Adventures In Murder Chasing (Funeral Crashing #3) (11 page)

"Troy," I said, softly.

Troy didn't move. He was sound asleep. I watched him breathe in and out for a moment. He was dead asleep. I felt bad waking him up, but I finally had some questions for him.

"Troy!" I said a little louder. I didn't want to shock him awake or anything.

Troy turned over on his side, but kept sleeping. I walked over to Troy and put my hand on his arm, giving him a little shake.

"Troy!" I said again.

Troy's eyes snapped open and he jumped into a sitting position. I stepped back quickly. Oh well, so much for not shocking him. Troy's eyes focused on me. It took him a moment to recognize me and then he grinned.

"Wow, that was a good nap," Troy said.

"Sorry I took so long," I smiled. "But I'm done. Can you look over my list and see if any names jump out at you?"

"Sure," Troy said, stretching. "No problem."

I grabbed my notebook off of my desk and sat down next to Troy on the bed. I handed him the notebook. Troy took it and started reading through the names. It suddenly hit me that it was really pretty cool of him to spend a couple of hours hanging out with me while I worked the case. I knew Nico had been his friend and all, but still. I had pretty much ignored him for over an hour and he hadn't complained at all, just let me do my thing. He was a good guy. I hoped Ariel deserved him. Maybe he'd be good for her, make her into a better person. I mean, not that Ariel hadn't been awesome when we'd been friends. She had been, but she'd changed. I guessed we both had. Why was I thinking about Ariel again?

Troy grabbed a pen off my desk, bringing me back to reality. I watched as he jotted down some notes next to the ones I had already made. He crossed off a couple of names. I watched him look over the rest of the list.

Troy looked up, "The names I crossed off are the ones that I'd almost guarantee didn't do it. They're people I know really, really well or they're people that haven't seen Nico since he went away to school and they just don't know him anymore. Regardless, I'd say they're all pretty unlikely. Still, I only crossed off about ten names."

"Okay. That's logical," I said. "So, does anybody stand out to you as a potential killer?"

Troy frowned, "Not really. I mean, like I told you guys, I don't know a lot of his friends from college. I'm guessing that's who at least half of these names are. I did meet his roommate once, though, when Nico brought him back with him for a weekend."

"Wait, you didn't mention that before," I said.

"I just didn't think about it. I didn't really know the guy," Troy said. "He's about it, though. I never went down to hang out with Nico on campus. We talked about it, but I never got around to it."

"So nobody stands out then?" I asked again. "As someone who might want to kill Nico?"

Troy sighed and looked at the list, "Okay. I'd check out his roommate, I guess."

"I thought he was okay," I said.

"Well, yeah, he seemed cool when I met him and like he and Nico got along, but..." Troy started.

"What?" I asked.

"Well," Troy said. "There is the all A's story."

"What's that?" I asked.

"Well, they say if your college roommate dies, you'll get all A's for the semester," Troy said.

"Is that even true?" I asked. "Wasn't that in that movie
Dead Man on Campus
? I thought it was all just made up and stuff, though. I mean, why would they give you all A's?"

I was surprised I even thought of that movie. I had borrowed it from work only a few months ago. Was that a coincidence or fate?

Troy shrugged, "I don't know. The trauma of it all? It kind of makes sense if the college does have a clause like that. Anyway, I do know that the reason Tim came home with Nico for the weekend was that Nico was trying to help him get his grades back up with some project so that Tim wouldn't flunk out of school. If there is an all A's clause, that could definitely be a motive."

I made some notes next to Tim's name. I'd want to talk to him regardless, of course, since he was Nico's roommate and Nico had been found dead in their apartment. Were grades enough of a reason for murder? Actually, to some people they probably were.

I was trying to eat my cheese fries, but Ethan was totally freaking out. I was afraid he was going to grab my hand and make cheese fly all over my shirt. That would definitely not be good.

"Troy was over at your house?" Ethan asked for the third time in a row.

I really hadn't wanted to tell him, but I felt guilty. I mean, nothing had happened between Troy and me, even remotely, but I still felt awful. Was that weird? Or did I just know that Ethan would react like this and was feeling guilty in advance for freaking him out?

"Yes, but like I said, it's not a big deal. Troy was just helping me," I said again. "Anyway, what that means is that we have to go down to the school. I have to talk to Nico's roommate, Tim, and maybe check out some of the other people on my list that it looks like went to college with him."

"What about Fiorella's brother, Antonio?" Ethan asked.

"I do want to look more into him. I actually think he's home for a few days because of the funeral stuff. I'm not sure how to get more info on him, though, unless I talk to Fiorella. His girlfriend is at the college. She'd probably be the one I wanted to talk to anyway to make sure his alibi is really airtight. He'd never tell me if he was lying about that," I said.

"Well, what about Ed? He was already in trouble with the law and hated Nico," Ethan said.

"Well, yeah. I do need to call the police and ask about Ed. I was going to ask Suzie to call, actually. I..."

Ethan cut me off, "Okay. You're absolutely sure Troy isn't trying to make a move on you?"

"Look, Ethan, he has Ariel. Why would he try and make a move on me? Come on," I said.

Ethan looked at me. I couldn't quite read his look as he stared into my eyes.

"What?" I asked after Ethan didn't say anything.

"I don't think you give yourself enough credit," Ethan said and then seemed to stop himself.

Now I was the one staring, "What do you mean?"

Ethan looked at me for another second and then shrugged, "I...I never mind. Just give yourself a little more credit and do me a favor, let me be there with you next time you hang out with Troy."

I shrugged, "Okay. We really are just friends, though, and nothing happened last night. I looked stuff up, bored him to sleep, we talked for ten minutes, and then he left."

"I know," Ethan said. "I believe you and I'm not usually the jealous type, but..."

"But what?" I asked.

"I just..." Ethan started. "I just care a lot about you."

Whoa. That was a huge statement. Should I press him further? Did I have to say something back? What did I say? I mean caring a lot isn't the L word, but does it still require some kind of response?

"I care a lot about you too," I said, although it came out really awkwardly. I did really mean it, though. It was just hard to say out loud.

Ethan smiled. He took my hand and held it in his and kissed me on the lips softly. I forgot all about my cheese fries.

"So, when do you want to go and visit Landale College?" Ethan asked as he pulled away from the kiss.

It took me a second to formulate words, "How about tomorrow?"

"After school?" Ethan asked.

"No. We can take a college day," I said. "We're allowed and I haven't taken any college days yet. Have you?"

"Just one," Ethan said.

"Really? When?" I asked. "Where?"

I had a sudden fear about Ethan and I going to different colleges. Didn't that break a lot of people up? But we had just gotten together. Wait. College was almost two years away. Still, I'll admit, a worry I hadn't even considered entered my brain. Where did Ethan want to go to college? What was he going to study? What did I want? What was I going to study? There was time, I reminded myself. I didn't need to make any decisions yet. Ethan and I weren't in any danger. We had just said we cared about each other. Things were good, really good.

Ethan shrugged, "My dad and I checked out the college he went to, upstate. He wanted to go back and see it and I went with him. It looked pretty cool."

"Are you going to go there?" I asked. What if our schools were hours apart?

"I don't know yet," Ethan said.

"Oh. Well, do you know where else you might want to go to school? Or what you want to study?" I asked in a breathless rush.

Okay, I was so not good at holding my worries in when it came to Ethan. I didn't want to lose him. Maybe we were a little alike in that respect.

Ethan smiled, "Nope. I don't know yet. I'll probably apply to a bunch and see where I get in. Do you know where you want to go?"

"No," I admitted.

It had actually seemed like a far off decision, but I guess it was kind of getting close. I'd be taking the ACTs and the SATs soon. Then next fall I'd be applying to colleges. Plus my dad was already on me about extracurricular activities, even though I told him I'd been to at least two Pep Club meetings this year. He wanted me to add more to my list, though. I was busy. I mean, I couldn't add female sleuth on there, could I? Or better yet, could I add girlfriend of cute boy? Plus I had an after school job. I really felt like that should count. I mean, I was responsible enough to be part of the workforce. I thought that was important. It showed I had a work ethic, you know?

"So, tomorrow's a college day then," Ethan said.

"Yeah," I smiled.

"Sounds fun," Ethan said.

"Oh, and I hope you don't mind..." I started.

"What?" Ethan asked, wearily.

"Well, don't freak out, but I told Troy he could come with us," I said.

"What?" Ethan asked.

"He does have an in with Nico's roommate," I said. "We might need him."

"So?" Ethan said. "Has not having an in stopped you before?"

"Well, no," I said. "But it will definitely make it easier to get Nico's roommate Tim to open up."

Ethan was quiet.

"He is bringing Ariel, if that helps," I said.

Troy had texted me that this morning. I wondered if he had confessed what happened to Ariel and she had made him let her come along. I really couldn't say no, so I texted him back:
Cool
. I mean, if Ariel was sitting right next to him, looking at his texts, that was a pretty all right response, right? I didn't give away my inner freaking out? I hoped not. I just made sure not to run into Ariel between classes after that. I so didn't want to actually talk about it with her. I'd be spending enough time with her tomorrow.

I continued my line of thought, "Believe me, I wish Ariel wasn't coming. Things are kind of weird between us right now."

"Like usual?" Ethan smiled.

"Weirder, actually," I said. "And Suzie and Kyle are coming too."

"Seriously?" Ethan asked. "Am I the last one to know about this road trip?"

"Well, kind of," I said and then quickly explained, "But only because I saw them before I saw you today. They asked me about Nico in Chemistry. So, I told them how it was going and about how I was thinking about taking a college day and they really wanted to come. They want to help."

"Well, I like both of them, at least," Ethan said.

"You can invite Dave and Mike if you want. The more the merrier at this point," I offered. Plus maybe the more people that were with us, the less likely it would be that Ariel and I were left alone together.

"I'm good," Ethan said. "We're already bringing an entire investigative team with us."

"Yeah, I guess we are," I said.

It was funny. Solving cases had gone from just Ethan and I to a whole gaggle of us. I just hoped our investigative team would all get along and not kill each other.

At ten am the next morning, we were all standing outside of Kyle's house. His mom was beaming at us. She had made us freshly baked blueberry muffins for breakfast and had packed us a large snack bag for our college road trip. It was sweet.

Kyle was totally embarrassed by it all, of course. He was trying to get everyone into his mom's van. He had been elected to drive because he was the only one with a car that was big enough to fit six people.

"Let's go," Kyle said again.

He seemed afraid that his mom would just keep feeding us. I didn't think he had to worry. His mom had gotten pretty focused on talking to Suzie. She seemed to like her. That was a good thing for Kyle. Although, at the moment, Kyle just seemed to want to get everyone away from his mom's doting. It was kind of funny, when that sort of thing wasn't happening to you. I smiled to myself. It was very sweet too, if you thought about it. I felt a sudden pang in my heart. I missed my mom.

We piled into the car. Kyle was driving and Suzie was in the front passenger seat next to him. Ethan and I were in the back behind them and Ariel and Troy were behind us. We waved to Kyle's mom and drove away.