"Or he could have been trying to point us in the wrong direction," he finished. "Every one of these conversations could be orchestrated. That's why I'm not going to jump at every ball they throw in my direction."
"You're right. But the conversation I overheard in the locker room was not orchestrated. That one was real. They didn't know I was there."
"Then let's find Brooke. We need to keep our eyes on her so we're ready to follow her when she leaves."
Brooke left the club around three, and they quickly followed. As Matt drove, Haley thought about the conversation with Brooke and Jill and Trent's admission about the cheating scheme.
"You're quiet," Matt commented, giving her a quick look.
"Thinking about what Trent said. His version of the cheating scheme felt true because Landon wouldn't have gone along with it, but maybe his professor would have. And if Landon was going to be the scapegoat, that would have been very upsetting. He would have felt betrayed by his friends and his professor." She paused. "But he still wouldn't have gotten blackout drunk. No way."
"Agreed. And we can't take anything these people say at face value."
"It's especially odd that Trent wanted to share that at the tournament. He didn't want to say anything in front of Henry, but our conversation was still very public. Anyone could have seen him talking to us, and he wasn't afraid of that."
"Another reason not to believe him."
"Hopefully, we can get Brooke to open up. She's our best hope."
"Well, it looks like she's home."
Home was a U-shaped apartment building near the freeway with an open-air parking area serving as the first floor, the apartment building rising up two stories above it. Brooke pulled into a spot while Matt parked on the street.
They got out of the car and moved into the parking area before Brooke could get to her front door. When she saw them, she froze, panic running through her eyes. "What are you doing here? Did you follow me?"
"Yes," Matt said. "We followed you because we want to talk to you alone, without your friends around you."
"I've told you everything I know," she said, a desperate note in her voice.
"No, you haven't, Brooke," she cut in, drawing Brooke's attention to her. "We know you went into Landon's room in his apartment and that you stole his notebooks."
Brooke's face paled. "That's crazy. I didn't steal anything from Landon."
"It's on video," Matt said shortly. "Do you want to change your answer?"
"Video?" she echoed in shock. "How?"
"Landon had set up a camera in his room," she said. "He obviously didn't trust you. And he was right, wasn't he? You went into his desk, took his notebooks, and gave them to someone. Who was that?"
Brooke licked her lips. "I want to speak to a lawyer before I say anything else."
She ignored Brooke's comment. "Did you love my brother? Or was it all an act? Were you trying to get close to him so you could take something from him? Please, I have to know," she begged. "Landon was all I had left of my family, and he's gone. I have to know the truth."
"I don't know how he died," Brooke said. "I don't. I swear."
"What about your relationship? And the notebooks?"
"I liked Landon. I did," Brooke said, staring directly at Haley. "It didn't start out that way. Henry asked me to flirt with Landon, to get close to him, because he could be helpful to me, to everyone. He was super smart, and the fraternity's grade point average was getting close to putting the house on probation. There would be no parties, no rush, none of that. But if Landon could help change some grades in the class where he was the teaching assistant, then that could help me, too, because I was also in that class."
"You used him," she accused, beginning to see at least some part of the truth.
"We had fun together. It wasn't like I was hurting him. It was just casual."
"You told me it was serious, that you were moving in together after graduation."
"That might have been an exaggeration. We only went out a few times, just enough for me to get a key to his apartment so I could access his computer and his notebooks."
She was blown away by the truth. "You stole his phone and computer, too, didn't you?"
