Literally Offed Read online

  “I can’t believe they’re still standing,” Carson yawned and rubbed the back of his hand against his eyes. He leaned into Liv, who guided him to their tent and began pulling up the stakes.

  Alex shook his head. By the way he’d let out a few exasperated sighs, I could tell he shared my disappointment at our inability to find out anything. He began to perform the same task with our tent. I moved to help him.

  Once everyone had loaded their tents and bags, we stood there, everyone looking around uneasily.

  “So…” Liv said, cringing as the sun dipped down behind the mountains. “I guess we’ll see you back in town.”

  There was a whole slew of unspoken statements clinging to my friend’s words. The most obvious being: this is weird, and awkward, and no one wants to be the first to peel out of this campground and away from all of the terrible things which had happened here.

  Even though no one spoke these thoughts, I was almost positive it was what was on all our minds as we looked reluctantly around our camp. We’d all driven separately, a couple in each car, so because we were splitting up, it almost felt as if we needed some sort of conclusion, closure with this place.

  “Well, that was… fun,” Victoria said, her tone speaking to the awkwardness evident in each of our stances.

  “I personally could’ve done without the dead body,” Carson said, shrugging.

  We all laughed. And agreed. Then waved and got into our respective vehicles. Once I was buckled in, I sighed. Thoreau had lasted two years, two months, and two days out in the woods by Walden Pond. I couldn’t even make it the two days.

  Depressing or not, soon we were bumping along an unpaved back highway, Hammy jumping between the two of us from window to window. I pulled out my phone and pulled up the pictures of the journal.

  Alex’s chest rose and fell in a deep breath.

  “Hey,” I said, watching the forest thin as we neared civilization once more. “I was disappointed we didn’t learn anything from them, too. But now that I’m thinking about it, I can’t believe we thought we could just waltz over there, expecting them to spill every secret about their underground fraternity.”

  Alex nodded.

  “They’ve kept it a secret from the university and the town of Pine Crest for decades, it sounds,” I added. “That takes skill and commitment. I’m definitely guilty of underestimating these guys, too, and it almost makes me wonder if they act like partiers, so no one would think of accusing them of hiding such a big secret.”

  “Well, we tried, at least,” he said. “Read me some of this journal. If they won’t spill about what happened, maybe James will.”

  Flipping past the first few pictures, containing the pages that held the names of the fraternity leaders and their symbol, I stopped on a page holding the frat’s motto. “Disobedience is the true foundation of liberty—Henry David Thoreau,” I read.

  I sucked in a quick breath. Sure I’d recognized some of the same antiestablishment-type rhetoric when scanning through the pages earlier, but the fraternity’s motto was actually a quote from Civil Disobedience?

  Alex snorted. “I’m sorry. I know your dad really liked the guy, but that quote couldn’t be further from the truth. Disobedience isn’t the foundation of liberty—honor and loyalty are.”

  Patting his arm, I realized I wasn’t one hundred percent sure what was, but now was not the time to get into a debate about something like this. I focused on searching through the other pictures. “It’s not really a journal, per se. There aren’t entries by date. Instead, it seems to be some sort of handbook about the frat.” I kept scanning. “I mean, he’s got a list of current members, the ways in which the members are expected to support each other, and even an in-depth analysis of the frats weak spots.”

  “Any list of who might’ve killed him in there?” Alex laughed.

  I stared at my phone, zooming in on certain entries too small for me to read. I zeroed in on an entry titled, “Internal and External Cracks” as Hammy jumped from Alex’s lap over to mine.

  “Uh, maybe…” I whispered, my eye moving over the page which held a list of what seemed to be something one could use as blackmail for each person. Everybody but James. “Listen to this,” I said to Alex. “He wrote here that Matt wanted to take over as president; Kevin and James were fighting over the same girl, and Grady was fighting with James over something to do with the house they’re all living in together. Gosh, I’m surprised a guy as paranoid as James didn’t keep a mirror with him at all times just to watch his back. He seriously seems to have thought through every possible thing which could take down him and the fraternity.”

  “Maybe he was spending so much time watching his back he didn’t notice what was right in front of him.” Eyebrows raising, Alex kept his attention on the road as he brought up James’s unfortunate end. “Any of those disagreements sound like good motives?”

  I bit my lip. “Maybe. Apparently it was well known within the fraternity Matt wanted to take over as president and he and James just happened to get into a physical fight the night James was killed.” My tone was thoughtful as I let the statement hang in the quiet of the truck cab as the tires transitioned onto paved roadway. Hammy began to circle on the seat, finally curling up into a ball next to my thigh and letting out a huge sigh.

  “Vice president to president doesn’t seem like a overly huge jump in power. I mean, I don’t know anything about the structure of their fraternity, but it doesn’t seem like enough to kill over.” Alex shook his head.

  I agreed. “There must be something more, something worth fighting over.” Unsure what that was, however, I moved onto the next thing James had identified as an internal problem. I said, “Get this. Kevin and James were fighting over a girl. Kevin brought a girl he’d been seeing to one of their parties and she ended up staying the night… with James.” Scrunching up my shoulders, I said, “A jerk move, but also not something worth killing over.”

  “That hasn’t stopped people in the past. Depends on how he felt about this girl. Or if this was an isolated incident. This could be something James did a lot.”

  “True.” I smiled as Hammy began to snore. “And then there’s Grady’s dad owning the house they’ve been staying at. He doesn’t mention where this house is, though.” I squinted one eye as I tried to picture where a secret frat house could be hiding my hometown. “We definitely need more information about each of these disputes. Right now, there’s not enough to go on. Plus, there are three more written here involving people whose names I don’t recognize.” I scooted the document around on my screen so I could read the whole thing. “I mean, here’s a disagreement with someone named Chloe and even an issue with one of the deans at the university.” I shook my head.

  “Sounds like we’ve got some reading to do,” Alex said, glancing at my phone.

  “Yup.” Settling my hand onto Hammy’s back, I scrunched my fingers down into the fur by her neck.

  8

  The next morning, Liv was already awake when Hammy and I stumbled out of my room around eight. Liv was an early riser by nature, but I figured she might need a little more sleep after our restless night of camping. While I wasn’t necessarily surprised to see Liv up this early, she was definitely surprised to see me.

  Her eyes widened, and she checked the teal clock hanging on the wall next to the door. “Whoa. Did you forget you’re still technically on vacation?” she asked.

  I groaned. “I couldn’t sleep anymore. My mind got working on this case. I can’t seem to shut it off. Figured I’d just get up and get started doing some research. Alex said he was going to run everything by his dad last night and see if he could help out, so I’m going to head over there.”

  She grinned. “Look at you and the detective, getting along.”

  Alex’s father, Detective Valdez, and I hadn’t necessarily gotten off on the best foot a couple years ago when he’d first taken over at the station. Then again, Alex and I hadn’t started out smoothly either, and now I cou
ldn’t seem to picture my life without him.

  “Well, I don’t know if the detective expected me to join this morning, so I’m not sure ‘getting along’ is the right way to describe what’s about to happen.”

  Snorting, Liv said, “By now, he should expect you to show up anytime there’s a case to be solved.”

  After walking Hammy and getting myself ready, I started out toward the Valdez residence. Their house was about a twenty-minute walk away, but I could cut a good five minutes off if I took a shortcut through the edge of campus closest to our apartment.

  Fifteen minutes later, Hammy and I were slipping through their front gate and trotting up the small garden path to the gray house with white trim. From the manicured garden to the clean interior of the house, Alex and his father were just as meticulous in their domestic pursuits as they were in their investigative ones. I rapped my knuckles on the front door and waited. Hammy tugged on the leash when Alex opened the door a few moments later, pulling on a heather-gray T-shirt.

  “Morning,” Alex smiled. Between the rumpled look of his hair and the glimpse of his abs I’d just gotten, I almost forgot why I came over.

  “Hey.” I walked inside, those dark-brown eyes acting like tractor beams pulling me forward.

  Alex leaned down and kissed me as he closed the door behind us, making me wonder if the case couldn’t wait for just a little bit. I closed my eyes and leaned into him. His arm snaked around my waist and he tugged me close. He smelled like minty toothpaste and soap and I wanted to breathe him in.

  “Miss Brooks,” I heard from somewhere beyond Alex’s lips. Detective Valdez cleared his throat as I opened my eyes, heat burning up my neck and into my cheeks.

  “Morning, Detective.” Even after knowing him for a couple years—over a year of which he’d been my boyfriend’s father—I still couldn’t manage to call the man anything other than Detective Valdez. I pulled away from Alex and gave his father a quick salute.

  Normally I really didn’t mind that Alex still lived with his father. He may have been twenty-four and in a career which paid him more than enough to afford his own place, but I knew he and his dad were still getting over the loss of Alex’s mom two years ago. She’d been a police officer as well, down where they’d lived in California, and had been shot in the line of duty. They’d moved up here to start over in a quiet town that didn’t hold so many tough memories. So the two of them still living together, I totally got. It was just in times like these when I found his paternal presence a little less than endearing.

  Alex didn’t seem to mind that his dad was standing right in front of us, however, pulling me against him as I pivoted to face the detective. His closeness and his dad’s presence flustered me a bit and I tried to step away, but ended up getting myself completely wrapped in Hammy’s leash from all of my turning.

  Taking Hammy’s leash from my hand, Alex helped unwind me.

  “Come in the kitchen, you two. I’ll make you something to eat for breakfast,” Detective Valdez said, cracking a quick smirk as I untangled myself from Hammy. Normally, the man wore a serious expression as religiously as I wore leggings as if they were real pants.

  After unclipping Hammy, Alex moved to hang her leash on the coat rack as his father disappeared down the hall.

  Biting my lip, I looked back at Alex who nodded encouragingly. He knew I was still slightly intimidated by his dad, just like he was around my mom. But the only way to get over that was to get to know him, right? After a deep breath, I followed Alex and Hammy into the kitchen.

  Alex perched on a stool next to an eating bar running along the outer edge of a peninsula countertop, so I sat on the one next to him.

  “So I hear you two had quite the run-in with Jeremiah Langley yesterday,” the detective said as he pulled out a bag of pancake mix. He grabbed a skillet, then set it on the stove, turning on a burner to let it warm up.

  “You could say that.” At the promise of food, my stomach grumbled greedily.

  Turning toward me, Alex said, “Dad’s had to work with him a few times and apparently he’s always a little closed off.”

  “That’s definitely putting it diplomatically,” Detective Valdez said with a chuckle.

  The laugh surprised me, but not as much as his candor. I hadn’t ever known Alex’s father to put anything any other way than ‘diplomatically.’ Maybe the guy was actually starting to loosen up around me, dare I say, trust me? I felt my shoulders relax a little.

  “You didn’t hear this from me, but he’s not exactly well liked around here.”

  “Now that’s putting it diplomatically,” Alex said, repeating his dad from a second ago. “I was just about at the point where I was wondering if we were dealing with a Jaws situation.”

  Detective Valdez raised his eyebrows, as if it made sense to him.

  I glanced between them. “What does a shark have to do with this?”

  “The sheriff in Jaws tries to keep the deaths quiet so it doesn’t ruin the busy, tourism season for the town,” Alex said.

  “Oh.” I nodded. “He didn’t want it to get out and ruin the last big camping weekend of the summer.”

  “Well, that’s unavoidable at this point,” the detective said. “I was just on the phone with him earlier this morning. They’ve officially declared it a murder. He sent the boys home this morning, but only because he didn’t have enough evidence to hold them any longer. He wanted me to keep an eye on them.”

  I almost fell off my stool, but the detective reached for a bowl and began measuring ingredients into it, as if he discussed police matters with me all the time.

  “So he’s calling it a murder now?” I asked, tripping over the words in my surprise.

  Detective Valdez nodded slowly. “Yeah, the medical examiner just confirmed the victim died from a nonserrated blade cut to the throat. Based on the cut, the killer was a few inches shorter than the victim. They also found traces of polyglycol ether in the wound, which is a solvent used in brake fluid, which means the same knife was used to cut the brakes as kill the victim. But you didn’t hear that from me, either.” He winked at me then turned to whisk the ingredients together in his bowl.

  Blinking, I looked over at Alex, who was smiling at me. Honestly, I wasn’t sure how he wasn’t freaking out. His dad trusted me. Me!

  The sizzle of the pancakes as they hit the skillet must’ve been some sort of signal for Alex, because he stood and began putting plates and silverware on the table behind us.

  “You want some coffee?” Alex asked me, pulling a few mugs from the cupboard.

  I scoffed. “Always.” Then, after eyeing the pot of black coffee sitting in the coffeemaker, I asked, “Do you have any creamer?”

  “None of that fancy stuff you like.” Alex shook his head. “Dad’s a coffee snob like you, though, so he only buys the best. You should try it without all of the sugar and syrups you and Liv pile into your cups.”

  Glancing over at the detective, I sighed. “Sure. Why not.”

  Did I want to drink black coffee? Not especially. But I’d also just gotten a hint of what it was like to have the detective’s approval, and I was hungry for more. Smiling, Alex poured me a cup.

  Minutes later, we sat down at the table and Detective Valdez walked over with a plate of steaming pancakes. He flipped two of them onto my plate, causing my breath to catch in my throat. He’d made them in the shape of a P and a B for my initials. Just like my dad used to do.

  “Thank you,” I stuttered out the words, caught off guard by the sweet gesture.

  He blinked and dipped his chin, moving over to Alex, who got an A and a Mickey Mouse head. Alex chuckled and shook his head, but reached for the syrup nonetheless. “Thanks, Dad.”

  And then it hit me. Detective Valdez was just that, a dad. Alex’s dad. And maybe, after close to two years, he was starting to trust me just like Dad would’ve done with Alex—wary at first, but once he saw how much he cared for me, he would’ve let up.

  My heart ached at the r
eminder Alex would never get to meet my dad. I think they would’ve liked each other. To take my mind off the sadness building in my chest, I took my first sip of the jet-black coffee sitting in front of me.

  Eyes wide, I smacked my tongue. “Oh, that’s not half bad.”

  Detective Valdez smirked, sending a wink my way before he started cutting up his pancakes. “So tell me,” he said without looking up. “These guys are coming back to town. Do I have any murderers on my hands here?”

  Alex and I glanced at each other for a moment, but then I started filling him in on what we’d learned so far.

  An hour later, stomachs full of pancakes, Alex and I walked, hand in hand, along the quiet walkways of the university campus. Hammy sniffed happily along the edge of the concrete footpath while we reveled in the last few days of real quiet on the campus.

  Classes would begin this week, but for now the place was pretty deserted; only students who’d stayed for summer quarter or were moving in the dorms extra early were joining us in the late summer sunshine. Alex’s dad had to go into the station to check in on a few cases he was working on, and we’d decided to take a little walk to soak in some of the beautiful day.

  The cornflower-blue sky was vast and just about cloudless, if you didn’t count one or two tiny puffs hanging out near the peaks of the nearby mountain range. The campus grass had just recently been cut in preparation for the new quarter. The smell of warm earth surrounded us like a toddler’s security blanket.

  “Beats California, huh?” I said, shooting a playful smirk at Alex.

  He tsked and bumped my shoulder with his. “I don’t know. There’s not much that can beat a true Santa Cruz sunset.” His eyes narrowed as if he were seeing it in his mind’s eye. Then he turned toward me and winked. “Besides your smile, of course.”