Vern yelled after me. “And you’d better be bringing me a new sandwich when you come back, too!”
Max and I found Joselyn in the courtyard behind Ludlow House, on a stone bench in a rock garden housing bright orange poppies, yucca, and cacti in all different shapes and sizes. She had a line of stud earrings running up one ear and wore Doc Martens and a long purple skirt.
“Joselyn? My name is Max Middlemore, and this is Cel—”
“I know who you both are,” she said drily, not looking up from lying flat on her back. “You’re here to ask me about the golden child.” She brought her vape to her lips and took a drag. “Shewouldget a full-scale investigation into trying to fix her after she murdered someone.”
She was wearing thick black sunglasses that only cast our reflections back at us. I sat on the bench beside her. “Golden child? Why do you call her that?”
She waved her hand, the gold cross around her neck gleaming in the light. “She’s Dr. Strauss’s favorite, of course. The man is lodged so far up her ass.”
“Mmm,” Max said and smiled a country smile that veered just a little crooked. “And I take it that’s why he gave her a recommendation to MIT and not you?”
While they spoke, I tried to ignore the ache lodged in my chest. This sun-baked courtyard was one of Aaron’s favorite spots. He used to lean back on the benches, headphones over his ears; he insisted on using our dad’s beat-up old Walkman. He always looked so peaceful like that.
At our last Christmas as a family, Aaron surprised everyone by using the money he’d made from cutting lawns to buy us all gifts with what little he had, including my Christmas mug.*
Max sent out a tendril of Magic that encircled my shoulders in a protective embrace.
She waved her hand. “He was too busy for me, of course, but who could deny the golden child? Even though I’ve wanted to work at NASA since I was five, and with MIT’s work on the Chandra Observatory, that program was the best chance for me.”
“Did you know that she got accepted?” I asked quietly. I showed her the acceptance letter we’d found among Dani’s things. She’d received it only one week before Maya’s murder.
Joselyn pulled her sunglasses down and stared blankly at the paper. “And she’s gone and blown herself up. What a waste. Hats off to whoever’s on the waiting list.” She mimed cheers-ing a wineglass, and I caught sight of the tattoo on her bicep: carefully curved letters that spelledThe Devil hides behind the cross.
I stared at the tattoo until I realized why it felt so familiar. It reminded me of the HELL IS HERE carving on my bed. I made a mental note to ask around about who’d stayed in my dorm room since I’d been gone.
Max leaned in close and took off his hat. “Hey, look, I get it, believe me. Someone always getting in your way, throwing her clothes all around the room. Keepin’ the light on all night, crunching her snacks in your ear. I wouldn’t want to live with her anymore either. And then she goes and steals your spot at MIT, and you realize you’ve had enough, that’s it. And you just snap. I mean, everybody’s got their limits, right?”
Joselyn shoved up to a seated position and took off her sunglasses, eyes narrowing at him. “No. And let’s get one thing straight. I never wanted to live with Dani. Our families were old friends after our dads were physicists at the same lab together for years. But that was before her dad stole my father’s job. Sooooo, no. After that, I didn’t want to keep up the sham that we were friends. Dr. Strauss’s little pet project. Always getting the best marks on everything when she didn’t deserve it. ‘Oh Dani, what a great observation, oh Dani, how astute, oh Dani,right there, oh, how do youdothat, oh-oh my God—”
Students walking into the School of Business looked over.
I cleared my throat. “They were sleeping together?”
She snorted. “He wishes. To tell you the truth, I wouldn’t be surprised if he killed Maya in some botched attempt to get Dani to love him back. I’m not the only one who noticed how obsessed he was with her.” She took another drag from the vape. “Take out the competition and all that. Oh, that sweet, sweet unrequited love.
“To tell you the truth, Dani wasn’t above using people to get what she wanted. Dr. Strauss worked with her a lot, on whatever questions she had. He was her window, her key to understanding more about Magic. It only made sense that he wanted something in return. For everything he taught her, for every way he helped her.
“But if you’re asking all this because you think I had something to do with Little Miss Perfect going off and killing her girlfriend, I didn’t. I was in the hospital and hadn’t even left my room for days before that. Everyone says I just drank too much at the party, but I’m telling you, I was only throwing up because of that fucking pill.”
“What pill?” Max asked.
“The pills with the shitty enchantments that are so popular right now. Go to any party with a drink in your hand and someone’s bound to try it. Mine was slipped into my drink by local perv Grant Hafer. He should’ve been expelled years ago.” She took another drag from her vape, exhaling toward the sky.
“An enchantment?” I asked. “How do you know it had a spell on it?”
“Why else would I be sick for so long? With my head pounding with thoughts of his jeans unbuckling? Just the thought of him alone is enough to make me want to puke, and I was having sex dreams about him.” She spat on the ground, as if to get an awful taste out of her mouth. “I told Paul he was a creep, but, of course, he always stood up for him. Should’ve never trusted them. Bunch of fucking pagans.”
I considered her statement. In the sky above us, a hawk let out a piercing cry and dove. “The enchantment sounds a lot like a hex. Is that why you have Brueste’sAn Analysis of the Black Magicks? Were you looking up hexes?”
Her eyes flashed with alarm. No doubt half the student body by now knew we were looking for information about a hex. “I don’t know anything about hexes. That book has one of the best compilations of the Magical properties of plants, and seeing how I’m failing my ecology course, I thought it would come in handy. Dani was the same way about books, reading them all with this crazed desperation until she realized they didn’t have whatever she was looking for. Could barely get my hands on any that she hadn’t torn through like a psycho. All I know is Grant slipped me this date-rape pill. Grant Hafer, H-a-f-e-r, and I could barely get out of bed for days. Why don’t you askhimabout it? Maybe you guys will do something more than my advisor, whose stellar advice was that I shouldn’t have been drinking in the first place. Fucking prick.”
She got up from the bench. Before she left, Max called out to her. “One more question! Your tattoo, what’s it mean?”
She looked down at the words on her bicep and smiled. “Even the Devil can quote Scripture. It means be wary of who you trust around here.”
Max made a slow whistle after she left. “Wooh-wee. Don’t know what idiot decided to mess with her. That bit she said about reading books with a crazy desperation sounds like someone else I know.” He grinned over at me.
