Page 26 of Shadow Seeking

“I also know that you’re the owner of Shadow Blade Investigations. I assume you’re here at Angela’s bequest?” He propped his elbows on his desk and folded his hands, resting his chin on them.

I stared at him. Sometimes, it was better to come clean. “Yeah, pretty much. Do you mind?”

He sat back then, shaking his head. “No, I don’t. I would have appreciated you being totally upfront about it, though.”

I thought about the unexplained deaths and missing students. “There’s a good reason why I wasn’t. But now you know, and I hope you’ll decide to help us out. Angela says her sister isn’t the type to throw herself out of a window.”

At that point, Philip Groveletter let out a deep sigh. “To be honest, I feel the same way. But the police found nothing. Do you think you can help?”

I shrugged. “I’m not sure, but I’m willing to try.”

“All right, then tell me, what do you need?” He stood. “Tell me where to begin.”

CHAPTER NINE

Philip—ashe asked me to call him—led me into the principal’s office. “We haven’t touched it since the cops were here. We wanted to allow Letty’s sister to go through it first.” He certainly sounded sad enough about Letty’s death.

“How did Letty get along with the children? And with the other teachers?” I asked, looking around. The window had been boarded over, and the glass cleaned up, but otherwise, the room looked to be untouched. Papers were still on the desk, Letty’s purse and coat were hanging on the coatrack.

“Everybody liked her, including the students. She was strict, but fair. Oh, over the years she had her share of run-ins, mostly with troublemakers that we eventually expelled, but the past year or so? We haven’t had much in the way of issues.” Philip walked over to the boarded-up window. “I can’t believe she threw herself through the window. Of all the ways to go…”

“That’s one of the problems. For one thing, few suicides are committed in this manner. For another, women tend to use pills, or they cut their wrists, or hang themselves. They seldom jump to their deaths. According to Angela, Letty showed none of the usual signs of suicide and she didn’t suffer from depression.”I looked around for signs that the cops had proceeded with a thorough investigation.

“Letty was a bright spot in the day. Regardless of whether she was scolding a student, or making difficult decisions, she always tried to find a positive spin on the issue,” Philip said.

“Did the cops take fingerprints?”

“I don’t think so. They said that with so many students coming in and out, as well as teachers, it wouldn’t be useful. Plus, there’s one thing that I don’t know if Angela told you,” he said. “The room was locked from the inside.”

I froze. “Locked from theinside?”

“Yes, when she fell, we immediately called for help, them came up to find the door locked from the inside.”

“Couldn’t somebody have locked it from the outside to make you think that she’s the one who did it?” I asked.

“Possibly, but there’s a deadbolt on the inside and it was closed. The master key was in the office, with Ms. Jessel, where it belongs. The only other key was in Letty’s possession.”

“Did you check to see if she still had it?” I glanced over at her handbag.

“I assume the police did,” he said.

Some things about this case were not adding up. I walked over to the coat rack and picked up the purse and coat, then sat at the desk and opened the purse. I shook everything out. There was a ring of keys, among a number of other items. As I began to inventory them, I handed the keys to Philip.

“Please check to see if her deadbolt key was there.”

He crossed to the door and began trying to fit the keys to the lock. Meanwhile, I had my list, and so returned everything to the purse except her wallet. I then flipped it open and began to sort through that. There was a hundred dollars and some change, several credit cards, a AAA card, and a health insurance card.

As I examined her desk some more, I noticed something over in the corner—it was palm sized and brown. I knelt and reached for it, and immediately got a jolt. As I picked it up, I knew exactly what it was, though I hadn’t seen one before. It was Letty’s mandrake root. Once again, it zapped me and I dropped it on the desk.

“What the hell…” I gingerly placed my hand on the root again, and once again, felt a shock. “Philip, can you come over here?”

He joined me at the desk. “What is it? A mandrake root?”

“Letty’s was missing from her house. Can you pick this up? It keeps shocking me.”

He cautiously reached for it, then gasped. “It’s been tainted. The energy is all gnarled up. Whatever happened, it tainted the mandrake. I’ve never seen this happen before.” He shook his head. “It must be destroyed.”

“I’ll take it back to the office and we’ll study it, then destroy it.”

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