Tricky Twenty-Two (Stephanie Plum 22)

I waved him away and went inside. I took the stairs to the second floor and found Julie Ruley hunched in front of my door, waiting for me. I had a moment of panic. My instinct was to turn and bolt down the stairs, but my feet weren’t moving.

“Where’s Gobbles?” I asked Julie.

“He didn’t come with me. He doesn’t know I’m here. We were walking across campus to meet you, and we saw the police. At first we thought they were there for us, but then we heard kids talking about how there was a shooting. We watched for a while from a distance and then we took off. I heard someone say it was Dean Mintner.”

“He was shot and killed.”

“That’s horrible. I didn’t like him, but it’s still horrible.”

“You realize that you and Gobbles are suspects?”

“We had nothing to do with it. Gobbles had nothing to do with what happened to Dean Mintner the first time.”

“Mintner thought there was something evil going on at the fraternity.”

“There’s nothing evil going on at the fraternity, but there have been some strange things happening. Gobbles and I thought we could poke around and figure it out, but we can’t. We’re not getting anywhere. We need professional help, and we’re afraid to go to the police. They’ll put Gobbles in jail.”

“What makes you think I won’t put Gobbles in jail?”

Julie shrugged. “You seem nice. Gobbles said we have to trust someone, and we picked you.”

Oh great.

“What have you got so far?” I asked her. “You must have some idea what’s going on. What are the strange things that have been happening?”

“You have to talk to Gobbles about it.”

“Is he staying with you?”

“No. He won’t tell me where he’s staying. He said if I don’t know anything then I don’t have to lie about anything. I was hoping we could set up another meeting.”

“Sure, but I need to bring someone with me. I’m not walking into a meeting with Gobbles alone.”

“I’ll tell him.”

I also wasn’t inviting Julie Ruley into my apartment. I watched her walk to the elevator, and then I let myself in and locked the door. I’d had a creepy, disturbing night, and I wasn’t feeling brave or especially trusting.

I went to my kitchen, tapped on Rex’s cage to say hello, and I burst into tears. I checked the calendar on the wall to see if that time of the month was coming up. Not nearly. Damn. I was a mess and I couldn’t even blame it on hormones. I made myself a peanut butter and banana sandwich and washed it down with a bottle of beer.

“Okay, this is better,” I said to Rex. “Maybe I was just hungry. And, anyway, a man was killed and someone should cry over that, right?”

I got my Smith & Wesson out of the cookie jar and set it out on the counter so I’d remember to buy bullets. I checked the door one more time to make sure it was locked. I went through my apartment and made sure there were no killers in the closets or under the bed. I had a second beer and I got into my jammies and crawled into bed with the lights still on. I woke up at three o’clock, and shut the lights off.

EIGHTEEN

I WAS DRESSED and in the kitchen when Ranger called.

“Are you up?” he asked.

“I’m up and making coffee.”

The lock tumbled and Ranger walked in. He didn’t have a key. Didn’t need one. He could pick a lock faster than it took me to insert a key. I was just happy he’d called before breaking in so he didn’t scare the crap out of me.

He was wearing the standard Rangeman uniform of black fatigues. If you didn’t look closely at the logo on the shirt and ball cap you might think he was part of a SWAT unit.

“I heard you had an interesting night,” Ranger said.

“There’s something bad going on at Kiltman. Mintner was on a rant to shut down the Zeta house, and he was shot and left for dead in their overgrown azalea bushes.”