If they had a camera, why hadn't she let us go to the kitchen or dining room on our own before this? Probably didn't want us randomly helping ourselves to snacks.
Halfway down the steps, I stopped, wondering whether I'd overlooked something in the rush of events. If I were the killer, what would I do next? Cullen's bust was behind a locked door. He couldn't be crushed to smithereens. Linc wasn't with us yet. Still, he might return at any time and be able to speak. The killer couldn't get to Linc unless he/she was one of the four students Kai took with her. I didn't think most of the students had the magic skill to do the murders. Anyway, the killer would have made some excuse not to attend the ghost summons, fearing that Linc might come back and immediately be able to speak. The smartest plan for the killer would be to run away. The only regularly used exit was the one in the dining room. The other exits were only to be utilized in emergencies and would blare out an alarm if opened.
I dashed down the remaining steps into the dining room, determined to check on the security of the door and warn Jake if it needed more supervision than Carlotta watching the area on her phone. No one loitered by the door. The room smelled faintly of waffles and coffee with an additional odor of piney cleaning solutions. The door had a deadbolt that worked with a knob, not a key. They must've had better locks when the internees were here.
Blaze flew to the first aid kit. He tapped on the lid, looking at me inquiringly.
"There's no big hurry," I told him. "We just have a class to attend, and I'm more interested in finding the killer than learning about magic. I'll text Jake that the back door isn't very secure." I didn't message Hailey since she was a hot suspect. As I typed, I heard a faint shifting or shuffling sound behind me. I turned to inspect the bags of flour and sugar leaning against each other on the opposite wall. They weren't flailing about. Maybe it was a mouse.
After I sent the message, my phone returned to its new background picture of Linc. I shivered as a blast of cool air blew over me. Surely they hadn't turned on the air conditioner in October.
Honk, honk, honk blared my phone. I almost dropped it at the surprising sound, definitely not one of my chosen tones. A message from Carlotta appeared: Don't be alarmed at changes in temperature, wind currents, strange noises, or fog. Marco's efforts to reach out to Linc are influencing the entire environment of Pioneer House. Don't worry. You'll be safe.
That explained the shuffling noise and blast of cool air. I supposed I'd have to go to my class.
Where was Blaze? I looked around then spotted him, unable to understand what he was doing since he seemed to be perched on empty air in a space between sacks of flour and sugar. I gestured at him to come, but he puffed out his epaulettes and looked away. Thinking he wanted me to fetch him, I crossed the room. When I held out my hand, he flew up and landed about a foot higher, still perched on the air. So he wanted to play. I stepped forward and reached my arm to him, shocked when I crunched on someone's foot and poked my fingers in hair.
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
"Ouch!" yelped Adrian.
I leaped backward, bumping into a chair set at the long dining table. "What? Adrian? What happened? Why can't I see you?" I actually rubbed my eyes. I must be hallucinating.
"I'm doing an invisibility spell," she answered. "It's hard to maintain. I learned to hold a change of form from my shapeshifting into a man."
I was impressed. Going invisible required extensive skill and discipline. "But why are you invisible?"
"When Kai called for volunteers to help summon Linc's ghost, I wondered if the killer would try to run away before Linc could talk. I thought he'd make his break when the next session ends and everybody is rushing around. If the killer could see me, he wouldn't try to escape. That's why I'm invisible."
"Why can't you just let Carlotta watch him on her phone?"
"What good would that do?" she asked irritably. "He could get out the door before she could do anything."
I wondered if Adrian had a plan. "So are you going to pounce on the person to keep them from escaping?"
"I put a freeze spell on the lock so he can't get out. And I have some equipment." The flour sack next to her moved forward. When a knife rose up and pointed at me, I jumped back and put out my hands defensively. "Don't worry," she assured me. "There's nothing for you to be scared of. This is a fake prop knife to keep him in the room. It might surprise him so much he'll confess."
Of all the crazy, reckless schemes. "You keep saying 'he.' Who do you mean?"
"Wyatt, of course." She gestured with the knife as Blaze flew down, possibly from her head, to land on what was probably her arm. "He had the greatest motive."
"Adrian," I said, trying to keep my voice level, "this is not a good idea. What if Wyatt thinks it's a real knife and attacks you? Come with me upstairs. We can wait in the hallway and watch who goes downstairs. From what you say, no one can get out." I moved toward the stairs and waved at her to follow me. Blaze darted to my shoulder.
"I'm not going with you," Adrian cried out. "You're ruining everything. Just go away!"
Not a time for logical argument. She'd obviously snapped. I felt bad for her because she wasn't making any sense. I edged to the stairs, watching over my shoulder. Adrian was invisible, but at least I could tell the knife wasn't moving.
It's a real knife, Blaze announced. What was she doing with a weapon? Hearing the tap of footsteps on the stairs, I raced over to them and started up. Wyatt—halfway down—looked inquiringly at me.
"Get back. Go away!" I yelled, fearful Adrian might stab him.
He paused. His jaw dropped, and his eyes popped wide. I whirled. At the foot of the stairs, a raised knife moved up toward us. I dived down, crashed into a midriff, and slid down to the landing on top of Adrian. As soon as we stopped, she returned to visible form, her hands flung over her head and a dazed look in her eyes. Fortunately she'd dropped the knife, and it was several feet from her.
I scrambled up. Wyatt grabbed the knife, held it for a second, then levitated it to a table at the far end of the room. He kneeled by Adrian's head and felt for a pulse in her neck. Her eyes had closed, and I couldn't see if she was breathing. I stood over her, worried—when I knocked her down, had she hit her head on the steps and injured herself seriously? What if I had killed her?
I whipped out my phone. Call for an ambulance. Get Jake to help. "Is she alive?"
"Yes." Wyatt answered, relieving me greatly. He arose and pulled out his phone. I heard him ask for help, so I speed dialed Jake and blurted out to him, "Adrian turned herself invisible, tried to stab Wyatt, I tackled her, and I think she's knocked out. In the dining room." Couldn't be any clearer than that. I disconnected.
Wyatt's face was creased with concern. "We'd better not move her in case she broke something. What was going on down here?"
"I came to get some aspirin." I waved in the direction of the first aid kit. "Blaze alerted me that Adrian was here." He had managed to maintain his perch on my shoulder. "She was sure the news about Linc might lead the killer to try to escape. She was going to stop him." I thought he might as well know the worst. "She thought it was you."
He sat back on his heels and gazed sadly at Adrian, whose back was on the floor, but whose legs were angled up on the stairs. "I've already heard the rumor that I killed Cullen because he threatened to sue Hailey. Adrian should know me better than to suspect me of murder, after all the work I've done with her to manage her anger."
Adrian blinked her eyes three times, wiggled her fingers, and flexed her feet. "People can surprise you," she announced.
Over our protests, she swiveled her legs down and pushed herself into a seated position.
"Take it easy, Adrian," I implored. "You might have injured your back or neck. Help is on the way."
Jake trotted lightly down the stairs. He put his hand under Adrian's elbow as she hefted herself up. "Do you feel dizzy?"
She leaned against the wall. "Coming out of an invisibility spell abruptly is jarring. And the fal
l shook me up." She gave me a disgruntled look. "I told you the knife was a stage prop. I was going to scare him into confessing."
Wyatt raised his brows at her. "It's a real knife."
Blaze pecked my shoulder. I told you so. "Blaze said it was a real knife. I didn't see it close enough."
Adrian glared at Wyatt. "You changed it when you levitated it." She walked toward the knife, holding on to chair backs for occasional support.
Jake charged ahead of her and picked up the knife. "It's real." He walked into the kitchen area, returning a few moments later. "It belongs to a set in there."
Adrian looked defiantly at us. "All right, I did get it from the kitchen, but I wasn't going to stab Wyatt. I thought if he felt he was trapped in here and I showed him the knife, he'd break down and confess. He's got to be in a highly emotional state, even though he acts calm. If people hide their feelings, you don't know where you are with them." She focused on Wyatt. "Why did you come down here if not to escape?"
Wyatt glanced at Jake before answering. "Jake and I got to talking. We wondered if the news of the summoning of Linc's ghost might panic someone. I volunteered to put an alarm on the door as an added alert if the door was opened. Carlotta is watching, but I thought we needed more."
"So," exclaimed Adrian, "you made an excuse to come down here so you could sneak out!"
Adrian was a hard person to keep straight. She'd changed her story about the knife being a fake. Her opinion of me had varied, although lately she seemed to be mellowing, but now her angry, suspicious side confronted us. Hailey's recent disclosures about her relationship with Cullen may have disillusioned and embittered Adrian.
Wyatt, who'd joined Jake near the entrance to the kitchen, didn't respond to Adrian's accusations. Both men had drawn, serious expressions. They talked in such low voices I couldn't make out what they said. From my viewpoint opposite Adrian with two dining tables between us, I saw she had clenched fists and a furrowed brow.
I wanted to help defuse her anger. "Adrian, I know I don't keep up with things. I wasn't aware you could do the invisibility change. That's a highly skilled ability. Does everybody but me know you can do it?"
She shrugged, which loosened her fists but not the frown. "I don't like to tell people I can do it. If people know I have that talent, they're always watching me, waiting for me to disappear. It makes people think I'm better than I am. They expect too much from me. And it's a spell I can't rely on since it breaks down easily."
She broke down easily. It would be embarrassing to be sneaking around invisible, lose control, and appear suddenly when you wanted to be hidden. Like if you wanted to plant something in another person's room and you inconveniently lost your invisibility. No, it wouldn't have been necessary to go to the trouble of being invisible to leave the cat figure for Linc. Anybody could've tossed it onto the floor.
"You're very talented." I hoped praise would lift her spirits. "I remember how back at the ranch you changed the girl doll into a Raggedy Andy."
Sacks of flour and sugar wobbled as tendrils of fog drifted around on the ceiling. When chairs jerked backwards from the long tables, I sprang away.
"It's okay," Jake called out, looking at his phone. "Carlotta says the summoning to Linc is reaching its highest pitch. All of Pioneer House is feeling the effect."
Carlotta had just sent a message like that, but people needed more reassuring. I moved away from the tables to the far end of the room, between the exit door and the stairs.
Adrian followed. "Isn't it your theory that the murderer has to be a skilled spell caster like the members of staff?"
I wondered what she was getting at. "You know it's my idea. You heard me say it."
She narrowed her eyes at me. "Then why are you hinting around that I could have done it?"
I hadn't intended to suggest her guilt. I thought back to the last thing I'd said to her before the disturbances in the room. I'd tried to raise her spirits by complementing her, but that clearly hadn't worked. "I'm sorry I gave you the wrong impression. I was trying to be nice to you. I thought you were upset."
"Of course I'm upset," she spat out. "Wyatt is getting away with murder."
I had thought of Wyatt as a suspect. The odd thing was that hearing her articulate my suspicions made me doubt them, which I didn't understand. Wyatt wasn't acting like he desperately wanted to escape. His demeanor seemed cool compared to Adrian's, but he might be covering up a wicked personality. Whoever killed Cullen and Linc had to be a good actor not to give him or herself away. Except—when pressure cracked the façade, the killer would behave erratically.
Wyatt and Jake had moved closer to us, standing at the end of one of the tables.
Wyatt pursed his lips, surely irritated that he'd heard Adrian say he was getting away with murder.
He focused his black eyes on her. "Adrian, I couldn't believe at first you suspected me. I thought we had a good relationship. I didn't kill Cullen or Linc." He switched his regard to me. "Am I your chief suspect too?"
Wyatt's eyes had always seemed hard and shiny, the I got you cop look. Now they'd softened, and I thought I saw sadness and regret. I wanted to know what he had to be sorry about. "You had a strong motive to dislike Cullen. Honestly, I didn't believe it when you said things were good between you and Hailey."
Adrian stabbed her finger at him. "Things will never be right. Hailey needs a man with spiritual insight."
Jake turned to Wyatt and squeezed his shoulder. "Wyatt, you and I need to stop and communicate. I think we could all use a brief time out."
Adrian walked over to the stairs and looked up but didn't ascend. The two men didn't speak out loud. Since they looked intently at each other, I speculated they were using mind-to-mind communication. Curious if Adrian really had put a freeze hold on the door, I went over and put my hand on the deadbolt knob, thinking I could sense if a spell was there. Nothing. I looked at Blaze and tried a mental message to him—Freeze spell?
He pecked on the knob with his beak. Freeze, freeze, freeze, he said inside my head. Oh, he thought I wanted him to do a freeze spell, whereas I'd been asking him to detect it. The lock mechanism made a slight clicking sound. I smiled at him. He'd done a spell for me. Now the door should definitely be frozen shut. Jake could always remove the spell if necessary. And significantly, I'd had my first mental communication with Blaze. Next I'd try doing a spell with words expressed internally so I wouldn't have to speak out loud.
"Petra and Adrian," Jake called out. He waited till we both turned before he continued, "Wyatt wants to confess something."
CHAPTER THIRTY
Adrian and I looked at each other wide-eyed across the room. I could scarcely believe Wyatt was going to admit anything. I moved closer to him for better observation, and Adrian joined me.
Wyatt looked straight at us. "Petra, I didn't tell you the whole truth. Things weren't good between Hailey and me. I saw more and more what a mess she'd made of her relationship with Cullen. She finally realized her mistake, but I knew she and I wouldn't have a romance. I still admire Hailey enormously for her counseling, but we weren't in a good place to get together. Kai has been helping me. She can tell you I went to her for counseling before Cullen died."
So what? He was cunning enough to go into counseling as a cover for his murder plans. Next to me, Adrian jutted out her chin and glowered at us. I braced myself for her next outburst. The chairs continued to jerk about, bumping into each other. The disturbance made it hard to concentrate and may have increased Adrian's agitation.
"I can't believe," she snapped at Wyatt, "that you blame Hailey for your crimes. She was not at fault. Cullen seduced her. She was vulnerable because she works too hard."
"I thought," Wyatt responded, "that we'd worked out your relationship with Cullen and you were on good terms with him."
She flicked a hand dismissively at him. "That was before Cullen went after her. He was going to destroy her." She glared at the shifting chairs. "Jake, can't you stop this racket?"
While Jake reassured Adrian, I worked at reconciling her present antagonism toward Cullen with her persistent demands that I find his killer. I interrupted Jake. "I don't get it, Adrian. You've been hounding me to find Cullen's killer. Now you sound like you're angry at him."
She hesitated before answering. "Just because I'm upset with someone doesn't mean I think they should be killed."
"Adrian," Wyatt said, "Jake and I think you have something you want to tell us. Is that right?"
Adrian shook her head and backed up toward the door. She stopped at the sound of a moan coming from my right front pants pocket. I snatched out my phone and stared at the screen saver showing the picture of Linc at his birthday party. His mouth opened and closed, although no sound emerged. Linc had responded to Marco's summons by inhabiting my phone. To make his appearance more dramatic and effective, I'd try mental speech to do a spell. I tapped the screen. Glow, I commanded.
I held the phone out for the others to see the sparkle around Linc's image. "It's Linc! He's coming back to this photo. I never thought he'd show up here. I assumed he'd appear in the library where the group is calling out to him."
Wyatt and Jake leaned over to peer closely at the shining image.
Watch out! Blaze flew into Adrian's face as she snatched at the phone. He broke her momentum, giving me a chance to scramble away.
Jake stepped in front of me. "Adrian, you need to back up and calm down. Don't make me use a subdue spell."
She whirled and flung herself on the door. "Open!"
She failed to unbolt the door, so Blaze's freeze spell had worked. Crying out, "You can't stop me," she turned toward us. Before we could move, her face, torso, and legs faded out of sight.
Jake grunted and doubled over. Thinking that Adrian had plowed into him, I crammed the phone in my pocket and grabbed at what I hoped were her lower extremities. I got a hold of her knees, and tugged her off Jake. She thrashed, trying to loosen my grip on her legs.
I fell over on top of Adrian, managing to still clasp her tightly. I didn't even let go when she seized my hair and yanked. I did yell, and she screamed when I bit what felt like her arm.
Murder Lifts the Spirits Page 19