Sorority Sister (7 page)

She tried to catch herself as she fell, and so her right arm smacked into the cement first. She screamed once, and then her head slapped against the fountain floor with a sharp crack. Cath let out a startled pained grunt before her eyes closed and she went totally limp, her right arm twisted at a strange angle beneath her.

As she lay there, as still as death, the eerie music played on.

I
T WAS
E
RICA WHO
leaped into action first. Shouting to Candie to run and phone for an ambulance, she jumped into the fountain to see to Cath, who lay like a broken doll on the hard stone floor.

“She’s alive,” Erica called up to the others, who were still standing in a circle, hands over their mouths, their eyes wide with shock. “She’s breathing. Someone go get a blanket.”

Two more people ran to the house. One of the seniors in the group said in a voice hoarse with shock, “Nothing like this has ever happened before. How could this
happen
?”

“She fell,” someone else said. “She just fell. That’s all.”

Maxie thought, No, she didn’t. She didn’t just fall. Not Cath. She’s too light on her feet, too agile. And the wall isn’t that narrow. We wouldn’t have sent her out there if it were.

This was no simple accident. Maxie was convinced of that.

Which was why, when Cath had been taken away in a shrieking ambulance and the other girls had retreated to their rooms to talk in hushed whispers about the accident, Maxie went back outside and approached the brick wall.

Flashlight in hand, she circled the wall on her hands and knees, poking and prying at the layers of bricks with her free hand.

She found what she was looking for halfway around, at the exact spot where Cath had toppled and fallen. The bricks were all in place, so that at first glance it looked as if nothing were wrong. But when Maxie’s hand reached out and poked, the top layer of bricks wobbled. When she poked further, they shifted and slid, and the layer beneath slid as well.

No wonder Cath had fallen. Her own footing had been certain, but the surface on which she was walking was unbalanced. The top two layers of brick were loose.

Maxie played the flashlight’s beam across the ground beneath the wall. At its base, small clumps of dried gray mortar lay scattered randomly, like wads of discarded chewing gum.

Her eyes returned to the wall. Zeroing in on the bricks with the light, she could see faint scratch marks in the thin layer of mortar still in place. Clear evidence that someone had been digging. Tampering with the bricks. Deliberately.

Maxie sat back on her heels, a cold feeling of dread sweeping over her. Someone had known about the wall-walk. Someone had come out here and dug the mortar from between the bricks,
hoping
that Cath would fall. Without water in the fountain, there was no question that the person walking along the wall would be seriously hurt if she fell in that direction instead of onto the grass. The only question at all was which
way
she might fall, and apparently whoever had removed the mortar was willing to take that risk.

The risk had paid off. Cath Devon was lying in a hospital bed, probably with an injury to her spine.

Maxie heard again the sharp, sickening crack as Cath landed on her back in the fountain. Her stomach rose in protest. How much damage had that hard, unyielding cement done to Cath’s spinal column?

They wouldn’t know that until tomorrow.

Getting up slowly, as if she had suddenly aged a great deal, Maxie went back inside.

The atmosphere inside Omega house was dismal. Quiet. No music. No loud, excited chatter, normal after a wall-walk. In the dining room, the dishes Mildred had placed on the table sat empty, the candles unlit.

No one would feel like eating now.

Erica wasn’t in her room. And a knock on Mildred’s, door brought no answer. The news about the wall being tampered with would have to wait until morning. Nothing they could do about it that night, anyway.

When Maxie returned to her own room, she told Tinker what she had discovered.

Tinker wasn’t surprised. “It seems to me,” she said solemnly when Maxie had changed into the oversized T-shirt she slept in and sat down on her bed, “that the only person who would want to ruin the ceremony would be someone who was mad that they weren’t taking
part
in it.”

“You mean like Isabella or Holly?” Brendan had suggested the same thing. Had Erica ever checked the list? She hadn’t said anything about talking to either of the girls. Maybe she hadn’t had time.

Tinker nodded. “Exactly. I just can’t think of anyone else who would want to hurt Cath. Who would hate someone as nice and as quiet as Cath? She’s not the kind of person to have enemies.” Tinker’s eyes were clouded with shock and fatigue. “I don’t want to think about this anymore. It’s too depressing. I’m going to sleep.”

But as Tinker’s breath deepened, evened out and became the steady breathing of a deep sleeper, Maxie wondered if that really
was
the right answer. And then an even creepier thought forced its way into her mind.

After what had happened to Cath, it might be stupid to pass off the events of the past few days as simple game-playing. It could be something much worse. Maybe the person responsible
wasn’t
just playing games.

Maybe he or she was … crazy. Over the edge. A loose cannon. It might have all
started
as a game, but now …

Crazy?

How could a crazy person be running around Omega house without anyone noticing?

When she finally climbed into bed in the darkened room, it struck her that in all the time she’d been in Omega house, she had never heard it so completely silent. It wasn’t just that everyone was asleep. Maxie often pulled all-nighters to get a paper written, so she knew the silence of the sleeping house.

But on this night, the silence was different.

Now the air seemed still as if everyone in the house were holding her breath. Waiting in fear for whatever would happen next.

M
AXIE DRESSED QUICKLY THE
next morning, intent on giving Erica the bad news about the brick wall.

But when she went to Erica’s room and knocked, there was no answer. Probably taking a shower.

Maxie wasn’t willing to wait. Mildred would have to be told first. The police had to be notified. Even if she was wrong about the wall, and she was positive that she wasn’t, the police would have scientific ways of proving whether or not the wall had actually been tampered with. Then they’d find the person who had done it and take him or her away, so that life at Omega house could return to normal.

Maxie found Mildred in the kitchen. When the news about the wall had registered, Mildred promptly went to the wall telephone to call the Twin Falls police.

Erica, fresh from a shower, her long, blonde hair still damp, was on the telephone when Maxie went upstairs. Tinker was in the room, too. She signaled to Maxie to come in and take a seat while Erica finished her conversation.

When Erica hung up, she sagged against the wall and said with enormous relief, “That was the hospital. Cath’s going to be okay. No permanent damage to the spine.”

“Oh, that’s great!” Maxie felt sorry for Erica. She had ridden to the hospital in the ambulance with Cath last night, but because she wasn’t a relative, hadn’t been allowed to see the patient, and had finally left without knowing Cath’s condition. The strain had left her oval face very pale. She probably hadn’t slept much.

“Her arm is broken, though,” Erica continued, “and she has a concussion. She’ll be in the hospital for a few days. Mildred already called her parents.”

“Mildred told me the only time something like this happened before was when your mom was hurt in a hazing incident,” Tinker said. “They did it differently, then … nothing as tame as a wall-walk. She said something about the railroad bridge behind campus?”

Erica nodded. “Yeah, she had to walk it. She fell into the river. She was in a full body cast for eight weeks and didn’t graduate with her class. Had to finish up in summer school Her accident was responsible for some new rules about hazing.”

“I’m sure the university will launch an investigation into Cath’s accident,” Tinker said, just as grimly.

“Maybe that’s what someone wanted,” Maxie commented, and filled Erica and Tinker in on what she’d found at the wall. “Anyone who knew about the wall-walking and tampered with those bricks had to know that if Cath got hurt, the administration would hear about it and we’d be in hot water. And Cath
did
get hurt.”

“Why would someone
do
that?” Erica asked a puzzled frown on her face.

Glancing at Tinker, Maxie said, “Tinker thinks it could have been someone we rejected. Brendan does, too. Did you ever check that list or talk to any of the girls we rushed but didn’t pledge?”

Erica shook her head. “I haven’t had time.” She flushed guiltily. “Maybe if I had, Cath wouldn’t be in the hospital now.”

“It’s not your fault. Those bricks could have been tampered with before we even thought of the list, so quit blaming yourself. Anyway, Mildred’s calling the police. They’ll find out what really happened.”

Erica’s face blanched at the word “police.”

Mildred came up to tell them the police would be going to the hospital first, to see if Cath was able to tell them anything, and would then come out to Omega house to check the wall. “It won’t be until after classes, so go ahead and do what you usually do.”

The first person Maxie ran into on campus was Brendan. She could tell by the set of his mouth that he’d already heard about Cath.

“Must have been pretty bad,” he said as they met on the steps of the administration building, Butler Hall, “if they took her to the hospital instead of the infirmary.”

“We thought it was worse than it really was,” Maxie said defensively. A sharp, chilling March wind had arisen, and Maxie shivered in her red ski jacket. “She landed on her back, and we thought maybe …but she just has a concussion and a broken arm.”

Brendan’s dark eyebrows tilted. “Just?”

Maxie flushed. “I didn’t mean ‘just.’ I meant, that’s a lot better than a spinal cord injury, right?”

He sat down on the top step, off to one side, and yanked at her wrist to get her to join him.

She sat reluctantly. She didn’t want to have this conversation. But if they didn’t talk about it, it would get in their way. What had happened to Cath would stand between them like a brick wall. Brick wall …Maxie saw Cath falling again, her arms flailing out around her, and felt sick.

“I hear you’re in trouble with the administration,” Brendan said.

Maxie nodded. “We all have to see the Dean and explain what happened. I’m on my way there now.”

“What
did
happen?”

She told him.

Brendan’s head swiveled in shock as Maxie explained about the loose bricks.

“On purpose?” he shouted. “You’re saying someone did this on purpose?”

She shrugged. “Looks that way. Mildred talked to the police, and we have to talk to them this afternoon.”

“So,” he said, looking directly at her, “when are you packing?”

Hadn’t she known this was coming? “I’m not, Brendan. I’m not a rat who deserts a sinking ship.”

“Oh, it’s sinking, all right.” Brendan’s strongly angled face reddened with anger. “And you’ve decided to go down with it? You’re not its captain, Maxie. Let Erica go down with the ship, but you get
out
of there!”

She tried to tell herself it was because he cared about her. She tried to tell herself that if he
didn’t
care about her, it wouldn’t make any difference to him whether she left the house or not.

But it didn’t help. She needed his support now, his help, not his direct order that she leave the house and her sisters when they were in trouble. Angry, she retorted, “Would you want me to desert
you
if you were in trouble? I’m not leaving the house, Brendan. And if all you can do is tell me that that’s the answer, I don’t want to talk about this anymore.” Jumping up, she turned and ran into the building.

The Dean listened to her story, said she would talk to Mildred about increased security at Omega house, and then delivered a mild lecture on the university’s rules against any kind of hazing. Then Maxie was excused.

She was halfway to her ten o’clock class when a tall, heavyset girl with frizzy dark hair approached her. Isabella Sands, one of the girls Omega Phi had rejected.

The little hairs on the back of Maxie’s neck stood on end. Not
now,
she thought, and then quickly thought better of it. Erica hadn’t had time to talk to Isabella or Holly. No time like the present, she decided.

Isabella matched her steps to Maxie’s. “I heard about Cath,” she said with a mournful tone to her voice that Maxie immediately tagged as phony. “But I guess she’s going to be okay, hmm?”

Maxie nodded.

“But,” eagerness crept into Isabella’s voice, “she won’t be finishing out the year at Omega house, right? I mean, she’ll probably be in the hospital for a while, and then maybe she’ll have to go home to recuperate, don’t you think?”

Maxie was tired, her argument with Brendan and her nerve-wracking interview in the Dean’s office had tied her nerves in knots, and the gray, chilly day was no comfort. She stopped walking, turned to Isabella and said, “Isabella. You weren’t rejected by Omega Phi because there wasn’t any
room
for you. You were rejected because you are the sort of person who follows people around campus trying to take advantage of the fact that a very nice girl has been hurt in an accident. Omega Phis aren’t like that. And we don’t want anyone who
is.
” Having said that, Maxie turned and walked away, leaving Isabella standing in the center of the commons, her jaw descending toward her neck.

I probably shouldn’t have done that, Maxie told herself as she hurried to class. I didn’t learn a single thing about Isabella except that she’s a creep, and if she was already mad at us, I probably just made her even madder. Then a tiny smile slid across her face. But it felt
so
good!