Page 17 of The Debutantes
“Her daddy and I go all the way back to Vanderbilt,” Marty adds. “To you girls, though, I’m probably another one of those old Deus dinosaurs.” He gives a small chuckle. “Y’all looked lovely last night, by the way.”
“Thank you.” Piper adjusts her Vanderbilt quarter-zip, obviously eager for Marty to know she’ll be at the alma mater, too. She’s been wearing it nonstop since early decisions came out a few weeks ago, and I know it pisses Lily off, even though she’d never say it. Vanderbilt had been Lily’s plan for ages, so we were all kind of shocked when she got rejected, especially since she’s a legacy.
April and I don’t say anything, but judging from the look on her face, I feel like we’re thinking the same thing. This Marty guy seems way too chill about all this, like he’s sure it’ll be sorted out before the Johnsons’ big New Year’s Eve party tomorrow. And maybe it will. Or maybe this is just some sort of detective strategy to keep everyone calm.
If you’re getting this…
“Marty’s with the NOPD, but he’s helping us out informally today,” Lily’s dad explains. He’s standing behind us, anxious in a way that makes me evenmoreanxious, because I’ve never seen him be anything but confident. “It’s still a little early to, well…” He clears his throat. “We’re just hoping to get this sorted as quickly as possible.”
Like this is just an inconvenience, and Lily will be back any minute now. And maybe she will. She has to be.
Lily’s mom nods, gripping her cardigan so tightly that herknuckles go white. Normally, Mrs. LeBlanc has this badass rich-lady elegance that Sav once described asalmond mom, but make it fashion.Now, though, she just looks breakable, like she hasn’t slept all night. Which, I realize, she probably hasn’t.
“Please, girls, tell Marty anything you can,” she says. “What you saw at the Den, and anything you might have heard from Lily since last night.”
Marty gives us another Southern-charm smile. “That sound okay?”
We all nod silently, except for Piper, who gives a weirdly formal “Yes, sir.”
Classic.
“Good,” Marty says, shifting forward in his seat. “Now I understand y’all were at the Deus Den this morning. You were supposed to meet Lily there?”
“Right. She said—” Piper hesitates. “She said she wanted to talk about Margot.”
April visibly tenses at the mention of her name. Marty, on the other hand, doesn’t react, except for a small concerned frown.
“Margot Landry?”
We nod.
“Why would she want to talk to y’all about Margot Landry?” Marty asks.
I’ve been asking myself the same thing. All I know about Margot is what everyone knows: her family owned half the city, she was kind of a mess, and she was Queen of Les Masques last year. Then, the day after the ball, she died. An overdose, apparently.
She and Lily were friends, though, at least for a few months. They got close over the summer before our junior year, whenboth of their families were at their Mississippi houses. Usually, Lily’s parents would let Sav and me tag along, but we’d both been busy that summer, Sav at a theater intensive, and me coaching kids’ soccer at Beaumont’s day camp, since I desperately needed the money and the résumé padding.
Pretty soon, though, I wished I had gone. Because when Lily got back, she and Margot were suddenly besties, making all these weekend plans that Lily never invited us to or even told us about. Sav and I had been kind of worried she’d ditch us completely.
But then, after junior year started, things were back to normal. Lily and Margot stopped hanging out. I don’t really know what happened. Maybe Lily just lost interest, or she realized Margot was too intense. Sometimes, I think that whole thing was just Lily rebelling a little, being friends with someone older and cooler and more dangerous than me and Sav. Either way, it didn’t last long. That December, Margot was Queen of Les Masques. And then she was gone.
After, Lily didn’t talk about her much. No one did. It was like Margot became another ghost haunting Beaumont’s old halls.
“We thought it might have had something to do with whoever sabotaged the ball last night,” Piper finally answers for all of us. “Maybe Lily knew who did it.”
Marty’s smile flickers in a way that tells me Piper’s baby-narc energy isn’t working on him like it does on all the teachers at Beaumont. Which, in a way, I’ve got to respect.
“I appreciate that, of course,” he says, “but you girls really shouldn’t worry yourselves over a prank.”
“You think it was a prank?”
Every stare in the room turns to April, who hasn’t said aword since the Den. Even Marty looks like he’d almost forgotten she’s sitting here. But he recovers quickly, giving April a kind look.
“A prank may not be the right word, no. What happened last night was certainly in poor taste. Cruel, even.” He pauses, glancing at Lily’s mom and then back at us. “Alice says y’all got an email from Lily. Is that right?”
Piper nods, getting out her phone. “Here, I can show you.”
She hands it over, and Marty reads the email, making a small humming noise before handing it back.
