"All I'm saying," I said as we left the burger joint we'd stopped in for a late lunch, "is that maybe we shouldn't have promised to find Esperanza off the bat like that. I mean, cops get in trouble on Law and Order for promising absolutes to people. You're supposed to dance around it. Vague promises."
She shot me another dark look. "What was I supposed to say?" she snapped.
"'We'll do the best that we can'," I suggested. "Or, 'we'll do everything in our power to find her,' but just promising we will find her might not have been the smartest move. Now they'll expect us to."
She slid into the passenger's seat and slammed the door before I reached the driver's side. Great. Day One and I was already her least favorite employee.
At least she had the decency to wait for me to click in my seat belt before she started in on me. "We are going to find her though. I'm sure of it. I've got you and Noah in my corner. Not to mention we've got Cyril and Oliver to help us out if we need it. That's two psychics and two ghosts here. We've got this."
"There you go again," I mumbled under my breath.
She must have heard me. Or heard the sarcasm in my tone. "Just drive."
And drive I did.
Up until I parked beside Noah's massive black pickup in the high school's parking lot.
It was my turn to scowl as I watched through my window as he opened his door and stepped out. I turned my glare back on Rose.
She shrugged. "He teaches kids. He might know how to talk to these."
"He teaches fourth grade."
"Seriously, how much mental development occurs between fourth grade and sophomores?"
She hopped out of the car, her mood visibly brightening with each step she took toward him. Similarly, he smiled when she came around the car and into view. Like an actual, genuine, almost sweet-looking smile.
God, I hated him. But at least they made each other happy.
The three of us headed inside.
We'd called the school office and asked if it would be alright for us to speak with Esperanza Gomez's friends after school ended for the day. We'd figured they'd all be together—that was our best chance to speak with them at once.
The underpaid, overworked secretary had heard we were involved in the case. And had incorrectly assumed we were related to the police in some manner. I mean, that made more sense than her mind automatically jumping to the ghost-based case her mother had actually hired us for.
She'd even offered to get them all together after the last bell for us after we'd given her their names. To make it easier on us.
When we walked into the main office, the secretary looked up from the computer and frowned. "You're the ones that called?"
"Yes ma'am."
Her frown deepened. "You look so young."
"Think of it as relatable," I interrupted, gesturing down at my clothes. "Uniforms are a turn off, don't you think?"
Technically, none of that had been a lie.
Her frown lessened somewhat. Then her phone rang and it was back. Only, not directed toward us. She waved us back out through the front doors. "They're in the library across the hall. The one with the double doors—you can see the library through the windows on either side of the door." Then she snatched up the phone before it rang for a fourth time. "Front office?"
We quickly ducked out and headed to the library.
A wave of silence washed over us as we stepped inside. The kind of silence that you can only find in libraries and churches. A reverent kind of silence.
Which was currently being broken by a giggling gaggle of girls seated around a round study table in the center of the library.
The librarian watched from his spot behind the check-out desk, scowling, with that dagger-glare that seems to be the first thing any librarian learns.
We came closer and one of the girls spotted us. She elbowed another girl, which turned out to be a boy, with his deceptively long hair and skinny frame. One by one, they elbowed each other until the gaggle turned silent and the librarian closed his eyes in relief.
"I'm Rose," she said, introducing herself with a half-wave, "and this is Stella, and Noah. We'd like to ask you some questions about Esperanza, if we can."
The leader gave a flippant flick of her long blonde hair, brushing it back over her shoulder.
I could tell she was the leader because she sat in the center, the others fanning out around her. Because she kept eye contact with Rose, even as the others looked down or away. And because she wore a T-shirt with bee sporting a magnificent crown on the front.
Great. I hadn't clicked with prima donnas then, I wasn't going to start clicking with them now.
She opened her mouth to respond and I braced myself for girly chic.
"Absolutely, though, I have to admit, your quaint trinity hardly signals law enforcement. You aren't with the police, are you?"
Huh. Not girly chic...more like...nerd.
I blinked, confused. Because she didn't look like a nerd.
But she sounded like a nerd.
She just didn't look like a nerd.
I blinked again.
And Noah, of all people, came to the rescue. "We're in the private sector, actually. Mrs. Gomez hired us to work in conjunction with the police."
Queen Bee nodded. "Makes sense, I suppose. Mrs. Gomez was distraught. I could easily conceive her hiring additional aid."
What was happening?
"A smart move, considering. Not one I would have anticipated from Esperanza's mother."
Wait, what?
"Meaning?" Rose pressed.
Queen Bee shrugged. "I love Esperanza. Desperately. But she's not the brightest bulb, if you know what I mean."
I frowned, the picture of her winning first place in the science fair practically burning in my pocket. "Her mother and sister might disagree," I said.
"As biased family members are wont to do," she answered. More of her silk blonde hair had slid in front of her shoulder and she flipped it back again. "Esperanza is a follower. Not cut out for complexity or independence. As a friend, I'm able to more accurately see her true character."
Ok, here was the bullying. Not over the physical, which I'd anticipated, but over the intellectual. Queen Bee thought she was a smart cookie. And, because obviously smarts could only be grouped in a hierarchy incapable of multiple people being smart at once, that meant that Esperanza was belittled. Because Queen Bee was the smart cookie. And there could be only one.
God, why was high school modeled after Highlander?
I extended my hand. "I'm sorry, I don't think I quite caught your name."
Noah took a step forward. Maybe to interrupt. Maybe to smack my hand down.
I'll never know because Queen Bee slid her hand into mine and gave it a solid shake before he could. "Veronica Reese."
She'd been at the top of the list. The first name Camilla had written down.
"Tell me, Veronica Reese, what happened when you went out to Hell's Gate that night."
And she started to sing. No, not like real singing. But she told me everything.
Because I'd used her name. And I'd layered my power in it. She didn't have a choice.
No one else heard the power layering my words. No one except Noah, another psychic. And I could feel his disapproval as he glared into my back.
Not that it mattered. Veronica Reese was giving us everything.
"We went out there on Wednesday evening, a little after ten. We had time to kill and not enough monetary funds for all of us to go to a movie or out to dinner. Someone had brought it up as a joke and it had spiraled into all seven of us actually loading into Jake's car and driving out there."
The others in the group looked at her with emotions ranging from confusion to panic. The one I'd mistaken for a girl, Jake, flinched at the mention of his name.
"We spent maybe an hour out there before we began daring each other to go off alone. We timed how long they could handle being isolated before fear or panic set in. Esperanza went last. I could tell she was scared. She kept mentioning how her sister had told her the stories of the ghosts haunting Hell's Gate. But we pressured her into going off into the woods on her own. And she did."
Even Veronica looked somewhat confused by her own confession. Imagine that.
"She disappeared into the trees. It was dark so the light of our phone flashlights only went so far. She vanished into the dark quickly enough and then it grew quiet. I timed her, expecting her to return at any moment, but she didn't. When she managed to even beat Jocelyn's winning time, we all decided to go in after her.
"And we searched. But we couldn't find her. No trace of her remained. We hadn't heard any screaming—we weren't making much noise, certainly not enough to drown out shouting. Neither had we heard branches snapping underfoot from running. Just silence."
"What did you do next?" Rose asked.
Veronica shrugged. "We searched for maybe thirty minutes,calling out for her. We returned to thevehicle and called the police. They came. They searched. No Esperanza."