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I open my other eye. “WHAT?”
“Stan was so impressed by how I handled the whole Lindsay situation,” Tom explains excitedly, “that he promoted me. I’ll still be in Housing, but now I’ll be assigned to Waverly Hall. The frats, Heather. Stan says he realizes now that the building needs an on-site adult presence… it’s a ten- thousand-dollar-a-year raise. Of course, I’ll have to be working with pills like the Tau Phis… but they shouldn’t be so hard to handle, now that Steve and Doug are under arrest. And Steven—Coach Andrews—says he’ll be happy to help… .”
I close my eyes. I can’t believe this. I finally get a boss I like, and they take him away.
And excuse me, but Tom didn’t handle the Lindsay situation.I did. I’m the one who nearly got killed getting her killers to fess up. Where’s my promotion?
In a way, I kind of wish they had killed me. At least my head wouldn’t hurt so much.
“Wow,” I say. “That’s great, Tom.”
“Don’t worry,” Tom says. I feel him pat my hand. “I’ll make sure we get you a really kick-ass new boss. Okay?”
“Yeah,” I say. “Okay.”
I must have fallen back asleep, because when I open my eyes again, Tom is gone. In his place are Magda, Sarah, and Pete.
“Go away,” I say to them.
“Oh, thank God,” Magda says, looking relieved. “She’s all right.”
“I’m serious,” I say. “My head is killing me.”
“That’s the benzodiazepine wearing off,” Sarah says chip-perly. “It’s a central nervous system depressant. You’re going to feel like crap for a while.”
I glare at her. “Thanks.”
“We just wanted to see how you were doing,” Pete says. “And to tell you not to worry.”
“Yes,” Magda says, grabbing the side of my gurney and bouncing excitedly. “They found the cocaine!”
“Right,” Pete says. “They found the cocaine. Doug Winer’s stash. The one Lindsay stole.”
This makes me open my eyes more fully. “Really? Where was it?”
“Where do you think?” Sarah asks. “In Kimberly Watkins’s room.”
“But… ” I know I’m out of it. But I can’t believe I’m that out of it. “Kimberly and Lindsay were in on it together?”
Sarah shakes her head. “No. Lindsay taped the bag under her favorite cafeteria table—which is why it wasn’t there when she went looking for it, to give it back to Doug when he figured out she was the one who had it. Because someone else had already found it. Someone who regularly shares that table with Lindsay. Or used to, anyway.”
I stare at her. “Kimberly Watkins? Kimberly had Doug’s coke the whole time?” When Sarah nods, I ask, “How did you find out?”
“Cheryl,” Magda explains. “She was so angry—over what Kimberly said about Lindsay and Coach Andrews, and then, later, over what happened to her poor Jeff—who is going to be all right, just a few broken ribs—that she went to confront Kimberly, and… well… let’s just say they didn’t act like a couple of movie stars.”
“Well, unless you mean Paris Hilton and Nicole Richie,” Sarah says.
“Cheryl beat the crap out of Kimberly,” Pete says. “And Kimberly confessed. She was going to start her own little drug-dealing operation, it seems. She saw Lindsay hide the coke, and stole it next chance she got. Only after what happened to Lindsay, she was too scared to do anything. She was terrified the Winer boys would find out she was the one who had the stuff, and do to her what they did to Lindsay.”
“That’s why she kept trying to throw me off their scent,” I murmur.
“Exactly,” Sarah says. “Anyway, Cheryl went straight to the cops with what she found out, and now Kimberly’s under arrest, as well. I guess the DEA’d been working for months to bust what they considered the biggest student drug ring on campus. Only, until Lindsay’s murder, they really didn’t have any idea where the kids were getting the stuff. That’s why they had Reggie working undercover in the park. They were hoping he’d pick up some clues… which he finally did, when you asked him about the Winer boys. But even then, they still didn’t have proof… .”
Sarah shrugs. “Now, in addition to possession and dealing, the Winer boys have murder and attempted murder charges against them… along with a couple of the other guys from their frat. Daddy Winer has already hired the top criminal lawyer in town. But I don’t see how they’re go
“So Kimberly’s kicked out of school?” I murmur.
“Uh,” Magda says, “yeah. They all are. Even the Winers.”
“Good,” I say faintly, as my eyelids drift closed again. “That’s more spaces for me to make room changes into next week, when the housing freeze lifts.”
Everything goes mercifully black for a while—that must be my central nervous system depressing again. When I open my eyes again, I find myself looking up at Detective Canavan and Reggie.
“You,” I say to Reggie. “You lied to me.”
He smiles. I am heart-struck to note the gold teeth are gone.
“Sorry,” he says. “It was in the line of duty.”
“Brian’s a special agent with the Drug Enforcement Agency, Heather,” Detective Canavan explains. “He’s been working undercover for nearly a year in the park, trying to figure out where the influx of party drugs on campus was coming from. Thanks to your tip about the Winers, Brian was able to direct his people to send in a fellow agent disguised as a maid”—the maid I’d seen in the hallway at the Tau Phi House scrubbing the FAT CHICKS GO HOME sign—“and get all the evidence they needed to bust the Winers not just for drug trafficking, but eventually for murder and assault as well.”
I look at Reggie. “Brian?”
He shrugs. “Reggie sounds more street, you know?”
“Have you ever even been to Jamaica?” I ask him.
“Oh, God, no,” he says. “I get any vacation time, I head straight for the mountains. I’m a skier.”
I look back at Detective Canavan. “Do I get a medal or something?”
“Um,” Detective Canavan says. “No. But I got you this.” He holds up a dark chocolate Dove candy bar. “The ice-cream kind would have melted,” he explains.
I lift my hand—the one with all the IVs in it—and snatch the candy bar away from him.
“This city,” I say, “is getting pretty cheap with the rewards for valor.”
They go away, and I eat my candy bar. It’s delicious. So delicious that I fall back asleep. When I wake up again, Gavin McGoren is leering down at me.
“Well, well, well,” he says, with a grin. “Isn’t this a fine turn of events? For once you’re the one on the gurney, instead of me. I have to say, I like it a lot better like this.”
“Who let you in here?” I want to know.
Gavin shrugs. “I’m a fellow patient, not a visitor,” he says. He turns to show me his cheek where Steve hit him. “Seven stitches. What do you think? That’ll leave a pretty sweet scar, huh?”
I close my eyes. “Your mother is going tokill me.”
“What are you talkin’ about, woman?” Gavin scoffs. “You saved my life.”
“I caused you to be kidnapped and beaten,” I say, opening my eyes again. “Gavin, I–I can’t tell you how sorry I am. Really. I never should have involved you in any of this.”
The red marks are gone from around Gavin’s mouth. So is the goatee. He apparently took the time to shave before coming in to see me. Which I should have taken as a sign of what was about to come, but my faculties are still slightly befuddled from the drug.
“There’s a way you can make it up to me, if you want,” he says.
“Yeah? How?” I genuinely think he’s going to ask for a single with a view of the park.
Instead, he asks me out.
“You know,” he says. “Just sometime. We could kick it together. Play pool or something. When you’re feeling better. It doesn’t have to be a date,” he adds hastily. “I know you’re still all in love with Jordan Cartwright, and shit. But, you know. Just to try it out. Just to see.”