Page 116 of Wild Escape

A devious smirk curled her lips. "I heard she flipped out. Was she willing to talk to you?”

I shook my head.

Erica frowned. "That's too bad."

"If you have any more tips, let me know."

"I'll keep my ear out for you. I'll be your spy on campus."

I was pretty sure there were quite a few people on campus who had negative feelings toward the sorority.

It wasn’t long after I talked to her when my phone buzzed with a call from the sheriff. It was too loud to hear in the venue. I let it go to voicemail, then texted him back. [What's up?]

[I need you and that nitwit to get to the Theta house.]

[Who died now?]

[Nobody yet, but I think you'll want to get over there and talk to some folks.]

I let him know Jack was on stage, but said I'd be on my way.

I told Pinky to let Erica and her cute friend backstage after the show. Floyd and Pinky had been handling security as well as loading in and out the gear. I had no doubt there would be a raging after-party on the boat.

I bid the girls farewell, then took Jack's Porsche to the university.

Paramedics and EMTs had arrived by the time I got there. Red and white lights flashed. A crowd of students gathered, gawking as they rolled someone out on a gurney and stuffed them in the back of the meat wagon. If I wasn't mistaken, it was Rachel.

There were a few deputies on the scene.

I hustled up the walkway and pushed into the house. The front door was open. There were a few more deputies inside.

Several girls stood around with mortified faces. Jenna, the alumni chair, was at the house. It looked like there had been a little party before the chaos.

The blood stains on the floor and the broken lamp told me there had been some kind of incident.

Lauren sat in a chair nearby, sobbing. I asked Deputy Dunn, "What's going on?"

"I don't know. I'm trying to make sense of it. The story keeps changing. First, I was told that the victim tripped and fell, hit her head on the end table, and knocked over the lamp. I've got half a dozen girls giving me that story, including her," he said, pointing to Jenna. “Then I heard from another girl that the victim got into an altercation with this one," he said, pointing to Lauren. “She won't talk to me. Daniels said I should let you talk to her before taking her into custody.”

I thanked him for the information and approached Lauren. I knelt down beside her and spoke in a comforting voice. "How are you doing?"

"Terrible," she said, still sobbing.

"Would it be totally outrageous if you told me what happened?”

After a hesitation, she said, “No,” in a meek voice.

“I'm guessing you got a little upset about Lance. You confronted Rachel and hit her with the lamp."

“Is she okay?”

“I don’t know.”

“I didn’t mean to kill her.”

“We’re going to take a little ride down to the station, and you’re going to tell me all about this.”

She nodded.