Page 72 of Make Her Break

“Okay,” I say. “Let’s do it and post all of this stuff online.”

I copy the files onto my laptop and then try to figure out where to post everything and which police department to send it to. There’s still a lot that could go wrong, and I have no clue what Camden will do once it’s all out or if the cops will find enough evidence against him for Elsie’s death.

But when I glance at Jayden, I’m so glad he’s here with me, because I doubt I could’ve done any of this by myself.

Actually, I finally feel free, because this whole mess is about to be over, or at least that’s what I hope.

Chapter 40

JAYDEN

AS I WEAVE BETWEEN the tables in the dining hall, someone to my left mentions Camden’s name, and once I get in line for food, the girls in front of me gossip about him too. It’s been like that for days.

“I had him for a class,” one of them says. “He gave me an A, so I sent him a whole thank-you email about how much his lectures meant to me.”

Her friend scrunches her nose. “Ew. Can you unsend it?”

“No, it was months ago.” The first girl groans. “I want to die.”

A ton of people on campus probably want to forget they ever interacted with Camden, and I can’t even blame them. At the table next to the line, some guys are huddled over a phone.

“It says he ran the society for years,” he says. “Like, the actual secret society. So all the stories about the Blackerville Secret Society were real.”

“Bullshit,” his friend says. “There’s no way any of it is real.”

“Then why is it all over the news, genius?” The guy with the phone smacks his friend’s arm.

Behind me, some guy insists he witnessed the cops leading Camden out of his office in handcuffs, except that never happened because Camden apparently fled and wasn’t seen anywhere near our college, probably after he found someone broke into his house and took the laptop.

The cops got him in a completely different state at the airport. As the line inches forward, my phone buzzes in my pocket, and when I fish it out, there’s a news alert with Camden’s photo right at the top, which I guess is why everyone’s talking about him right now. His smug smile makes me curl my lip, but I open the alert anyway, and the headline says the police found new evidence in Elsie’s case.

My breath gets stuck in my throat as I skim down. Since the cops reopened the case after everything Veronica and I sent them, the lab rushed a test on the scrapings from under Elsie’s fingernails, which had spent all this time in an evidence bag because everyone was so sure she jumped that no one saw a reason to bother checking.

According to the article, there was blood in the scrapings, and the DNA profile is a match to Camden’s. There’s no way he can talk his way out of that, especially with all the emails and the evidence he tampered with, no matter how good his lawyer is. Elsie fought him, and she probably scratched him as hard as she could.

Under the article, someone in the comments swears they always knew something was off about him, which I’m sure is bullshit. I let out a sigh of relief, because the cops and the whole campus finally know what happened to Elsie, and I don’t have to wonder anymore if I’m crazy for never believing she jumped.

Camden is in a cell right now, or wherever they put guys like him before a trial, and he won’t get out of this with a nice smile, a few charming words, or with the society’s help since even the best connections die when the whole damn world can see the truth. Part of me wants to laugh, and the other wants to punch something.

Elsie would probably roll her eyes at me for getting so worked up, especially because it’s all finally over, and the corner of my mouth twitches at the thought.

When it’s my turn, I grab sandwiches and two coffees in a cardboard cup holder for Veronica and me, since I doubt she remembered to eat while she was glued to the news. Before I can get out of the line, someone flicks my hood off my head from behind, and I whirl around so fast that I almost spill the coffee.

“Burgess?” Montoya gapes at me. “What the fuck, man? I thought you left!”

“I changed my mind,” I say. “It’s kind of complicated.”

Veronica and I have been sneaking around because we needed more time to figure out what would happen and if any of the society’s members would come after us, but I guess that’s over now, especially since we have to go to classes again.

“Did you see this shit?” He shoves his phone in my face. “He killed a girl and even ran the actual secret society everyone swore was a myth.”

“Yeah, I saw it. Kind of hard to miss.”

“Coach is going to lose it when he sees you,” Montoya says.

“I need to talk to him anyway.”

I think it’s time for my ankle injury to finally heal, and I hope like hell Coach will believe me. As I shift the cup holder to my other hand, Montoya claps me on the shoulder.