The Unskillful Thaumaturge

XIII

"Your what?"

"Never mind," Ashley said almost too quickly. "I'll call you when they leave."

Thanks.

"No problem," she replied. And then, as abruptly as she had called, she hung up.

Dakota had learned several things from the call. First, that the key was at the DIAO building; second, that they were on his track and making a good deal of progress (at least they thought so); and lastly, that Ashley was hiding something from him.

And he had a feeling that whatever she was hiding was extremely important.

☙❧

Needless to say, Galena had never dug up a dead body before, and she wasn't sure if she should be anxious or excited. How exactly was it going to work? Would they have to dig, or would Diane or Rolf have hired someone to do it for them? What kind of clues might they find if they did a DNA test on the dead kid? Suddenly she was snapped out of her reverie by the sound of her mother's voice.

"Do you want me to drop you at work early, dearie, or go the long way around?" Her mother was engaged in pulling out of the apartment parking lot as carefully as possible.

"Drop me early." Galena sighed. Twenty-two years old and she was still a "dearie". Who knew?

"Okay. So what are you doing at work today? Wait, why are you even going to work?"

"It's kind of an important day, and everyone wanted to come- we're digging up graves," Galena answered matter-of-factly. She figured her mother would probably think she was joking and just go along with it.

"What kind of graves?"

"Graves with dead people in them." Galena was trying to be as vague as possible.

"What kind of dead people?" Ashley reached forward to fiddle with the radio.

"People that have been dead longer than they've been alive." This was the best answer Galena could come up with. She carefully omitted that she had been messing with the radio during the weekend and had figured out a way to temporarily shut it off so she felt safer with her mother driving.

"How long have they been dead?"

"Come on, Mom, do you think I'm actually digging up graves at work?"

"Well, you never know," Ashley responded peevishly, possibly a result of Galena "deceiving" her.

"Wow, you're really gullible."

Her mother gave no indication of responding. When they finally reached the DIAO offices, Galena was surprised to see a dark blue minivan parked outside the doors. Derek waved her over from the driver's seat.

"What's going on out there?" Ashley wondered.

"Nothing you should know about," her daughter responded immediately, jumping out of the car and heading for the minivan. "See you!" she called over her shoulder.

She was a few steps from the minivan when the second-row door opened and Rolf poked his head out. "Hey, get in, I saved a seat for you." Galena thanked him gratefully and climbed into one of the second-row seats. Rolf sat down in the other.

"Road trip!" Evan called, poking his head around the side of the passenger's seat. "All right back there, Janelle?"

"I guess so," came the response. Galena turned halfway around, mimicking Evan's pose, and saw what the trouble was. Janelle was squeezed in the middle of the backseat between Erica, who seemed to be attempting to take up as much room as possible without slouching in the least, and Diane, who was gazing out the window longingly as if she was trying to escape the stuffy confines of the minivan. "You're the last here," Rolf informed her. "Last to hear my news." He tried to look mysterious but ended up wiggling his eyebrows in a rather undignified fashion.

"What is it?" Galena seemed somewhat curious.

"Oh, nothing important, just that I found a pretty big clue."

☙❧

"I really do think the entire purpose of some of these clues is just to confuse us," Erica complained from the back of the group. "I don't see why his face would be there."

"Well, all I can tell you is what I saw," Rolf refuted, annoyed.

"You said you saw the dead kid's face in the recording as one of the two people? How old did he look?" Diane asked.

"About the same age as what Lillian was saying."

"Perfect. This makes total sense," Evan muttered loud enough for everyone to hear. The group was headed for the graveyard, and (as ominous as it sounded) most of them were expecting another confusing clue.

As it turned out, Diane had in fact hired a digging service, and the final layer- to put it delicately- would be waiting for them once they climbed to the top of the hill. Galena was the first to make it to the top and to notice the coffin neatly laid out next to where she stood.

"Who's going to do the honors?" There was an edge of discomfort in Janelle's voice as she watched the digging crew drive away the way they had come. Galena raised her eyebrows- apparently the diggers hadn't taken the day off.

"God, you're all such wimps," Erica muttered (though Rolf wasn't sure if she was talking about their reluctance to handle the coffin or their similar reluctance to use any thaumaturgy). She carefully pried the lid off, levitating it above the forbidding box. Evan was the first to look in, bracing himself for an unsavory sight, anything but what he saw.

"There's nothing here!" Derek cried, half astonished, half annoyed. "What are we supposed to get from this?"

"Careful, Derek, look again," Rolf said, reaching in and pulling out a small piece of green plastic. The shape of it made it seem like two circular halves folded together on a hinge, and one half had a lip running around what he assumed was the inside. "Do you know what this is?"

Leaning over to see it better, Derek shook his head. Galena answered for him.

"That is- or was once, I guess, a case."

"For what?" Rolf seemed somewhat puzzled.

"A hand mirror."