The Scammer - 28

Exams are coming up. And if I don’t ace every single one, I’ll be one step closer to academic probation and two steps closer

to being back in Connecticut. Despite all my strategies and explanations, my parents do not play when it comes to academics.

So, I go old school, making flash cards and charts just to memorize terms. My parents aren’t checking in, but they’ll be sure

to check my grades at the end of the semester. I want to show them that this school is just as academically challenging as

Yale. But Devonte takes up so much space in my mind. The arguments I have with myself over him are not only time-consuming

but humiliating.

I live in the library now, spending as little time as possible at the dorm.

Just as I’m making a dent in my flash card pile, Nick walks in. He’s hard to miss.

We catch eyes and he stops gripping the strap of his messenger bag. It’s been days since we last talked or seen each other. My mouth opens and shuts.

He’s a stranger. Always has been.

I snap my computer closed, pack, and rush out of the library, brushing by him without a word. I’ll finish up in my room.

There are two police cars parked in front of Rock Hall. I don’t think much about it as I take the elevator up. But when I

step off on my floor and head to the suite, I see officers walking in and out.

Oh no . . .

“What’s going on?” I say in a panic, running inside. Our suite is once again filled with people, but none of them here to

see Devonte.

There’s a detective combing through my belongings. Another officer is carefully rummaging through Kammy’s things. Another

is in the living room. Another walks out of Vanessa’s room.

“What are you doing?”

“Are you Jordyn Monroe?” the officer in my room asks.

“Yes! Is everything okay? Is someone hurt?”

“We’re looking for Kamara Young. Have you seen or heard from her?”

My stomach tightens, heart racing. “No. But what does that have to do with my room?”

“Her family reported her missing. This was her last known whereabouts.”

Nina. She finally went to the police. Where’s Loren and Vanessa?

“We scanned through security footage of Rockland Hall for the last four weeks. There’s footage of Kammy entering but no footage or record of her ever leaving the premises.”

I turn toward the bathroom, ready to throw up.

“Is she . . . Do you think she’s . . . Oh God!”

After I answer as many of the officer’s questions as I can, I slink back down to the lobby like a zombie, half dead, half

alive in misery. In the courtyard, I spot Vanessa and Loren, huddled together, wearing terrified expressions. As soon as they

see me approaching, Vanessa reaches her hand out. I take it and we gather in a group hug, tears flowing. God, I’ve missed

them. All the nastiness that’s happened over the last few weeks doesn’t matter anymore. We have something we can all agree

on. Our love for Kammy.

“They can’t find Kammy anywhere,” Loren says, wiping her tears with the back of her hand. “What if something really happened

to her?”

“This is all my fault,” Vanessa cries. “I just assumed she was around, you know? I didn’t think to check. I’m so stupid!”

“When’s the last time you saw her?” I ask.

Vanessa shrugs. “Fuck, I can’t remember.”

“I haven’t been feeling so good,” Loren admits and starts crying again. “I guess I didn’t even notice she was gone. Some sister

I am.”

I rub her arm. “Well, what did Devonte say to the police?”

Vanessa straightens, with a sniff. “He hasn’t talked to them. It’s not necessary.”

“But . . . he lives with us. They were kind of a couple.”

“No, they weren’t,” Vanessa says. “Kammy was just in love. Devonte isn’t the type to settle down with anybody.”

“Okay fine, whatever. But if anyone would know where she is or at least seen her last, it would be him.”

Loren and Vanessa exchange a nervous glance. Sensing their apprehension, I try to reason with them.

“He could at least spread the word to the . . . family and help find her!”

Vanessa shakes her head. “We can’t get him involved. You know this. Police are always looking for a reason to lock him up.”

“Yeah,” Loren scoffs. “How convenient they would be in our dorm the same time we’re making plans for Emancipation.”

Anger shoots through me. “Loren, Kammy is missing! Nothing convenient about that!”

Loren’s face crumples with guilt.

“But Devonte is the next leader that will free a generation with truth and knowledge! We have to protect him.”

“Oh, fuck this,” I mutter, and head back inside. Vanessa grabs my arms, yoking me back with big pleading eyes.

“Jordyn, please. Don’t do this. He needs us!”

I snatch my arm away and storm off, through the lobby and up the elevator, ready to come clean. What I should have done weeks

ago. But when I walk into the suite, I find most of the officers are in my room, seemingly crowded around my closet.

The officer I spoke to before spots me by the door and whispers something to his colleague. He walks out into the hall, holding something in a clear evidence bag.

“Do you know who this belongs to?”

Inside it looks like a bright purple cloth with large dark rust-color stains on it. It hits me like a barbell to the face.

That’s Kammy’s head scarf.

Are those bloodstains??

For a moment, I’m rendered speechless. The officer waits for me, expectantly.

“No,” I whisper, my body going numb.

The officer reads my reaction, his tone curt. “Okay, how about this?”

He pulls out a Gucci bag. The one Kammy gave Devonte months ago. What is it doing in my closet?

“OMG! That’s Kammy’s,” I say, instinctively grasping for it, and he raises it out of reach.

“Why would you have her things?”

My neck stiffens, mouth dry. “I don’t . . . I don’t know how they got in there.”

The detective squares his shoulders. “Does anyone have a key to your room?”

“No . . . well, I . . . I don’t know. Well, they all kind of do.”

Even I can hear the uncertainty in my answers.

He nods. “Right. How about we take this conversation down to the station.”