by Micol Ostow
The believers—they are the wise, while the foolhardy dismiss these as mere ghost stories, campfire tales, meant for sharing in the witching hour.
When the patriarch of one of Horseshoe Bay’s oldest families was found drowned in his own bathtub? When the toxicology report showed high levels of muscle relaxants in his system? Those foolish people were quick to insist that his wife had slipped him the deadly medicine with his after-dinner brandy.
And the believers speculated, but one wanted to call it a curse.
Me? I called it karma.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
You mean to tell me there have actually been two incidents related to the reenactment and this so-called curse,” Principal Wagner asked, sounding worried, stunned, and furious in equal measure. It really was something, to successfully squish so many different emotions into one single question—even a question as loaded as this one.
Principal Wagner, I can so relate.
I had at least as many big-time feelings competing for the number one slot too. The coincidence of hearing Glynnis’s story just the night before and Melanie’s disappearance did not elude me.
Principal Wagner’s office was an inauspicious place to find oneself under the best of circumstances, and these circumstances definitely didn’t qualify as “best.” Or even, like, semigood. And yet here I was, stuffed into one of several stiff, uncomfortable office chairs arranged in a broad semicircle facing the principal’s desk. I was flanked by Theo, Daisy, and Lena on one side, with my father, mother, and Chief McGinnis on the other. My friends, for their part, all looked varying degrees of worried, where the adults in the room were distinctly more furious. Safe to say, emotions were running high. Melanie’s parents had been notified, and they were down at the police station.
“I knew about Ms. Dewitt’s locker,” Principal Wagner said. “Now there’s this new … development.” Her lip curled around the word, almost like an involuntary sneer.
“That’s an awfully sanguine word for it,” my father said. I knew his tone all too well—patient, measured, even. Someone who didn’t know him the way I did might even think he was being friendly.
He wasn’t. I could see from the way his eyes darted incessantly across the room, lighting on every surface before taking off again. He was taking it all in, evaluating. Principal Wagner had wanted a lawyer on hand? Well, here was Carson Drew, in full-tilt lawyer mode.
Principal Wagner cleared her throat. “Your response is understandable, Mr. Drew,” she said. “And I’ve already spoken with Melanie’s parents extensively. I’m only reluctant to name it as anything more ominous until given no choice. Right now, we just want to hear any additional information or details you might have.” She glanced from my father back to me, her expression inscrutable.
Fair enough. But Dad’s right: that was still a weirdly blasé way to put it.
Then again, Principal Wagner’s bedside manner had always been a little bit lacking. Maybe it was too many years of dealing with high-strung parents and students who veered between intense type-A archetypes and total burnouts. I had to imagine it would take its toll.
“So,” she said, her voice cutting through the tension in the room like glass, “Melanie was discovered missing today, and you three”—she looked at Daisy, Lena, and me—“discovered vandalism in the newspaper office.”
“Meanwhile,” Chief McGinnis cut in, “Daisy’s locker was also found similarly vandalized yesterday morning, is that correct?”
Daisy nodded quietly. I leaned out of my seat to give her knee a squeeze.
My father and mother shot me a look almost in unison, as though it was something they’d practiced at home, or in the car together on their way over. How you could you not have told us?
I’m a teenage girl; I’m supposed to have some secrets, aren’t I?
“Can I ask, Principal,” McGinnis went on, his own tone taking on a condescending, almost menacing edge of its own now, “just how you know for a fact that the Forest girl is missing?” He was prickly, McGinnis, and suspicious by nature, which is, generally speaking, a good quality in a law enforcement official.
Generally speaking. Meaning, sometimes in theory more than in practice. I’d run up against his spikier sides on my own a few times, during different investigations. Even though he definitely meant well and was just trying to get the job done, sometimes it felt as though he and I were always working at cross-purposes. I preferred to think that was unintentional, a paranoid interpretation of things on my end.
“She was supposed to meet me,” Theo said, leaning forward in his seat. “In the drama office. And then she didn’t show.”
“What were you doing in the drama office?” I asked, on instinct. That was the last place I would ever expect to find him.
Principal Wagner sighed and held up a hand. “Ms. Drew, if you’ll allow me to direct this conversation?”
I gave her as abashed a look as I could muster. “Of course.”
“Thank you.” She looked at Theo. “Now: What were you doing in the drama office?”
Hmm. I guess it’s the slight variation on inflection that makes all the difference.
Theo’s cheeks reddened. “I was supposed to meet Melanie. To interview her.”
“Interview her?” I blurted. I couldn’t help myself.
“Ms. Drew,” Principal Wagner said, slower and more emphatic this time. “What did I just say?”
“Sorry, sorry,” I mumbled. “It’s just …” I whipped my head to stare at Theo, incredulous. “Interview her? On Monday, you were all about how ridiculous it was that the Masthead was even covering Naming Day for the paper.”
He shrugged defensively. “Yeah, I guess. But, you know—Melanie and I were friends. Are friends.” He blushed even harder. “She’s not gone or anything. I mean, like, permanently. Missing isn’t the same as gone.”
“I should hope not,” Principal Wagner put in.
“We’ll find her,” Chief McGinnis said, confident. “But, yes, she was supposed to meet Theo, but apparently never showed up at the drama office, which Theo discovered when he arrived to interview her.”
“Interview her …” Even Lena was having a hard time taking it in. She glanced at Principal Wagner and held up her hands—sorry, sorry!—with a helpless look on her face. Principal Wagner just shook her head like she couldn’t believe our ongoing impudence.
“She thought it would be fun, said it might even open my mind to the whole thing. And she … uh, well, she thought it would be fun to score a little extra publicity for her own appearance in the show, too.”
“But we didn’t even assign you the article,” I said, still processing. This was literally the last thing I would have expected from Theo.
“What can I say? I’m full of surprises.”
“So, what are our leads? Where do we think she is?” I asked automatically.
“Ms. Drew.” This time it was McGinnis, slowing my name to an indignant drawl. “Are you determined to interject yourself into my investigation?”
“No! Of course not. I just want to help.”
I mean, yes, actually. I was definitely determined to interject myself into the investigation. But: flies, honey …
“Now you want to help,” he said. “Meanwhile, when you had something that might have tipped us off, might have helped us see this coming and protect Melanie, you chose to keep quiet.”
“It wasn’t like that,” I protested. “Well, I mean, I guess it was, but you have to believe me, I was doing it—we were all doing it—because we honestly thought the thing with the raven was just a prank.” But I hadn’t thought that. I’d only gone along with it because I was putting my friend’s wishes first. I regretted it, even more than I could have anticipated.
“It was my idea to keep quiet,” Daisy jumped in, her voice wobbly. “I just brushed the whole thing off as a prank. Or I tried to. I mean, a Naming Day curse? It sounded … ridiculous.”
“And you didn’t think it was potentially more dangero
us, after your locker was vandalized?” Principal Wagner asked.
“I did,” Daisy said quietly. “I just didn’t want to think that.”
“Denial,” Theo said. “Powerful.”
“How nice that you had the luxury to make that decision,” she said, her voice silky despite the jagged edges of her words. “Unfortunately, Melanie may not have had such a say in her own fate.”
Ouch. Don’t pull any punches, Principal. She was right, of course; my low-key, on-the-DL investigation-lite of the curse might have been the crucial difference between Melanie’s still being here, or being gone.
It was a mistake, I thought. Listening to Daisy, even for a day or two. I’d never forgive myself if something serious had happened to Melanie. What if she was hurt—or worse?
Don’t think about that, I told myself.
I vowed to myself: Going forward, I wasn’t going to hold back. And I’d follow my gut in full force—wherever it led.
“You’re going to look at Caroline Mark, right?” That was Theo, his face open. “Question her?”
“Based on what you’re telling me now, I have to say, she’s pretty high on the list of suspects. She certainly sounds like one of the few students who’s demonstrated a real motive.” Chief McGinnis looked stern.
Wait, no. “But—” I protested. “She may have a motive, but she also has an alibi. She told me she was with Mr. Stephenson, and he confirmed that when I spoke with him.”
“And I appreciate that input, Ms. Drew,” the chief said, looking decidedly unappreciative. “And yet, I think I’ll still pay Caroline a little visit, have a chat. That is, if you don’t mind me taking my own approach to my own investigation.”
“Of course not, sir,” I said, my face feeling hot. But I did mind him bungling his own investigation. “It’s just that, well—even if you put the Stephenson alibi aside—”
“And you’ll be the first to know if I do,” he said. “I hope that’s okay?”
“No need to be so sarcastic,” my father cut in, holding up a hand.
“Even if you did that,” I went on, as smoothly as I could manage, “there’s no way Caroline Mark could have, um, kidnapped Melanie. I mean, she’s just a high school girl.”
“Well, that’s an interesting argument, Nancy, coming from a high school student who’s essentially insisting that I take her seriously as a detective right now, wouldn’t you say?” he replied, without missing a beat.
I pressed my lips together tightly, looking away and refusing to give him the satisfaction of a response. Even still, I could feel my mother’s eyes on my turned back, offering a sympathetic glance.
“If there are other leads—ones that you care to share with me, that is,” he went on, “I can assure you we’ll be investigating those as well.”
“I won’t be holding back,” I said solemnly. I was still embarrassed for having possibly helped Melanie come to harm, even as I resented McGinnis for obviously trying to rub it in and make me feel as bad as he possibly could. Worried, too.
“We’re glad to hear it,” Principal Wagner said, as prim as ever.
“Did you need anything more from us?” my father asked. He looked tense, ready to bolt from his seat. It wasn’t about the case, I knew. He just wasn’t crazy about Principal Wagner and her, uh, severe personality, as he liked to put it.
My mother put a steadying hand on his knee. “I know Carson will be available if you have further questions.” Of the two of them, she was the one who could smooth over just about any social interaction, no matter how awkward.
And this one is getting nice and awkward.
“Of course,” he said. “And the bottom line is that the school isn’t liable for Melanie’s disappearance.”
“Well, that depends on what sort of evidence our investigation turns up,” McGinnis added.
My father tilted his head, reluctantly considering it. “Sure. There are always exceptions to rules, of course.”
“And of course,” Lena chimed in, eyes flashing, “liability is what we’re all thinking about right now, after a girl has disappeared from our campus.”
“You can climb down off of your soapbox, Ms. Barrow,” Principal Wagner said. “We are just as concerned about Ms. Forest as you are.”
“Yeah, it definitely sounds that way,” Lena said, pushing it. I gave a not-so-delicate throat clearing to suggest that she take it down a notch or two, and she folded her arms over her chest in a huff.
“But in the meantime, if I can be of any assistance to the chief’s department, please do let me know,” my father went on. “That was the crux of what I was getting at just now.”
Lena gave another little snuffling sound, pulling her arms tighter against herself, but she managed not to actually say anything this time, at least.
“And, if I may,” my mother said, her eyes wide and her face open, “I’m happy to make time to meet with the school counselor to go over some pointers for crisis counseling. Or I can set up office hours of my own here to see students. Or lead an assembly … whatever you think is best. I’m sure the students will have questions and feelings to process.”
I looked at my mother, flooded with love. Where I saw puzzles to solve, she saw people to help. It was amazing.
“Thank you, Ms. Drew,” Principal Wagner said, offering her first sincere smile since this meeting had begun. My mother had that effect on people. It was a quality that seemed to have skipped a generation. “Let me consult with the counselor and one of us will be in touch.”
“Great,” said the chief, rising. “If we’re through here for now, I’m going to try to catch Caroline Mark. Does anyone know where she’d be right now?”
“You can check with the office assistant out front; she keeps the class schedules and student files,” Principal Wagner said.
“She has a study period,” Theo cut in. “But, uh, she’s not on campus, I don’t think. She mentioned that she was taking her car into the shop. We can check the lot to see if it’s still there.”
“What’s wrong with her car?” Chief McGinnis asked, at the same time as the question scrolled across the inside of my own head.
Theo shrugged. “I don’t have details. She mentioned it in homeroom, is all. Something about the headlights being funky. Or one headlight?”
My breath caught in my throat. Headlights.
The twin beams, one flickering, darkening briefly.
Me, alone on the road back from Stone Ridge.
Pale, grime-streaked ankles in my rearview mirror, bound by twine.
It had felt, that night, like someone was watching me. And then there was that message on the windshield—there one minute, gone the next. A figment of my imagination? Or someone messing with me?
I opened my mouth to say something about it. Go with your gut, the echo refrained.
But my gut, this time, was telling me to stay on the DL, just a little while longer. Yes, Melanie was missing, and yes, the stakes were unignorable. But I didn’t believe that Caroline Mark had planned and executed an abduction any more than I believed that I’d seen the ghost of a hanged man in my rearview mirror.
My gut was telling me to let Chief McGinnis follow whatever lead he was sniffing after. Because that gave me more time to do a little digging of my own. If Caroline Mark wasn’t the primary suspect, then who was? And was the flickering headlight—or the memory of a car tailing me the other night—purely a figment of my imagination, or worse?
I didn’t even know what the “worse” would be in this situation. I didn’t want to think too hard about it. The situation had already spun out of control. And I’d broken my own oath to be totally open with Principal Wagner and the chief … before I’d even left this office.
What can I say? I’m really not the best at taking orders.
* * *
My parents and I were leaving the principal’s office when Daisy’s mother arrived.
“What are you doing here?” Daisy asked, her face going pale at the sight of her mother.<
br />
Her mother looked gaunt, drawn, smaller than I remembered her. She wore a long wool skirt—unseasonably long; it looked like it would be uncomfortable in this early spring weather—with a simple white blouse and a scarf printed with a bright red emblem of a bird. I recalled Daisy once mentioning that robin redbreasts were her mother’s favorite, which was maybe the only personal detail I’d ever heard about Mrs. Dewitt.
“The principal asked me to come talk to her about this … curse business,” she said, her voice low. Daisy shot me a look.
“Mrs. Dewitt,” I gushed, feeling awkward and desperately wanting to take some heat off of Daisy. “The principal is on top of whatever’s going on. You don’t need to worry.”
She gave me a small, icy smile. “So on top of it that no one can say exactly what is going on, then?”
Touché.
“Get to class, Daisy,” her mother said to her ominously. “I’ll find you when I’m done.”
Daisy cast me another glance, but there was nothing I could do.
Parker: Did I see you coming out of the main office with your parents and Chief McG?
Nancy: *blushes* Busted.
Parker: Everything all right?
Nancy: With me? Yes.
Nancy: Less so with Melanie Forest. From the newspaper.
Parker: Of course, I know Melanie. And yeah, I heard.
Nancy: Well, news like that travels fast.
Parker: So what did the chief want with you?
Parker: Wait, does he think this is connected to Daisy’s locker? And the thing with the raven?
Nancy: It’s hard not to think they might be linked. Also the newspaper office getting trashed.
Parker: Wait—that one, I hadn’t heard about yet.
Nancy: In that case, let me be the bearer of bad news… .