Braxton Campus Mysteries Collection - Books 1-4

Chapter 4-2

“The body?” I tossed both hands in the air. Things were not going well since I"d returned home to Braxton. “I"ll explain another time why I was meeting her.” As we both climbed the stairs to the second floor, Lorraine awkwardly grinned back at me.

When we arrived, Maggie rested her hand against her forehead. “Connor will be here any minute. He"d just gotten to the retirement party to wish your father well.”

“Ummm… Connor who?” Given the number of times I"d been surprised already that night with Maggie returning to Braxton, finding Abby at the bottom of a stairwell, and meeting the peculiar Myriam Castle, I had an inkling Maggie"s Connor would be our Connor from years ago.

“Connor Hawkins. Don"t you remember anyone, Kellan?” shot her somewhat sassy response. The drama of finding a dead body was causing everyone to be irritable and short-tempered.

“Did I hear my name?” boomed a deep voice across the hall. A darker-skinned man a few inches taller than me walked past the central admin area and hugged Maggie. They whispered something and shared an intimate connection.

Yep, it was the same Connor. But it was also an extraordinarily different Connor. This Connor obviously spent his day working out at the gym or popping steroids. “Is that really you?” I asked in puzzlement, looking from him to the stairwell hiding Abby"s lifeless body.

“Kellan, what are you doing here?” He wrinkled his brow and jolted his head sideways.

“Well, yeah, it seems kind of obvious being that it"s my father"s retirement party.” I hadn"t meant to sound like a jerk, but I was a bit off-kilter given everything happening that evening.

“I know… I meant at Diamond Hall,” Connor said authoritatively.

A desperate sense of loss surrounded me. Connor, Maggie, and I had been inseparable all throughout college. When Maggie and I had broken up, he took her side and told me how stupid I was to let her go. What had happened to him after Braxton?

I responded, “Lorraine found the body and sought help. I was the nearest person she could find.” Visions of Francesca"s last moments plagued me. I couldn"t think straight.

Connor moved uncomfortably in his light tan suit and striped Braxton tie, but it was a powerful offset to his cocoa-touched skin. His mother was from the Caribbean, and his father was a South African sailor on leave from the navy when they"d met. Connor had inherited the best features from both and was always considered charming and gorgeous by the girls who melted anytime they heard his accent. Back in school, he"d been in decent shape, but he could now pass for a twin to Adonis. “I can"t believe you"re here. And Abby is there. How did…?”

Maggie tapped her foot. “Although I"m sure you boys can"t wait to catch up, maybe Braxton"s c***k security team could do a quick check on the body randomly hanging out at the bottom of the stairs?”

“It"s Abby Monroe, the chair of the communications department,” Lorraine insisted.

“I"ll go check. Are you sure she"s already dead?” Connor added with a pointed stare.

I nodded. “Pretty certain. You"re a security guard now?”

“No, he"s your father"s head of security for the college. Do you not know about that either?” sniped Maggie. The shock was overwhelming all of us.

headI swallowed my tongue and pride. My parents had some explaining to do. “Let"s not get into that right now. Did she trip over something and hit her head?” Nobody responded. As Connor descended the steps, I turned to Lorraine. “Are you okay? Did you know Abby well?”

Before she could respond, two people strutted across the second-floor office space. A familiar, mid-thirties blonde in a pair of dark jeans, an ill-fitting tweed coat, and standard-issue beat-walking shoes announced, “I"m Sheriff Montague. There"s been a report of someone falling down a flight of stairs?” She turned to her colleague, a male cop with a crew cut, an enormous nose that must have been broken several times, and a pair of furry earmuffs. “This is Officer Flatman.”

“I"m down in the stairwell, Sheriff Montague,” shouted Connor.

While the two newest arrivals followed Connor"s voice to the body, I thought about what Abby"s death would mean to Derek"s plans for the second season of Dark Reality. I should have called him right away, but I had no information other than she"d died. I also tried to reach my father, but he didn"t pick up again. I called my mother.

Dark Reality“Kellan, I"ve been looking for you for nearly an hour. Please don"t tell me you left already,” my mother said in a shrill voice. She should have been an actress instead of Braxton"s admissions director.

“No, I"m… outside. Is Dad around? I need to talk with him about something… important.” I didn"t want to alarm my mother, given how easily agitated she"d become since my arrival.

“I was looking for him myself, but he got pulled into an urgent meeting and said he"d find me at some point tonight. You know your father, even in near-retirement, he still feels obligated to remain a workaholic.”

I mumbled something to my mom, making it sound like I agreed with her, and told her I"d be back to the party as soon as possible. I turned to Maggie and Lorraine to verify what they were doing. Lorraine chatted on the phone with someone, but I couldn"t determine his or her identity. Something about urgently returning a call that evening to discuss what she"d found.

Maggie sat on a guest chair opposite Lorraine"s desk and fiddled with her earlobes. She"d always played with them when nervous or worried about something life changing. “It"s awful to know she fell down the stairs, and no one was here to help her. I hope she didn"t experience any pain.”

I was about to reach out and wrap my arms around Maggie when Connor bounded into the room. “Okay, so Sheriff Montague asked me to tell you three not to leave. She has some questions about the order of events tonight, but she"s still finishing a cursory review of the body. It"s definitely Abby Monroe. I saw her leaving Stanton Concert Hall about a quarter after eight while I was doing my nightly walk through campus.”

Lorraine perked up after finishing her call. “Is she really… dead?” A trail of mascara stained her cheek.

Connor nodded. “Yes, Mrs. Candito. The coroner will be here in a few minutes, but she"s been dead for under an hour. I"ve seen this type of thing before.”

Connor"s response made me curious what he"d been up to the last ten years. What was going on between him and Maggie? My concentration broke when Lorraine burst into tears. Maggie comforted her.

Connor strode toward me. I didn"t know whether to grab his fingers using our secret fraternity greeting or hover there in silence. I was grateful when he made the first move—a typical handshake, no double tuck and punch like the old days. “What a way to reconnect tonight, huh?”

“Yeah, feels like a nightmare. Over a professor falling down a flight of steps and dying.”

Connor rubbed his temple. “Tragic, but it"s far worse. She didn"t just fall down the steps.”

I thought I"d misheard my former best friend, but his panicked expression revealed I hadn"t. “What do you mean? How can it be any worse than death?”

“It wasn"t an accident.” Connor stared at me, deliberating what he should and shouldn"t reveal.

My eyes popped open like a deer caught in headlights. “Did she try to kill herself?” Though I felt both stupid and silly about the question, I barely knew anything about the woman. Anyone who hooked up with Derek was slightly off her rocker.

“No, that"s not what I mean. Sheriff Montague wouldn"t want me to say this, but the blood on the ground came from a deep gash behind Abby"s ear. There were some metal flakes mixed throughout her hair in the middle of the wound.”

“Wouldn"t that be from when she hit the steps?” I scanned the room, filling with edginess over being around another dead body.

“Nope. She had a giant egg on the front of her head where she hit the steps. The wound on the back of her scalp was a much harder blow. Plus, there"s nothing on the stairs or the floor that has any metal. It"s all solid marble. We"re looking at a murder tonight, Kellan.”