Page 36 of Artifice (Pros and Cons Mysteries #4)

A be glanced to the left then the right. Then he looked back at Olive.

“Something messed up happened with Colin,” he told her. “But nobody will listen. No one cares.”

“His parents care.”

“Colin hated this place from the start.”

“Then why did he tell his parents he was doing well?”

He narrowed his eyes. “How do you know that?”

“Because I ask questions. I do my research.”

His gaze remained suspicious. Then he shrugged. “That’s what they told us to say. That we’re doing well.”

“What happens if you don’t say that?”

He rubbed his wrists again. “There are consequences.”

Olive’s stomach churned with disgust. That wasn’t okay—not by any stretch of the imagination.

“You keep saying they ,” Olive said. “Who exactly is ‘they’?”

“Everyone. It’s like the staff here are all robots. They’ve been trained to say the same things and operate in the same way. Just like they want us to do.”

Olive stored that fact in the back of her mind. She could kind of see it, even though she’d mostly interacted with only three or four key staff members.

“What exactly happened to Colin?” Olive pressed, sensing Abe’s nervousness growing.

She needed answers before he got nervous and sprang.

“He started asking questions about the medicine they’re giving us.” Abe’s voice dropped to a whisper. “They call them ‘supplements,’ but they make you feel weird. Foggy. Colin stopped taking his. Started flushing them.”

Olive didn’t like the sound of these supplements. “Then what happened?”

“He said he started thinking more clearly. That’s when he got even more suspicious and started investigating. He found a shipping manifest in Principal Denarau’s office. Something about ‘special cargo’ being moved through those tunnels under the lighthouse.”

“And?” She held her breath as she waited.

“And the next day, Colin was gone.” Abe swallowed hard. “They said he ran away, but we know that’s not true. I heard the doctor and principal talking when they thought no one was listening. Something went wrong with Colin.”

Olive’s heart pounded harder in her ears.

Her gaze shifted as something in the distance caught her eye.

A light.

A flashlight.

Someone was coming their way, she realized.

Abe saw it at the same time as Olive, and panic raced through his gaze. “I’ve got to get out of here.”

“Who is it?” she asked.

“I don’t know. But whoever it is, you don’t want to be caught out here.” The tone of his voice was clearly fearful.

Teens shouldn’t have to live in this kind of fear.

The people running this place needed some major accountability.

Olive’s resolve hardened. Whatever was happening here had to be stopped.

“How will you get back without being seen?” she rushed.

“I know the way.” He shrugged as if it wasn’t a big deal. “You just worry about yourself.”

Olive didn’t like the sound of his words. But she planned on heeding his warning.

She watched him disappear before she darted toward the woods where Tevin hid.

She made it to cover and peered from behind a tree. Tevin gave her a look that said, “That was close.”

The flashlight came nearer.

Soon, Olive would see who was holding it.

But as the figure came into view, it was no one she’d expected.

Ms. Strickland.

What was she doing here at this hour?

Olive watched as the woman paused near the lighthouse.

The beam of her flashlight scattered on the ground as if she were searching for something—or someone.

Then she paused.

“What is she doing?” Olive asked softly.

“Good question,” Tevin said.

Olive knew one thing with certainty. She didn’t want to be caught. If she was, she’d blow her whole cover, and she couldn’t afford to do that. Especially not now as she was getting closer to answers.

But what Abe had told her left her feeling unsettled.

Exactly what kind of supplements were these students being given? And was it being done under supervision?

Either way the thought bothered her.

She watched as Ms. Strickland reached for something at her waist. She placed it near her mouth.

Was that a radio?

That was Olive’s best guess.

She held her breath as Ms. Strickland walked closer to the edge of the cliff.

The woman paused only steps away from the dramatic drop-off into the ocean. The wind whipped around her, blowing her hair from the bun where she had it secured. The dress she wore—one that reminded Olive of something someone would wear in Victorian days—billowed around her.

The next instant, the flashlight and her radio fell to the ground.

Then Ms. Strickland was gone.

Olive gasped as she realized exactly what had happened.

The woman had just jumped off the cliff into the tumultuous waters below.