Adventures In Murder Chasing (Funeral Crashing #3) (22 page)

"Do you see her?" I asked Ethan since he was the one that had talked to her before.

"No," Ethan said, "But let's walk around."

I nodded and we walked through the library, glancing at each table as we passed them. We finally found her at the back of the library. She was studying in a back corner table with a friend. Ethan pointed her out and we stopped short. It was definitely her. She had a head of extremely curly hair that was sort of hard to miss.

"What now?" Ethan asked.

I looked at Aryana, who seemed to be in a deep conversation with her friend. This could turn out to be awkward. What exactly were we going to say anyway? Did we try and get her away from her friend or just barge in and point blank ask her if she knew that Antonio was cheating on her?

"I have no idea," I said to Ethan.

We stared at Aryana for a few minutes in silence, trying to figure out what to do. That is, until she looked up and saw us. She immediately spotted Ethan and frowned at him. She said something to her friend and got up and walked toward us.

"Uh-oh," I said softly.

I knew Ethan heard me, but he didn't say anything. He was watching Aryana.

"Hey," Aryana said. "You're that guy I talked to the other day."

"Ethan," Ethan said.

Aryana didn't even look at me, "Did you ever find out where Antonio was that day? I asked him after I talked to you and we got into a huge fight."

Ethan shrugged, "No. Sorry."

"He didn't hurt you, did he?" I asked. If he had hit her, then besides being a total jerk, maybe it was proof that Antonio was dangerous and that Aryana might be the next murder victim.

Aryana turned to look at me like she had just noticed that I was there, "Uh. No. We just yelled at each other. Antonio would never hit me."

"Oh," I said and tried not to look disappointed, since it was a good thing that Antonio hadn't hit her. I didn't think she was lying either. At least I couldn't see any marks or anything if there had been a scuffle between them. Maybe there was some other information she could tell us about Antonio, "What did you fight about exactly?"

Aryana looked at me like I was crazy, "And you are?"

"Ethan's girlfriend," I said simply.

"What do you think we fought about?" Aryana asked. "He wasn't where he said he was and I wanted to know why. Why do you care?"

"I was just asking," I said, wondering how I could deescalate the situation. Aryana was getting upset.

"Why? You think he was cheating on me?" Aryana asked.

"Uh. I don't know. Um. Maybe?" I said.

How did one answer this sort of question? I could tell that somewhere in her brain Aryana already knew the answer anyway, but maybe she didn't want to hear it confirmed. Besides, it was just as likely that Antonio was committing murder at the time, so I really didn't know for sure what he had been up to in the time frame she was talking about. Either way, I'd rather a guy be cheating on me, than killing people.

Aryana turned to look at me, "What?"

"Uh. No?" I said. I didn't like the glare she was giving me. I had never been in a catfight before and it looked like she was getting ready to pounce on me. I was not doing well at calming her down. Truthfully, she reminded me a little of Ariel. It was freaking me out.

"Look, if he was cheating on me, I'd know," Aryana said and then burst into tears.

Aryana's friend rushed over to us. "What did you say to her?"

Everyone in the surrounding area was looking at us. Aryana was sobbing loudly. I wondered if a librarian was about to come over and shush us or kick us out.

I looked at Ethan. Did we just bolt before this became even more of a scene or did we press Aryana for any details that she had on Antonio? I wasn't sure what to do. Aryana was even more of an emotional drama queen than Nico's ex, Marissa.

"They think Antonio's cheating on me," Aryana sobbed to her friend.

"I never said that," I said. Well, I hadn't exactly said that.

"Who are you?" Aryana's friend glared at me.

I wondered if she was going to punch me. If she and Aryana tackled me, I wondered if Ethan would be able to pull them off. Girls got crazy when they fought. Maybe it really was time to go. I felt Ethan's hand on my arm. We turned and ran out of the library.

"That didn't go so well," I said once I caught my breath and we were well away from the library.

"Yeah, not well at all," Ethan said.

I was at Campus Coffee ten minutes early. We had spent about an hour looking for Paula's whereabouts, but came up with nothing. Whatever temporary housing she was in was off the grid and we didn't know where to find anyone that knew her. Westley was our next best lead as far as Dana was concerned and I was anxious to find out more details from him.

Ethan got a coffee and went to sit outside. They didn't have a peanut butter banana milkshake, so I settled for a blended iced mocha. I made them add extra chocolate so that I didn't have to taste too much of the coffee.

"Hey," Westley said exactly ten minutes later. He was right on time. "I would have bought you a coffee."

I shrugged. "I was thirsty. It's not a big deal."

Westley frowned, "Alright. Well, I'll go get my drink then and be right back."

I nodded. I was dying to find out if he had learned anything, but I didn't want to appear too eager. I sent Ethan a text to let him know that all was well.

A few minutes later Westley was back with a blended drink.

"How was work?" I asked, trying to appear casual.

Westley shrugged. "Work, but I did do some digging for you."

"Oh?" I asked. Inside I was dying to find out what he knew.

"Alright, so I got a girl I know who works at Keller to check for me," Westley said.

"And?" I asked. "What did she tell you?"

Westley smiled, "Well, she did better than that. She photocopied the page from the book."

I almost leapt out of my chair and hugged Westley, but I didn't. That would definitely be giving him the wrong impression. I still had to slip the words I have a boyfriend into our conversation. Oh well. I'd work it in after he gave me a copy of the log sheet.

Westley took a folded piece of paper out of his pocket and handed it to me. I tried not to grab it out of his hands, although then I almost dropped it because my hands were shaking in anticipation. I quickly opened the paper up and stared down at it.

8 am: Dana in to open.

9:15 am: Strange Phone Call. Caller sounded drunk. No message. Didn't have time to write down the Caller ID before he hung up.

10:45 am: We're out of toilet paper. Called to borrow some from Mycroft until Monday.

11:15 am: Phone Call for Mary Watson. Left her a message.

11:30 am: Lockout Room 127 again.

11:45 am: Roommate dispute. Left message for Kevin the RA on floor 2.

12:00 pm: Dana out, Travis in.

I looked up from the paper. "Did your friend know anything about the drunk dial?"

"No," Westley said. "We get them sometimes too, not usually at nine in the morning, but the dude must have been pulling an all nighter."

I nodded, "Do you happen to have a copy of the message for Mary Watson?"

Westley smiled. "Yes."

Okay, now I could have kissed him. Westley handed me another sheet of folded paper. I quickly opened it up and read it twice.

Call For: Mary Watson at 11:15 am From: Wouldn't leave name.

Message: Needs to talk to you. I gave her the number for the counseling center, but she kept saying they're not open. Got the number off the Caller ID.

Taken by: Dana Tulle

"Does Mary Watson happen to be a chaplain?" I asked.

Westley looked at the paper. "Yeah, I think she might be. I forget some of their names, but it sounds familiar enough."

I nodded, but my brain was whirling. There it was. I had my connection. Of course, that didn't leave out our other leads, but this right there was my tie in. I was certain of it. What were the odds that both Dana and Nico had taken similar messages on the day of their deaths? I looked at my phone. Yup, both messages were taken at 11:15 am on a Saturday, within hours of their death. It wasn't a coincidence. I finally felt like we had a solid lead in finding out what happened to Dana and Nico.

Nico hadn't jotted down a number, but Dana had. This was a real solid lead. I couldn't wait to call the number.

"So, I did good?" Westley smiled.

"You did great!" I said, remembering he was there.

He really had come through. I felt a little bad that I was going to have to tell him I had a boyfriend in a minute. I pondered how to do this. I should just say it, right? I didn't want to hurt his feelings. I was pretty sure that he thought this was a date or a prelude to a date and I had to set him straight. Part of me didn't want to, but I had promised Ethan and I definitely didn't want to hurt Ethan's feelings.

"Hey, Westley," I started, trying to breathe.

"Yeah?" Westley said.

"Thank you for all of this," I said.

"You're welcome," Westley smiled.

I couldn't smile back. Okay, I had to rip the band-aid off and just say it or I never would, "I have to tell you something."

"What?" Westley asked.

I took a deep breath and then said it, "I have a boyfriend."

Wow, that was harder than murder solving.

Luckily, Westley was a good sport. Of course, as soon as I told him, he said that he had to run and go to class. He was totally lying. I could tell and I felt bad. Westley had really helped us out. I couldn't dwell on it, though. Ethan was waiting for me outside.

"So, I saw Westley rush out of here in a hurry," Ethan said as I walked up to him.

"Yeah, I told him I had a boyfriend," I said. Eek, I felt a pang of guilt. Poor Westley.

"Ah," Ethan smiled. "Yes, you do."

Ethan pulled me down and into a kiss. Sigh. Heaven. I forgot all about my guilt.

I reluctantly pulled away after a moment, grinning because I couldn't help it, "Yes, I definitely do have a boyfriend."

Ethan was grinning back at me. My stomach was full of butterflies. I so lov...er, liked him. Okay, it was time to turn my thoughts back to the investigation.

"I found out something," I said.

"What?" Ethan asked.

I told him about the messages for the dorm chaplains. I was positive that was the common link now. We had to follow up on it.

"And Antonio?" Ethan asked.

"He's a close second," I said. "Definitely not out of the running, but on the backburner for right now. I want to find out who this girl is that keeps calling at 11:15 am on Saturday."

"Did you try the number?" Ethan asked.

"I'm going to try it right now," I said.

I felt a little nervous as I pulled out my phone. What if the killer answered? What did I say? Pizza delivery flashed into my brain. Did that line actually work?

"Actually," Ethan said, interrupting me as I started to dial. "Let's use mine. If this is the person we're looking for, I don't want them to have your number."

"And you want them to have yours?" I asked, taking his phone.

"Well, no," Ethan said.

"Maybe we should find a pay phone," I said, handing Ethan back his phone.

"I haven't seen one of those in ages," Ethan said. "Do they still exist?"

"I saw one on campus," I said.

We grabbed our drinks and walked across campus. I hoped it still worked. It looked like it had been there for decades. I picked up the phone and used the change Ethan had in his pocket to pay for the call. I looked at the number scrawled on the message pad and dialed it. There was one, two, three rings, and I thought it might go to voicemail. That would be okay by me. I was shaking.

"Hello?" A guy said into the phone. His voice was kind of nasally. Like he had a cold.

"Hello?" I was expecting a girl's voice. Wait. What did I say? Pizza delivery? I panicked. "Who is this?"

"Who is this?" The guy said instead of answering me.

How did I answer that? "Uh."

"You called," The guy said.

"Is this your phone?" I asked.

"No," The guy said.

"Whose is it?" I asked.

There was a pause. "I don't know."

"What do you mean you don't know?" I was getting frustrated.

"I found it," he said.

"You found it?" I felt like I was playing twenty questions. This was getting ridiculous. At least I wasn't scared anymore. I was annoyed.

"Yeah," he said.

"Where?" I asked when he didn't say anything else.

"You're nosy aren't you?" he said.