Sorority Sister (13 page)

The person who had chased her through the house and sent her into that laundry chute was not that stupid. Disguising his or her true identity as Tia Maria had been a stroke of brilliance, as far as Maxie was concerned. Crazy, yes, stupid, no.

Erica had called a meeting for after dinner. When they were all seated on couches, chairs, and the floor in the living room, she asked if anyone had any idea who might be tormenting the residents of the Omega Phi house.

“The messenger who returned our stolen property was the real thing,” she said in a somber tone of voice, “but none of the other people who’ve visited the house lately were. The doctor, the first exterminator, and the hairdresser, were all fakes. And,” glancing at Maxie, sitting with her foot propped up on the edge of Tinker’s chair, “Maxie thinks there was a phony catering staff member, too. This is no joke, guys, and we need to come up with some answers. Any ideas, anybody?”

“A bunch of girls we rushed, but didn’t pledge?” Candie suggested. “They could have formed their own nasty little club and worked out a sick plan of revenge.”

“Right,” Tinker agreed. “I know how
that
feels. You get all excited and have all these fantasies about what it will be like to be an Omega, and then boom! you find out you didn’t measure up, after all. You lay awake nights wondering what you did wrong … ” Seeing Maxie’s shocked gaze on her, Tinker flushed and added quickly, “That’s why I was so happy when I
did
get in. But there are lots of others who didn’t.”

I never knew she felt that way, Maxie was thinking. She never told me.

Erica nodded. “We’ve already thought of that, and the police have that list. As you all know, I was dead set against involving the police, but I have to admit now it was the right thing to do. They’re checking out those girls now. Anyone else have any ideas? Anybody dump a boyfriend lately? Especially a dumpee who didn’t take it very well? He might have enlisted the aid of some of his friends.”

Everyone looked in Candie’s direction.

“I didn’t
dump
Graham,” she protested. “I …discouraged him. Not the same thing at all. Besides,” she added with a derisive laugh, “Graham Lucas is afraid of his own shadow. That’s why he hangs out in groups most of the time.”

But Maxie was remembering the argument she’d witnessed on campus between Candie and Graham. He hadn’t looked the least bit afraid. He’d looked
angry. Very
angry.

“There’s another possibility,” Tinker volunteered. “We all know that some people on campus think we’re snobs. We’ve all heard comments. They think we look down on anyone who isn’t in a fraternity or sorority. Maybe one of us has a friend from before we pledged who feels left out now and is angry about it.”

Maxie felt her cheeks grow warm as images of Brendan and Jenna flew into her mind. But Brendan was okay with her sorority life now, wasn’t he? And Jenna would never, never hurt anyone. Or would she?

“I know you guys don’t want to think that way,” Tinker added softly, “but Cath and Maxie both could have been
killed.
Think about that, okay? Nothing can happen while the house is being painted, with the painters here all the time, but when they’re done … ”

They all knew only too well that once the painters left, they’d be on their own again.

“Well,” Erica finished, “if any of you come up with someone you think the police should be checking out, let me know, okay? It’s important. For all of us.”

“Besides,” Tinker pointed out as they all got up and pushed their chairs in, “the painters leave at seven o’clock every day. That means we’re fair game from seven on.”

“The police are stepping up their patrols from seven to eleven,” Erica said. “But it’s still up to us to come up with some answers about who’s doing this. Put your thinking caps on, okay, and don’t let your loyalty to friends or old boyfriends get in the way. We all have to think about what’s best for our sisters.”

Maxie knew Erica was right. Maybe, she thought then, I should tell someone about the wig I found in Jenna’s bathroom.

But Jenna had explained that. Little Orphan Annie, right? That wig certainly wasn’t the one the phony Tia Maria had been wearing, anyway. Although, if you knew where to get one wig, you could get another. You could always dye it a cranberry color yourself.

During the evenings all that week, the house emptied out the minute the painting crew had gone. No one was keen on staying in the house during those hours when their mock security force had left for the day. Suddenly, the library or Vinnie’s or Burgers Etc. or the radio station in the Tower or a friend’s dorm room or the mall seemed infinitely safer than Omega house.

But Maxie’s ankle was too swollen after a day of hobbling around campus to allow her to leave the house. If Tinker didn’t stay home and keep her company, Erica or Candie did. Sometimes all three stayed, and they ate popcorn and Oreos and studied and talked and laughed and played music, just as if their lives hadn’t been turned upside down.

Maxie would try to pretend that life was just as it had been ever since she moved into Omega house. Nothing had changed. All of that had just been a bad nightmare, and now it was over.

But it didn’t work. There was always a reminder, like her throbbing ankle, or the ruby ring on Candie’s finger or the pearl earrings Erica was wearing, or the hot rollers sitting out on the dresser, reminding her of the fake Tia Maria.

The nightmare wasn’t over.

The police had found no fingerprints in Maxie and Tinker’s room. Tia Maria had worn plastic gloves.

Jenna and Brendan were on the list Maxie had given to the police, the list of people who knew about everything that had happened and knew about Tia Maria. She hadn’t wanted to write down their names. But they
knew.
So she’d had no choice.

Would the police question them? They’d be angry, knowing they might be suspects. Graham Lucas wouldn’t like it, either. But he was on those lists, too.

Wednesday, she was trudging across campus against a chilly, late-March wind, when Charlie Donovan flagged her down near the fountain on the commons.

“Seen Brendan?” he asked. His round, freckled face was red with cold.

“No.” She’d hardly talked to Brendan at all since the night of the Tri-Delt party. He had called her on Sunday and said he was busy with arrangements for an April Fool’s party scheduled for that Friday night in the student center. It was being sponsored by the Young Democrats club on campus. Brendan was the group’s vice president. He had said he probably wouldn’t have much time to party, but he’d take her home. She hadn’t talked to him since.

She could hardly complain about how busy he was now, when she’d disappointed him so many times because of sorority activities.

“How was your sister’s engagement party?” she asked as she and Charlie began to walk toward the dining hall at Lester, intent on lunch.

“Beats me,” he said. “I never got there. Boy, was my mom on the warpath when she found out I wasn’t going to make it. You’d think I’d done it on purpose.”

Maxie’s steps slowed. “You didn’t go to the party? But I thought Brendan was taking you.”

“He was.” Charlie held the door to Lester open for Maxie. “Good old Brendan was going to haul me over the hill to Shadrach, but at the last minute, he called and said he couldn’t get his car to start. It was too late to ask someone else, so … anyway, it worked out okay. I had a paper to turn in on Monday and if I’d gone to the party, I wouldn’t have finished it. When my mom started in on me for disappointing Lucy, that’s my sister, I said, ‘Well, mom, which would you rather have, a son who’s nice to his sister or a son who’s a college graduate?’ She didn’t seem to think that was very funny. She’ll get over it.”

Maxie wasn’t listening. They went into the dining hall and she walked through the Une with Charlie. She selected a tuna salad sandwich, a small salad, and a piece of carrot cake, but she was hardly aware of what she was doing.

Brendan hadn’t gone to Shadrach Saturday night? Why hadn’t he told her that? Why hadn’t he called and told her he could go to the Tri-Delt party when he found out he was going to be in town, after all?

If he had, she wouldn’t have ended up in the cellar with a sprained ankle.

Not fair. Brendan couldn’t have known that was happening to her at Omega house. But he’d never told her that his plans had changed that night.

She saw Jenna sitting in the corner with two other girls, and waved.

Jenna smiled and waved. After a few minutes, she picked up her tray and walked across the room to sit down opposite Maxie. Charlie said hi, then excused himself to go join some friends at another table.

“Did you go to the Tri-Delt party Saturday night?” Maxie asked abruptly when she had assured Jenna that her ankle was better.

“Me? Are you kidding? Why would I want to do that?”

“Oh, come off it, Jenna. You’ve been to sorority parties lots of times. And you always have fun, so quit pretending you think sororities are only one step up from witches’ covens.”

Jenna grinned. “Okay, so I went. So sue me. And yeah, actually, I did have a good time. Met this real cute guy. Guess what his name is?”

“Biff.”

“No, but close. It’s Skip.”

Maxie hooted. “You’re dating someone named Skippy?
Skippy?”

Jenna’s round cheeks flushed scarlet. “Not Skippy,” she said hotly, “Skip! Real name, Howard. Howard Ulysses Porter.”

“No wonder they call him Skip. Fraternity guy?”

The flush deepened. “Afraid so. Sigma Chi. And don’t say a word, Maximilia McKeon, or I’ll slap you with my corn fritter. Frat brat or not, he’s cute and he’s got a brain. Can’t beat that. And he doesn’t care that I’m not in a sorority.”

“Why should he?
You
have more hang-ups about that than anyone else does. Listen, Jenna, I’m thrilled about your new romance, really, I am, but was Brendan at that party?”

“Brendan? Without you? Would Homer be there without Marge? Would Abbott be there without Costello? Would Isabella Sands be there without makeup? No to all of the above.”

“He wasn’t there?”

“Nope. Why?”

“I … I just wondered, that’s all.”

They agreed to meet at the April Fool’s party on Friday night. “You’ll like Skip,” Jenna said happily. “And if you don’t, keep it to yourself. Nobody cares.” But she laughed as she said it.

The wig really
was
part of her Orphan Annie costume, Maxie thought with relief as she watched Jenna leave, a new bounce in her step. But then, I always knew that …
didn’t
I?

It occurred to her then that out of everything that had happened, the worst thing by far was the mistrust. It ate away inside of you, like a worm burrowing through an apple.

And now she needed to know why Brendan hadn’t told her he wasn’t going to Shadrach, after all.

“I did call,” he said when he called her that night and she asked him that very question. “Nobody answered.”

The phone … ringing when she was hanging in the laundry chute.

“I figured you’d probably left early, a bunch of you, going out to eat first or something, and you’d go on to the party with other people.”

“Why didn’t you go to the party, then? If you thought I was there.”

She could almost hear his shrug. “Had to work on my car. Got it running, finally, but it was too late to take Donovan to his sister’s party. So I hit the books for a while and then sacked out. And when I called you and you said you didn’t go to the party, I didn’t see any point in telling you I hadn’t gone to Shadrach.” After a moment, he said, “Why all the questions? Anything wrong?”

A lot of things are wrong, she thought, but she didn’t feel like getting into it. “No. Charlie said you guys didn’t go to his sister’s party, and then Jenna said you weren’t at the other party, either, so I just wondered what you did Saturday night.”

“Yeah, well, like I said, it didn’t turn out exactly the way I’d planned. Maybe this Friday night will make up for it. You
are
coming, right? Your ankle okay now?”

“It will be.” She wasn’t staying home alone again. Not after last Saturday. Friday night, the painters would leave and they’d all go to the party at the student center, and nothing horrific would happen. A good time would be had by all.

If you really believe that, she asked herself as she hung up the phone, why are your nerves still strung as tightly as piano wire? Why do your eyes keep glancing toward the door, as if you expect someone in a weird disguise to come bursting in at any moment? Why do your ears keep listening for the sound of familiar voices out in the hall so you’ll feel safe?

And why are you having such a hard time remembering what feeling safe
feels
like?

T
HAT WEEK WAS THE
worst that Maxie had spent in the house. Nerves were taut and tempers flared. The atmosphere in the house had never been worse. Two girls left, saying they were moving into dorms with friends for the time being.

Their desertions did nothing to improve the mood at Omega house. Nor did a sudden change in the weather on Friday that brought in a balmy, unexpected wave of warmth. April had arrived gently and sweetly.

But the residents of Omega house didn’t believe for a minute that warm weather would improve their situation.

“Maybe,” Tinker said with hope, “whoever is after us will get a sudden attack of spring fever and reform.”

No one seemed to think that was likely.

“I have never been so glad to see a Friday night arrive,” Candie said as she brushed her long, auburn hair in front of Maxie’s dresser mirror.

“Let’s all just stick together, okay?” Maxie suggested. “I know nothing has happened to any of us
away
from the house, but that doesn’t mean it couldn’t.”

They all agreed.

But less than an hour later, Maxie found herself sitting alone on a couch in the student center, her only companion a tall, potted plant. Brendan, after giving her a quick hug and asking about her ankle, had been dashing around ever since, seeing to party details.

Jenna had introduced her to “Skip,” who really was cute, and then disappeared. Erica and Tinker had been dancing ever since they arrived, and Candie was off in a corner talking to Cath Devon, probably telling her how wise she’d been to leave Omega house.