Ava scoffed. “Looks to me like you wouldn’t have had much of a problem getting in. You obviously have a willing accomplice.”
“Quit deflecting! I know you left the party with Theo! I know he brought you back to this house! I know you used your key card to get in at three in the morning, and I know that’s how Theo got into the building!”
“I couldn’t have let him into the building,” Ava shouted, “because I didn’t come back here after the party! I spent the night in my cousin’s room. He said I could sleep on his couch.” A deep, angry flush consumed her freckles. If any of it was a lie, she was damn convincing.
“If that’s true, then who used your key card?”
“You know how it is, Veronica! People forget their cards all the time. They get locked out of the building and they need to borrow a key. It’s not a big deal.”
“If it’s not a big deal, then who borrowed yours?”
Ava stubbornly looked away.
“You can either tell me now or you can tell my attorney, but I’m going to find out, so you might as well talk.”
“Miaborrowed my key,” Ava said with annoyance. “She knocked on Jackson’s door in the middle of the night, and when I answered it, she was crying. She said she and Ben had a fight and she wanted to go home. She said she left her wallet and coat in his room, but she didn’t want to go back to look for them. She said she was going to call an Uber, and she asked to borrow my key card so she could get into the sorority house.”
“But instead of taking an Uber,” Vero surmised, “Mia got a ride home with Theo and invited him in.”
Ava shook her head. “Mia would never have done that. She was too loyal to Ben.”
“If Mia’s so trustworthy, why all the secrets? I talked to Ben. He didn’t say a word to me about Mia coming back to the house that night. And Mia obviously didn’t tell Celeste.”
“We couldn’t tell Celeste that I gave Mia my key. We were already in enough trouble for gambling, and you know how uptight Celeste is about board members sharing their cards. It just seemed easier to tell her I was the one who came home that night.”
At my puzzled look, Vero turned to me and explained. “The board members get the same key card as the house mom—it opens every room in the building, in case of an emergency. We all had to sign a responsible-use agreement when we took office, promising not to let our card out of our possession. If a board member gets caught sharing keys, they can get in a lot of trouble.”
“So Mia could have used Ava’s key to get into your room.”
“No!” Ava said adamantly. “Celeste inspected every room in the house as soon as we figured out the money was missing. She searched Mia’s and mine, too. The money wasn’t anywhere in the building. If you’re so convinced Theo took the money, why don’t you just askhim?”
“Because he’s gone, Ava! He disappeared without a trace the day after Bennett told him I was looking for him. Don’t you think that’s a little suspicious?”
Ava laughed like this was some kind of joke.
Vero grabbed Ava’s cell phone from her hand and shoved it in her face. “Go ahead. Call Theo. See if he picks up.”
Ava was quick to accept the dare. She scrolled to her contacts and tapped Theo’s name. She frowned when a recording answered, stating the number was out of service. She disconnected and began dialing another contact.
“Who are you calling?” Vero asked warily.
Ava turned her back on Vero while she waited for someone to pick up. “Jackson? Hey, it’s me. I’m trying to get in touch with Theo, but his phone’s out of service. Do you know how I can get ahold of him?… What do you mean, you don’t know where he is?… When was the last time you talked to him?” Ava glanced over her shoulder at Vero. “People don’t just vanish out of thin air, Jacks…” Her brows pulled down. “Okay,” she said, clearly unsettled. “Call me if you hear from him.”
Ava frowned at her screen as she disconnected the call.
“We were all arguing about what to do with the money before the party,” Vero reminded her. “And now Theo and the backpack are gone without a trace. Bennett and Mia are hiding something, and he won’t let me talk to her. They’re both keeping secrets about where she was after the party, and you and your cousin knew andkept quiet about it. That makes you both complicit. Either you can help me figure out what really happened that night or I can go to the police, tell them everything I know, and let them figure it out. Who are you going to protect—Jackson or Mia?”
Ava turned sharply toward the door. She gripped the knob, wrestling with her options. “There’s a party off campus tonight,” she finally said. “Everyone in the chapter will be there, alumni, too. Zoey knows the address. But don’t blame me if Mia doesn’t want to talk to you. She didn’t take the money, Veronica. You obviously don’t know us as well as you think you do.”
Without another word, Ava walked out the door.
CHAPTER 24
My minivan rattled into the driveway, and Vero and I ran inside the house minutes before Javi returned from the computer repair shop. We watched through the window as he got out of the Eggplant and slammed the door. He stood in front of the house, scowling at the camera above the driveway.
“Everything okay?” Vero asked him when he finally came inside.
He dropped the laptop on the coffee table. “The damn thing’s still not working. The tech shop said there’s nothing wrong with the computer or the software. He said it’s probably a bad connection somewhere in the house. I’m going to look at all the wiring and see what the hell is going on.” Vero and I followed him to the garage.
