Under a Spell (32 page)

“Didn’t your little stinky friend find—”

My eyes widened. “A sweater. Someone had tried to flush a sweater down the toilet.” I paused, my previous revelation falling flat. “Why would someone try to flush a sweater down the toilet?”

Will pursed his lips. “You didn’t think to ask that at the time?”

“Well, neither did you.”

He held his hands up in obvious surrender. “Touche.”

Alex came up the stairs and knocked on the doorframe. I stiffened when I saw him, immediately feeling the annoyance well up inside of me.

“We’re still working in here,” I said, going into my best
CSI
stance.

He crossed the room to me and held out a Ziploc evidence bag. “Do you recognize this?”

I took the bag, tentatively, somehow certain it was a trap. His fingertips brushed mine and I shuddered—I had never remembered his hands being so cold. When I looked up at him, I realized just how tired he looked—heavy bags under his eyes made the crystal blue of his irises seem washed out and dull. The usually rosy skin over his cheeks seemed papery and sallow. His lips were dry and cracked.

“Are you okay?” I whispered.

Alex just shook the bag in my palm. I snapped my attention to it.

“It’s a Lock and Key pin,” I said. “Where did you get this?”

“Romero found it. It was attached to the collar of the shirt in the fireplace.”

Will and I exchanged a glance. “Fallon wasn’t in Lock and Key,” I said. “But Kayleigh was.”

“Actually . . .” Both Alex and I looked to where Will was standing. A floor-to-ceiling bulletin board was in front of him. He plucked a single photo from the collage and held it out to me. I took it, and everything inside me stopped. “This is Lock and Key Club. From this year.”

“And Fallon’s in it.” Will squinted at the photo. “Alyssa, Kayleigh—that Miranda bird. And the advisor there, isn’t that the geezer from the principal’s office?”

“Heddy’s not a geezer. And Miranda told me she wasn’t in the club.” A cold stripe of fear shot down my spine. “The uniform downstairs could be hers. Fallon and she were constantly at each other’s throats.”

“I’m going to go downstairs to check on the girl.”

“Ask her where Bud is.”

Alex’s lips went into a pale straight line. “Lawson . . .”

“Do it, Alex. I don’t care if he was alibied or not. Fallon is in on this and she’ll know where Bud Hastings is.”

Alex eyed me. We were face to face, but I had my shoulders thrown back, my fists on hips, and was ready to shut down anyone who tried to placate me.

“You want us to go after Hastings on a hunch?”

“You want two girls to die because you were too proud to follow a hunch?”

I squared off my hips and kept Alex’s gaze. Finally, he broke. “Yeah. Okay.”

I pulled my cell phone out of my pocket while Alex left Will and me alone in the bedroom.

Will’s eyes narrowed as he considered. “So you think Fallon did this? She made the pentagram, got nervous when the candle caught the drapes, then called the police?”

“She didn’t have to make the fire to toss in Miranda’s uniform.”

I dialed Miranda’s number and listened as it rang repeatedly. I frowned, hung up, and tried Vlad.

“Direct to voice mail.”

Will’s eyes locked mine. For the first time, there was real concern in them. “You can’t find Miranda?”

“Let me try Nina. I’m sure she’s talked to Vlad.”

Nina picked up on the second ring.

“Hey, it’s me. Is Vlad there?”

“I haven’t seen him all night. Your little friend came back though.”

My heart stopped. “Miranda, really? Is she there? Let me talk to her.”

“She’s not here anymore. She just forgot a coat or something and took off.”

“Without Vlad?”

“She said he peeled off for Poe’s or something. She got in a car downstairs. Some guy was driving, but it wasn’t Vlad. Although the car looked like something from our era.” She gave a small, snorting chuckle at her own joke. “Anyway, I wasn’t completely paying attention because I was on the phone with Scorsese’s assistant.”

“Wait—Martin Scorsese’s assistant?”

Because even in the midst of peril, I could be not only horny, but starstruck.

“No, Neil Scorsese. He runs the soundstage down by the Presidio. Werevamp. Nice guy.”

“Look, if either Miranda or Vlad come back, keep them there.” I hung up my phone.

“Miranda took off with some guy who wasn’t Vlad.”

“Young love burns fast and hot, but fades fast.”

“Nina said the car was old.” My skin started to prickle. “What if the guy was Janitor Bud?”

“So, Fallon is working in cahoots with this janitor bloke. She sets fire to her own house so the police are tied up here, so Bud can go out and get Miranda?” Will shook his head. “Something’s not adding up. The police had already cleared Bud.”

I paced, stringing a piece of hair around my index finger. “Maybe she sent Bud out to get Miranda while she set up the sacrificial altar downstairs. She really did knock over a candle and a neighbor called the police and fire department. She probably heard the sirens and intercepted Bud.”

“Kind of a stretch. What about Alyssa and Kayleigh? Why would he—or even Fallon—suddenly start collecting the girls rather than killing them? It can’t be easy to hide one teenage girl, let alone three.”

“Remember what Vlad said? Maybe he just hasn’t found the right girl.”

“But to deal with three?”

My stomach was leaded and my saliva bitter. “We don’t know that he hasn’t killed the other girls yet.”

I took the stairs two at a time, Will following close behind. I pushed the front door open only to see the taillights of the ambulance fading into the darkness, the squad cars falling into line behind that. Alex was leaning into the open window of a squad car, and Fallon was gone.

“Alex! Alex, where’s Fallon?”

Alex looked around as if just noticing his surroundings. “We were able to reach her mother. She gave permission for the girl to go with the neighbor.”

My heart started to thud.

“Which neighbor?”

“I’m not sure. Wasn’t my jurisdiction. What’s going on?”

“She’s the one you’re looking for,” Will spat.

Alex straightened, his eyes darkening. “Lawson, you need evidence to accuse someone of a crime. Especially of a crime like this.”

My frustration and anger were reaching boiling points. “I know. Bud Hastings has an alibi, and there is absolutely no reason that you should go after Fallon except for the fact that she is in on this. She and Bud are partners. She lures the girls, he carves them up in an attempt to open some portal or do some kind of witchcraft. And it’s going to happen tonight. No one broke in and made a pentagram on Fallon’s floor. She did it. She did it for him! Look at the moon! It’s the seventh phase. They’re trying to open a portal and they need to do it tonight.”

Alex leaned back and cocked an eyebrow. “Bud Hastings is some kind of warlock?”

“Warlock?” Will thumped me on the shoulder and rolled his eyes. “Can you believe this guy?”

“Bud Hastings is taking these girls and Fallon is involved. And I think I know what this”—I waved my arms, doing my crazy best to indicate—“is all about. I think I know who the next victim is.”

Alex crossed his arms in front of his chest. “Why?”

“What do you mean why? She’s crazy? She’s the—the bad seed? Why? She just is. You have to get her!”

“These girls are her classmates. What makes you think Fallon is involved or that she’s after another girl? That’s not this perp’s pattern.”

I gaped. “Not the pattern? Kayleigh has gone missing, too, Alex.
That
is not the pattern, but it happened. It’s just a matter of time—a matter of hours—until Alyssa’s body turns up. Her
body
, Alex. Bud’s gone off half-cocked—or Fallon has. We have to do something!” My whole body was thrumming and I tugged at the collar of my jacket, feeling hot again. I could feel the sweat trickle down my back and I squirmed, fisting my hands so I didn’t grab Alex and force him to go find Fallon.

“Will, find her!”

Alex shot out a hand and grabbed Will’s arm. “Wait a minute.”

Will started to shrug Alex off. “Don’t touch me. I’m not in your jurisdiction, either.”

“I’m going to go find Miranda and Bud.” I spun, then slapped my hands to my head. “Nina took my car.”

Will took my hand and folded his keys in my palm.

“Nigella?” I whispered.

“Just find the girl.”

My heart was slamming against my rib cage and tears were stinging at the back of my eyes. I furiously dialed Nina, Vlad, and Miranda at every stoplight, getting nothing but a busy signal, a direct to voice mail, and no answer.

“Where would he take her, where would he take her, where would he take her?” I mumbled to myself as tears flooded my vision.

“The Battery!”

Adrenaline shot through me, hot and pulsing, and I stamped my foot on the gas, blowing through a red light on Kearney, my tires squealing as I took a left on Columbus. I was trembling, using the back of my hand to push away tears as I gripped the steering wheel with one hand. I was focused on my mission, focused on getting to Battery Townsley before Miranda, Kayleigh, and Alyssa could become another set of bones, tossed like so much trash, forgotten in some godforsaken hole. The thought hit me with another round of sobs, which is why I probably didn’t notice the car inching up behind me. It may have been there when I rounded the corner, may have been waiting at the last intersection. I caught its lights—and its driver—in my rearview mirror just before I heard the metal crunch, the ear-splitting pop of windows shattering. I felt myself vault forward; my teeth chattered and my brain seemed to ramp against my skull. Something ripped across my chest and my flesh was on fire. I could taste fresh blood in my mouth, hear the squeal of tires and someone screaming.

And then everything went black.

Chapter Eighteen

Everything hurt—my eyes, my face, my stomach, my hips. My hair hurt.

“There she is.”

I blinked, the effort causing a painful spasm that reverberated through my skull. “Will?” My throat was parched and my lips felt dry and cracked. I tried to touch them with my fingertips, but a piece of tape pulled at my skin. “I can’t move. Why can’t I move?”

Will’s face came into focus. His eyes were kind, but his brows dipped down into deep Vs. “You’re in hospital.”

“You had an accident.”

I tried to sit up, tried to angle my gaze toward the other male voice. “Alex?”

“We’re all here,” Nina said, lacing her cold fingers through mine. “Will, Alex, and me.”

I looked around at my friends, a brief, warm sense of comfort washing over me. As soon as the calm feeling settled, it was chased away by a bitter cold and I sat up. “Bud! Miranda!”

Alex came over to my left side and very gently guided me back toward the pillows. “We followed up on Bud, Lawson.”

“And?”

Alex pressed his lips together, the muscle in his jaw jumping slightly. “He’s dead.”

“What?”

Alex slipped his leather notebook from his pocket and flipped it open, his ice-blue eyes going over the pages. “We found him at Battery Townsley. Someone called in an anonymous tip—they heard a gunshot.”

“But who—?”

“We’re thinking self-inflicted.”

My stomach roiled and had I been attached to a heart monitor, it would have flat lined. My eyes went from Alex to Will. “The girls?”

Will avoided my gaze. Alex swallowed hard. “We had Fallon in protective custody. She doesn’t know anything about Bud. And while we were securing the crime scene, we found Alyssa—alive—wandering in the parking lot. She was badly beaten and so far, hasn’t said a word.”

“She’s catatonic,” Will said. “They have her in the trauma ward upstairs. She didn’t even react when her parents came.”

I licked my lips. “Kayleigh?”

Alex looked down, studying the pattern on my blanket. “We haven’t found her yet. We’ve got men at Bud’s place. We’re going over it with a fine-toothed comb, trying to find the secondary location.”

I looked to Will, hopefully. “But Miranda’s okay, right? He let her go?”

Will hung his head but didn’t answer. He didn’t need to.

“We failed.” A sob lodged in my throat. “We failed all of them, Will.”

I sunk into my pillow as Will reached under the blanket, his hand finding mine and giving it a tight squeeze.

“We did the best we could.”

I snatched my hand back. “No. That’s not good enough.”

He fisted his hands, his eyes going from Alex to me. “I’m going to get you a cup of tea, okay?”

I lolled my head on the pillow, avoiding him. Nina popped off the bed. “I’ll go with you.”

Alex waited until the door closed behind them.

“I can’t believe that Kayleigh is still out there—somewhere. And maybe Miranda.”

Alex cleared his throat. “We’re not going to let this go. We’re still working,” he said. “We brought in the yearbooks you had in the back of your car.” His smile was tight. “As well as the box of files that went mysteriously missing from my office.”

I threw myself back on my pillow, tossing an arm across my forehead. “Oh! The pain!” I watched beneath lowered lashes while Alex rolled his eyes.

“Right. Anyway, I was hoping you could go through them and let me know of any other girls you think may have gone missing.”

I screwed up my brow. “You suddenly want my help? What happened to distancing yourself?” The anger was simmering in my gut, and I was mad at Alex for his continuous flip-flop behavior, at myself for not finding Bud—and Kayleigh—sooner.

“Lawson, you don’t understand.”

“No, Alex,” I said, swinging my head. “I don’t understand. Why don’t you explain it to me?”

His eyes raked over me and I could see immediately that the clear crystal blue was marred and flat. He still looked exhausted and pale. He opened his mouth and then closed it, as if thinking better of it. “This isn’t the right time.”

I was seething.

“I’d like to be alone now.”

Alex closed his notebook and shifted his weight. He paused for an uncomfortable beat before patting my leg awkwardly over the blanket.