Thomas Pearson was murdered.
Hot. No air. I needed air. I squirmed, pulling the turtleneck on my sweater away from my prickling skin.
"They said they found drug paraphernalia and a wad of cash near the body," Missy continued. "Guess somebody had an issue with their dealer."
Someone moved in behind me. Lorna took an uncertain step backward. Missy's face lost all its mirth. She stood up straight.
Noelle placed her water and wallet on the table in front of me, leaned forward past my shoulder, and squinted at Missy. She tilted her head deliberately to one side, then the other, as if trying to see something better. No one moved. No one dared say a word.
"Huh," Noelle said.
"What? " Missy blurted tremulously.
Noelle frowned and rounded her shoulders. "I always wondered if you could actually see through those cavernous nostrils to China,
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but everything's pretty much obscured by the forest of nasal hair."
Someone snorted. Missy's hand flew up to cover her nose.
"It's Missy Thurber, right?" Noelle said. "Your mother and sister were in Billings?"
Missy was a marble-white statue of her former self.
"Well, thanks, Missy. You just inspired me to abolish that archaic little Billings rule about automatic admission for legacies," Noelle said. "Have fun in Dayton House next year. I hear they've just about cleaned up that nasty rat problem."
Missy's mouth hung open so wide I could have stuffed my fist into it. She let out a strangled noise as she turned on her heel and ran away, fingers still covering her nose. Lorna scurried after her, seeing her own shot at Billings-by-association go up in smoke. It would have been a perfect moment, if those images of Thomas lying dead and bloody with bags of pills and powder all around him would have just stopped assaulting me.
The imagination is a horrible thing.
"Are you okay?" Noelle asked me, stepping into my line of vision.
"I don't know," I said.
"Maybe you should go lie down or something," Constance suggested.
"Good idea," Noelle put in.
Constance turned pink with pleasure.
"Come on," Noelle said as she quickly packed up my stuff and hers. "Let's get you back to Billings."
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Constance and I stood up, and Noelle stayed close to my side as we headed for the front door. Somehow, I managed to put one foot in front of the other, but I was glad there were no obstacles in front of me. I was so stunned I would have walked into a rhino if it had stepped into my path.
"It's going to be okay, Reed," Noelle told me. She seemed energized. Vehement. "It is. At least they caught the guy, right? It's finally over. That bastard is going down."
She pushed open the door and a gust of cold air hit me square in the face. I gasped for breath and looked up at the stars that blanketed the November sky.
At least they caught the guy. That bastard is going down.
Maybe someday those words would mean what Noelle wanted them to mean, but for now they only meant one thing. Thomas didn't have to die. Someone had decided to kill him.
And suddenly, the anger was back.
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