Dead Politician Society

Chapter 63: Matthew

Matthew panned his gaze around the small room lined with boxes of flour and coffee filters and take-out containers. Looked like it hadn’t seen a good cleaning in months. Maybe longer. He cringed inwardly for Jonathan and his mother. Either they were too busy to care about dust and crumbs, or money was too tight to pay a cleaner.

He studied this year’s faces. He’d been so proud of this group. Specifically, he’d been proud of himself for founding it. Once the pudgy kid who was picked last for sports teams and overlooked for schoolmates’ party invite lists, Matthew had now created a club with so much mystique that he could hand-pick his members from each year’s academic elite.

But of course it was too good to be true. In the society’s first year, and now the fifth as well, he had empowered the wrong person. Someone mentally unstable. He had inadvertently given one of his students permission to murder. But who?

“Are we all here?” he said as he counted heads.

“We’re all here, sir.” Brian’s voice was even higher-pitched than usual. Poor kid. He’d found out about the meeting somehow—probably from Jonathan—and now awaited a vote to decide if he could stay or had to go.

Diane’s lips curled into a sneer that might as well be permanent, she displayed it so often. “He’s not sir. He’s Matthew when we’re here. But maybe since you’re not a member you should stick with Dr. Easton.”

Ah, Diane. Matthew smiled to himself. Sexy little thing underneath the prude exterior. Religious girls always gave the best head—maybe because they’d spent so long saving themselves.

Jonathan shot Diane a glare. “Does kindness even cross your list of behavioral options? You can vote however you like about Brian’s membership, but would it kill you to treat him like another member of the human race? At least for today?”

Nice kid, Jonathan. Probably chose the wrong major. Matthew had chosen him for the class—and into the society—because his thinking was original. Plus the kid designed video games, which made him a genius in Matthew’s books.

“I’m interested,” Jessica said. “I’d like to hear what Brian wants to bring to the club. You said you have an idea for a new order of business. Which is great, because we haven’t been able to agree on even step one this year.”

“You haven’t? But I thought you were all collaborating to…”

“You thought what?” Susannah’s eyebrows lifted, daring Brian to speak the words aloud.

“I think it’s obvious.” Jessica toyed with her ceramic coffee mug, refreshments courtesy of Jonathan’s mother, who was out front hoping for a customer.

“You do?” Susannah shot Jessica a glare. “You think it’s obvious that Brian thinks we have a serial killing mandate and yet he still wants into the club?”

Brian reached into his knapsack and pulled out an expensively bound notebook that looked five hundred pages thick. Or more. “This is why I want in. It’s my family manifesto.”

Diane smirked. “You say that like you’re proud to have a family manifesto. Like you don’t think it’s weird at all.”

“I’ve been sent here for a purpose. To accomplish certain goals.”

“Sent here.” Diane hooted. “You mean to Earth, or to this meeting? I think I’m ready to vote on whether you’re in or not.”

Jessica leaned forward in her chair. “What goals, Brian? I’m interested.”

“Spare me,” Diane said.

“Why should I? We’re supposed to be an open group, open to all ideas. We listened to your suggestion to be Christian missionaries in the inner city. Brian’s ideas cannot be more crazy than yours.”

“You liked my idea until you heard that it was faith-based. You’re just prejudiced against religion.”

Matthew summoned his most authoritative voice to say, “Guys, this is nuts. Brian, we’ll get to your manifesto in a bit. First we have to cut some of this tension.”

Jonathan said, “How can we? That card the police showed us was freaky. We want to believe someone’s framing us—or misdirecting the cops toward us—but what if the most obvious solution is right, and the killer is one of us?”

“Did anyone else receive the card, or only Libby Leighton?” Jessica asked.

“How would we know?” Susannah looked at Jessica like she was simple. “You think the police come to us with every clue they find?”

“It could be someone from another year,” Jessica said. “They’d still have cards. Is that Elise girl still in jail?”

“Yes,” Matthew said softly. “Yes, she is.”

“It’s kind of too much,” Jonathan said. “I’m not working any more catering gigs until the killer is caught, that’s for sure.”

“I think it’s best if no one does,” Matthew said. “I’m sorry if you planned to rely on them as a source of income this year.”

“Who was working the events with the deaths?” Diane clicked her pen.

“Let’s not go there.” Matthew was firm.