Cody and I exchanged a glance. “The Tritons?” I asked. “We know about the fraternity.”

Benjamin shook his head. “No. Everyone knows about them. But there’s a secret society inside the Tritons. I don’t really know, but I heard Thad mention it on the phone a couple of times when he thought no one was listening. I didn’t mean to eavesdrop, but I did. Something about the Masters of the Universe.” He hesitated. “There’s a guy, a Triton alum—he hangs around the frat house a lot. Matthew Mollenkamp. He’s older. Whatever it is, I think maybe he had something to do with it.”

“Did you ever hear Thad mention someone named Ray D?” Cody asked.

Benjamin gave his head another shake. “Sorry, no. That’s all I know. Whatever Thad was up to this summer, he was pretty secretive about it.”

“Thank you,” I said softly. “That’s a big help.”

He looked at me with tears in his eyes. “Do you think maybe Thad did something bad down there?”

“I don’t know,” I said honestly. “I hope not.”

I did, too. But I wasn’t sure.

Chapter Eleven

Eleven

Cody and I drove in relative silence back to Pemkowet.

“Sorry about that,” I said at length. “I didn’t mean to lose my temper.”

One corner of his mouth quirked. “Short fuse. I can’t say I blame you. It doesn’t matter; Jim Vanderhei’s not going to back down until he gets his way.”

“I don’t get it. Why are they so uncooperative? Their son died! You’d think they’d want to do everything possible to find out the truth.” I frowned. “Do you think the Vanderheis are hiding something?”

“Could be.” Cody shrugged. “But not necessarily. It could be they honestly believe it went down the way the other boys said, and they just want the chance to grieve and move on. Could be they think we’re muckraking, trying to drag their son’s name through the dirt as payback for their supporting Prop Thirteen.”

“You know about Prop Thirteen?” It surprised me a little.

He glanced at me. “I’m not stupid, Daisy. It could have affected my entire clan if it passed.”

“True.”

“Anyway, it could also be that the Vanderheis don’t want the truth uncovered. They might not know what it is, but they have a bad feeling about it.” Cody turned in the direction of Pemkowet. “I lean toward that theory.”

I thought about my mother’s reading. La Botella, the bottle. “At least we know the boys were lying about the scotch.”

“Mm-hmm. But they could have gotten it anywhere. All three of them were old enough to buy.”

“So why lie about it?”