All of their eyes were suddenly beneath raised eyebrows.
“That’s a big promise to make, Lisette,” Michael said. “You sure you want to promise that?”
“Yes,” I said. “I’m sure.”
Even though I didn’t really want to do it, I knew that it would be the one thing that would make them stay and I suppose it was about time for that to happen anyway. I still wanted us all to be close friends with all of them, though, even after I made a decision about that.
I had expected them to look happier about my offer to do that, but instead they looked kind of sad.
“Okay,” Michael said. “We’ll give it two weeks. If there’s nothing discovered in two weeks, we all go home, and you give us your decision. Deal?”
“Deal.” I looked at the other two to make sure they were in agreement as well. They both nodded so it seemed as though we were all on the same page. But, there was something lingering in the air between all of us that I couldn’t quite put my finger on.
Something important, but hidden from sight.
Nevertheless, I curled up with them and pulled the blanket around me. It seemed we were going to be students at Lineage, again.
And this time, I hoped our enrollment didn’t come with as much death as the previous commitment we made to attend.
18
Registering for classes was a lot easier when you didn’t care which classes you got. It was also a lot easier to be back on the Lineage campus when you didn’t feel as though it were a prison cell. And speaking of prison cells, I walked over to the stone room to see if that structure was still standing and it made me very happy to see that it was not. The entire little building had been removed and there was a patch of freshly seeded grass in the place where it had stood.
Maybe this woman was actually trying to make the school a better place.
But the question remained: who was she?
Lineage and Goldshire had both been handing down from generation to generation in the names of the original families. Technically, I should be the Headmistress of Lineage now that my parents and half-brother were dead. I was the last living member of that family bloodline. Not that I wanted it; I didn’t. I would be more than happy to leave this entire place behind again just as soon as I figured out who this woman was and whether or not she murdered David.
As soon as classes had started, I excused myself to go use the bathroom. The guys offered to come along but having a bathroom escort in college would draw almost as much attention to me as just announcing the fact that I was looking for my brother’s killer.
And on my way to the bathroom, I veered off into Layla’s office.
I was happy to see that both she and her secretary were in a meeting inside the conference room with a set of potential parents and they were having a rousing discussion about the incoming freshman needing a bit of extra attention and support. It allowed me to slip right into her office unnoticed. I was careful not to disturb anything in her office that she would find out of place. I carefully lifted up piles of paper and opened drawers. There wasn’t anything unusual about her office at all. But then, as I got ready to leave, I looked up at what was hanging above the doorframe.
A mask.
The same gold and silver mask that she had on at the Masquerade Gala.
She lied.
“Alright,” I said as I stormed into the conference room brandishing the mask in my hand. “Who are you?”
“Excuse me!” Layla’s secretary said as she glared at me in surprise. “We are in the middle of a meeting here. You need to leave at once!”
“No,” I said firmly. “Not until she tells me who she really is,” I said as I pointed to Layla.
I threw the mask down on top of the table in front of her and took a seat in one of the chairs.
“This is outrageous!” the secretary said. “I’m calling campus security.”
The prospective parents picked up the course schedule from the table and got up to leave. When the room was empty aside from the two of us, Layla spoke.
“What do you want?” she asked.
“I want to know what happened to David,” I said.
“I already told you that I don’t know,” she said.
“Yes, well you also already told me that you weren’t at the Masquerade Gala and we both know that was a lie. Did you kill him?” I asked point-blank.
“No.”
Michael, Adam, and Rob came in just after she had answered me. I must have been gone from class too long and they got worried. They looked around to see what was going on and Adam saw the mask on the table.
“You were right?” he asked me. “Did this woman kill David?”
“I didn’t kill your friend,” she answered. “But I was there when he died.”
What?
“You were at our house?” Michael asked her in shock.
He looked as though he was bristling like a threatened dog.
“Yes,” she said coolly.
