Let's go, Gil says, leading us around the brawl that is now someone else's mess.
Paul and I follow him, wordless, sloshing through the wake of bourbon and brandy and wine.
The roads we travel are thin black stitches on a great white gown. The Saab is surefooted, even with Gil leaning on the gas and the wind shrieking around us. On Nassau Street two cars have slammed into each other, lights flashing, drivers shouting, shadows flickering against a pair of tow trucks on the curb. A proctor emerges from the security kiosk at the north of campus, pink in the haze of safety flares, gesturing to us that the entrance is closed-but Paul is already navigating us away from campus, westward. Gil throws the gearshift into third, then fourth, passing roads in streaks.
Show him the letter, Gil says.
Paul pulls something from inside his coat and hands it back to me in the rear seat.
What's this?
The envelope is torn open across the top, but the upper-left corner bears the imprint of the Dean of Students.
It was in our mailbox tonight, Gil says.
Mr. Harris:
This letter serves to notify you that my office is conducting an investigation into allegations of plagiarism lodged against you by your senior thesis advisor, Dr. Vincent Taft. Due to the nature of the allegations, and their effect on your graduation, a special meeting of the Committee on Discipline will convene next week to consider your case and render a decision. Please contact me to arrange a preliminary meeting and to confirm receipt of this letter.
Sincerely,
Marshall Meadows
Associate Dean of Undergraduate Students
He knew what he was doing, Paul says, when I've finished reading.
Who?
Vincent. This morning.
Threatening you with the letter?
He knew he had nothing on me. So he started in on your dad.
I can hear it in his voice, the accusation sneaking in. Everything returns to the moment I pushed Taft.
You're the one who ran, I say under my breath.
Slush sprays the undercarriage of the car as the suspension dances over a pothole.
I'm the one who called the police too, he says.
What?
That's why the police took Vincent in, he says. I told them I saw Vincent near Dickinson when Bill was shot.
You lied to them.
I'm waiting for Gil to react, but he keeps his eyes on the road. Staring at the back of Paul's head, I have the strange sensation of looking at myself from behind, of being inside my father's car again.
Is this it? Gil says.
The houses before us are fashioned in white clapboard. At Taft's address, all windows are unlit. Just beyond them stands the tree line of the Institute woods, its canopy tinseled in white.
He's still at the police station, Paul says, almost to himself. The lights are off.
Jesus, Paul, I say. How do even you know the blueprint is here?
It's the only other place he could've hidden it.
Gil doesn't even hear us. Shaken by the sight of Taft's house, he lightens pressure on the brakes, letting us roll in neutral, prepared to go back. Just as his foot begins to engage the clutch, though, Paul yanks the door handle and stumbles out onto the curb.
Damn it. Gil brings the Saab to a halt and gets out. Paul!
The wind hisses around the door as he opens it, muffling his words. I can see Paul mouth something to us, pointing at the house. He begins hiking toward it in the snow.
Paul… I get out of the car, trying to keep my voice at a whisper.
A light in the neighboring house comes on, but Paul pays no attention. He paces up to Taft's front porch and puts his ear to the door, gently rapping.
The wind whips through the columns of the facade, licking puffs of snow from the eaves. The window next door goes black. When Paul gets no answer, he tries to turn the knob, but the lock holds fast.
What do we do? Gil says, beside him.
Paul knocks again, then pulls a ring of keys from his pocket and cradles one into the slot. Putting a shoulder into the wood, he sweeps the door forward. Hinges squeal.
We can't do this, I say as I walk toward them, trying for some authority.
But Paul is already inside, scanning the first floor. Without a word, he's deep into the house.
Vincent? comes his voice, feeling out the darkness. Vincent, are you here?
The words become distant. I hear feet on a staircase, then nothing.
Where'd he go? Gil says, moving toward me.
There is an odd odor in here, distant but strong. The wind comes at our backs, snapping our jackets, making the fingers of Gil's hair twist in the up-draft. I turn and shut the door behind us. Gil's cell phone begins to ring.
I flip a wall switch, but the room stays dark. My eyes are beginning to adjust. Taft's dining room is in front of me, baroque furniture and dark walls and claw-legged chairs. At the far end is the foot of a staircase.
Gil's phone rings again. He is behind me, calling out Paul's name. The odor intensifies. Three objects sit in a tangle on the credenza by the staircase. A tattered billfold, a set of keys, a pair of eyeglasses. Suddenly everything comes into focus.
I turn back. Answer the phone.
By the time he reaches into his pocket, I'm already climbing the stairs.
Katie…? I can hear him say.
Everything is overlapping shadows. The staircase seems fractured, like darkness through a prism. Gil's voice rises.
What? Jesus…
Then he's racing up the stairs, pushing at my back, barking at me to hurry, telling me what I already know.
Taft's not at the police station. They released him more than an hour ago.
We reach the landing just in time to hear Paul screaming. Gil is pressing me forward, forcing me up toward the sound. Like the shadow of a wave at the moment before impact, it settles over me that we are too late, that it has already happened. Gil pushes past me, moving down a corridor to the right, and I'm aware of myself in flashes, in the gaps between instincts. My legs are in motion. Time is slowing; the world is cycling in a lower gear.
Oh God, Paul moans. Help me.
The walls of the bedroom are shot with moonlight. Paul's voice comes from the bathroom. The smell is here, of fireworks and cap guns, of everything out of place. There is blood on the walls. In the tub is a body. Paul is on his knees, bent over the porcelain rim. Taft is dead.
Gil stumbles out of the room, but my eyes trip over the sight. Taft lies on his back in the basin, his gut flattened on top of him. There is a gunshot in his chest, and another between his eyes, with a well of blood still seeping across his forehead. When Paul extends a trembling arm, I feel the sudden urge to laugh. The sensation comes, then fades. I feel sleepy, almost drunk.
Gil is calling the police. An emergency, he says. On Olden Street. At the Institute.
His voice is loud against the silence. Paul mumbles the house number, and Gil echoes it into the phone.
Hurry.
Suddenly Paul raises himself from the floor. We need to get out of here.
What?
My senses are returning. I put a hand on Paul's shoulder, but he darts into the bedroom, looking everywhere-the space beneath the bed, the crack between the doors of Taft's closet, odd slats in tall bookshelves.