Best Friends Forever (6 page)

I ran a hand over my
wild hair.
 
Damn!
 
Why didn’t I grab a hair
tie before leaving the apartment?
 
Stepping away from Grant slightly, I raised my chin and met the
detective’s eyes.
 
“Detective Morgan, I
apologize for...poking you.
 
It won’t
happen again.
 
I hope you’ll chalk it up
the stress of seeing my library trashed.”
 
I raised one eyebrow and looked expectantly at him.
 
Strangely, the tips of his ears reddened
slightly.
 
Is the big bad cop embarrassed about being picked on by a girl?
 
Clearing his throat, he recovered
quickly.
 
“We have one person in custody
but, from the looks of things, it appears there were others involved in the
destruction.
 
I’m hoping that you or the Ms.
MacDonagh here can identify the one perp campus security caught.”

Next to me, Grant nodded.
 
“We’ll do our best.”
 
“Come with me.”
 
The detective led us down the hall to the
small staff break room.
 
Inside, a young
uniformed cop was standing watch.
 
He
looked young enough to be one of the frat boys I see in the library so
often.
 
Seated at the small table in
handcuffs was a young girl with long dark hair.
 
She looked up, tears streaming down her face, as we walk in.
 
Beside me, Grant gasped in shock.
 
“Cynthia?”
 
Now there’s a surprise.
 
Wide-eyed, I couldn’t help but stare at the
tearful young girl in front of me.
 
I
fully expected the blonde psycho from the grocery store but instead got her
seemingly
normal
friend.
 
Well,
as normal as any hormonal eighteen-year-old girl can be.

“You know this
girl?
 
She’s not this Brittany Snow?” the
detective asked gruffly.
 
Grant shook his
head in disbelief.
 
“Yes...no.
 
I mean, I know her.
 
Cynthia’s another student of mine.
 
I think she and Brittany are roommates.
 
I have to say, I am completely stunned.
 
I would never have pictured Cynthia
vandalizing the library.
 
She’s always
come across as a little bit shy but polite and friendly.”
 
He glanced at Cynthia again before turning to
Detective Morgan.
 
“Do you mind if I
speak to her?”
 
Morgan nodded.
 
“Maybe you can get her to tell us who helped
her tonight.”

Grant and I sat
across from Cynthia.
 
Tears running down
her face, she looked completely devastated.
 
“Cynthia?
 
Are you alright?”
 
Grant spoke softly, like he would to a
wounded, scared child.
 
Cynthia raised
her cuffed hands to her face, scrubbing at her tears.
 
Sniffing, she finally spoke.
 
“Ms. Mac, I’m so…so sorry.
 
I never…I never should have done such a
horrible
thing.”
 
I was speechless.
 
I never would have expected this girl…or
anyone…to do such a terrible thing to my library.
 
Grant asked quietly, “Can you tell us
why
you did it, Cynthia?”
 
“I…I
don’t
know why
!” she practically wailed and burst into tears again.
 

We sat quietly and gave
her time to compose herself.  After a few minutes, Cynthia’s tears
slowed. “I’m…I’m in big trouble, aren’t I, Professor
Thomas?”  “I’m afraid so,” my big softy says gently.  “But,
I’ll…
we’ll
…help you get through this
any way we can if you help us out here.  We need to know whose idea
it was to vandalize the library and who else was involved
tonight.”  “You and Ms. Mac will really help me?” she asked in a
little girl voice.  I reached out and touched her cuffed
hands.  “Cynthia, we will help you as much as we can but you will
still have to make amends for what you’ve done.  You understand that,
don’t you?”  She sniffed and nodded.  “I want to do
whatever I can to make up for the mess I caused.  Even…even if it
means going to jail.”  She gave us a watery smile.  “I’ll
tell you everything.”

Grant motioned for
Detective Morgan to join us at the table. 
 
The detective pulled a notebook from
his pocket and sat next to Cynthia. 
 
Grant
introduced him to Cynthia. 
 
“Detective
Morgan is going to take down your statement, okay?” 
 
She sniffed and glanced fearfully at
the cops. 
 
Detective Morgan
glanced over his shoulder at the young cop. 
 
“Did you read her rights?” 
 
“Yes, sir, right before you came in,”
the young man stated respectfully. 
 
“Okay,
Cynthia. 
 
What is your full
name?” 
 
“Cynthia Ann
Kirby.” 
 
“Walk us through
what occurred this evening starting before you came to the library.” 
 
She cleared her throat and looked
nervous. “We...went out for pizza after seeing Professor Thomas and Ms.
Mac at the grocery store earlier in the evening.
 
Then we went back to the dorm.” 
 
“Who’s we?” 
 
“Excuse me. 
 
Brittany...Brittany Snow and
me.” 
 
“Okay, so you and
Brittany went out for pizza, then went back to the dorm. 
 
What next?”

“Brittany
 
was really upset at seeing Ms. Mac
kiss Professor Thomas at the grocery store and wouldn’t stop bitching about
it.” Detective Morgan cut his eyes over at me and I felt my face flush
with embarrassment. 
 
Grant
squeezed my hand. 
 
The
detective looked back at Cynthia. 
 
“What
exactly did
 
Brittany
 
say?” 
 
“She was ranting and raving about how
Grant...Professor Thomas...belonged to her and that Ms. Mac was a shameless
slut for throwing herself at him like that. 
 
I tried to tell her that it looked
like Professor Thomas was an equal participant in the kiss and seemed to be
enjoying it.” 
 
I glanced at
Grant and had to smother a giggle when his face turned pink. 
 
He turned his head and winked at me,
making my panties go damp. 
 
Geez,
I must be some kind of sick individual. 
 
My
library has just been trashed and I’m sitting here lusting after Grant’s body.

“Did Brittany say anything else?”
 
Detective Morgan brought my attention back to Cynthia’s story.
 
“She...she seemed to get angrier and angrier
until Tanya told her she should quit bitching and do something about it.”
 
“Tanya?
 
Who’s that?” the detective asked gruffly.
 
“Tanya Brinkleman.
 
She’s our other roommate.”
 
Morgan wrote down the name.
 
“She’s...I don’t want to say anything bad
about her.”
 
“If this Tanya is involved
in the library vandalism, we need to know,” he admonished her gruffly.
 
Sniffing again, Cynthia continued.
 
“Tanya is kind of...I don’t know...dark.
 
Do you know what I mean?”
 
“You mean her race?”
 
“No...she’s really blonde like Brittany.
 
She and Brit could be twins,
practically.
 
No, I mean her...her
personality.
 
She has this way of looking
at you that is really sort of creepy.”
 
“What do you mean?”

“Well, she dresses all in black, like one of those Goths when we were
in high school.
 
And she almost never
smiles.
 
When she does, it’s this cold,
almost calculating smile like...like she’s imagining you being slowly tortured
and she enjoys it.
 
I took a criminal
justice class my senior year in high school and we did this section on serial
killers.
 
I don’t like to talk bad about
people but Tanya reminds me of a mentally deranged serial killer.”
 
I gasped at her description and Grant wrapped
his arm around my shoulders.
 
What
kind of young people are we surrounded with nowadays?
 
“Okay, Cynthia,” Morgan continued.
 
“You, Brittany, and Tanya are discussing
Professor Thomas and Ms. MacDonagh.
 
Was
anyone else there?”
 
She shook her
head.
 
“No, it was just us.”
 
“Walk us through what happened next.”

“Well, then Tanya gets this crazy idea that Brittany should do
something to...you know...warn Ms. Mac to stay away from Professor Thomas.
 
I tried to talk Brittany out of it but,” she
lowered her head and began to softly cry.
 
Raising her eyes, she looked at me.
 
“I’m so sorry, Ms. Mac.
 
I...I was
afraid they’d...that Tanya would do something to
me
if I didn’t help
them.
 
I was
so scared
.”
 
By then, tears were running down my
face.
 
I reached out and put a hand over
hers.
 
“It’s okay, Cynthia.
 
I understand.
 
Please...finish your story and then we’ll work this all out somehow.”

“We...we got to the library just before closing.
 
Tanya told us we should hide somewhere until
after security locked up so we could trash the place.
 
I...I said I didn’t want to but
Tanya...she...she grabbed me by my hair and pulled it really hard.
 
She...she said that if I didn’t do it, she’d
have some guys hold...hold me down and...and do
things
to me.”
 
Grant, the two security guys, and the younger
cop all gasped.
 
Even Detective Morgan
looked
disturbed
.
 
By then, I had
tears literally pouring down my face.
 
What
this poor girl must be going through!
 
Taking a deep breath, Detective Morgan patted Cynthia on the
shoulder.
 
“You’re doing good,
Cynthia.
 
Can you tell us the rest?”
 
She nodded tearfully.

“After the library closed, we waited and then sneaked out to the front
room.
 
Tanya and Brittany had some spray
paint and started painting horrible words all over the walls.
 
I was afraid Tanya would do what she said
she’d do to me so I...I threw books all over the floor and scattered
trash.
 
Brittany wanted to trash Ms.
Mac’s office and the rest of the library but Tanya saw headlights coming into
the parking lot.
 
We…we thought somebody
was coming and got scared.
 
As...as we
rushed out the front door, Tanya and Brittany picked up the heavy trashcan that
sits out front and threw it into the window.
 
When the glass broke, I panicked and ran toward the parking lot to get
the security guy’s attention.”

Morgan looked behind us at Bobby and his supervisor.
 
Bobby nodded.
 
“It’s true.
 
This young lady ran
right up to us as we were getting out of the patrol car.
 
She was crying and said she helped break into
the library.
 
As soon as we slapped the
cuffs on her, she got hysterical and wouldn’t tell us her name or who helped
her.
 
We brought her in here and saw the
vandalism.
 
That’s when we called the
local PD.
 
As soon as you got here, I
called Meri to let her know what happened.”
 
Morgan nodded before turning back to Cynthia.
 
“You did good Cynthia.
 
Now, we’re going to have to take you down to
the police station and book you for destruction of property.”
 
“No!”
 
I practically shouted.
 
“You can’t
do that.
 
Can’t you see the poor girl was
forced to help?”
 
“Ms. MacDonagh, I’m
afraid I don’t have much choice.
 
Cynthia
broke the law.”

Cynthia gave me a weak smile.
 
“It’s okay, Ms. Mac.
 
He’s
right.
 
I did something wrong and now I
have to accept the consequences.”
 
“But…”
 
Grant hugged me close and
pressed a soft kiss to my forehead.
 
“What about bail?
 
Can we bail her
out?”
 
Detective Morgan nodded.
 
“I can’t imagine why you couldn’t post bail
for her.
 
But, it’ll have to wait until
she’s in front of judge come Monday morning.”
 
Cynthia and I both gasped.
 
“Monday morning?”
 
“But that means
she’ll have to stay locked up overnight.
 
Detective…please…she’s just a young girl.
 
You can’t lock her up with…with
criminals
.”
 
“I have an idea,” Grant spoke over my
pleas.
 
“What if you release Cynthia into
our custody?
 
We could guarantee that she
shows up in court first thing Monday morning.”
 
“That’s a wonderful idea, baby.”
 
I kissed him on the cheek before turning to the detective.