Deadly Reprisal by Rachel McLean, book 5 in the Zoe Finch series - Chapter 1

“Not that one.”

Kayla felt her chest tighten as her friend Lin raised a hand to knock on the door.

Lin turned to her, eyes flashing into the camera lens. “Yeah. Let’s leave that one. For now.” She smiled, injecting a note of breeziness into her voice and lifting her chin for the most flattering angle. “We’ll start at the far end of the corridor and work our way along.”

Kayla let out a short breath, glancing back at the door as they headed towards the other end of the corridor. It had just gone midnight and they were stalking the corridors of Boulton Hall of Residence. Lin was on the hunt, as usual, for material for her YouTube channel. Bass reverberated through the building from the party three floors below and Kayla could hear distant laughter.

Lin cleared her throat, raised a fist to the last door in the corridor and turned to the camera.

“Hey party people, welcome to Lin’s Lens. Tonight is the Valentine’s Ball at Boulton Hall and we’re expecting plenty of dirt.” She leaned in, her eyes wide. “And you can expect us to dish it out for you!”

Lin knocked on the door, her gaze still on the camera. She winked, and Kayla suppressed an eye roll. Lin was in her element recording for her channel; she spent far more time on this than she did on her studies.

“Aw, shucks!” Lin exclaimed. She liked to broaden her mild Texas accent for the videos. Her mum was from Hong Kong and her dad from Austin, but the fact that she’d grown up in Hemel Hempstead wasn’t something she shared with her audience. “No one home.” She turned to check the name plate on the door. “Susy must be partying downstairs with the rest of them.”

“Which is where we should be,” muttered Kayla. Knocking on doors like this, spying on people. It made her uneasy. Especially since they’d eventually have to knock on the door she’d persuaded Lin away from.

“Come on.” Lin waved an arm in a follow me gesture and hurried along the corridor, knocking on doors and pushing on each to check if any had been left unlocked. At the second, they were yelled at by two guys. Lin sliced at her throat, gesturing for Kayla to hit pause.

The fourth door was open, and she went inside without waiting for an invitation. Kayla’s toes curled in her shoes.

“Huh, no one home,” Lin shrugged. “Nice wall art though.” She swept a hand behind her and Kayla followed with the camera, taking in the occupant’s collection of soft porn. Ew, she thought.

“Ha!” Lin said. “We can talk to Dan about his collection in another episode. Let’s see if we can find anyone at home.”

Kayla knew what Lin was looking for. Couples she could interrupt, threesomes even better. Capturing drug-taking on camera. She didn’t upload everything she filmed; sometimes it suited her to have her subjects know she was keeping the footage for a future date. As a result, Lin never paid for her own drinks, and even text books materialised from nowhere. Kayla wasn’t sure how she felt about being a conspirator in what could only be described as extortion. But one thing she was sure about was that she didn’t want to be Lin’s next victim.

Eight doors and one snogging couple (‘dull’, Lin pronounced) later, they arrived back at the first door.

“Now to see what Boulton Hall’s biggest creep is up to,” Lin said. Kayla put a hand out to stop her but it was too late. Lin had knocked.

Laurence Thomms, the room’s occupant, would be in there. No one had seen him at the party. No one had seen him anywhere other than mandatory tutorials for a month now. And they all knew why.

“It’s open!” Lin’s eyes gleamed as she pushed on the wood. Kayla swallowed the lump in her throat.

“Let’s see what he’s up to, huh?”

Kayla squeezed her eyes shut, not looking at the image on the camera’s screen. Laurence’s face was all too familiar to her. It haunted her nightmares.

She heard Lin’s footsteps as her friend walked into the room and stumbled after her, the camera pointing ahead but her eyes not following. Lin made a low sound and stopped. Kayla crashed into her friend and opened her eyes. The room was dark.

“Where are you, creep?” Lin whispered. “Hope you haven’t dragged some poor girl up here and drugged her into submission.”

Kayla winced. She knew the possible consequences if Lin accused Laurence of a crime on video. But then…

“Shit.” Lin’s voice was breathy.

“What?”

“I felt something. Open the fucking door.”

“What?”

“It shut behind us. There’s something on my foot. Laurence, is that you?” Kayla felt Lin’s hand on her arm. “Open the door, Kay. I don’t like this.”

Part of Kayla registered that this would make a great video. She wondered if Lin’s fear was genuine.

“Didn’t you hear me? Open the fucking door!” Lin’s voice was sharp.

Kayla stumbled backwards, her body slamming into the door. She yanked on the handle, but her own weight was keeping it shut.

“Hurry,” came Lin’s voice. Kayla heard a groan: Lin, or someone else?

Kayla shifted to one side and hauled the door open, then turned back to look at her friend. Lin had crashed onto the unmade bed. Her face was pale and her breathing ragged.

At her feet, curled up like a sleeping child, was Laurence. Kayla recoiled at the sight of his thin frame and sharp cheekbones.

“Is he…?” she breathed.

Lin blinked. The young man at her feet wasn’t moving. Lin prodded him with her toe, rolling him to face upwards. His eyes were open.

Lin retched. Kayla stepped towards her. “Come on. Let’s get out of here. He’s taken something.”

Lin looked up at her. She shook her head, her skin now almost as pale as Laurence’s. “He’s stone cold.”

Kayla forced herself to look back at the man. His jaw had fallen open and drool ran down his chin. She shuddered.

“He’s dead, Kay. He’s fucking dead.”