Adventures In Murder Chasing (Funeral Crashing #3) (13 page)

"Any luck?" Ethan asked. He didn't seem embarrassed at all.

"No," Troy said.

"Nobody was home," Ariel looked up from her phone. "What do we do now?"

Should we just stand in front of Tim's door and wait for him? That could be awkward for the four of us. Not to mention that someone might think it strange that we were staking out someone's room, waiting for them. I didn't want people to call campus security on us.

"Let's explore," I said. "Troy, can you keep first lookout?"

Troy nodded and the three of us set off to explore the rest of the floor. It was pretty small with about eight apartments on the floor, but we did discover a small TV lounge two rooms away. I suddenly couldn't wait to go to college, despite all of the decisions I still had to make. This was kind of cool. Everyone on the floor could watch their shows together. We could camp out and watch movies, like a big slumber party between going to classes, of course. Yeah, college was going to be so totally awesome.

We took turns keeping a lookout for Tim and watching TV. We had almost gotten through a whole talk show and were waiting in anticipation to see the results of some makeovers when Ariel ran excitedly into the TV lounge.

"I think he's here! He's unlocking the door!" Ariel yelled.

We bolted out of our seats, totally forgetting to see the after part of the makeover. Okay, between Ethan and Troy and I, I had to admit that I was probably the only one curious to see how the tomboy women had been made over into hot babes. Yes, I could go to funerals, solve murder mysteries, and still be into makeover shows. Who didn't want to dream about a makeover turning you into a hot babe? Hello,
Miss Congeniality
. It's a great movie with Sandra Bullock and it's all about getting made over. Wish fulfillment, you know? It would be so much fun to have a makeover.

We ran for Nico and Tim's dorm room. Tim was just walking inside.

"Tim!" I yelled.

Tim turned to look at us, confused. He was tall, about six foot, with short brown hair. He was wearing a basketball jersey over a T-shirt. I wondered if he played basketball. He was definitely tall enough. We kept running toward him.

"We're friends of Nico's," Troy said as he stopped just in front of Tim. "We met before, remember? At Nico's house?"

Tim took a moment to look Troy over. "I don't remember you."

"Come on. Sure you do. We all went to get a burger in the car Nico had just finished rebuilding? He called it the maiden voyage?" Troy said.

Recognition registered on Tim's face. "Oh. Yeah. Okay. I remember you. What are you doing here?"

"Well, um..." Troy started and looked at me.

"Can we talk to you for a second?" I finished, a little breathlessly. I was not so used to sprinting and was still catching my breath.

Tim looked at all of us. The Asian girl that had been camped out in his room stepped up behind him. I looked behind her and had a glimpse of the room. It was one large room, separated into two rooms by a large bookshelf. Was that the bookshelf that had fallen on Nico and killed him? It spanned half the wall creating a divider in the middle of the room. On one side was a study area and on the other side was the bedroom, which currently had two twin beds pushed together to make one large bed. There was also a small couch and a television set up, like an informal living room.

"Shut the door, babe," The Asian girl, obviously his girlfriend, said. "What are you doing? We don't need to talk to them."

Tim was a good foot taller than her, but that didn't matter. It looked like she called the shots in the relationship. At the very least, Tim looked like he was about to listen to her. I had to get inside and see the crime scene. He couldn't shut the door on us too. We'd lose our only chance to take a look around and see where everything had happened and of course, to talk to the person who had found Nico.

"Please..." I said and stepped in front of Troy who had been the closest to the door.

"Tim, can we just talk to you for a moment? We came all the way from the suburbs. It took like an hour to get here. Please."

Tim seemed to consider my request and then sighed, "Fine. What do you want?"

"We were just concerned that Nico's death wasn't an accident. Actually, I've been concerned. These are my friends, by the way, but only Troy and I really knew Nico," I stared, thinking fast and hoping that I wasn't about to blow our chance with a lie. Still I had to say something, "I was just starting to date Nico. We knew each other from high school and suddenly we just clicked, you know? I know we never met, but I never got a chance to come down here and visit him. Wow, I just can't believe he's gone, you know? I mean, I can't eat. I can't sleep. I'm a wreck. Can you just tell me what happened? I mean, his parents didn't even know we were dating and the funeral was awful and I just felt so alone and..."

I hoped my lie about dating Nico wasn't going to backfire. I actually didn't know if Nico had a girlfriend. Troy had mentioned an ex-girlfriend, but maybe he didn't know if Nico had a current girlfriend. I couldn't be sure either since it hadn't said so on his Facebook page. Still, if Nico had just started dating someone that wouldn't necessarily be reflected on his status. Please believe me, I thought. Worst case, I was going to have to feign rage at being two-timed. Hey, for all I knew Nico could have been a total player.

Tim was watching me. I sniffed. I tried to make tears form in my eyes, but I was never really good at that. I tried to look sad. I mean, I did feel sad. Nico shouldn't have died so young. Plus it wasn't that big of a leap that Nico might have dated me, right? That is, if he wasn't already dating someone else?

Tim nodded, "I know what you mean. I can't believe he's gone either. I keep looking for him."

"Me too," I said and then asked, sniffing loudly. "Can I talk to you then?"

Tim turned to look at his girlfriend who was staring at me suspiciously. She nodded once. Wow, she definitely ruled over their relationship.

"Sure," Tim said. "Just for a couple of minutes, though. We have stuff to do and this can't take all day or anything."

"Thanks," I smiled back at him. "Don't worry. It won't. A few minutes is awesome."

Tim and his girlfriend didn't move from the doorway. They just stared at me. I frowned.

"Can we at least come in?" I asked.

"Why?" Tim's girlfriend asked.

"I want to see where Nico lived," I tried to make my voice crack and hoped I was being convincing enough, "And where he died. I just...miss him so much. Please."

I grabbed Ariel's hand like I needed moral support. I couldn't grab Ethan's because, of course, I was supposed to be Nico's distraught girlfriend. I felt Ariel stiffen a little at my hand holding hers. Then she took my lead and put an arm around my shoulders.

"It's been really rough on her," Ariel said, looking right at Tim.

Whoa. I actually saw lust pass over Tim's face. His girlfriend wasn't going to be happy if she noticed that. I looked at her. She wasn't looking at Ariel. She was looking at me.

Tim nodded, still looking at Ariel, and moved into the room to let us enter. I had to admit, Ariel was a great actress or seductress or whatever. She did her thing and it worked. We made a good team. Wait. Did I just actually think that? I pushed away the thought and we took the opportunity and hurried inside.

"Hey, are you Troy's sister?" I heard Tim ask Ariel.

"Uh, no," Ariel frowned.

I wanted to laugh at the look on her face. Tim was looking for his in and that so wasn't it. Yeah, if his girlfriend caught that she so wouldn't be happy. I wondered what Troy thought about all of this, but I didn't have time to look back at him. I was trying to get a lay of the crime scene as we entered the apartment. There was a small entryway before the two rooms divided. I could see that there was a half wall that the bookshelf extended, further separating the study area and the bedroom/living room area. There was even a small kitchenette that I hadn't seen from the door, tucked away behind a small wall on the other side of the doorway.

"Ignore the mess," Tim said, noticing our glancing around. "Christine has been living with me since everything went down and our stuff is pretty much everywhere."

Christine was busy tidying up a pile of random stuff near the bed. She had a lot of junk in a pile and it looked like she had dumped out her purse. I was just glad that she had stopped staring at me suspiciously. I continued looking around the room. Some of the bookshelf slots were empty and it looked like Christine had moved her stuff in. It appeared that Nico's parents had already cleaned out his half of the room. That had to have been really hard. Maybe one of the other relatives did it. I couldn't imagine. We still had boxes of my mom's stuff in the basement. Neither my dad nor I had been able to go through it and that was only the stuff that we saw every day. We hadn't even touched her closet and a lot of time had passed. There was no way we could have packed everything up before the funeral.

"So what really happened to Nico?" I asked.

Tim shrugged, "I don't know exactly. I just came home and there he was lying under this bookshelf. It's attached to the wall normally, but something broke off and it fell. It was probably like that for forever, but we didn't notice until, well, it fell on Nico. It's really sturdy if you feel it now. The maintenance guys came by and fixed it. They're supposed to come back in the next few weeks and just build a full wall. Everyone's getting one in this complex. Nico's death really freaked the school out. I think his parents will probably sue."

I touched the bookshelf. It was pretty sturdy. I tried to push it. It didn't budge. It would be really hard to knock this thing over and if it fell, ouch. It would be heavy.

Tim continued, "He must have just gotten home from work. I keep thinking about that, actually. It really sucks. His last moments alive, he was working for the man."

"Where did he work?" Ethan asked. I was glad because as Nico's supposed girlfriend I should know where he worked, so it wasn't like I could have asked about it.

"Mezz Dorm, at the front desk. It's one of those super easy on campus jobs," Tim said. "He mostly did his homework and talked to friends."

"Could somebody have followed him home?" I asked.

"It was the middle of the day," Tim said. "He had the early shift eight to noon."

"So?" I asked. I mean, did it have to be the middle of the night for someone to follow you home? No.

Tim frowned at me, "Well, okay, anybody could have followed him, I guess," Tim said. "But he was just walking across campus. It's not like he was in a bad neighborhood."

"Well, was the door unlocked? Did somebody break in maybe?" I asked.

Tim shook his head, "Nobody broke in, but the door was propped open, actually. We all do that, though. It's not a big deal."

"You just leave the door open?" Ethan asked.

Tim nodded, "Yeah. Everyone here does it. The building's secure and everything, so it's not a big deal."

"We were able to get in," I said.

Tim shrugged, "Yeah, but..."

"Well, do you think that it's possible somebody came in here and murdered him?" I asked in a horrified whisper.

Tim shook his head, "What? No way. Why? And why with the bookshelf, you know? There's easier ways to kill someone. Like with a gun or a knife or something. It was just an accident. He had a bunch of parts on the shelf that he was always tinkering with. One of them fell when he went to grab it, along with the bookshelf, and it stabbed him in the stomach."

I cringed. That seriously did not sound like a fun way to go. I didn't need to act to look horrified.

"You're sure?" I asked. "I mean, nobody was mad at him or had a grudge against him or anything?"

"Nico's ex-girlfriend Marissa, maybe," Tim said. "Other than that, I wouldn't know. She was pretty pissed when he broke up with her last month. She came into our room and took a bunch of his stuff and threw it down the garbage chute. He was pretty mad about that. He started calling her Psycho-Ex. Funny thing is that she was the one cheating on him and yet, she was acting all upset. Crazy girl. Wait, I'm sorry. Am I upsetting you? Talking about his ex? They were totally over."

"What? Oh. No. It's okay. I want to know," I said, breathlessly, hoping it came out as distraught instead of panicked. "What's her last name?"

"Dayton, I think. But yeah, I don't think even she would try to kill him. That happened almost a month ago. I think she got obsessed with the other guy. Besides, I think she'd have been more likely to run Nico over if she wanted to kill him," Tim said.

I nodded, "So, no other angry friends or anything?"

"You're obsessed with the murder angle aren't you?" Tim said.

"Well, it's just hard to believe that something so random happened, you know? There has to be a reason," I said. "Seriously, what are the odds that a bookshelf just fell on him?"

Tim shrugged. He didn't seem to know what to say to that.

"Bad luck," Christine said from behind Tim, done with throwing her stuff under the bed.

I looked over at her.

"Nico wasn't murdered. He was just in the wrong place at the wrong time," Christine said.