Page 68 of Make Her Break

Funny. Camden put up all the cameras and everything, and yet, he didn’t protect the door or count on the fact that the power can go out. Unless there’s something we’re not seeing and someone’s already on the way here. We have to be quick. Of course, there’s also a chance the cameras are just for show and there’s nothing interesting in the house either.

As soon as we step inside, I switch on my phone’s flashlight, the beam showing a doorway on the other side of the kitchen. Veronica turns on hers too, and we make our way forward.

We rush up the stairs, and the first door on the left opens into a bedroom. Huh, the bed is unmade, with the blanket bunched up at the foot of it, so I guess he isn’t as neat as his perfect suit made him look. Books and papers are piled on the nightstand, and when I check the drawer, I realize it’s crammed with tangled cables and old receipts.

Veronica heads for the closet and opens it. It’s full of suits and shirts. She shoves the suits aside, and at the very back, there’s a long black garment bag on a hook. When she unzips it, my breath catches in my throat.

Black robes. Clutching the collar of the robe, I turn it toward my flashlight, and the society’s symbol is stitched right into the fabric. Of course. My fingers curl into the fabric. Fuck.

“Up there,” Veronica whispers, tapping my arm.

On the shelf above the suits, there’s a wooden box, half hidden behind a stack of sweaters. She stretches up to get to it and takes it down, and when she opens the lid, there’s a mask inside.

My throat tightens. Supreme’s mask. Sure, maybe Camden attended Blackerville at some point and he was a member of the society and potentially its leader, but it’s highly suspicious.

Veronica holds up her phone and takes photos of everything. “What if someone planted all this here for us to find?”

“Then they went through a lot of trouble, since they couldn’t have predicted we’d do this. Or he was a member back when he was a student, and he just never got rid of his stuff.”

“Great, so none of this proves he’s Supreme, especially because I think I remember seeing he attended Blackerville.” She takes one more photo of the symbol on the collar and lowers her phone. “We need more. What else is in here?”

“Let’s check the other rooms.”

She puts the box back where it was, and I zip up the garment bag and straighten the suits. Camden will notice the power went off and the locks were picked anyway, but he doesn’t have to know exactly what we were after.

When we get to the next room, I realize it’s a study with a big wooden desk and bookshelves. Veronica sweeps her flashlight across them, but it’s all just thick books, and nothing looks out of place. The desk is empty.

As Veronica moves her flashlight around, something catches my eye. “Wait, go back!”

She moves the beam back, and there’s a small mark scratched into the wood near the floor. I’m pretty sure I recognize it. Back when I carried envelopes between the circles, I sometimes had to leave them in hiding spots in the tunnels, and every one of those spots had a mark like this next to it.

“What are you looking at?” Veronica asks.

“It’s a society thing,” I say. “I think it means something’s hidden here.”

Crouching in front of the bookshelf, I feel along the bottom panel until it shifts under my fingers, so I wedge my nails into the gap and pry it off. My lips part in surprise. There’s a laptop in the space under the bottom shelf with a thick envelope on top of it, and Veronica gasps.

After I lay both on the desk, I flip the laptop open, but the screen is black, and trying to turn it on here would probably just waste our time.

“We’re taking it.” I close the laptop and tuck it under my arm.

Whatever’s on it, Supreme obviously didn’t want anyone finding it, and if it has a password, we’ll have to figure out a way past it later. When I open the envelope with my free hand, photos spill out across the desk.

The first one shows Camden in some restaurant, his arm around a girl, who’s smiling at the camera. My mouth falls open, and I stare at the photo, unable to breathe.

Elsie!

“What is it?” Veronica edges closer to the desk.

I snatch the next photo, and it’s Elsie again, kissing Camden on the cheek while he grins at the camera. In another one, she’s resting her head on his shoulder, her eyes closed, and his hand is on her knee. And in one more, they’re in a car together, and she’s laughing.

They look like a real couple, and no one would ever guess he’s her professor from these photos.

“It’s Elsie,” I say, and my voice cracks on her name.

Veronica’s lips part, and she takes the photo from my fingers. She holds it closer to her flashlight, and then she looks up at me.

“They were together,” she whispers. “Like a couple? Dating?”