Nevermore

Chapter 21

N I C H O L A S

"What are you talking about?" Isaac asked Shawn.

Shawn tore his eyes away from Wilson who had finally disappeared out of sight, and he turned to face his friend with a grin. "He wasn't with his girlfriend that night; the night of party."

"How can you be so sure?" said Luca.

"Because Patricia was with you, Nicholas, and Isaac at the ceremony," Shawn explained. "Don't you remember? Arthur and I had gone to connect the speakers to the radio to play the music at the party, and meanwhile, Patricia and her two friends were chatting with you three."

The memory came back to Nicholas in a sudden flash.

"When do you publish your newspaper? Every week?" Patricia asked Nicholas, looking genuinely interested. "I don't know where my boyfriend is right now, but I want to join the contest with him. Who knows? We might win."

"You're right..." Nicholas nodded absently, his mind feeling fuzzy. "I was talking to her the whole night. And I remember that she kept looking for her boyfriend while everyone else was dancing."

"Then what about Nancy's letters to John Carter?" Isaac said feverishly. "They made way more sense than whatever Wilson's case is. We know for a fact that Nancy was in a secret relationship with Carter. A, we know that she told him a big secret. B, he forced her into doing something unforgivable. C, near the end she couldn't keep the secret to herself anymore. And D, we know that she asked him to visit her on the night of the ceremony, around the time she died."

"But we don't know if Carter had showed up or not," said Shawn. "There's a chance that Carter didn't go to her dorm as she had asked him to, and instead it was Wilson who went to see her that night. You saw the look on Wilson's face when we mentioned Nancy. He was hiding something. I'm sure of it."

Nicholas couldn't make sense of what Wilson had to do with Nancy, but before they could say anything more, they saw someone walking toward them from afar. He was one of Wilson's friends who had been there a few minutes ago when they had asked Wilson about Nancy Green; the one with dark auburn hair and hazel eyes.

"That's Thomas. He's the team's captain," Shawn whispered to his friends. "Wonder what he wants..."

They all watched curiously as the tall boy approach them, sending an awkward wave when he finally reached them.

"What is it, Thomas?" Shawn asked bitterly, still angry over his encounter with Wilson.

Before he began to speak, Thomas threw a glance over his shoulder to make sure no one was around. Nicholas could see that he looked nervous.

"I heard you asking Wilson about Nancy Green," Thomas said her name quietly, as though it was forbidden to speak it.

"What about it?" Shawn questioned, more calmly this time.

"I'm almost sure that Wilson denied knowing her. Didn't he?"

"Yes." Arthur nodded. "Do you know something?"

Another glance behind his shoulder. Thomas wetted his dry lips anxiously before continuing, "Wilson is my dormmate, so I might know him better than anyone else here. And I know that he... he used to date Nancy in the past. But I think they only went out a few times. And that was while Wilson already had a girlfriend; Patricia."