Adventures In Murder Chasing (Funeral Crashing #3) (26 page)

Wait. Wait just one minute. We weren't talking to Miles. I don't know how I knew it, but I just knew it. Wait. The guy who I had talked to on the phone before going to the police had a nasally voice. This was that guy too. I was sure of it. My breath froze. How did I tell Ethan? How did I keep the charade up, so that the killer didn't know? Where was the girl? Were we looking at two killers?

I had to keep talking, "But, yeah, the police should be here any second. We should probably just wait for them."

The guy pretending to be Miles frowned. "You know I'm lying."

I froze. I felt Ethan stiffen behind me. The guy pretending to be Miles had a gun in his hand. Where did that come from?

"Um," I said. "I don't think you're lying."

The guy pretending to be Miles laughed. It was a crazy laugh. "Yes you do and you're right. I'm not Miles. I'm Maggie."

"Maggie?" I asked. That wasn't a guy's name, but I really wasn't in a place to judge at the moment.

"Yes," Maggie said and his voice, even though he was a guy, took on a feminine tone.

Chills crawled up my spine. This guy was totally insane. Ethan's chest was rigid behind me. He hadn't said anything, but I got the distinct impression that he was poised to take action and was just waiting for the right moment. All I could see and think about was the gun pointed at us.

"Keep talking to him," Ethan whispered in my ear.

"Why are you doing this Maggie?" I asked, trying not to let my voice shake.

Maggie looked at me, "Because they killed me."

"They what?" I asked. I was seriously caught off guard by his answer.

Then a thought entered my brain. Maggie. I knew the name sounded familiar. Jeff had mentioned a Maggie that had committed suicide. Of course this couldn't be her because that girl was dead, but maybe they were related. Okay, they had to be related.

"They killed me," Maggie repeated. "I called them for help and they didn't listen. They killed me, so I'm going to kill them."

Yeah, Maggie was totally and completely insane. He rambled on about killing them for refusing to get her help. I tried to make sense of it all. I had thought that the real Maggie's death was tied to the murders, but maybe it wasn't the first murder like I thought. If the real Maggie's death was a suicide, maybe she had called for help and hadn't gotten any. Maybe this Maggie was trying to avenge that death, even if it was on innocent people. I felt Ethan sliding away from behind me. He was next to me now. I resisted an urge to grab his hand and stop him from doing anything stupid to try and protect me.

I had to keep Maggie talking, "Then you don't want to kill us."

Maggie frowned. "I don't, except that you'll tell him. You'll tell Miles that I'm coming for him and you can't do that. Miles deserves to die. They all deserve to die."

"But Miles didn't do anything. You're standing right here. We didn't do anything either. We were just coming to talk to Miles," I started.

"You were coming to tell Miles about me," Maggie said.

Ethan had inched slightly closer, toward Maggie. I didn't know what he thought he was going to do. Maggie was the one with the gun. That's when I saw the pepper spray in Ethan's hand, mostly hidden, but still recognizable as a small pepper spray canister. He was going to go one on one with pepper spray versus a gun. It didn't take a brain surgeon to figure out those odds. I really wanted to grab Ethan's arm now, but it would be worse if I drew Maggie's attention to what Ethan was trying to do.

"We're going to go into Miles room now and wait for him," Maggie took a ring of keys out of his pocket.

"Where did you get a key to Miles' room?" I asked. Ethan inched forward.

Maggie smiled. "I have a work study job with maintenance."

A chill crawled up my spine. I remembered that I had thought his outfit the first time I saw him looked rather maintenance-y, although a sweatshirt had covered his work shirt. It was pretty creepy. Maggie or whatever his name was could have gotten to any of them at any time. Maybe he had to steal the keys, but he'd had access.

Maggie handed me the keys, "Open the door."

I took the keys and at that moment, Ethan made his move. Pepper spray filled the air. It hit Maggie in the face. Ethan had good aim. Maggie screamed an inhuman scream and doubled over, while also simultaneously shooting the gun into the floor. Ethan took the opportunity to tackle him.

"Run!" Ethan yelled at me.

I couldn't move, though. I couldn't just leave Ethan there with a killer. What if the pepper spray wore off?

Maggie struggled against Ethan, yelling. A few doors down the hall opened.

"Was that a gunshot?" I heard someone ask.

"Call the police!" I yelled. "He has a gun!"

I hoped they didn't think I meant Ethan. The doors around us all shut. I could only hope that someone was calling the authorities. Where had the gun gone? Maggie had to have dropped it, but I didn't see it. Maybe it was underneath them.

Ethan and Maggie were still rolling on the ground. Maggie was putting up quite a fight despite the pepper spray. He managed a good kick and punch at Ethan, which Ethan couldn't duck because he was trying to pin Maggie down.

I felt stupid just standing there. I looked around for something to hit Maggie over the head with so that we could subdue him. There wasn't anything worthwhile in the hallway and all of my stuff was back at the residence hall where we had been camped out.

"Kait! Get out of here!" Ethan said, noticing that I was still there even though his attention was quickly diverted back to Maggie.

"I can't leave," I said. "You need help!"

I noticed I still had Miles' door key in my hand. I ran to the door and unlocked it. There was a lot of stuff inside to hit Maggie over the head with. I grabbed the nearest textbook off a shelf. It was a math textbook. I hated math and it seemed appropriate and definitely thick enough to do some damage, but as I turned back to the scene, it had quickly changed. Ethan was crumpled on the ground and Maggie was struggling to get up. I swung my textbook as hard as I could at Maggie's head.

It impacted with a crack and Maggie went down. I flew backward at the impact and landed on my butt, dazed. I blinked. I had to stay alert. I blinked my eyes again. Was Maggie trying to get up? I shook my head trying to clear it. No, she was still on the ground.

"Police!" I looked up and saw Detective Dixon coming out of the stairwell door.

I blinked again. Was I seeing things? Had I gotten delusional? What was Detective Dixon doing at Landale College? "What are you doing here?"

Detective Dixon didn't answer me. He looked over the situation and walked over to Maggie, who was still slumped on the floor. "Is this him?"

"Yes," I managed to say.

Detective Dixon pulled his handcuffs out and deftly fastened them around Maggie's wrists. I felt my muscles relax a little. We were safe. I crawled over to Ethan.

"Are you alright?" I asked him. He nodded, but he remained lying on the floor without saying anything. I frowned, suddenly unsure. "I think we need an ambulance."

Detective Dixon nodded, already midway into calling someone. His voice faded out as I focused on Ethan.

"I love..." I stopped. Whoa. Although, now was the time to say it if I was going to say it. What if something happened to Ethan? What if...

"I'm okay," Ethan croaked. "I just had the wind knocked out of me."

I hugged him. "I still want someone to check you out."

"I told you to run," Ethan said as I let him go.

"I couldn't just leave you here with that psychopath," I said taking Ethan's hand in mine. I wanted him close.

Ethan cracked a smile. "Next time that's exactly what you should do. What did you do to him anyway?"

I guessed Ethan had missed my attempt at a heroic rescue, "I hit him over the head with a math textbook."

Ethan looked incredulous, "Seriously?"

"Seriously," I said. "I hate math."

Ethan smiled. I smiled back at him. I wanted to kiss him, but I didn't want to hurt him.

"Looks like I'm the one going to the hospital this time," Ethan said.

"Looks like," I said. "I'm sorry."

"Don't be sorry," Ethan said. "You can't help yourself."

"I really tried," I said.

"I know," Ethan said. "But next time, how about neither of us go to the hospital, okay?"

"Deal," I said and kissed him anyway.

I couldn't help it. Ethan's mouth moved against mine. I wanted to lean into him, but then I heard someone clear their throat. I had totally forgotten Detective Dixon was there. My cheeks burned red.

"Sorry," I said moving away from Ethan's lips.

"An ambulance is coming," Detective Dixon said. "Want to tell me what happened?"

"Sure," I said. "But first, what are you doing here?"

Detective Dixon frowned at me, "Visiting my daughter."

There was a second part to that sentence and I heard it pretty clearly even if Detective Dixon didn't say it. It went something like: and checking on you and saving your butt.

"Oh," I said.

Detective Dixon looked at me, "How about you set up a meeting with me next week sometime and we talk about an internship?"

"What?" I asked.

"Seriously?" Ethan said.

I looked back at Detective Dixon, but he seemed serious. Was he actually offering me a job as we were standing there waiting for an ambulance and the police? Only in my world. Still, that was huge. I mean, he must really think I had talent if he wanted me to intern for the police department. It was either that or he was trying to keep me out of trouble. I didn't care, though. Think of all the mysteries I'd get to hear about and I wouldn't even have to go funeral crashing and murder chasing!

It was a little more than twenty-four hours later. It felt like eons had passed, though. Ethan had been released from the hospital within a couple of hours and then we spent even more time at the police station telling the authorities about what had happened. It was a long night. We didn't even get to see Suzie, Kyle, Ariel, Troy, Dave, and Mike. I texted them to go home when the ambulance showed up and that I'd tell them what happened later. I knew they were all dying to know, but I wanted to focus on Ethan.

The whole gang was at Wired now, though, and we had already told our story twice, with numerous interruptions. I had already gone through one peanut butter banana milkshake and I was seriously thinking about another. Hey, I deserved it.

"Are you serious?" Suzie asked me again and then looked at Kyle. "If that ever happens to us, we both run. Okay?"

Kyle squeezed her hand. "Okay."

I smiled. They were so ridiculously cute. I hoped they never got into that kind of situation. I took Ethan's hand. I hoped he and I never got into one like that again either, although I had a nagging feeling that we might.

"Thank you again for looking into Nico's death," Troy said.

"No problem," I said. "I'm glad I helped find out the truth."

Troy stared at me like he wanted to say more. His eyes flicked to Ethan. Then our eyes met again and he was about to say something, but Ariel interrupted him.

"So, why did the guy pretend to be a girl?" Ariel asked, looping her arm through Troy's.

"Well, according to the police, Adrian was Maggie Thomas' younger brother. I guess he just went nuts when she died," I said. "They said that Maggie was really depressed and left a message at a residence hall, but before the chaplain got back to her she'd already killed herself. She'd had a history of depression, though. It was nobody's fault, but Adrian blamed the desk assistants in general."

"That's awful," Suzie said.

"Yeah. It sounded like Adrian even tried to get to the guy that had taken Maggie's call before she killed herself, but that guy left school and changed his name to get away from him. Everyone assumed that Adrian just blamed him, so once he was gone, they thought his mental break was over. Nobody knew that it was more than that," I said.

"You guys should have us around for backup next time," Dave said and Mike nodded.

"We'd definitely help take him down," Mike said.

Ethan grinned, "Sure."

Mike and Dave went on to discuss what their strategy for a takedown would be. I looked at Ethan laughing with his friends. He was really lucky to have them.

"Hey," Ariel tapped me on the arm, "Can you come to the bathroom with me?" "Uh, sure," I said before I thought about it. Were we talking more about our non-friendship? I felt dread form in the pit of my stomach.

I followed Ariel into Wired's bathroom, which was also a one-bathroom stall. I thought it was kind of funny. We kept talking in bathrooms.

"So, what do you want?" I asked as soon as we walked into the bathroom.

Ariel turned toward me, not even bothering to pretend to do her make-up. "I just wanted to say thank you for what you did for Troy."