I looked at Lauren. “Didn’t you say there has only been one other person to break in to the Black Raptor clubhouse other than me?”
“I sure did.”
“That was my mother?”
“I guess it runs in the family.”
I skimmed through the rest of the first entry. Other than my mother’s dedication to freeing my father from BRS’s grasp, it didn’t tell me anything that I didn’t already know. I’d spent the last few weeks discovering the same things that my mother had already uncovered several years prior. History really did seem to have a way of repeating itself.
“Can you open the next entry?”
“Sure.” Lauren closed the first file and double-clicked the second. “It skips ahead quite a bit. I guess O’Connor didn’t think the stuff in between warranted our attention.”
I squinted at the new entry. My mother’s handwriting had grown messier, as though she had written in haste. It was much harder to decipher.
April 3, 1985
Everything’s going to hell in a handbasket. I promised Anthony that I wouldn’t go back to the Raptors’ clubhouse, but I couldn’t help it. He told Harrison Flynn about the security cameras that he installed. I think it was a mistake. I don’t care if Harrison is Anthony’s best friend. I’ve never trusted him, and I was damn right not to. He was mixed up in all this Raptor hazing crap. He didn’t put a stop to it. He deserves whatever consequence comes with that.
Last night, I followed Harrison after he left Anthony. He went straight to the clubhouse. Obviously, I couldn’t just waltz in after him, so I went back to Research Hall and used one of the secret passageways to get in. It led me right to the dining room where, lo and behold, Harrison and Anthony’s ex-girlfriend were holed up and getting cozy. I stayed in the passageway, of course. The other Raptors have no idea that I know where the clubhouse is.
Here’s the gist of it. Harrison told Catherine about the security footage, which means she’s now on a manhunt for those tapes. I spent all of today collecting the footage and hiding it. I haven’t told Anthony yet. When he finds out I’ve been going to the clubhouse without him, he’ll probably be on the warpath. But this is for his own good. A student died at Catherine’s hands, and I’ll be damned if she gets away with it just because of her family’s last name. If she gets her hands on these tapes, we’ll never find another way of getting rid of her.
I have no idea why I’m writing this down. I shouldn’t be, I know. But if I don’t, I might go insane. Today, I went out and bought a storage trunk to hide the tapes in. It’s reinforced. You could probably blow the thing up, and it still wouldn’t open. The lock can be customized to whatever shape you want. I decided that my mother’s locket, the one that she gave to me when I left home to go to Waverly, was a suitable key. I mean, it hangs around my neck, twenty-four seven, which basically means Catherine Lockwood would have to kill me before she could get the trunk open. Then again, I suppose she’s killed before. Who’s to say she wouldn’t do it again?
See why I have to write all of this down? I sound like I’m neck deep in paranoia. Secret societies, underground clubhouses, a double-agent boyfriend, and murder? This is not what I expected out of my university experience. I’ve been sick to my stomach over this insanity for weeks… I can hear Anthony outside my door. He’s probably wondering why I haven’t spoken to him all day. Here we go…
I swallowed the lump in my throat. I thought that I had been daring in my own escapades with the Black Raptor Society, but my mother had already taken it to a whole new level. And the locket…
“You wouldn’t happen to have that locket, would you?” asked Lauren as though she had read the thought running through my mind.
“I do,” I confirmed with a nod. “There’s only one problem.”
“Which is what?”
“It’s back at my apartment.”
“You mean the apartment that’s most likely being watched over at all times by Catherine Flynn’s cohorts?”
“Yup.”
“That’ll be fun.”
“Do we really need the locket?” I asked, knowing that a caper back to campus would surely lead to a run-in with the Raptors. “I mean, we have no idea where my mother even hid that trunk.”
“Actually, we do,” said Lauren. “That trunk has been sitting at the back of the Raptors’ art room for as long as I can remember.”
“Please tell me you’re kidding.”
“Nope.”
“So Flynn already has the trunk full of security footage of her hazing and killing Waverly students.” I dropped my head into my hands, thinking of a way to use all of this to my advantage. “If I can get the locket out of my apartment, we can use it as a bargaining chip to get Wes back.”
“Seriously?” Lauren closed O’Connor’s laptop and set it aside. “If we can get access to the tapes in that trunk, we could shut down Catherine for good. You want to give that opportunity away?”
“If whatever’s on that security footage could put Catherine in jail, then why did my mother never turn her in?” I demanded. “In case you hadn’t noticed, everything turned out in Catherine’s favor. She
