After dinner I cornered Grant. He headed off to the library, and I waited until he was there to follow him. He and I had something to talk about.
“I think you should tell me what you’ve discovered in the Skeleton Trio case,” I told him.
He was sitting by the fire with papers spread out on a table in front of him. He had moved the table from underneath one of the windows to a spot closer to the bookshelf that housed materials about black magic and beasts. He didn’t bother covering any of the papers when I came in.
He looked up at me in surprise. Had he really not thought I’d ask? The lamp cast a shadow on his face, making his features appear even more chiseled than they usually did. “I can see your leg is doing better.”
“My leg is fine,” I snapped. “What isn’t fine is your being here investigating and not sharing the information with us.”
“I’m actually sharing it with a lot of people, just not you,” he said.
“Why not me?” I persisted, trying not to be too rude. Yet.
“You have no reason to know,” he said calmly.
“Sure I do! This is my home,” I said. “Something is attacking my home, and I have a right to know what you’re finding out about it.”
“Are you telling me you really don’t know what it is?” he asked.
“Of course I don’t know what it is,” I replied. Then I asked grudgingly, “You do?”
“Why do you sound so surprised?” he said. “Don’t you think I’m good at my job?”
I gave him the famous Garbo Glare and waited him out. No way was I going to tell him I had heard of him before, and that what I had heard was that he was super impressive, he was amazing, he was the most talented warlock in a generation. There had been so much praise aimed in his direction that I felt certain it couldn’t all be true.
He must have seen some of these thoughts pass across my face, because he smiled.
“We think it’s a band of skeletons, or maybe vampires, or maybe both, known as the Root of All Evil,” he said.
I laughed out loud. My whole body shook with amusement, and it took me several seconds to calm down.
“You’ve got to be joking,” I said.
He didn’t look like he was.
“How is that the kind of name you give a gang?” I wondered.
He shrugged. “That’s what they call themselves. They are supernaturals who don’t like the way the haunted house is run, so they’re determined to do them differently. The only problem is that when they’re opposed, they smash things to nothing.”
“So, do the ghosts have a reason to be afraid?”
Grant stared hard at me for several seconds, the darkness surrounding his face shifting as the fire rose and fell. His heavy gaze made me squirm uncomfortably, but I couldn’t look away.
“Probably,” he said after a while. “Given what happened to the Skeleton Trio, I’d say yes.”
“What will you do as your next step?” I asked.
“I can’t tell you that,” he said, sitting up a little. His relaxed posture was gone, and I could see that he was closing himself off to me.
I looked at him and realized that he actually meant it. He wasn’t going to tell me anything more.
“Look, I can’t tell you anything else,” Grant repeated when I didn’t respond the first time.
“I don’t want to know anything else,” I informed him haughtily. I’ll just find it out for myself, I thought silently. Then I turned around and stormed away, not caring how silly I was being. I was going to conduct my own investigation whether Grant liked it or not. Now I just had to figure out how one conducted an investigation . . .
I turned and looked at Grant one more time on my way out the door. I had the distinct impression that I didn’t know anything about the man at all.
The next morning I decided I needed to interview the ghosts, vampires, le-haunts, and skeletons myself. The Skeleton Trio had been extra rambunctious, but all the skeletons were friends with each other, so I hoped someone would have some useful information. I could start with Mirrorz. He wasn’t a skeleton, but he had been at the mansion the longest and was the easiest to talk to.
There was one possibility I didn’t want to consider. What if the murderer was Grant? He’d just showed up out of the blue, claiming he was there to help. I thought that the possibility of his being the culprit was unlikely, but I couldn’t dismiss it entirely. The timing was too perfect for that.
Maybe he was trusting other family members with information about the investigation, but until I knew everything, he’d remain a suspect in my mind.
Meanwhile, my mom and Aunt Meg were meeting with the supernatural union members. Judging from the thumps on the wall and the shouting, it wasn’t going well. With the extravaganza only days away, a boycott was the last thing my mom needed, and the unions knew it. The demands were likely to be outrageous.
After searching for a while, I found the ancient vampire in the Silver Room, where we kept all sorts of fancy silver cutlery, dishes, and household goods. Sunlight streaming through the large windows refracted and made a million sparkling crystals on the floor.
“Hello, Jane,” Mirrorz said, greeting me warmly without even turning around to see who had come in.
“How did you do that?” I asked, and he held up the silver platter he was polishing by way of answer.
I sat down across from him. He grinned at me and I grinned back. “Polishing the silver again?” I asked.
“Your grandmother doesn’t seem to like to leave it alone,” he sighed.
“That’s so surprising,” I said dryly.
“Isn’t it?” he said. When he bent his head and continued polishing, I picked up a spare rag and started to help.
“What is it I can help you with?” he asked.
“I was hoping you could tell me more about the Skeleton Trio.”
I was relieved when he didn’t act the least bit surprised. Mirrorz was very hard to surprise.
“What is it you want to know?” he asked.
“Everything,” I told him.
“Why?”
“I thought I’d conduct my own investigation,” I said.
“You don’t trust the official force?” he asked.
I faltered. As a matter of fact I didn’t, but separate from that, I wanted to know for myself what was going on, and no one was telling me anything useful.
“I just think an investigation might go more smoothly if it were conducted by somebody who had grown up here at the haunted house,” I said.
“Can’t argue with that,” Mirrorz said.
“So about the Skeleton Trio?” I said. “Do you have any idea why they would be targeted specifically?”
This was something that had been nagging at me, and I hadn’t been able to put my finger on why.
“I suppose there are two options,” he said. “Either they did something wrong, or they were just in the wrong place at the wrong time.”
“When you say they were in the wrong place at the wrong time, you mean they saw something they shouldn’t have?”
“Maybe something like that,” he shrugged.
“But what would they have seen?” I wondered.
“That I can’t tell you,” he said. “Although it could have something to do with Down Below.”
This was the second time Down Below had been mentioned to me in twenty-four hours. If it happened a third time I’d actually have to go down there and find out what was what these days in the mansion’s underbelly. And nobody wanted that, least of all me.
“What would they have been doing out there at that time of night, though?” I said.
“They probably would’ve been digging up their treasure,” he said.
“What treasure?” I asked.
Mirrorz snorted. “Those three slowly stole stuff from all around the house, buried it in the back yard, and waited for one of your family to notice. None of you ever have except for Cookie, and nobody believes her.”
I gape
d at him. “You mean Cookie realized they were stealing and told my mom, and my mom hasn’t done anything?”
“They only ever stole small items, so it was hard for your family to notice. Cookie seems to have a catalog of every item on this property, and don’t ever let her tell you differently.”
“I can believe she does,” I said dryly.
Mirrorz chuckled and asked me how I knew.
“Because she likes to keep score, and one of the ways she does it is by keeping track of everyone’s stuff,” I said.
Mirrorz nodded as if that made perfect sense to him. “Maybe you should ask her what they were stealing,” he suggested.
“Maybe I will,” I said. But the thought was terrifying. “You think they were out there hiding their stolen goods and they ran into something they weren’t supposed to see?”
“I cannot say for sure, but I’d be surprised if whoever killed them didn’t know they were going to be there,” he said.
“How could my family and the official police miss the buried stuff?”
“I have no idea,” he said. “That’s really all I know.”
I chatted with Mirrorz for a little longer, then excused myself. I had to talk to Cookie, and I had to go look at this crime scene for myself, even if Grant didn’t like it.
Cookie wasn’t at the cauldron out front, but on my way there I ran into Lark and Pep carrying boxes of new products to the gift shop. Lark was grumbling about having to help with the shop given how much she hated it, but she was still working.
When I told them about my mission, they both dropped their boxes to come help me.
Having searched everywhere for Cookie with no luck, we decided to go out to the crime scene. It was marked with a big white line in the grass, and someone had put a stake in the ground with a sign that said, “Off limits.”
“Oh, well,” said Pep.
Without a moment’s hesitation she went around the sign. As she stepped over the white line she shivered a little, as if it had shocked her.
“Magic?” I asked.
She nodded. “Probably your mom’s.”
“We don’t have a lot of time,” said Lark, glancing over her shoulder.
The three of us made our way quickly to the spot where the skeletons had been smashed and started to look around. As far as I could see, it all just looked like dirt.
“What about those shrubs over there?” Lark asked.
“The ones Meg planted a couple of years ago?” I asked.
The shrubs stood awkwardly by themselves, with three fake gravestones in front of them. My aunt had put them out there in case anybody looked through the back windows of the haunted house and saw something they shouldn’t. She wanted the ambiance.
We searched around the scraggly green shrubs as the shadows started to lengthen and the sky went from blue to dull pink.
“I think this is all just dirt,” Lark said.
“Mirrorz said the Skeleton Trio had a stash of stolen items somewhere on the grounds,” I mused.
“Reason enough to kill?” Pep wondered.
“He speculated that their stash was around here somewhere, because that might have been what they were outside for.”
We were still looking around when I saw my mother stomping out of the back of the house toward us, flanked by Corey and Kip.
“I guess they aren’t out of town,” Lark muttered.
“Just what do you think you’re doing out here?” my mother demanded. She was marching across the grass toward us, her facing matching a stormy night. “Does everything have to be difficult? This areas is off limits.”
“Sorry, we didn’t know that,” said Pep.
“You can read,” said Corey, pointing to the prominent sign.
“Yeah, but sometimes I choose not to, like, if I close my eyes and walk past,” said Lark.
“Get away from that crime scene right now,” my mom ordered.
The three of us slowly stepped back over the white line.
“Really, you’re just making this harder,” said Kip quietly
“I’m sure you can manage,” I said.
Kip and Corey didn’t stick around to keep lecturing us; they had gotten into enough trouble themselves over the years to know that Mom was going to yell at us, so they didn’t have to bother. The fact that they had done plenty worse in their day was irrelevant.
“We have an investigator here. Don’t get in his way. The harder it is for him to do his job, the longer he might be around, and no one wants that,” Mom huffed.
Without waiting for a response, she spun around and headed back to the house.
After that, Mom stayed in the kitchen with Meg and Audrey for a long time. Audrey was making different kinds of cake for the party and having Meg try them. Meg thought all the options were delicious, making it very difficult for Audrey to choose.
“Really, isn’t there enough going on around here without you three causing more difficulties?” my mom asked when we finally walked back into the house.
“What did they do now?” asked Meg.
Mom told them, but instead of looking annoyed, Meg just looked amused.
“So? We did a lot worse when we were younger,” she said.
“We most certainly did not,” Mom insisted. “If we’d been told not to interfere with an investigation, then we wouldn’t have. Really, you talk as if we habitually disobeyed our elders.”
“Well, you did.” Cookie’s voice came floating from above, and we all looked up to see her sitting on one of the beams. The kitchen had a very high ceiling, above which was a loft where we stored large quantities of packaged goods. We could see Cookie’s knobby knees and pulled-up socks as she swung her legs in the air.
“Cookie, get down from there before you fall down,” Audrey cried.
“You’d like that, wouldn’t you? If I just tumbled down and you didn’t have to put up with your batty old mother-in-law anymore.”
“No, Cookie, I wouldn’t like that at all,” was Audrey’s retort.
“What are you doing up there, anyhow?” Meg said.
“This is where Audrey hid the jam, and I want some,” said Cookie, waving a large jar of jam in the air and looking triumphant.
“Great, now will you get down?” my mom demanded.
“Oh, very well.” My grandmother scooted along the beam until she got to the rafter, then shimmied down to where the ladder was. Once her feet were firmly on it I went and held the base steady so she could climb down safely.
“Thanks,” she said once she was back at our level. “Were you looking for me earlier?”
“How did you know?” I asked.
“I saw you walk out to the cauldron,” she said.
“And you didn’t call out to me? Why not?” I demanded.
“Seemed easier not to,” Cookie shrugged.
I rolled my eyes. Typical.
“How were we difficult when we were younger?” my mom demanded, not willing to let it go.
“You were trouble. Why do you think I didn’t want my son to marry you?” Cookie said.
My mother was used to hearing this line of thinking, and she just shook her head. “I was far less trouble than that son of yours. If there was any mischief to get up to at all, he was right there in front leading the way,” she said.
“My son never got up to any trouble! He was a good boy,” Cookie argued.
“Ha! You’re lying! Are you forgetting the time he stuck the cat in the tree on purpose?” Audrey asked. “Bill told me all about it.”
“I didn’t know anything like that happened,” said Cookie.
“Bill said you were the one who climbed the tree to get it down,” said Audrey.
“I certainly don’t remember that,” sniffed Cookie.
“Of course not,” said Audrey. “And what about the time Bill hid in the attic and triggered a property-wide search? You thought something had happened to him, right? Like maybe a group of skeletons had taken them Down Below?”
My grandmo
ther’s face paled. That sounded awfully similar to what Grant had been saying the night before. There was a troublesome gang of skeletons and they were causing . . . trouble.
“AHH!” Suddenly Audrey let out a loud scream.
“What!” all of us chorused, as everyone but Cookie ran to try to help her.
Rose, ignoring the ruckus, trotted calmly over to me, purring loudly enough for all of us to hear.
“Get that cat OUT of my kitchen! Now!” Audrey yelled.
I quickly scooped Rose up and made for the door. This conversation was over, and Rose had given me the perfect cover for exiting.
“You’re welcome,” the cat purred.
I still needed to talk to Cookie alone, even if the scene in the kitchen wasn’t the right time. I was convinced she knew more than she was letting on about what had happened to the Skeleton Trio and how much trouble they had been getting up to when they were smashed. As luck would have it, she was an equal opportunity stresser-outer, so there was no way she had told Grant anything to help his investigation, any more than she had told me.
Taking Lark and Pep with me, I went to sit out by the cauldron and wait for my grandmother; she had to show up eventually The day was crisp and the air smelled like fall, and it didn’t take long for Cookie to join us.
“That was a smooth exit if ever I saw one,” she said.
“Thank you,” I said.
“What is it you wanted to talk about?” she said.
“Were the Skeleton Trio stealing stuff from the house?” I asked.
“Of course they were,” she said. “Didn’t you see their smug expressions all the time?”
“No, it wasn’t something I noticed,” I said.
“Maybe if you lived here you would’ve done,” said Cookie.
“Why didn’t you tell anyone?” I said.
“No one asked,” said Cookie. The wind blew leaves all around us.
“What exactly were they stealing?” Lark asked.
Spooky Business (Jane Garbo Mysteries Book 1) Page 13