Page 4 of Brutal Prince

Sure.

TWO

Ollie

“So, was it you?” I asked Cody Harrington.

He and his girlfriend recently moved into a house twenty minutes drive from the edge of campus in the middle of nowhere. The furniture hadn’t arrived yet, so they were using boxes to sit on and a rug on the floor was their kitchen table.

“What are you talking about?” he queried.

“The two guys who had their skulls smashed in. Was it you who did that to them?”

“No. Once I found out where Luca was I went back home.”

“Yeah, neglecting to pick me up from the University Gardens,” I said miffed.

I raced about the place trying to find his girlfriend that night, because Harrington was convinced the rapists got her. I couldn’t contact him, because his cell went missing or was stolen. So I walked back to the Vault, having no idea what happened to them. The following day I found out that my roommate Cam was beaten to death, along with an ex-student who’d graduated last year, Shawn.

“Ah. I forgot about that.” He handed me a can of beer and I cracked it open.

“Where’s Luca?”

“Upstairs studying.”

“So, you didn’t see anything that night?” I asked again.

“Nah.”

“Happened to be the same place that Lux got beaten up and was left for dead and the victims were wearing balaclavas.”

“Really?”

“Outside the science labs.”

“Didn’t know that.”

I stared at him, waiting for him to crack. “You’re a damn shitty actor, dude.”

He sniggered. “Hey man, this face is golden.”

“Bullshit.” I took a long guzzle of the lukewarm beer, because their fridge hadn’t arrived yet. “I understand why you did it. I mean, did you stumble across them in the act?”

He shrugged his broad shoulders. “Dunno what you’re talking about.”

He wasn’t giving me anything. Cody and I weren’t close, not like he and Jace Luxon were, but we were still friends, teammates, and ex roommates. Surely that meant something.

“How’s Detective Mathias?” he asked and it suddenly occurred to me why his mouth is stitched shut.

We, Darryn and I, had to tell him that we were working with the cops to solve the mystery of who the ringleader of all the on-campus murders and rapes are. We didn’t want to tell him, but he left us with no choice. He kept snooping around trying to find out who hurt his best bud, screwing things up for us.

“Got a meeting with her tomorrow,” I told him. “Hey, have you heard someone found remains of a body on the shore of Lake Superior?”

“Yeah, I read it online. They haven’t ID it yet.”

“Could be Sweeney.”

“Good job if it is.”

---