Caitlin didn’t wait for his words to catch up. She ran down the bank and dove back under the surface.

*   *   *

Later, warming in the car, her head clear, her heart light, Caitlin checked her messages and let out a deep sigh. Lakshmi was alive and well: I found a corner boy. Want to help me nail these assholes?

Chapter 35

CHAPTER

35

CAITLIN WALKED THROUGH a clump of aluminum-sided townhouses with uncovered central parking and found Lakshmi hovered over her laptop at a table on the back porch of Unit 3.

“Who lives here?”

“No idea,” Lakshmi said, “but there’s a week’s worth of pizza fliers outside the front door. We should be safe.”

Caitlin sat beside her. “Which apartment are we watching?”

“Lucky thirteen.” Lakshmi nodded to the two-story unit fifty feet across the parking lot and took a sip from a nearly empty cross-country-trucker-sized iced coffee. “You said to follow the corner boys, so I reached out to the girls in the Chapman Chapter to see if Frodo was still involved with the fraternity, who he was dating, and where he lives now.”

“Judging by your caffeine intake, you got a response.”

Lakshmi shook her head like a wet dog. “Not much sleep, but yes. So the Sig Eps threw a party last night.”

“That’s not Frodo’s frat.”

“No, but his house co-sponsored the event, some sort of STD awareness night, and my friend Deena was going. I parked down the street, and she texted me. Here’s a pic.”

The selfie of a blonde, presumably Deena, captured two young men in the background—a tall, scrawny guy talking to a younger man dressed in a bright pink robe and a bulbous foam helmet.

“Is that kid supposed to be a dildo?”

“Yep,” Lakshmi answered. “The pledges had to dress like sex toys. The dong is Frodo’s little frat brother, Chuck Lester. The tall, skinny guy is Frodo. Deena said he handed Lester an envelope and told him to leave.”

Caitlin smiled. “And you followed Lester?”

“Kind of hard to miss a walking penis. He ditched his costume, drove to this apartment, and walked around back. That was between midnight and one.”

“What’s back there?”

Lakshmi showed Caitlin images of a wooden deck, a gas grill, and a window with closed horizontal blinds. “Look at the barbecue.”

Caitlin laughed. “No propane?”

“Exactly, and the grill looks brand new. Lester must have put the envelope under the lid.”

“You didn’t check?”

“Couldn’t.” She swiped to the image of the kitchen window, enlarged the photo.

Caitlin saw a small black dome in the frame. “A security camera.”

Lakshmi nodded. “Indoor, looking out. That’s only the first bit. I left for five minutes to move my car down the street. When I got back, there was another frat boy leaving.”

“What was he dressed as?”

“A rabbit. It’s a brand name for a popular vibrator.”