2 Whispering (18 page)

When Monday came, I realized it was the last week of classes. I had finals in psychology and math, but that was it. I had a final project due for the computer lab, but I had already finished it. My horror lit class only had one final paper due and Paris and I had one astronomy lab left – even though we no longer talked to each other during the classes. There wouldn’t be a final in my current events class. Compared to everyone else, that was pretty light and I considered myself lucky.

I breezed through my first two classes and was walking into my current events class when I saw Professor Blake lounging against the open door. I stopped in my tracks. Professor Blake had kept his distance from me over the past few weeks. It had been a relief. I didn’t think it was just a coincidence that he was standing outside of the classroom I was about to enter, though.

“Ms. Lake,” he greeted me.

“Professor Blake.”

“I’ve cleared it with Professor Livingston already, I would like to have a discussion with you about your class load next semester.”

I doubted that was what he wanted to talk about. I didn’t want to make a scene, though. “Fine.”

I followed Professor Blake to his office and waited while he shut the door behind us. I sat down in one of the leather chairs across from his desk and looked at him expectantly.

“What’s up?”

“I just wanted to touch base with you, see how things were going.”

“They’re fine.”

“I haven’t talked to you in awhile.”

“I haven’t had much to say.”

“I understand you were there when the body was found on campus last week.”

“I was.”

“Olivia Harper.”

“What?”

“That was her name. She disappeared several weeks ago – although, she was kind of a loner and no one actually reported her missing. She lived alone in an apartment on campus.”

“Oh, I think I heard something like that.”

“You didn’t look into it?”

“I didn’t feel like it was my place.”

Professor Blake fixed me with a hard look. “Olivia went missing from campus when she was walking home alone back to her apartment. The police have fixed her time of death as more than a month ago – although they’re still working to make that more precise.”

“That’s terrible.”

“Just like the other two girls that went missing.”

“I don’t know what you want me to say,” I replied honestly.

“You don’t think this is odd?”

“What’s odd about it? Isn’t students dying on this campus pretty much par for the course?”

“The other disappearances – even the ones back in 1975 – didn’t have bodies attached to the disappearances. This was the first one.”

“Maybe it was someone different?”

“Do you believe that?” Professor Blake asked probingly.

“Not really.”

“What do you think happened?”

“I think that whoever killed Olivia Harper didn’t mean for her body to be discovered. They were just storing the body there until they could move it and the longer the body was there the more of a problem it became to move.”

“How so?”

“I think the killer got interrupted and planned to go back for the body. He didn’t plan on Earth Day mucking everything up for him. Or maybe he abandoned the body because it was no use to him anymore at a certain point and it became more dangerous to move it than to leave it.”

“Where do you think he was taking it?”

My mind flashed to the clearing in the woods. “I don’t know,” I lied.

Professor Blake narrowed his eyes as he regarded me. “I think you know more than you’re letting on.”

“Why do you think that?”

“It has come to my attention that you’ve been hanging out with a werewolf. Aric Winters, in fact.”

I’m going to kill Mark.

“So?” I didn’t see any reason to continue lying about it.

“I’ve known for awhile that the Winters were werewolves,” Professor Blake said.

“Good for you?” I wasn’t sure what answer he wanted.

“And you don’t see anything wrong with aligning yourself with him?”

“Not really.” I was getting decidedly uncomfortable with this conversation.

“I happen to know that a call was made from Senator Winters’ office in Lansing that tipped police off here about a burial clearing in the woods.”

I hadn’t heard anything about that. I discarded the information about him having a mole in Senator Winters’ office, for the time being. I filed it away to tell Aric later, though. “What did the police find?”

“The police have deduced that it’s a crank call. They have searched the area and found nothing.”

“Nothing?” How could that be?

“Nothing.”

Professor Blake watched my reaction closely. I felt like a bug under a microscope. “Well, I guess that’s a dead end then.”

“I guess so,” Professor Blake arched his eyebrow.

“Is that all?” I desperately wanted out of this office.

“No.”

“What else?”

“What do you know about sphinxes?”

“I know that the Egyptians made them into harmless statues but the Greek sphinxes are a completely different thing,” I parroted Laura’s drunken ramblings. “I know most people think they’re women, but that’s not true.”

Professor Blake looked surprised – and mildly impressed. “You have been doing research?”

“Something like that. Why are you bringing this up? Do you think a sphinx is responsible for this?”

“It’s a definite possibility.”

“Why do you think it’s a sphinx?” I pressed.

“I have several reasons. Throughout history, sphinxes are known for certain rituals.”

“Like killing girls?”

“Not just girls,” Professor Blake corrected me. “Do you know how sphinxes live so long?”

“How long do they live?”

“I don’t think anyone knows the answer to that,” he said. “We just know they can live for centuries.”

“Are sphinxes born?”

“No, they’re made.”

“How are they made?”

“Through killing.”

“What do you mean?”

“Some people, some beings, believe that you can prolong your life by taking another.”

“Like sucking the life out of someone else? Gross, do they have tentacles?”

“Not exactly. It’s more like they kill someone and perform a ritual that gives them the years that their victim would have still had. They have to perform the ritual within a few hours, though, or the body becomes useless to them. I think that’s a distinct possibility in this case – although I have no way of knowing for sure until we find whoever is responsible for this.”

“What is it with crazy people and rituals?” I grumbled.

“With a sphinx, though, it’s even more intricate. They have certain rules they have to follow, and it’s not just with the bodies.”

“What rules?”

“I don’t know for sure. I just know of some things that have been reported throughout the years. For example, everything I have read about sphinxes says that they have to kill in odd numbered increments.”

“Why?”

“It’s a mystery. It just seems to be a peculiarity of their mythology. Nothing can be even for them.”

Something gnawed at the corner of my mind. “What do you mean?”

“I mean they wear different sized shoes. Their clothes, for example, will have uneven arms and will be unevenly buttoned. Back in ancient times, the hems of their togas were always uneven. I’ve even heard
of instances of them cutting their hair at uneven lengths,” Professor Blake chuckled. “Although, that seems pretty farfetched to me.”

I jumped to my feet at his statement, pushing the chair back violently as I did.

Professor Blake got to his feet, concern etched across his face. “What?”

“I think I know who the sphinx is.”

“Who?”

I didn’t answer him as I ran out of the room. I had to get to Paris and Mark.

I raced back to the dorms with more speed than I thought I could muster. When I got to the fifth floor, Laura was in the hallway.

“Where are Mark and Paris?” I wheezed as I held my hand to my abdomen.

“I don’t know,” Laura said blankly. “I haven’t exactly been keeping up with their schedule.”

“I need to find them,” I gasped. “Right now.”

“Why?”

“I think Zach is a sphinx.” I just blurted it out without any finesse.

Laura’s dark eyes widened in surprise. “Why do you think that?”

“It’s something Professor Blake said to me.”

“What did he say?”

“He said that sphinxes couldn’t have anything even.”

“Like Zach’s hair?”

“And his shoelaces and the weird length of his pants.”

“That could just be a coincidence.”

“It could be, but there’s more. Paris, Mark and I went to Barnes Hall after dark one night and we ran into Zach there. He made up some story about following us, but I never quite believed it. I kind of forgot about it, though, with everything that had been going on.”

“That’s still not proof,” Laura said.

“That was around the same time Olivia Harper disappeared.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yeah, Blake just confirmed it for me.”

“That’s still circumstantial.”

“It’s just a feeling,” I said finally. “Zach has been around all semester, but I never hear him talking about his classes. He just seems to show up places.”

“He seems to show up places where you are,” Laura corrected me.

“He’s not up on pop culture either,” I reminded her. “He had never seen
Star Wars
and yet he knew that weird stuff about Greek mythology.”

Laura sighed. “It is a lot of coincidences colliding.”

“You think I’m wrong?”

“I think you better be a hundred percent sure before you do anything,” Laura said carefully. “If you cause a scene and you’re wrong, it’s just going to make things worse.”

She had a point.

I started mindlessly pacing in front of Laura’s open dorm room. I was second-guessing everything I had spent the past twenty minutes convincing myself of. What if Laura was right? Maybe Zach was just a weird guy that really did cut his hair at an uneven length because he thought it was cool. Brittany wore pink angora sweater sets and she thought they were cool. That didn’t make her evil – well, overtly evil that is.

Laura saw the gears in my mind working. “Why don’t you just think about it for awhile? If Zach is a sphinx, I don’t think he’s going to do anything in the dorms.”

I considered Laura’s suggestion. “I can’t think on an empty stomach,” I said finally. “Let’s go get dinner and I’ll think about it some more.”

“I think that’s a wise idea.”

I didn’t tell Laura I was hoping Paris, Mark and Zach would be in the cafeteria. I wasn’t completely ready to let this idea go.

When we got down to the cafeteria, I filled my tray in the buffet line – all the while scanning the crowd for a sign of Mark, Zach and Paris. I felt a wave of relief wash over me when I caught sight of Paris. She and Mark were sitting at a table on the far side of the cafeteria.

Laura saw where I was staring. She set her mouth and shook her head almost imperceptibly. “Don’t go over there.”

“Oh, I’m going over there.”

“Zach isn’t even there,” Laura pointed out.

“Yet,” I countered. “He’s not there yet.”

“If you go over there,” Laura warned me. “You’ll be going alone.”

“Okay,” I said dismissively. “You can find someone else to sit with, right?”

Laura’s mouth dropped open in surprise. “You’re serious?”

“I’m deadly serious,” I said soberly.

I left Laura at the buffet line and headed towards Mark and Paris. They didn’t notice me right away, but when I was only a few feet away Paris raised her head in surprise when she recognized me.

“What are you doing?”

“Having dinner,” I announced, dropping my tray on the table.

“With me?”

“Yup.”

“Why?”

“Why not?”

“I’m mad at you,” Paris reminded me. I think she was worried I had lost my mind.

“I’m well aware of that fact,” I said primly.

Paris narrowed her eyes in my direction suspiciously. “You can’t just force me to like you again.”

“Okay,” I said easily.

Paris and Mark exchanged wary looks but then went back to eating their dinner. Occasionally, they would glance in my direction, but I remained silent while I ate my hamburger. When I was done, I pushed the tray away and then fixed them with a pointed gaze. “So, where’s Zach?”

Mark looked surprised. “He’ll be here in a few minutes.”

“Good.”

“I thought you were dating that Aric guy? The big one?”

“I’m not dating Aric,” I scoffed. What? I’m not. At least not yet.

Paris was unreadable as she regarded me. I could tell she sensed something was going on, but she didn’t want to come right out and ask me about it. She was still comfortable in her indignation. She wasn’t going to let curiosity dislodge her anger – at least not yet.

Thankfully, we weren’t alone for very long. Zach joined us a few minutes later. If he was surprised to see me, he didn’t let on to that fact.

“Everyone made up?” He questioned by way of greeting. “That’s great.”

“We haven’t . . .“ Paris started.

“I’m wearing her down,” I interrupted.

Paris shot me a dirty look and opened her mouth to challenge that assertion. Something on my face must have changed her mind, though.

“Zoe thinks that she can charm me into forgiving her,” Paris said finally.

“Well, that’s good . . . I think.” Zach shrugged and then turned back to his dinner.

Now that he was so close, I took the opportunity to look Zach over. His hair was definitely uneven. He was wearing a long sleeved flannel shirt. One arm was cuffed and rolled up while the other was unbuttoned and completely straight. That could just be an oversight, I told myself. I pushed away from the table long enough to get a look at his pant legs. I couldn’t help but grimace when I saw that one was cuffed and the other was tucked into the top of his camel colored work boots. I noticed that one of his shoelaces was also obviously shorter than the other. That’s a whole lot of coincidence in one ensemble.

When I looked back up, I saw that Paris was watching me with undisguised curiosity. I met her gaze evenly and then turned to Zach.

“So, Zach, where did you say you were from?”

Zach looked surprised to have the discussion suddenly aimed at him. “Um, Brighton.”

I pursed my lips. I had never been to Brighton. I didn’t know anything about the city. “Have you always lived there?”

“Yeah.”

“What was it like growing up there?”

“Just like anywhere else, I guess.”

“You went to Brighton High School?”

“Yeah.”

“You graduated last year?” A plan was forming in my mind.

“What’s with all the questions?” Zach turned to me.

“I’m just curious. You never talk about yourself.”

“I talk about myself.”

“Not really.”

Paris was now staring at Zach. She had no idea why I was questioning him, just that I was suddenly interested in him. She was looking for clues as to why.

“Well, what do you want to know?’ Zach shifted the burden of the conversation back on me.

“Have you ever been to Greece?”

The question seemed to come out of nowhere and Paris and Mark seemed visibly surprised by the query. Zach, though, merely looked annoyed. “That’s a weird question.”

That wasn’t an answer.

“I’ve just always wanted to go to Greece,” I lied. “I wondered if you had ever been there, that’s all.”

“It sounds like a fascinating place,” Zach said. “I’ve done a lot of research on ancient Greece.”

“I remember.”

“I would definitely like to go there some day.”

“But you’ve never been there before?”

Zach gritted his teeth. “No, I’ve never been there before.”

I didn’t believe him.

“You’ve done a lot of research on ancient Greek myths and rites, though,” I said. It was a statement, not a question. “Have you ever heard of a sphinx?”

I might as well go for broke. If he wasn’t a sphinx, I would just look like a deranged idiot. If he was a sphinx, he would know I knew.

“Sphinxes are Egyptian,” Zach said without missing a beat, although I thought I saw a flash of recognition in his eyes.

“Oh, that’s right,” I said. “I guess I’m just confused.”

Zach exchanged a confused glance with Mark. “Well, as fun as this conversation has been, I think I’m going to the library and study for my finals.” He got to his feet, smiled at Paris, and then walked away from the table. I could feel his eyes on my back as he left. I was more convinced now than I had been an hour ago: Zach was the sphinx.

“What was that about?” Paris practically exploded when Zach was out of earshot.

I considered telling her my suspicions about Zach but ultimately opted not to. I didn’t trust Mark not to run to Professor Blake – and if I was wrong, and Zach wasn’t a sphinx, I didn’t want to think what they would do to him to test him. I was better off waiting, at this point.

I got to my feet and grabbed my own tray. “Nothing,” I lied. “I was just curious.”