Page 95 of Lady Killer

There was no such thing as privacy with the Blackwells around.

“I need to call Autumn.” Before he could say anything, I was hitting the Call button. She quickly picked up the phone.

“Oh shit, Luz, are you okay? Please be okay. Everything here is such a mess. Natalie saw me hanging around your room and she wanted to know what was going on and then she insisted we call the cops and now everyone’s freakingout—‍”

“Autumn, take a deep breath. You sound like you’re hyperventilating.”

“I know but—‍”

“Deep breaths.”

Alister looked at me with one eyebrow raised.

“In and out,” I repeated slowly until my friend no longer sounded like she was having an asthma attack.

“Luz, it’s terrible . . .”

“My room was broken into?” I kept my tone even and unemotional.

“It was this morning. Simone had an early class, and so I was up to walk her out, and that’s when I saw that your door was open, so I knocked, because like, maybe you came home early and I thought we could grab breakfast together—‍”

“Slow down and deep breaths.”

Across from me, Alister rolled his eyes and I shot him a death glare.

“Okay, so I knocked on your door and you weren’t there, which was weird because I know how careful you are after, like, the pig heart thing. Anyways, you didn’t answer but I thought, ‘Okay, maybe she’s in the shower,’ so I walked Simone down and decided to check on you when I cameback.

“And when I did, the door was still cracked open, and you weren’t answering, so I decided to go in and look—‍”

I cut her off before I could stop myself. “That was dangerous, Autumn, why would you do that?”

“It’s, like, a freaking dorm room, Luz. How many axe murderers could be hiding in there?” she said in a high-pitched voice.

At least five, maybe seven.

“All it would take is one, Autumn. One.”

She ignored me.

“So, I opened the door and it was, like, immediately clear that you weren’t there. Your room, Luz, it’s destroyed. Someone came in and they went through, like, everything, all your stuff. Your clothes, your books . . .”

Alarm bells went off in my head.

I wanted to ask Autumn if the minifridge had been disturbed, but I couldn’t afford to tip her off. So, I tried another tack. “Was anything left untouched? The bathroom? My closet? The fridge?”

“No, Luz, everything. All your clothes were tossed out and a bunch of them are ripped up, everything in your bathroom is smashed, and the minifridge was dragged out and emptied.”

Actually, it’d been emptied early this semester by Ever, who’d insisted I couldn’t keep poisons in my room whenthere was a killer hunting me and the police could show up at my dorm room at any time. My stash was safely tucked away at the twins’ place.

Poor Autumn sounded close to tears.

“It’s okay, Autumn, it’s all just stuff, and I’m safe and sound.”

“No, Luz, that’s not the problem. Or like, it is a problem, but it’s not the only problem.”

“Okay . . .”

“I started freaking out, and Natalie, the RA, came by and wanted to know what was going on, and I tried to keep her out of your room at first but then I didn’t know what to do and she saw inside and she freaked out and she called cops and now they’re here . . .”

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