Teddy’s throat ached, too. “Neither was I,” she said.
Molly stared out the window. “Were you kicked out of Whitfield?”
“Still here,” Teddy said. “No thanks to you.”
Molly turned to her, tears in her eyes. “I can only assume I haven’t been expelled because you haven’t said anything.” She bit her lip.
Teddy didn’t want to feel distressed on her friend’s behalf, but she did. This wasn’t how she wanted it to go. All those empathy lessons. Teddy wanted to be angry. Molly was the reason Teddy’s exam had gone south. Why she was no longer talking to Clint. Why she was still on Boyd’s shit list. “What happened in there? It was like you weren’t you.”
“I don’t know,” Molly said. “I don’t remember. Everything after I entered the course is blank. Hours, gone.”
Teddy had hoped Molly would provide more information. Something that would clarify what had happened, lead her to a suspect. “Did Jeremy—”
A tall, thin nurse, with hair so pale it looked almost white, walked into the room without making a sound. Teddy noticed her only when the door clicked closed behind her.
“Good morning, ladies,” she said. She took Molly’s chart from the foot of the bed. She made a note, then checked Molly’s pulse and blood pressure, frowning at both. “I’m sorry,” she said, turning to Teddy, “but Ms. Quinn needs rest.”
“I don’t want her to go,” Molly said firmly.
“Your heart rate is 120, and your blood pressure is—”
“Please,” Molly said. “Just five minutes.”
The nurse hesitated. “Two minutes,” she said, and left.
Molly waited until the door closed again. “Jeremy told me what happened afterward. I know how it looks, but I never meant to hurt you,” she said. “Just the opposite. But I . . .” She stopped and scanned the ceiling as though she might find words there. “I have to tell you something,” she began. She stopped, and her eyes changed focus, seeing something over Teddy’s shoulder.
Teddy turned; the nurse was back. “I’m afraid time’s up. You have to go, Ms. Cannon.”
Teddy snapped, “We’re not finished. I’d like to speak to Nurse Bell, please.”
“Nurse Bell is away for the moment. And visiting time is over, Ms. Cannon.”
Teddy stood up. Her conversation with Molly hadn’t helped at all, especially with the nurse’s interruptions. She turned back to her friend. “You sure you’ll be okay?”
Molly nodded. “She’s right, I should probably rest. I’m sorry.”
* * *
The campus was empty. Teddy walked toward the evergreen pines, which stood like sentinels before Harris Hall, then she crossed the manicured courtyard back to her dorm, replaying the conversation with Molly in her head. Molly didn’t know what had happened, but Jeremy had told her the details. How had he known? Teddy and Molly had been the only ones in that room. The only way Jeremy would have known was if he had been there or been inside Molly’s head.
Caught up in her own thoughts, Teddy took a moment to realize that Kate was sitting on the front steps of the dorm.
“Are you going to Jeremy’s parents’ party?” Kate asked. She never bothered with small talk. Teddy still hadn’t gotten used to her blunt conversational style.
“What party?”
“Their New Year’s party. They do it every year—always invite a lot of big shots and military families. I’ve been when my family is stationed in the area.”
“I wasn’t invited.”
“I didn’t ask if you were invited,” Kate said. “I asked if you were going.”
“While it sounds like a lot of fun, going to a party full of government bigwigs, it’s really not my scene,” Teddy said.
“Well, if someone was hypothetically trying to get me kicked out of Whitfield, and having people over to his private residence, and there might be opportunities to snoop, I would theoretically want to be there,” Kate said, getting up from the step.
“You mean like keep your friends close but your enemies closer?” Teddy asked.
“More like ‘Know thy enemy and know yourself, and you need not fear the result of a hundred battles.’ ”
“Is that one of Boyd’s mantras?”
“Hardly. It’s Sun Tzu. The Art of War.”
Teddy considered it. The party sounded boring AF, but Kate was right. “I don’t have a dress,” she said.
Kate eyed her. “I got you. But your feet are huge, Cannon.”
Teddy shrugged. “Hey, combat boots go with everything.”
* * *
An hour later, Teddy found herself in front of a Pacific Heights mansion. Teddy had assumed that Jeremy Lee came from money—he had a boat, after all—but she never would have pictured this. The exterior displayed tasteful Victorian beauty: pink stucco walls, wrought-iron balconies, plasterwork friezes, and carefully tended gardens. Ionic columns set off an elevated circular entrance. It looked like something out of a movie.
“If anyone asks you who or where your parents are, just say you live on base and they’re on assignment,” Kate said.
“Won’t they ask which base or what assignment?”
Kate fixed Teddy with a stare. “This is a party with high-ranking officials from every branch of government. No one is going to ask what base or what assignment. It’s implied if you don’t say that it’s confidential.”
God, what was she getting herself into? “Are your parents going to be here?”
“No,” Kate said. “They actually are on base on assignment.”
Teddy smoothed out the skirt of the silver dress Kate had handed to her only hours before. It made her feel self-conscious; Teddy Cannon didn’t do dresses. “So, you knew Jeremy before Whitfield?”
“I met him maybe once. He was rarely at these parties. He was away at boarding school or college or hiding in his room. And I didn’t know he was psychic. Plus, even if he was there, you know—he’s not much of a talker.”
They began to walk up the front steps, and Teddy suppressed an actual gulp. This was nothing like her parents’ suburban home. She’d been around this kind of money in the casinos, but that was at a poker table, where everyone was equal. Not a place where she had to make small
