From the Desk of Zoe Washington(43)

I grabbed Trevor’s knee again and gripped it hard.

“Ow!” he said.

“Sorry.” I sat on my hand instead.

The ride from Porter to Harvard Square felt way too long. When I could finally see the station outside the train windows, I got up and stood right in front of the door. Trevor stood behind me. The train seemed to inch its way into the station, and I wanted to scream at the conductor to hurry up already. Finally, the train stopped, and as soon as the doors opened, I sprinted off.

I wasn’t exactly sure which way to go, so my eyes darted to the various signs on the walls. The people who got off the train with us all started walking in the same direction, so we followed them. We ended up in the main part of the station, which had a coffee place, newsstand, and several ticket machines.

The Harvard Square station was much busier than the other stations we’d been in. We had to weave our way around people to get to the escalator that led up to the street level.

Stepping outside felt like walking into a hot oven. Sun glared in my eyes, making me wish I’d remembered to bring my sunglasses. There were tons of people hanging around Harvard Square, especially right around where we walked outside. It was noisy—cars honking, people shouting, music blaring from somewhere down the street. There was a sunken sidewalk area near the train entrance, next to the Cambridge Information Center and another newsstand. A bunch of people sat on the benches and brick steps. One girl played a guitar and sang as people dropped dollars into the box at her feet. A skateboarder did a kick flip and almost rolled into me. I noticed lots of different-colored hair—blue, purple, fire orange, and one girl with thick, beautiful braids. It was a lot to take in, but we had no time.

“Which way do we go?” Trevor asked.

I’d been to Harvard Square enough times with my parents. Harvard’s campus was right in the center. Getting inside was the easy part. But we had to find the right building. I pulled out the campus map I’d printed. “This way.”

Trevor followed me across a street and down the block that ran alongside campus. We quickly found a gate, walked under its tall brick archway, and ended up on a small quad. It was calmer and quieter there. “I think these are all dorms,” I said, glancing down at my map. “We need to go farther into campus to find the building we want—Sever Hall.”

I hurried down a path that led past the dorms and into the next quad. This one was larger—on the map, it was called Old Yard. It was so pretty. The grass was super green, and the brick buildings looked majestic in the sunshine. It was exactly what you’d think of when you imagined a college campus. Some students were walking around and others sat at small tables on the grass. A large tour group was a few steps ahead of us. A bunch of trees blocked some of the sun, so it was cooler there. I wished I could walk around and take my time looking at everything, even piggyback on the tour, but there was no time.

We had a professor to find—and quick.





Chapter Twenty-Eight


I looked down at my map again. “Sever Hall is in the next quad over—Harvard Yard. This way.” I pulled Trevor’s arm and we hurried across this quad, between another couple of buildings, and into Harvard Yard. It looked similar to the other quad, with lots of trees and people hanging around.

Sever Hall was on the other end. I recognized the huge redbrick building from photos online. It looked sort of like an old castle, with dozens of windows and an archway entrance. “That’s it,” I told Trevor, and we hurried over to it. I felt lighter all of a sudden. We made it! I couldn’t believe we were there.

Trevor was checking his watch when I glanced over at him. “It’s only one ten,” he said. “We found the building faster than we thought. There’s still twenty minutes before her class ends.”

My stomach grumbled, and I thought of the sandwiches and apples in my backpack.

“Want to sit here and eat lunch?” I asked.

“Okay,” Trevor said.

We walked over to two bright-yellow metal chairs in the middle of the quad. I took out the food and handed one of everything to Trevor.

“Thanks.” He started eating. “Did you pack any of your cereal cupcakes?”

I shook my head.

“I want to try them sometime.”

“Okay,” I said. “But I’m warning you, there’s no chocolate in them.”

“That’s okay,” he said. “I’m sure they’re still good. Everything you bake is good. You’re going to win Kids Bake Challenge!”

I laughed. “I haven’t even auditioned yet.”

“I know.” He smiled.

I opened my bottle of water and took a big swig. I unwrapped the sandwich, but now my stomach was churning and I wasn’t sure I could eat.

Trevor finished the first half of his sandwich and looked over at me. “Why aren’t you eating?”

I shrugged. “I can’t eat. I’m really scared all of a sudden.”

“Scared of what?”

“I don’t know. If this professor is the correct Susan Thomas, then she’s right in that building, and in a few minutes, I’m going to know whether or not Marcus was telling me the truth. Whether he’s really innocent of murder.”

“Isn’t that what you want?” Trevor asked while chewing.