Storykiller (25 page)

Tessa blinked at her and her heart clenched up at the reminder. “Is that when it happened?” she asked, detached, or with a tone she hoped was detached.

“About,” Ripley said. “Do you know Mr. Severin?”

“I don’t think so, I mean, not the name,” Tessa said, trailing off. Brand and Micah both shook their heads. Ripley produced a manila folder and handed Tessa a sheet of paper. Tessa stared at it. It was a series of black and white mug shots. The second from the left was Bluebeard.

“You recognize anyone?” Ripley asked, watching her closely.

“No,” she said evenly, handing it back to Ripley, who handed it to Brand and Micah. They blinked at it and shook their heads.

“You sure?” Wade asked. The question was intended for all of them, but Wade looked right at Tessa.

Brand and Micah both said, “Yes. We’re sure.” Like trained seals. Man, they were terrible at lying. Ripley took the sheet back and smiled at all three of them. Wade followed suit.

“Well then, that will do it for now,” Wade said.

Ripley put his water down and nodded at Tessa. “Thanks for the drink.”

They stood to go. Wade kept her eyes trained on Tessa, the stare this woman had. “You remember I don’t want you leaving the county, right, Miss Battle?”

“Of course,” Tessa said, as charming as if she actually meant it. “I’ve already canceled my highly anticipated world tour.” The detectives smiled as if they were charmed, and Tessa walked them to the door. Only when she was sure they’d driven away did she breath a sigh of relief. Robin unclenched, and Micah and Brand finally stopped sweating.

“Great. Just what we need, trips to prison on top of everything else,” Brand said. Tessa leaned against the front door and tipped her head back, closing her eyes and wishing she could go back to bed. Just close the shades, get under the covers, and never come out again.

She was pretty sure she had a Trig test tomorrow that she hadn’t studied for and even that seemed like a party compared to the rest of her life.

Indeed she did have a Trig quiz in the morning, and as the teacher passed out white paper sheets of doom, she geared herself up for absolute failure of epic proportions. She had spent the entire day before researching monsters and analyzing data stolen from the damn Lore PD database, not doing Trig.

She was doomed.

“You all right?” Nash asked, leaning close to her while still somehow remaining covert. “You look a little green.”

“I, yeah…” Tessa chewed her lip. “I didn’t study,” she said, which was a massive understatement.

“Busy weekend,” he said, nodding, a knowing look in his eyes. Tessa bit her lip again. She had to be careful what she said to him.

“Uh, yeah,” she said again. Apparently her witty barbs of last week had now been whittled down to “ums” and “yeahs.” Nash slid away as he took his quiz from the student in front of him and Tessa found herself wondering a million things that weren’t Trig.

Nash was still as handsome as ever, and anyone in his orbit would feel his warmth, like being near a star. But with what she had felt for Robin over the past few days, his star had waned for her and she was glad.

The only thing that gave her pause was a fear that part of what attracted her to Robin was not in her control. Did he have Fiction-y powers of seduction to go with his archery and swordplay? As Tessa felt herself falling for him so fast, faster than she would have dreamed possible, how much of that was her and how much of it was who he was? How much of what she liked about him was really him and how much was just fancy Fictional magic? At least her affection for Nash felt pure. He was deliciously human and the simplicity of that appealed to Tessa.

Still, it didn’t matter.

What was done was done and Nash now seemed like a distant if beautiful star, and Robin a giant glowing sun.

Instead of going to her second period computer lab, Tessa snuck back into Bishop’s office to look for more Advocate journals. His office had been cordoned off, so she crawled in the window.

Brand was doing everything he could searching the Lore PD database, but they needed more Story-specific information. Dr. Frankenstein was surely their villain, given what they had fought over the weekend but the locks of stolen hair still plagued Tessa. How did Dr. Frankenstein connect to that hair? And what about The Troll? Was he part of things too? Even with their sights set on a reasonable bad guy and everyone doing everything they could to find him, there were still so many unanswered questions. She was determined to do all she could to protect Brand and Micah, and herself, if it came to that. It was a task that felt impossible when she had no idea what they were up against.

But Tessa hadn’t been prepared for the emotions that overcame her in the quiet office. Everywhere she looked was something personal of Bishop’s, something that she didn’t understand and never would, because she’d not only gotten him killed but had never even known him. In fact, when he’d tried to talk to her, she’d
interrupted him. She regretted that so much. Tessa clenched her jaw and wished for the thousandth time that she could go back and do things differently.

There were no more Advocate journals on his shelves, or if there had been the police had taken them. She hoped it wasn’t the latter as she couldn’t imagine what kind of questions those books would raise. She looked through his desk drawers and found little else. They had clearly already been cataloged and the contents largely seized so most everything interesting was gone. However, among the dregs that remained, clipped to the inside pocket of a spare dress shirt Tessa found hanging on the back of his door, was an iPod Shuffle. Tessa pocketed it without even hesitating. Maybe it was weird to wonder what kind of music he had liked, but Tessa felt she at least owed the man that much.

Tessa was paging through a big volume of Greek mythology when someone yanked open the police tape on the door and walked in on her. And because her life was a very particular kind of screwed, it was Detective Wade.

“Miss Battle,” Wade said, crossing her arms over her chest. “I wish I could say this was a surprise.”

Tessa sighed and looked down. She seriously doubted her name was in this book too. “Hi, Detective,” she said as if she hadn’t been caught red-handed.

“Catching up on some more family reading?” the detective posed, nodding at the book.

“Mmmhmm,” Tessa murmured.

“Miss Battle,” Wade said, sitting down in front of the desk and leaning back in her chair, entirely too relaxed for Tessa’s liking. “Let’s skip the pleasantries and artful dodging today. My people found something very interesting at Mr. Severin’s home this morning, and I was actually coming to look for you, thought you’d get a kick out of it.”

“Yeah?” Tessa said, her heart beating in her chest like a trapped dinosaur. She had been there. She had killed him. Her fingerprints could have been on his damn body. Wade slid a small, sealed plastic bag across the desk. Tessa glanced at it and saw several strands of her hair.

“So, it hasn’t been tested yet,” Wade said, watching Tessa, “But you and I both know that color is Manic Panic, Pillar Box Red, just like yours. And while I’d wager a handful of people in Lore actually use that hair color—”

“—It
is
pretty great,” Tessa cut in, trying to throw Wade off the rest of her sentence.

“—Indeed,” Wade said, not missing a beat, “But you’re the only one with that particular color that I’ve found twice in this office when you weren’t supposed to be. And Mr. Bishop was last seen standing perhaps a hundred yards from your front door.”

Wade let the sentence hang out there, and Tessa just left it on the table between them. Tessa’s heart was hammering away and her palms were sweating, but this was no different than battling some horrible Story. She had to keep calm and show no fear. When someone asked you if you had the time, the answer was not to tell them what time it was, the answer was to say yes or no. You had to give as little as possible. Giving too much would only get you in trouble. Every time. It wouldn’t be any crazy CSI-DNA-hi-jinx that would hang Tessa, she was sure of it, it would be her own stupid mouth. And so she said nothing. Wade let it be quiet for a long time and then stood up. She snatched the baggie with the hair strands from the desk and walked to the door, at which point she turned around.

“I don’t care if you are seventeen, kid, you’re my number one suspect.”

Tessa’s heart sank like a stone into her feet, but she kept her face flat. “Uh-huh,” she said noncommittally. Wade waited for Tessa by the door.

“C’mon. You can’t be in here. In fact, I find you in here again, and you’re going to spend a night in holding.” Tessa stood up and walked past Wade, into the hallway, and away from her as calmly as possible.

The bell for third period would ring in a few minutes, but Tessa couldn’t think straight. No way she could sit through Chem. Instead she escaped outside only to run smack into Nash.

“Hey,” he said and then, smiling, “Skipping?”

Tessa nodded and ran an anxious hand through her hair. “I so cannot take Chem right now.” She looked him up and down. He was in gym shorts and a tank. She smiled wryly. “Let me guess. Crew?”

Nash all but blushed, “Guilty as charged.” He nodded right and Tessa followed his nod. Down a long slope of grass she could just see the flicker of water through grass and tress, the edges of a river she guessed, and at the edge of it, a robust boathouse.

“Pretty swanky for high school,” she said.

Nash shrugged. “I guess. I’m just glad it’s here. Gives me an excuse to get out of classes. You should come with me some time. Rowing, I mean.”

Tessa looked up at him and pushed hair out of her eyes. “Are you asking me out?”

Nash shook his head no slowly, but didn’t say anything and his grin was large and carefree and she couldn’t help but smile back at him.

“Tessa.”

Tessa turned around at the sound of her name and almost fell over to see Robin standing a few feet away from her. She felt instantly guilty even though she hadn’t done anything.

“Robin,” she said, still stunned but quickly moving toward panic. Him being on campus in the middle of the day couldn’t mean anything good. “Everything okay?” she asked.

He nodded curtly and she couldn’t tell if it was because things were not good, or something else. Something handsome-Nash-related. Tessa turned and gestured in what seemed to her like a pathetic flail.

“Robin, this is Nash. Nash, Robin.”

Nash reached out a hand and Robin flicked his eyes at Tessa for just a second before taking Nash’s hand. There was the slightest hint of accusation in his eyes, maybe even hurt. Tessa felt a burn of shame and then reminded herself she’d done nothing wrong.

“Nice to meet you,” Nash said, smiling good-naturedly.

“Same,” Robin said. There was a pinch of awkward horrible silence that lasted an eternity and then Nash saved them all.

“Well, I’d better get down to the river. See you around, Tessa…Robin.”

Robin nodded again and they both watched Nash take off down the grassy slope. When he was out of earshot, Tessa turned back to Robin. “Is everything really okay? You’re giving me heart palpitations here.”

“Everything’s fine. I tried to find the Troll today, but he’s disappeared. Trail went dead cold in the woods, he was smart about it, knew I’d be back and definitely didn’t want me following him. Doesn’t bode well for him being innocent in all this. If he was innocent I don’t think he’d have covered his trail so well.”

Tessa chewed her lip and shook her head, adding the information to the massive pile of thing she was already worried about.

“I’ll keep looking and put the word out, maybe someone can get us a bead on him, but I wouldn’t bet on it. Trolls are notorious for doing contract work. I expect that’s what’s happening here. If it was just the Troll, then nobody would be overly concerned about squealing, but if he’s got someone bigger running him…people are less likely to talk.” A bell rang in the distance and Robin looked back at the school and put his hand on her arm. Even through her jacket she felt electricity. “You should go.”

Tessa stared down at where he was touching her. “I don’t
have
to.”

Robin smiled at her. “No, you should. I have to go anyway. Just wanted to stop by...give you an update…see where you spend your days.” Tessa looked up at him and opened her mouth to say something witty back but for once she didn’t have anything so she just smiled like an idiot. Robin mirrored her and then turned away. She watched him go, and when he was a few yards away he turned around but kept walking.

“He’s way too clean cut for you,” he said, shaking his head in mock disapproval.

She shook her head and rolled her eyes at him. He laughed and then took off running. When she could no longer see him, she turned toward the school, intending to go back in, but as she put her hands in her pockets, she felt the Shuffle and a wave of sadness crashed over her. Instead of going to class, she walked toward the river and the boathouse, hoping the crew team had already left and she could find some quiet corner to tuck herself into. A place to think about what Wade’s latest visit meant. There was a chance that the hair stolen from her wasn’t for some kind of crazy black magic death curse, it was maybe just about being framed for murder. Then again, her hair probably had been at Bluebeard’s so maybe nothing had changed at all? Her head spun.