Page 12

Chapter Twelve

W e’d spent half the night talking to the parents of the missing children, all with the same frustrating story, all tired and overwhelmed with unbearable sorrow—and none of them aware Neerie even existed. Each child had disappeared without a trace, no scent of a perpetrator, no suspicious people, and no leads.

But aside from their children being geniuses, they had only one other thing in common—missing school supplies. In the case of Tina in California, it was some iPads and crayons. Lori in South Carolina, bottles of bleach, drawing paper and reusable straws.

And according to the school secretaries from each school, they hadn’t paid a great deal of attention to the missing items until after the children were gone.

Marty put her hand on my back. “Wanda, you’re exhausted. You’ve been up since five this morning. Maybe a quick catnap is in order before we go to the school to talk with Agnew and Cooper?”

We’d asked Cooper and Agnew to take a moment to meet us at the school, even though it was a Sunday.

I scrubbed my weary eyes, letting my head rest in the cradle of my arms. “No more than you. I’ll be fine. I can’t close my eyes without hearing that child calling for help anyway.” Yawning, I asked, “Did you talk to Naida about the missing supplies?”

“I did, and as per usual, Neerie never said anything about school supplies gone missing, or aliens, for that matter. I think Neerie kept things close to her vest because Naida was always calling her crazy.”

“Crazy like a fox,” I muttered. “I don’t think she was all that crazy, Marty. I think the missing children, the school supplies, this alien, and Neerie’s disappearance are all connected. I feel it.”

Nina rolled up behind me in her office chair and put her chin on my shoulder. “Then let’s figure out how the fuck this is all connected. I say we go talk to Agnew and Cooper and see if they’ve seen any aliens as of late.”

“I say yes, but let’s grab something to-go for breakfast first, okay? Maybe stop at Susie’s for a steak-and-egg sandwich? Agnew and Cooper won’t be there until eight, right? And you need to fuel up for energy,” Marty suggested with a smile.

Despite the fact that we’d been up late into the night, she looked fresh as a daisy dressed in bellbottom jeans and a belted sweater, her hair in a messy bun with big gold hoop earrings.

I, on the other hand, was a rumpled mess. Under any other circumstance, I would insist on a freshly ironed top, but I was too tired to care.

Still, my stomach grumbled at the suggestion. “That sounds delightfully yummy. Let’s do it.”

On the ride over, I requested quiet so I could gather my thoughts and clear my brain’s cobwebs.

If someone at those schools was snatching children and the missing school supplies were connected, how were they connected? Was the kidnapper supplying kids with crayons and bleach? Why was someone kidnapping children, anyway? Genius children, no less.

Supplies. Supplies. Supplies. That word was driving me out of my mind.

“I have to go back to the supply closet,” I said out loud, before I could catch myself.

“Um, no,” Nina said, that authoritarian tone in her voice. “We don’t know why the fuck you disappeared after you went into the supply closet.”

“Well, if the supply closet is the key, we can’t let anyone else go in there.”

“Wanda, we talked about this last night. What if you get back to wherever you went and can’t get back here?”

I looked out the window as we pulled into a parking space in town, the slushy snow growling beneath the tires of the SUV. “It’s not like the door to Narnia, Marty.”

She turned in the passenger seat, her eyes angry. “You know what? You don’t know that! Bigfoot is real, Wanda! Aliens might be real! Who’s to say there isn’t a door to Narnia? Did you just fall off the turnip truck? Are you just now joining us in the year of our Lord 2025? We’ve been to Hell, Wanda. Hell! ” she bellowed in my face. “What in all of what makes you think the supply closet couldn’t lead to Narnia? Or wherever? You absolutely are not going in there again!”

Nina gripped Mary’s shoulder. “Marty, easy does it, Blondie. I won’t let her go back there alone, okay? We’re all tired. We’re all stressed because this involves kids, but yelling at each other isn’t going to do shit. Everybody take a beat and everyone who can breathe, take a breath.”

I blinked. “Was that Nina being the voice of reason?” I craned my neck to look out the window, cocking my ear. “Is that the sound of hooves? Could it be the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse here to end our misery at long last?”

Marty began to giggle. “You joke, but they’re probably real, too.”

“Shut the fuck up, Wanda. Somebody has to keep you two hysterical hens from pecking each other to death. I talked to Principal Mathers this morning. I put on my best manners and told her no one was to go into that supply closet until we could figure out what the hell’s going on. I even suggested she cancel school tomorrow as a just in case. She didn’t love that idea, but ask me if I give a ripe shit. So no one’s going in the closet for now, okay? We go in together or we don’t go in at all.”

Marty’s lips mirrored mine. Thinning and angry.

“Oh, knock it off, you two, and make nice. Neither one of you would survive a trip to the damn discount outlet without the other. Quit freaking out and go get something to eat. That always soothes your savage beasts.”

When we both stubbornly remained silent and seated, she growled, her eyes narrowing at us both. “Get the fuck out of this damn car and go get the food I can’t even eat. I’ll wait here to savor the fucking smells of a bacon, egg and cheese I’ll never be able to have again. Now git!”

The ice broken, we laughed, leaving the SUV and heading into Susie’s Bistro, a cute café with a big picture window, the name of the eatery in pink and gold lettering painted on the glass.

I loved the crisp white tablecloths and the flameless candles on the tables. The small stem vases with fresh flowers in the middle of winter.

Marty leaned into me as we waited in line to place our orders. “You know, has it occurred to you that aside from the dark paranormal web, no one’s said boo at your school about these missing children? You’d think they’d want everyone on high alert at every paranormal school.”

I made a face of disgust. “You know what they’re like in our world. Everything’s a big secret. They probably didn’t want every paranormal parent on the planet to lose their minds and go on a killing spree. You know there are some ancients who strike first, ask questions later. But I can tell you this—I’m disgusted. I don’t know if hearing about these poor children sooner would have helped, but it would have been nice to have options. We might have been a day earlier in following this lead on Neerie.”

Susie herself greeted us at the counter. When she leaned over the marble surface, her smile became a look of concern. “I don’t mean to eavesdrop, but I heard you mention Mrs. Lincoln. I mean, Neerie. She’s a regular here, every morning, Monday through Sunday. She orders a half-caf Americano and a blueberry parfait. But I haven’t seen her in a few days. Is she all right?”

Here’s where things got sticky. We couldn’t tell her Neerie was missing. Who knows if she’d go to the human police out of concern. We didn’t need that on top of everything else.

I put a hand to her forearm. “She’s a friend of mine—another home-school mom. I was just mentioning a lesson plan I’d like to borrow from her.”

I didn’t necessarily lie, but I didn’t exactly tell the truth.

Susie appeared relieved, the short fringe of her bangs bouncing against her forehead as she nodded. “Oh, phew. After her last visit a few days ago—Wednesday, I think it was—I was worried she was in some kind of trouble.”

Marty’s head tilted. Tucking her purse under her arm, she asked with innocence in her tone, “What makes you say that?”

Susie exhaled, leaning her elbows on the counter, her playful blue eyes, normally cheerful, clouding. “She was on the phone with someone, and she was very angry. I only heard a little bit of the call. I didn’t listen on purpose, but it was hard not to hear her. She was pretty loud when she said—and I know this is going to sound crazy—something about a vampire, a werewolf, and a witch. Sounds like a book or something, doesn’t it?”

She was talking about the missing children. My hands went clammy, my mouth dry, but I managed to unstick my tongue from the roof of my mouth. “Did she say anything else?”

Susie cocked her head, cupping her chin in her hand. “Yeah. She did. She said, ‘I’m telling you, it’s in the basement.’ Then she said something about kids, and the last thing she said was, ‘I took its picture. It’s real and it’s in the basement. I saw its eyes.’”

We looked at one another, our eyes wide. The alien? Did she mean the alien ? She took the picture of the alien, it’s real, and it’s in the basement?

Marty gripped my arm, but she managed to stay quite calm. “How interesting, Susie. Anything else?”

The woman snarfed. “Isn’t that enough? I mean, seriously, vampires and werewolves aren’t real.” Then she flapped her hands. “Anyway, what can I get you lovely ladies?”

As we placed our orders, my head buzzed and my gut clenched. We needed to find out who Neerie had talked to that day.

The morning she disappeared.

* * *

I shoveled my egg and cheese on a bagel into my face as we raced to the school.

“Tottington says there were no outgoing calls on her phone that day. So who the fuck did she talk to before she lost her phone in the woods?”

“I have no idea, vampire. Maybe she deleted the call? Maybe whoever took her deleted it?”

“You know, I’ve been thinking about Neerie’s phone. It seems like she lost it when she was snatched, but if that’s what happened…why wouldn’t they take her phone, too? I mean, it’s evidence, right?”

“There could be a million reasons why, Marty,” I said around my last bite of bagel. “Maybe they didn’t know she had it with her? Maybe she didn’t realize she’d dropped it? Maybe whoever this is doesn’t give a whit about her phone because no one can seem to figure out who’s taking these kids to begin with? We’re paranormal, for Pete’s sake, and no one smelled anything. No traces, no leads, remember?”

Nina swerved into the parking lot of the school as a fresh batch of snow began to fall. “So we think there’s an alien snatching kids and school supplies, Neerie found out and was going to fuck everything up, so it took her, too? And it’s in a basement that doesn’t exist?”

I’d texted Principal Mathers and asked if there was a basement we didn’t know about, but she claimed there was no basement at Paranormal and Gifted.

“That’s the only piece of this I don’t get. What basement was she talking about?”

And then like a ton of bricks, a thought hit me. “The school is only about twenty years old, right? Before they established the school and glamoured it so humans couldn’t see it then renovated it, it was a series of factories. They got in there and connected the buildings for a more cohesive structure. What if…”

“What if there was a basement in one of the factories?” Marty shouted.

Nina pressed a button on the dashboard and called Tottington. “Tater?”

“Yes, Dark Lord, how may I serve you today?” he said, his words cultured and riddled with sarcasm.

She grinned as she slammed on the brakes. “Do me a skinny, find out if Sammy and Olivia’s school had a basement at one time. It used to be a factory?—”

“A series of apparel manufacturing factories!” I yelled.

“You think you can find blueprints for it, Tater?”

His answer crackled through the car. “I shall search high and low. Have we a breakthrough?”

“I’ll let you know as soon as I know, buddy. Gotta run.” Nina made a smooching sound and hung up.

We all jumped out of the car, racing toward the front doors of the school, where Agnew and Cooper waited for us in the lobby.

I rushed to Agnew, my stomach in a knot. “Mr. Yannis, Cooper, thank you so much for coming in on a Sunday.”

Agnew raised a dismissive hand. “Not a problem, Mrs. Jefferson. How can I help?” he asked, his eyes crinkling at the corners as he smiled, running his thumbs under his overall straps.

“I’m going to be as direct as I can because we’re in a bit of a pickle. Did Mrs. Lincoln ever accuse you of stealing school supplies?”

Before he could open his mouth to answer, Cooper spoke, his eyes angry, his words tight. “You bet she did! I don’t know if she’s your friend, but she’s not a very nice person. Why would Mr. Yannis steal paper towels from the school?”

Mr. Yannis slapped Cooper on his thin back with a chuckle. “Down there, boy. It’s okay. We worked it out. She did think I was stealing paper towels, and some other stuff, too. A chemistry book and ammonia or something, but I don’t have the key to the supply closet, and I don’t have it for a reason—because I’m always losin’ it. Might be gettin’ time for me to retire.”

But it was unlocked when I’d checked it…

Marty crossed her arms over her chest. “Who has the key?”

He clicked his tongue, running a hand over his face. “Mrs. Sampson. She opens it so I can get what I need, and then she locks it back up again. I kept losin’ it, so I asked her to keep it in her desk.”

Mrs. Sampson? She wasn’t an alien. She was a ghoul. “Did Mrs. Sampson ever tell you where the missing supplies went?”

Cooper stood up straight. “She didn’t know, either, but she told Mrs. Lincoln that Mr. Yannis couldn’t be stealing stuff because she had the only key. Then she asked Mrs. Lincoln if she was accusing her of stealing the stuff.”

Nina grunted. “What did Mrs. Lincoln say?”

“She got mad,” Agnew said. “Real mad. Said she was only asking because it might be important evidence. We didn’t know what the heck that meant, but she stormed off and that was that.”

Leaning against the concrete block wall, my adrenaline kicked into high gear. I was exhausted moments ago, but now, I was wide awake.

Evidence . She was looking for evidence. “When did that happen, Mr. Yannis?”

He shrugged, scrubbing a hand over the top of his head. “’Bout a week or so ago, I guess.”

Marty put a hand on Agnew’s arm. “Did she ever talk to you about anything strange going on here at the school?”

He squinted his eyes, scratching his jaw. “Strange? Nope. She was just upset about the school supplies. I don’t even know why she cared about the supplies, truth be told.”

Nina clapped Cooper on the back. “How about you, Cooper? Ever see or hear anything weird with Mrs. Lincoln?”

The young man shook his head. “Not weird, I guess, but she was always complaining and reporting people for stuff, if that counts.”

“Mr. Yannis, you’ve been under the employ of the school for a while. Have you ever heard of there being a basement in the school?” I asked.

He made a confused face. “A basement? No, ma’am. Never heard that.”

Dang it all.

Tucking my purse over my shoulder, I smiled at him, squeezing his forearm. “Thank you, Mr. Yannis, Cooper. Thank you for taking your time out on a Sunday to come talk to us. If you can think of anything else, please contact me, will you?”

“Sure, Mrs. Jefferson.” The old janitor began to walk away, but then he stopped. “Hey, is everything all right with you ladies? Anything I can help with?”

I smiled at him. “No, Mr. Yannis. But thank you. Go enjoy your Sunday.”

Both he and Cooper made their way out of the school, pushing open the double doors and heading into the cold morning.

We all looked at each other in total silence.

“She was looking for evidence,” Marty murmured.

Nina’s phone chirped then. Tottington’s familiar ringtone, “My Guy,” squawking in her back pocket. Dragging her cell from her hoodie, she read the text. “Holy shit!” She used her fingers to enlarge a pic he’d sent. “Welp, the factory did have a basement. That must be what Wings meant. The basement is here. The only trouble is, they damn well covered it up. It’s right beneath our feet.”

Gasping, Marty looked at the picture. “Holy cats,” she mumbled. “That has to be it! But how does that pertain to the missing children and, for that matter, missing supplies? You can’t get to the basement from up here. It’s under thousands of pounds of concrete.”

I looked at them. “There’s only one way to find out. Supply closet?”

Nina’s finger shot up in the air. “Hold on one fucking second, Wanda. I don’t want to beat a dead horse, but you don’t know what you did in that supply closet that landed you where you ended up. What if you or any of us can’t get back here because the same thing happens to us?”

I felt my fear and my anger shoot straight toward the sky. “What if there’s a child who needs us and we’re busy fiddling around with what-ifs?”

Marty stomped her foot, the heel of her boot slapping the floor, leaving an echo in my ears. “Wanda, we need to understand what happened to you and make sure it’s safe to go find this child you say you heard. I’m with Nina on this. We’re no good to anyone if we end up missing, too!”

“So who do we call to investigate this, ladies? Ghostbusters? The Supply Closet Police?” I began to walk away from them, on fire with the need to go back to the supply closet.

That had to be the key here.

“Aw, c’mon, Wanda!” Nina called after me. “Don’t be like that. We’re just lookin’ out. You’d do the same.”

Whirling around, even though I knew she was right, I shook a finger at them. “I almost don’t know you two right now! Since when have we ever been afraid to walk into a dangerous situation? Since when ? I know these children are somehow connected to Neerie’s disappearance. I know I heard a child cry out for help. I’m not going to avoid going to the big bad supply closet just because it’s scary!” I yelled.

Marty trailed after me. I heard the restraint in her voice as she tried to keep her tone even and calming. “It has nothing to do with it being scary, Wanda. It has to do with maybe ending up somewhere we can’t get back from—which helps no one. We need a plan. A better one than just rushing into the abyss of the unknown.”

I said something then, something borne out of fear and exhaustion and acute frustration. Something I regret deeply.

“As I live and breathe, I never thought I’d see the day when you both think we should wait to save a child! You’re both monsters!”

Nina was in front of me in a flash, her fangs elongated, her eyes afire. “Goddammit, Wanda, I’d punch you in your perfect face right now if I didn’t know you just said that because you’re tired and bitchy! You know me as well as anybody, and you fucking know there’s no way I’d ever let a kid suffer on purpose—and neither would Marty! What a shitty thing to say to us.”

But in the moment, I was so angry at what I perceived as their lack of bravery, I walked around Nina and made my way down the hall, head held high.

“Wanda!” Marty shouted, her voice bouncing off the lockers. All restraint gone. “Do not go to that supply closet or I’ll take you out myself!”

I stopped at the end of the hall and pivoted, my eyes narrowed so they’d know there was no doubt I was angry. “I’m going to use the ladies’ room, if you don’t mind. I mean, the kids can wait, right?”

“I’m gonna kill her, Marty!” Nina bellowed as I entered the girls’ bathroom, letting the door cut off Nina’s threats.

I gripped the sink’s edge, my head throbbing, my thoughts a swirling mess.

I shouldn’t have said that to Nina. I know how much she loves children, how she’d lay her own life down for one. I was cruel in my frustration and I won’t excuse it. I owed her an apology.

I flipped on the tap to splash some cool water on my face and adjust my attitude when a text came in that made me smile. It was from Principal Mathers. Sam’s test results had come in from the board of the council members here at the school, and as I read them, it was no surprise to me to learn he was in the top one percent of all paranormals tested.

He’d be so pleased, and I could really use the good news right now. I couldn’t wait to get home and tell him. There’d be no living with him, but I wanted him to stay excited about learning and if giving him more challenging work was the key, I say unlock that door.

Washing my hands, letting the cool water cascade over my heated skin, I was taking some deep, cleansing breaths when my phone rang.

I smiled again because it was my husband, who always made me smile. I rushed to dry off and clicked the answer button.

“Hi, honey! How’s your day going?”

Wanda! Listen closely to me,” my handsome husband all but demanded, pausing then, which felt odd, as though he was trying to gather the nerve to tell me something…

At first, I thought it sounded like the time he called me when we were on an OOPS case and Olivia had used a sharpie to make her eyebrows look like Auntie Marty’s.

But this pause felt bigger.

My vision narrowed to the green tiled wall above the hand towel dispenser. Something was wrong. Something was horribly wrong. I knew Heath well enough to know as much by his tone. Also, he almost never called me Wanda unless he was proving a point or annoyed with me.

My mouth went dry. “What’s wrong, Heath?”

“Sammy’s missing!”

Remember when I said my heart chugs rather than speeds up when I’m upset or afraid? Not this time. This time, it raced like it was entering the Kentucky Derby.

“What?” I almost screamed.

But he didn’t have time to answer—because in that instant, I was no longer in the girls’ bathroom.

I was once again in the place Nina told me I couldn’t go because I might not ever come back—and it had nothing to do with the supply closet.

Shows you how much she knows.