I make my way across campus and to the burned ruins of the Kappa Asshole frat house. There’s caution tape all around and a sign stating that the premises are off limits due to the instability of the building. I’ve heard they’re going to bulldoze starting next week, which means I need to get off my ass to investigate.
If there are any clues to be had about my roommate Samantha’s disappearance, or about Rachel’s murder, they’ll be gone when the construction begins.
I step under the caution tape and push past the ash-covered front door.
The building still smells of smoke. It’s dark, too, with the holes in the ceiling and roof not doing much to let light in. I pull my flashlight out of my backpack and use it to guide me through the building.
According to poor, departed Zayden, there’s a secret room in the basement. Or there was a secret room. That’s where a lot of secret frat business is stashed.Wasstashed? Whatever.
I know Blaze and Asch moved out to that house off campus—taking River with them, for some reason—and Zayden was in no position to remove evidence. If I’m lucky, everything is exactly as it was before the fire.
One of the steps creaks dangerously underneath my feet when I test it, and I decide to skip that step, just in case.
The basement is in better shape than upstairs, but it isn’t without damage. Parts of the ceiling have collapsed, with severalbeams of wood and some furniture piled up underneath the holes. I spot the intact remains of a billiard table and a couch that looks mostly fine except for the ash covering it. There’s a nice flat screen tv on the opposite side.
Huh, that’s probably still usable.
I move past the rec room and down the hall, stopping at the bookshelf nestled in the nook.
It’s time to see if getting his hand sawed off made Zayden an honest person. None of the books look particularly interesting, but I find the one Zayden had told me about. When I pull it away, a doorknob is revealed.
A doorknob with a keyhole.
I twist the knob, but it’s locked.
God dammit.
“Couldn’t make anything easy, could you,” I mutter under my breath. Zayden’s dead, and he’s still making my life difficult.
I pull my lockpicks out of my backpack and awkwardly maneuver the picks and the flashlight. The poor light and cramped space makes it harder to pick the lock, so I end up sitting there for a good ten minutes trying to get it unlocked.
When the lock clicks and I can finally pull the door open, I’m surprised by the cool air on the other side. I’d expected it to have the same ash smell as the rest of the burned building, but apparently this secret room was spared.
I flip the light switch, but of course I’m not that lucky. All power to the place has been cut.
My flashlight shows me a desk, a couch, and several chairs. One corner has a camera sitting atop a tripod, aimed at one of the chairs up against the wall.
Were they taking profile pictures?
I move over to the desk and pull at the drawers. All locked, of course, but my lockpicks make short work of that too.
I find several folders filled with papers. At first glance, I can’t make sense of them. I’ll need to spend more time analyzing them later. I place them into my backpack then keep searching.
I find a trick bottom on one of the drawers, and on the other side of that… an external drive, completely pristine.
Well, well, well.
I guess whatever they were doing here, they liked the convenience of digital storage after all. There are several memory sticks in there too, and I stuff all of that into my backpack as well.
I close all the drawers, and for good measure I relock them. No need to make it easy for anyone to see that I’ve been snooping.
I turn the flashlight toward the filing cabinet in the corner. I guess that’s my next stop.
Then I hear footsteps and low whispering.
“This is the only other place she could be,” someone is saying.
Asch.
