The cold was biting, intense, but Scarlett didn’t care. She had her anger to keep her warm. But she still made sure to keep a healthy distance from any puddle, even the ones that looked shallow. The last thing she needed to do was fall into icy water.
She remembered what Vaughn had said, about freezing water putting a strain on your heart. If Rusty had had a heart attack on the other side of the ravine, what were the chances of anyone finding him before it was too late?
If Finn fell into the water here on the Blackbrook campus, what were the chances that she would be able to get to him in time?
“FIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIINN!”
Far above her, she saw a light. She looked up at the building across the way—the administrative building, if her internal map of the campus was still on track—and saw a figure silhouetted in one of the upstairs windows. It waved—or at least it looked like a hand passing back and forth quickly. She peered through the darkness, trying to make out the person’s features, but the flickering light in the room cast too many shadows.
“Finn?” she called.
The figure waved again.
That was good enough for her. As quickly as possible, and skirting as many puddles as she could, Scarlett ran toward the administrative building. The entrance door on the ground floor was slightly ajar, and as Scarlett sprinted inside, her boots squelched against the soaked carpet in the hall. She ignored it and headed for the stairs. If she was counting correctly, the person she’d seen would be on the third floor.
Which was where Headmaster Boddy’s office was.
Scarlett stopped dead on the steps. Why would Finn have gone to the headmaster’s office? He’d been looking for Peacock.
Unless Peacock, too, had decided that of all locations on the campus to escape to, the place she most wanted to be was the scene of her original crime, where she’d first attacked the headmaster several days earlier.
That would not have been Scarlett’s first choice.
There was, of course, another option. Scarlett took a tentative backward step down. Maybe the person in the window hadn’t been Finn at all. Maybe it had been the looter, back to see what else he or she could steal from the headmaster’s office.
Carefully, silently, she turned and started back down the stairs.
“Scarlett?”
The echoes in the stairwell did something funny to the voice. She couldn’t tell if it was Finn. She held up the lantern, but it didn’t make it that far. The person held up a flashlight, but shone the beam directly down toward her, forcing her to protect her eyes from the glare. “Finn?”
“Get up here.”
She took a few steps toward him. “You ran out without your coat or anything. I was scared to death about you!”
“Hurry!”
“Put down that flashlight. You’re blinding me.”
“Oh, sorry.” The light dropped. Purple circles floated in Scarlett’s vision as she climbed the remaining flight. She blinked rapidly, and at last, the glow of the lantern fell on Finn’s face. She breathed a sigh of relief. He was smeared with dirt, and his glasses were gone, but he was alive.
“You look a mess.”
“Come on,” he said, his voice so eager it was almost unrecognizable. “You won’t believe what we’ve found.”
He led her down the hall and directly into Headmaster Boddy’s private office. A fire burned in the grate, and Peacock stood behind the big teak desk, her face illuminated with the comforting bluish glow of—
“A computer!” Scarlett cried. “This building has power?”
“No,” said Peacock, not as regretfully as Scarlett would have. “But the computer still has some battery power left.”
“Can it connect to the internet?” Maybe they could contact the authorities from here. The later it got with no word from Rusty, the more worried Scarlett became that Vaughn had been right and the old man had never made it back to the village at all.
“Wi-Fi’s down, Scar.” Finn pulled her around to see the screen. “But don’t lose your focus. That’s not the point.”
Before her, she could see what looked like scans of architectural drawings and plans. These kinds of things she knew well from a lifetime of sitting at her parents’ knees and watching them pore over plans for their latest hotel or chalet. “What’s this?”
Finn was grinning broadly, and his eyes were wide with excitement. “It’s plans for the new science department. Isn’t it gorgeous? Isn’t it huge?”
“New science department?” she said, confused. The plans showed soaring atriums and spacious classrooms and lecture halls. It was, she had to admit, very pretty. But how had she never heard of this? Wouldn’t there have been updates in the school newsletter? Wouldn’t she, the head of the Campus Beautification Committee, know all about it?
Or maybe she was as clueless regarding this as she’d been with noticing there was a movie star living down the hall. Here she’d been battling with Vaughn over the fate of an old boat shed, and Boddy had plans to raze half of the campus and put in an entirely new classroom building?
“They’re supposed to build it in the spring!” Finn bounced on his heels. “State-of-the-art. Should be finished in time for classes in the fall. This is amazing, isn’t it? Amazing.”
“So soon.” Scarlett narrowed her eyes. Headmaster Boddy had shut down a beautification project at the start of the school year, saying Scarlett should spend more time concentrating on her honors classes. But now she supposed he didn’t want her wasting time refurbishing buildings slated for destruction.
Still, why all the secrecy? Unless Boddy, too, wanted to circumvent the wrath of the Rocky Point Historical Society.
“I wonder if they’ll have to delay construction, thanks to all this flooding,” said Beth.
“And, you know, the murder of the headmaster,” Scarlett pointed out.
The historical society would only get involved, though, if Blackbrook planned to demolish any of the old buildings. She clicked through the images, showing the new construction from different angles, and an overlay to show its location on campus. She peered closer at the scale. This couldn’t be right.
“Is this Tudor House?” she asked, pointing to a spot on the overlay drawing.
“I can’t read that without my glasses,” Finn admitted.
“Yes,” Beth confirmed. “What does that mean?”
“I think it means they’re building it on top of the Tudor House location,” Scarlett said.
“That would make sense,” said Finn. “The email we found this stuff in was called ‘Demolition Schedule.’”
“What!” Scarlett cried. “They’re demolishing my house? This spring?”
Finn made a face. “Oh yeah. That sucks.”
That was putting it lightly. Scarlett had hoped to stay in Tudor for all her senior year, too—especially now that there was bound to be crowding in the other dorms, with all the storm damage. She couldn’t believe that Headmaster Boddy would attempt to keep the plans a secret until it was a fait accompli. That was . . . diabolical, even to Scarlett.
More shouts came from outside, and they rushed to the window.
Scarlett could see Vaughn picking his way through the muck, just as she had, and shouting their names.
“Well, it’s nice he finally listened to me and came looking,” she drawled. She pounded on the window and he looked up at them, then went running toward the building.
Scarlett turned to face the others. “So, are you guys coming back to Tudor while you still can, or are you altogether too cozy up here together?”
Finn rolled his eyes. “Beth just felt like she was under attack back there.”
“Yeah,” said Peacock. “No thanks to Finn.”
“You felt like you were under attack, so you attacked Mustard?” Scarlett said.
“I mean . . .” Beth shrugged. “I guess I punched him.”
She really didn’t know her own strength. “He’s still passed out.”
“What!” Finn shouted.
He turned to Peacock. “Jeez, how hard did you punch him?”
“It wasn’t the punch,” Scarlett said. “He hit his head on the floor when he fell.”
Peacock buried her face in her hands and groaned. “Well, now they’re all sure I’m a murderer.”
“It’s okay!” Scarlett said quickly. “He’s not bleeding or anything anymore. I think he just passed out from standing up too quickly. Or something.” Although, he should have regained consciousness by now if that was the case, right? Maybe he had a concussion.
“I’m going to go to jail,” Peacock grumbled. “Do you think they have tennis courts in jail?”
“Oh yeah,” Finn drawled. “Just like at country clubs.”
Vaughn appeared in the doorway to the office, panting hard. “Hey,” he said warily. He stepped in with his arms outstretched, as if he were waiting for someone to strike.
“Hey,” said Scarlett easily. “I found them.”
“Everyone okay in here?” Vaughn asked. “Everyone . . . alone in here?”
“As opposed to what?” Finn asked. “You mean, are we under attack from the murderous looter?”
Vaughn’s arms lowered. “Yes. The looter. You haven’t seen anyone else on campus?”
“No, man,” said Finn. “And, honestly, I’m starting to doubt there ever was a looter. We’ve got Boddy’s computer right here.”
“Though it may just be his work computer,” Beth clarified. “Maybe what the looter got was his home computer . . .”
Vaughn’s mouth had become a thin, careful line. He looked at each of them in the firelight, as if weighing his options. Scarlett felt uneasy.
“Dude, what’s wrong with you?”
“Let’s go back to Tudor House,” he said abruptly. “I think it’s better if we’re all there together.”
“Yeah,” Scarlett agreed. She hated how much she was agreeing with Vaughn these days. “Like I said, we have to enjoy it while it lasts.”
He looked at her curiously. “What does that mean?”
“Oh!” Finn perked up again. “You have to see these plans of Boddy’s we found. He’s going to knock down all of the outer campus, including Tudor House, to build a big new science complex.”
Vaughn’s lips parted in shock.
“Leave it to Boddy to only care about the sciences at Blackbrook, huh?” Scarlett said to him. “The roof leaks in the English Department building every thaw, but you don’t see him throwing any money toward the humanities.”
“The gym could use some work, too,” said Beth.
Vaughn didn’t say anything for a long moment. “They’re tearing down Tudor House?”
What was he so upset about? It’s not as if Vaughn lived there.
“Yeah,” Finn went on. “I guess it’s been some big secret. Not even Scarlett knew about it, and she knows about everything.”
“I can’t believe I’m going to have to find a new place to live.” Scarlett shook her head. “Man, what a bummer. That place is a part of Blackbrook history.”
“Maybe they’ll have to delay,” said Beth. “You know, to finish the murder investigation—which, by the way, I had absolutely no hand in.”
She was making her argument to Vaughn, but he still seemed lost in his own world. Typical townie. Well, no wonder. If he’d freaked out over some stupid old shed, she imagined he’d be catatonic at the thought of losing such a gorgeous mansion.
And then the fog seemed to lift and Vaughn looked at Scarlett, an unreadable emotion in his light eyes.
“Do you think Mrs. White knows?”
26
Orchid
So weird. Orchid had thought Karlee and Kayla had gone to help Mrs. White in the kitchen. But when she walked over there to report the latest departures from the house, as well as Vaughn’s bizarre declaration that he knew who did it, she’d found the kitchen empty. A storm lantern still burned on the table, but there was no sign of the proctor or the two female students. Next, she checked the ballroom, but it was also empty, and she didn’t see the girls’ bags in the vast and shadowy corners of the room.
She wondered if instead of helping Mrs. White the other girls decided to sneak out the kitchen door into the backyard. The kitchen door was unlocked, and Orchid debated whether she should lock it. Vaughn had seemed to indicate that they were in danger from the outside, so she went ahead and locked the door.
Only, if Karlee and Kayla had gone out, and thought better of it, how would they get back in?
She sat down at the kitchen table, playing Vaughn’s words over in her mind. He’d been so intense—going after the dagger, figuring out that Boddy might not have been murdered where they’d first assumed—she’d thought they were on the verge of a major breakthrough. And then . . . he’d run out after Scarlett.
Who could Vaughn have meant when he said he knew who the killer was? Of course, Vaughn was a townie. He knew everyone for miles. It made sense, too, that a looter who came to Blackbrook was a local, someone who could even have known what kind of valuables might be found in Tudor House.
If Vaughn was right, then it wasn’t Orchid’s fault at all. The killer was some local hooligan with a grudge against the headmaster of the fancy private school and the rich and spoiled kids who went there.
Except . . . Orchid McKee was also a rich and spoiled private school student. Either way—stalker after Emily or killer on the rampage against Blackbrook—she was a target.
She looked out through the kitchen window into the blackest night.
Silence reigned. Well, silence and the distant howl of the wind.
Be in touch soon.
This was precisely what was not supposed to happen. Orchid alone in this house. That’s why she’d confided in Scarlett this afternoon. Maybe the others were just upstairs.
She thought she heard a thump, and nearly jumped out of her skin. She sat perfectly still, not even daring to blink, and listened, hard, for ten seconds. The sound did not repeat. All she heard was the faint howl of the wind from outside.
Dread rose inside her like a living thing, twisting around her organs and clawing up toward her throat. She wanted to whimper, like a puppy left alone in the dark. But she didn’t whimper. She hadn’t in years.
Mustard! He would still be in the study. And he was out of it—injured and drifting in and out of consciousness—but it didn’t matter, anyway. Because there was nothing, really, to be afraid of. She just didn’t need to sit in this big empty house alone. She could be with him. Safety in numbers, and all that.
She fairly ran from the room, and down the empty, dim hall. Scarlett and Vaughn had taken all the lanterns, and she’d left her flashlight in the kitchen. She leaped for the door to the study and sprinted inside, heart pounding as if she were really being chased.
Mustard started at the sound. “Hello?” His own lantern glowed dimly on an end table. Orchid leaned over and turned it up, making him squint.
“It’s Orchid,” she said. “How are you?”
“Groggy.” He blinked. “Where is everyone?”
Exactly what Orchid wanted to know. “Well, Peacock took off.”
“Yeah.” Mustard lifted a hand to his head, touching it tenderly. “That part I remember.”
“And then Finn took off after her. And then Scarlett went after him. And then Vaughn—”
“Okay, I get it. Who does that leave?” He started to sit up, then put out his hand as if to steady himself on the arm of the couch. Mrs. White had wrapped a big bandage around his head. “Whoa. How much blood did I lose, exactly?”
“It didn’t look like that much,” Orchid said. “But who knows? Didn’t Mrs. White give you some painkillers, too? Maybe that’s what’s making you feel so out of it.”
“I don’t think ibuprofen has that effect.”
“Are you sure that’s what she gave you?”
“No.” He blinked rapidly, like he was fighting to keep his eyes open. “I feel sick to my stomach, too.”
“That might be the blood loss,
” said Orchid. Unlike Mustard, however, she was already feeling better, shut inside this little, cozy room. The fire in the hearth had burned down to glowing red coals, and the big shades were drawn. It was safe here. Quiet, except when a gust of wind blew down the flue, with its muted shrieks and squeals. “Anyway, I just went looking for Karlee and Kayla, who I’d thought were in the kitchen helping Mrs. White clean up, but they seem to be gone, too, which I suppose shouldn’t surprise me, given they’d packed up their stuff and insisted on going until Vaughn talked them out of it.”
“Wait, so everyone is gone? Except us?”
“And Mrs. White. Now you see why I got freaked out.” Another distant murmur from the wind. “Not to mention what might happen to them out there. It’s still pretty bad.”
“Hopefully this will be the last night,” Mustard said. “Rusty should have alerted the authorities by now.”
That reminded her of what Vaughn had said. “If he made it. Who knows how bad it might be in the village. Vaughn seemed worried that the dip in the freezing water might have done a number on Rusty’s heart.”
This seemed to worry Mustard momentarily, but he shook it off. “I’m sure it’s fine. I bet he’s just letting us sweat it out. I heard him talking to the headmaster last night when we were all sitting in the lounge. He thinks this whole house is filled with spoiled brats.”
Rusty and half the population of Rocky Point.
“Remember, when he left, Scarlett was still arguing that the headmaster committed suicide. I’m sure he got to the village and found people who needed a lot more dire help than we do.”
“Yeah,” she conceded.
“Or, he just left us to our own devices,” Mustard joked. “Maybe he secretly hates Blackbrook and Blackbrook kids and this was his way of getting revenge.”
Orchid’s eyes widened. “Murdering Headmaster Boddy?”
Mustard frowned. “No . . . leaving us here with a dead body.”
She sat back against her seat. “Oh. Right.” Then she recalled what Vaughn had said.
In the Hall with the Knife Page 19