire group raced across the Green. I lost track of Frank, though I was sure he was there somewhere.

  Firth Hall was dark and quiet at this hour on a Saturday night. It was actually a little spooky. I tightened my grip on Killer’s leash. The last thing I wanted was to have him take off. Tracking him down in this huge old warren of corridors wouldn’t be fun.

  Soon someone was picking the lock on the headmaster’s office complex. I hung at the back of the pack, where Frank finally found me.

  “No wonder Darity isn’t crazy about the frats,” he murmured in my ear, shooting a wary look at Lee, who was standing nearby.

  I nodded. “I guess he—Hey!” I blurted out.

  The door had just swung open. And Killer, who’d been straining forward on the leash, had just yanked it right out of my hand.

  “Oh, man,” I cried, diving after him.

  But he was too quick. He bolted through the office door, straight toward another doorway off to the side of the secretary’s desk.

  “Check it out!” Lewis shouted with a laugh. “Killer wants the prize!”

  I was just relieved that the dog hadn’t run in the other direction. “He must be caught up in the excitement,” I said to Frank.

  But as I stepped forward to grab him, Killer turned around, planting himself in the doorway. When Ellery stepped toward him, the dog let out a low warning growl.

  “Hey, Killer!” Patton exclaimed. “What’s the deal? Let us in!”

  But Killer didn’t back down. He just stood there blocking the door with his body, growling if anyone—even Frank—came too close.

  Everyone sort of milled around for a minute. “That dog’s gone nuts,” one of the pledges I didn’t know muttered, shooting a look at Ellery’s bandaged arm.

  “Take it easy, guys.” Spencer looked perplexed. “Just give Joe a chance to get him back under control.”

  “Yeah,” Patton grumbled at me. “Aren’t you supposed to be in charge of him?”

  “I don’t know what to tell you, bro.” I took a step forward and was rewarded with another growl and some raised hackles. “See? He doesn’t want us over there. Maybe he’s got his reasons—he is a trained police dog, you know.”

  Ellery snorted. “What, you think Darity trained him to protect the john? Get real.” He pushed past the others and strode forward, ignoring Killer’s growls. For a second I thought he was going to make it in.

  But Killer had other plans. He body-blocked Ellery, slamming into him and knocking him back. Then he took up his position again in front of the bathroom door.

  “Whoa!” Frank looked impressed. “He must have learned that trick when he was a police dog.”

  “This is stupid!” Lewis exclaimed loudly. “I’m not going to let some animal stop me from winning. I can’t wait to boss you wimps around all week!” He smirked. “Out of my way, mutt.”

  With that, he jumped forward and stomped on Killer’s paw. The dog let out a yelp of pain and surprise. He fell back just long enough for Lewis to slip past and disappear into the bathroom.

  “Gotcha!” Patton cried, leaping forward and grabbing Killer’s collar. He was rewarded by his arm almost getting pulled out of the socket as Killer turned and lunged toward the open bathroom door after Lewis.

  “Hold on to him!” Spencer cried as Patton struggled to maintain his grip on the collar. “If he bites Lewis or something, we—”

  KA-BLAM!

  The rest of his words were lost in a huge explosion from inside the bathroom.

  Dead Serious

  Smoke rolled out of the doorway. “Keep back!” I yelled.

  Yanking up the collar of my T-shirt to cover my mouth, I plunged in. Joe was right behind me.

  But it was too late. The interior of the restroom was nothing but rubble. All I could see through the haze was a still figure lying there.
Very still.

  Joe rushed forward and knelt beside Lewis. He started to perform CPR.

  “What’s going on in there?” Spencer peered in from the doorway.

  I grabbed Killer’s leash and hurried that way. “Just stay back,” I ordered. “And somebody call 911.”

  Killer seemed to understand what was needed. With his help, I managed to keep everyone out of the room until we all heard the wail of sirens in the distance.

  By Sunday morning the entire campus had heard the grim news. Lewis was dead, killed by that blast. The police had come and gone, though we hadn’t heard what they’d found yet.

  “Dude,” Zeke said as Joe and Killer came into my dorm room after breakfast. “You’re totally a hero!”

  “Thanks,” Joe said modestly. “But I—”

  “Not you, bro.” Zeke gestured at the dog. “I’m talking about Killer!”

  It was amazing how fast things spread at Firth. Just about everyone had heard that Killer had saved most of the GTTers and had done his best to save Lewis, too.

  Zeke flopped on his bed and started picking his teeth with a fingernail. “Yo, so what happened, anyway?” he asked us. “Think it was a bomb or something?”

  “Who knows?” Joe shrugged, playing dumb. “Guess the police will figure it out.”

  Zeke snorted. “Yeah, right. Those local yokels? Bet Lewis’s family will call in the CIA.”

  Just then my cell phone rang. It was Darity’s office. He wanted to see us.

  After dropping off Killer at Joe’s cottage, we headed over. We arrived just in time to meet a very disapproving-looking Dr. Montgomery hobbling out on his cane. His greeting was as genteel as ever, but it was obvious he was pretty upset.

  “Nothing like this has ever happened at Firth before,” he said with an extra quaver in his voice. “Certainly not during my tenure as headmaster! It’s unspeakable!” His upper lip trembled. But then he seemed to recover. “Still, we must all pull together in this time of tragedy, boys. Firth first!”

  Joe and I mumbled something polite. The former headmaster barely seemed to hear us as he hobbled off.

  Soon Darity was ushering us past the police barricades into his private office. Aside from an extra layer of dust, the explosion hadn’t damaged anything in there. I guess that was the advantage of the huge old building’s extra-thick walls.

  Then the headmaster filled us in on some of the details. The police investigation had found that there had been a bomb set inside the toilet. No surprise there. The thing had been rigged to go off as soon as someone lifted the lid. Lewis must have been leaning right over it, since he was killed instantly.

  “Obviously, this brings the situation to a whole new level.” Darity looked exhausted. I wondered if he’d slept at all. “I appreciate what you two have done so far, but I think it’s time to bring in reinforcements. Mr. McPherson is already talking about contacting the FBI—”

  “What?” Joe blurted out, leaning forward. “No! If you bring them in, you might never find out who did this!”

  “He’s right,” I agreed. “The reasons you called ATAC in the first place still stand. As teenagers ourselves, Joe and I can blend in on campus and investigate in ways an adult never could.”

  Darity looked dubious for a moment. But finally he sighed and nodded.

  “I suppose you’re right,” he said. “Of course, the local police will need to continue their investigation, but I’ll do my best to convince Lewis’s father to leave it at that for now. But he’s not a patient man—you might not have much time.”

  The phone rang. Darity shot it a distracted look as his secretary picked up in the outer office. I took that as our cue to get out before he changed his mind.

  “We won’t let you down, sir.” I stood and glanced at Joe. “Let’s go.”

  We huddled outside the building. “Whoever planted that bomb must be familiar with all the GTT rituals and stuff,” said Joe. “Who else would know about the toilet thing?”

  “Someone could have found out from a member. But you’re right. A frat member or pledge seems like our best bet.”

  “Obviously, Lewis is off the suspect list,” Joe said grimly. “So who else have we got?”

  I was running possibilities in my head. “Hang on,” I said, realizing something. “If Killer hadn’t caught the scent of the explosives and stopped them, all the pledges would have been injured or maybe killed by that blast, right?”

  “Good point,” Joe said. “But where were all our suspects right before the bomb went off? Is it possible someone was hanging back?”

  “I remember Ellery was right up front—he tried to get into the bathroom just before Lewis went in.”

  Joe nodded. “Patton was right there too, and most of the others,” he recalled. “But not Lee.”

  “Lee? Is he a suspect?”

  “I don’t know.” Joe shrugged. “But I’m pretty sure he was near the back of the pack.”

  Now that he mentioned it, I remembered that too. “He didn’t seem quite as enthused as everyone else about the whole stunt, actually,” I said. “But why would he do something like this?”

  “Who knows? Let’s go talk to him and see if we can figure it out.”

  We found Lee at his work-study job in the main administrative office. Being Sunday, it was pretty quiet in there. But there were still a few people around.

  “Lee?” The woman at the front desk smiled fondly when we asked for him. “Yes, he’s here. But I hope you’re not planning to take him away from us—this place couldn’t run for five minutes without him!”

  “Talking about me again, Loretta?” Lee himself appeared behind the woman. He was holding some cables and stuff. “I hope it’s nothing bad, because I just got your computer fixed.”

  “You’re a doll!” The woman blew him a kiss and hurried off.

  “Hi, Lee,” Joe said. “We were hoping to talk to you for a sec.”

  His pleasant expression went sad. “Oh. Is it about last night?”

  “Sort of,” I began. “We were just—”

  “Lee!” Another woman entered from the back. She looked anxious. But when she saw Joe, she did a double take and then smiled. “Hey, Muttley.”

  “Hey, Janice.” Joe gave me a look. “Just a little nickname the girls came up with at lunch the other day.”

  “Everything okay?” Lee asked the woman.

  She blew out a frustrated sigh, then started complaining—something about a paper jam in her computer printer. Lee turned to us.

  “Sorry, I’d better take a look,” he said. “Be right back.”

  He hurried off. Janice stayed behind to chat with Joe. For a moment I was annoyed—there was no time for flirting right now.

  But I wasn’t giving my brother enough credit. Within moments he got a ton of info out of her about Lee. It seemed everyone in the office—mostly women—adored and doted on him. He had a lot of responsibility and had pretty much been their computer whiz ever since Dr. Darity had ordered all the systems upgraded the summer before.

  “I swear, if Lee hadn’t started working here this semester, the first marking period grades still wouldn’t be entered into the system!” The woman laughed. “Let alone the weekly grade updates . . .”

  Interesting. So Lee had access to the computer grading records? Probably the same site where the soccer coach had spotted Lee’s own alleged bad grades last week?

  I wondered what that meant, if anything. Could Lee have altered his own grades? But why? No theories sprang to mind, but I filed away the information for future thought.

  Finally Lee returned, and Janice hurried back to her printer. “So I guess you heard Lewis didn’t make it,” Joe said.

  “Didn’t everyone?” Lee shook his head sadly. “I just can’t believe it. All through breakfast this morning I kept waiting for him to walk by and shake some salt in my coffee like he always did.”

  “It’s hard to believe he’s gone,” I said.

  Lee nodded. “When I left my old pu
blic school in Boston, I thought I was leaving the violence and stuff behind. This is crazy.”

  Just then Spencer stuck his head into the office. “There you are, man,” he said to Lee. “Just came by to see how you’re holding up.”

  He noticed me and Joe as he entered and gave us a nod. But he stayed mostly focused on Lee.

  “I’m okay, I guess,” said Lee. “Just kind of sad, you know?”

  Spencer nodded somberly. “I think we’re all feeling the same. I’ve been checking in with all the pledges—well, except Ellery. I haven’t tracked him down yet. You haven’t seen him, have you?”

  “No, sorry. I’ve been here all morning.”

  Spencer looked concerned. “Well, I’m sure he’ll turn up.”

  The way he was talking reminded me of Patton’s earlier complaints about Spencer being Ellery’s champion. Was that true?

  Speaking of Patton, he raced in at that moment. Once again, his pale face contrasted starkly with his red hair.

  “Spencer! There you are!” he blurted out, sounding upset. “I just heard the news and wanted to make sure you knew!”

  “What news?” Spencer asked.

  “You didn’t hear?” Patton looked grim. “GTT just got banished from campus!”

  Undercover or Not?

  Easy, Patton.” Spencer sounded more distracted than upset. “This isn’t the time to start more drama.”

  “Yeah,” Lee added. “Have some respect, man.”

  Patton looked ready to explode. “I’m not making this up!” he yelled.

  Just then two other guys came running in. “Did you hear?” one of them cried breathlessly. “Darity just finished a conference call with the board of trustees.”

  “Yeah,” the second newcomer added. “Until further notice, all frat activities are suspended.”

  “See? Told you.” Patton managed to sound both smug and sad at the same time.

  Spencer rubbed his head. “Oh, man,” he muttered, for once seeming at a loss. “This is bad. This is really bad. . . .”

  “No kidding,” one of the newcomers said. “It’s not just GTT, either, it’s all the frats.”