The Nightmare Affair (21 page)

I thought about my mother’s insistence that I stay out of it, but I hadn’t actually promised her. Still, we were just a couple of kids up against something huge and terrible, a person clever enough to lure Mr. Ankil down into the tunnels right beneath the senate’s nose.

But Eli was right. If I didn’t try, the guilt would be unbearable. I had to.
We
had to. Together. With my friends.

It was the best thought I’d had in days.

16

Task Force

We met in one of the computer rooms in the basement of the library later that night. Room 013. Pretty much everybody avoided the place—it was rumored to be haunted. But ghosts weren’t the problem so much as a really rampant case of animation. The entire room seemed affected by it, even the furniture. The computers had particularly vile personalities, the kind that would wait until you’d gotten halfway through writing that essay without saving it before deciding to shut off.

Only the most desperate sought refuge here, but Eli insisted we needed a base of operations where we could work without interruption. The dorm Selene and I shared would’ve been ideal, but no boys were allowed. So room 013 it was.

Eli was in full take-charge mode by the time Selene and I arrived. He was sitting at the teacher’s station in front of the computer that was linked into the overhead projection screen he’d switched on. The screen depicted one of his suspect graphs. I pulled out the one I’d started from my backpack and handed it to him.

“Okay,” he said, examining it. “Fill us in on how you got this far.” His focus on this whole investigation thing was a bit scary, but also encouraging in the way it built my confidence about our chances of success. Eli was like a professional.

I launched into a summary about everything that had happened since Melanie gave me Rosemary’s diary. Well,
almost
everything. The stuff about Nightmares, and what we were capable of, I kept to myself.

“So where do we go from here?” said Selene, sitting down on top of one of the desks. The chair beside the desk squeaked its wheels in protest and then rammed into her dangling legs. “Ouch.” She yanked her knees up before it hit her again.

“Think you might want to sit on the chair instead,” I said, trying not to laugh.

Selene scowled at me and stood. The chair, which had been rolling back and forth like a bull getting ready to charge, stopped and swung its seat toward her, inviting her to sit. She did so, looking doubtful.

“Right,” said Eli. “From here we identify all the possible suspects, then try to eliminate them one by one.”

He indicated the suspect graph where he’d added my entries of F and Culpepper. Frank Rizzo was already on his graph along with a few others, but Eli had put lines through most of them and the word
alibi
in the Opportunity column.

“Dusty,” he said, “you say you were following someone in one of those long-beaked masks. Let’s start there. The person might’ve been involved or witnessed something.”

“If they saw something, wouldn’t they have told the cops already?” said Selene.

Eli shook his head. “Not if they’re afraid. Lots of witnesses don’t come forward if they think it’s dangerous.”

“Oh, that makes sense.” Selene sounded impressed by Eli’s knowledge.

He went on. “Who do we know was wearing one of those?”

“Culpepper was,” said Selene, “but he’s already on the list.”

Eli nodded and typed a note next to the line with Culpepper’s name. “It just means he’s still a likely candidate. I saw Coach Fritz wearing one, too.” He added the coach’s name, although it took him three tries to do it. The computer kept deleting the letters as soon as he entered them. “Okay, who else?”

I swallowed hard, debating whether or not to answer. But I knew I had to. I owed it to Mr. Ankil. “My mother.”

Selene and Eli both looked at me in surprise.

I began to fidget with my hair, twisting the red curls around my fingers. “It’s true. I ran into her in the bathroom.”

“What was she doing at the dance?” asked Selene as the chair gave a little buck beneath her. She grabbed the arms then kicked its wheels with the heel of her combat boot. “Stop that.” The chair squeaked indignantly, but stayed still.

“I don’t know. She wouldn’t say.”

“Hmmm,” said Eli, writing her name down.

His lack of response made me nervous.

“Who else?”

We ended up adding another half-dozen names, including Bronson Babbit, a junior werewolf, and Lance Rathbone. Once we had everybody we could think of listed, we went through and eliminated the most unlikely.

“I know it wasn’t Lance,” said Eli. “I was near him right before I followed you down into the tunnels, so there’s no way he could’ve gotten there before us. Besides, he wouldn’t do something like that.”

“I wouldn’t be so sure,” said Selene darkly.

Eli scoffed. “Just because he can be a creep sometimes doesn’t mean he’s going around killing people.”

“You got the creep part right.” Her chair squeaked again, as if in agreement. She gave one of the arms a pat.

“Hey, focus here,” I said, and snapped my fingers in an attempt to head off an argument. “Doesn’t matter. Eli’s right. He couldn’t have gotten down there before us.”

Eli put a line through Lance’s name.

By the time we finished, only Coach Fritz, Culpepper, Frank Rizzo, and my mother were left.

“Okay,” Eli said. “Let’s talk motive. Why would any of these people want to break the Keeper spell?”

“Crazy, power-hungry psychos?” said Selene. “I mean, aside from Dusty’s mom.”

Eli shook his head. “Not solid enough.”

“Okay, try this,” I said. “Since Culpepper and Rizzo are both predatory demons, The Will affects them more. You could argue they’re more oppressed by its restrictions.”

“Better,” said Eli. He typed “DK” followed by a question mark in the Motive column.

“But what about Coach Fritz?” asked Selene, tilting her head. “He’s a fairy.”

“That one’s easy,” said Eli. “He hates humans.”

This wasn’t exactly news. Fritz was a fairy of the Werra tribe, a group of warrior fairies, definitely one of the most violent. And the coach didn’t exactly censor his feelings about ordinaries. On more than one occasion, I’d heard him complain about how magickind were required to blend in with those “useless ants” or “demon fodder.” If there were a magickind equivalent to the KKK, Fritz might well have been the Grand Dragon.

“What does hating humans have to do with The Will?” asked Selene.

“Well, he could use it to make them do things. Or punish them,” said Eli, striding back and forth in front of the blackboard. “I’m an ordinary, and it definitely works on me.”

I shivered at the idea of a weapon like that in the hands of a guy like Fritz. He wouldn’t have to build concentration camps to kill people, he could just order them to jump in a lake and drown themselves.

“Put him at the top of the list,” said Selene.

“Okay. But what about Ms. Everhart?” Eli glanced at me. “She doesn’t have any motive that you know of, does she?”

I shook my head. None that I knew of, other than her overall contempt for the government and rules in general. My mother, the anarchist.

“I don’t think she’s a good suspect,” said Selene. “Rosemary was seeing a guy so it couldn’t be her.”

“True,” said Eli, “but we can’t ignore the possibility there’s more than one person involved in these killings.”

A chill went through me at the idea. I couldn’t believe it hadn’t occurred to me before. With something this big, there was bound to be more than one person involved.

“Maybe,” said Selene, pursing her lips.

Eli looked at me again, his expression apologetic. “And doesn’t she have a reputation for breaking the law? Lance told me she’s able to get around The Will whenever she wants.”

“Sooner or later you’re going to learn
not
to listen to Lance,” said Selene, huffing. “He’s a big fat liar. This is Dusty’s
mother
you’re talking about. She doesn’t break laws. She just bends them occasionally.”

“Oh, I understand all about bending rules, but we can’t just dismiss her out of hand.”

Selene scowled at him, her manner as tough as always, but I couldn’t help noticing the way she fidgeted whenever Eli turned that piercing gaze of his on her. At least I wasn’t the only person he could intimidate with just a look.

I knew I should say something, but I didn’t. My mother
was
a likely candidate for being involved simply based on what she was able to do, but I didn’t want to encourage Eli and Selene in the idea. If it came to investigating my mother for murder, I would do it alone.

“I think the others are our best bet,” Selene said. “They all have
F
in their names.”

“You’re right,” Eli conceded. “We’ll focus on them.” He examined the list for a couple of seconds. “This is a good start.”

“What next?” I asked.

He smiled, his face beaming with excitement. “We start investigating, check out offices, dorm rooms, houses, everything.”

“You mean we
snoop,
” I said.

“That’s right.”

Selene frowned. “But what exactly are we looking for?”

“That’s easy,” I said. “Rosemary’s ring.”

*   *   *

We started with Coach Fritz. My bet was still on Culpepper, but Eli and Selene agreed we needed to proceed with caution concerning him, given what happened last time. They were probably right. Besides, Coach Fritz should be easy.

Monday’s gym class was combative magic training again, which meant Fritz would be completely focused on teaching. The plan was for Eli to sneak into his office during class and take a look. I would’ve liked to have gone, too, but since Eli was already sitting on the bench, he was in the best position for getting in and out unnoticed. Plus, he had experience with this sort of thing.

Selene and I exchanged a grin when we walked into the gymnasium and saw the game field packed full of barricades, climbing towers, and shelters. The sheer amount of structures indicated we were playing elimination today and not capture the flag or king of the hill. That was good. Selene and I could find a place to hole up and keep an eye on the coach, making sure the coast remained clear for Eli. Defending a structure was a common tactic in elimination so none of our classmates would notice our lack of true participation in the game.

Neither of us considered the idea of getting tagged out right away. Our performance was being graded, after all, and it was too close to midterms to purposely earn a low mark.

“All right, grunts,” Coach Fritz said, calling us to attention. He had a narrow, lean face and wavy auburn hair. His large eyes were as green and sparkly as emeralds, and even though he was old, he still looked fit. I supposed Rosemary might’ve been attracted to him in that hot-for-teacher kind of way.
Gross.

Fritz pointed to the game field. “You know the drill. Last man standing wins. You’ve got one minute for the starting bell.”

The class rushed en masse onto the field. With everyone in matching black protective gear, we must’ve looked like a swarm of beetles. The suits covered all the vital parts, including head, torso, and legs. Although the strength of the spells was heavily dampened inside the game field, they could still do a lot of damage if not for the protection charms imbedded in the suits. They were made out of some kind of flexible plastic/rubber and fit like wet suits. The suit’s secondary purpose was to let you know when you were out. If an opponent hit you with a critical spell, the kind that would’ve incapacitated you in the real word, it lit up and ordered you off the game field.

“There,” Selene said, pointing at one of the barricades. It was shaped like a triangle, but only one of the three sides was connected, leaving two person-sized holes in the corners. It was perfect for a two-man defense and gave us a clear view of Coach Fritz.

Selene and I dashed inside and took up position at each entrance. My heart began to pound in anticipation, bringing me fully awake for the first time all day. I’d stayed up half the night on the phone with Paul. He thought what we were doing was a good idea, but he’d cautioned me about how nasty Fritz could be when crossed. It made me worried for Eli—he was taking the biggest risk by far.

The buzzer rang, and the game field exploded with the sounds and sights of spells flying out from wands and fingertips, colliding with barricades and people. I watched Lance take someone out with his signature move, a dazing-jab combo. He was a regular fixture in the winner’s circle. For a second I thought he spotted me, but he wheeled around in pursuit of his next victim.

I turned my attention back to Fritz in time to see Eli slip off the bench behind him and head for the coach’s office door. He walked without any particular stealth at all, moving as confidently as if he had every right to do what he was doing. I had to admire his brazenness. He disappeared inside the office a moment later, and I breathed a sigh of relief. First hurdle down.

“Did you set the timer?” I asked Selene over my shoulder.

“Yeah,” she shouted. Then I heard her cast the jab jinx followed by the sound of someone cursing.

“Nice one,” I said.

She didn’t answer, but I didn’t have time to make sure she was okay as an opponent came running toward me, wand up.

“Ceno-crani,” I shouted, arm raised. The befuddlement jinx hit my attacker, and he swerved sideways, crashing headfirst into another barricade. I followed up with a daze that sent the person reeling backward, his suit lighting up.
One down
. There was no denying I was getting better at using magic. I hadn’t set anybody’s hair on fire in weeks.

Two more kills later, I asked Selene, “How long?”

“Seven minutes.”

Halfway. Eli had sworn he’d be fifteen minutes, no longer. I glanced at Coach Fritz, making sure I could still see him. His gaze was fixed on the game field like always, but I could tell he wasn’t paying nearly the amount of attention to the game he usually did.

And that was odd. Fritz
loved
fighting in all its forms. Rumor had it he was once an up-and-coming gladiator himself before he got caught taking a payoff to throw a fight and received a lifelong ban. As coach of the Arkwell gladiator team, he was always on the lookout for talent in his classes, kids good enough to turn pro and allow him to live vicariously.