Page 32 of The Vampire and the Case of the Perilous Poltergeist

Chapter 26

Connor told me what he knew about the missing recruit. Liam Smith had been a supernat from Ugiuvak, the other supernat town. I blinked at that: Danny worked for the Nomo’s office there so hemusthave heard about Liam going missing.

Occasionally Danny had seemed so incredibly competent and knowledgeable that I’d thought that he really didn’t need the academy except for some rubber stamping. Was he here to dig into Liam’s disappearance? His weird reaction in the mine suddenly had a whole new meaning and questioning Danny moved high up my to-do list.

My mind was whirling when I said goodbye to Connor and hustled off to join Marks’ next class: he’d forgive me being late because he knew I’d had to deal with my dog. I slid in at the back of the room and forced myself to focus. The class was interesting but I was still relieved when it ended because questions were burning a hole in my brain.

The room emptied quickly as everyone rushed to lunch. I signalled for Sidnee to stay behind so I could tell her and Marks about Petty. When I recounted the episode with Petty, Marks looked grim. ‘I’ve found a forensic accountant, someone discreet. They’ll fly in tonight,’ he said softly. He looked around to double-check that everyone else had gone. ‘Captain Engell is teaching after lunch, so I’ll try to sneak into his office then and look around.’

‘Shouldn’t we wait for the accountant?’ I asked.

‘I probably won’t recognize anything, but it might be my only chance to dig into Petrovich’s file. At the very least I can take some photos of the financial files for the accountant in case we can’t sneak him into the office. That will be difficult because Captain Engell has been staying up late to catch up on the books.’

‘When does he leave his office?’ Sidnee asked.

Sergeant Marks shrugged. ‘He says around ten. I’m usually gone by then, so I don’t know precisely.’

I knew that because we wrapped up our supernat classes with Sergeant Marks at nine. Regardless of his plans, I was rapidly forming my own. Marks hadn’t mentioned Liam Smith going missing – maybe he didn’t know. Either way, it was time for a vampire and her mermaid sidekick to snoop around after lights out. Okay, at first blush the mermaid thing didn’t seem ideal, but Sidnee could turn her eyes black so she could see in the dark depths of the sea; her night vision was excellent, which made her the perfect lookout.

Marks continued. ‘I guess we’ll worry about it if I can’t find anything.’ He sighed.

I had one last question. ‘Did you know someone called Liam Smith?’ I asked casually.

‘Sure, he was one of the supernat recruits last year.’ He looked disappointed. ‘I thought the lad had potential but he droppedout. Not everyone can handle the pressure. Still, it’s better that they find out here than after they’re sworn in.’

I smiled. ‘You’re right, I’m sure. Well, let us know how you get on with the accountant,’ I said firmly. ‘We’re leaving it in your hands.’ Like heck we were.

As we left. Sidnee slid me a sidelong glance. ‘We’re not leaving it in his hands?’

I grinned. ‘Nope.’

‘Who’s Liam Smith?’

I filled her in on what Connor had told me as we hustled up to our room so I could grab some gazpacho blood to guzzle before lunch. ‘You don’t trust Marks?’ Sidnee asked as I glugged down my coppery meal.

I wiped my mouth. ‘It’s not that I don’t trusthim,it’s more that I don’t trust anyone right now. All we know is that someone is trying to destroy the academy. Petty died here, and Liam disappeared. Sergeant Marks brought up the financial angle. He might be right – it could be embezzlement and maybe Engelliscooking the books. We need to check if he was a temporary TAC officer when Liam Smith was here. I don’t know what’s going on yet, but I think the answers are in that office, the one the poltergeist hit first. I’m going in tonight. Are you game?’

She nodded firmly. ‘Absolutely. I’m your ride or die. Something is fishy, and not in a tasty way. I’m with you on this – I’m not sure who to trust, apart from you. I’m doubly not sure about an outside accountant because that could be another way to throw us off the scent. The accountant might tell us everything is hunky-dory when it isn’t.’

‘I hear you. Tonight, then?’

‘Tonight,’ she agreed. Her tummy let out a long rumble, making me giggle.

‘Hungry, Sid?’

‘Shut up!’ She nudged me. ‘Not all of us get tasty snacks in a fancy fridge! Teacher's pet!’

I snickered. ‘It’s not so much that I’m a teacher's pet, rather that Fischer doesn't want me to go into a bloodlust state and kill everyone. Small things like that.’

‘Yeah, that would be frowned on. Best keep the vamp fed.’ With that decided, we headed to lunch.

It felt like a long time until lights-out, especially as we were stressing about getting caught, but we needed our shot at that office. Even if we didn’t understand the financial documents, we needed to determine who was trying to harm the academy. Aoife had said someone didn’t have the academy’s interests at heart, but what exactly did that mean? I hoped we’d find a clue; any clue would do.

I felt completely blind, like I was stumbling into who knew what, and I hated feeling ignorant. It wasn’t something I’d experienced often because my prodigious memory allowed me to recall everything. With the added complication of Liam Smith’s disappearance, the stakes had suddenly risen. Two recruits had vanished, and though Petrovich had been found he was dead. My stomach clenched. It didn’t bode well for Smith.

I spent the day trying to get Danny on his own to question him about Liam Smith but someone was always around and I didn’t want to raise their suspicions. I’d told Sidnee I didn’t trust anyone, though that wasn’t strictly true: I trusted her and I thought I trusted Danny. He’d always had my back where Thorsen was concerned and he’d called out Polk when he’d bullied Jones, not to mention lending me his handkerchief whenmy nose was bleeding like Niagara Falls. Annoyingly, I still hadn’t managed to get it laundered and return it to him. I was carrying around the thing like a bloody memento, but at that moment laundry was low on my list of priorities.

Engell’s afternoon class was as boring as his others had been he was dull as dishwater though he seemed competent and friendly enough. As class ended, he called out, ‘Barrington, see me after class.’

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