Page 32 of Dead and Gone

"Marvin had eyes in his last post," says Leif gruffly.

I shift to face Dale. "Look at me."

"No. You'll use that mind-reading shit."

"With that comment, you've confirmed you're lying," I say with a smile.

"I need the bathroom," mutters Kai.

"Excitement too much for you, huh?" asks Leif.

"A vampire girl just scared the shit out of me."

Ugh."I do hope that isn't a literal comment."

"There're bathrooms adjacent to the center." Kai points. "Not exactly pleasant, but I can't wait."

"Don't disappear."

"I'm not disappearing!" he protests and scoots away toward the bathrooms.

I shake my head. "Leif. Watch in case Kai absconds."

Sighing, Leif ambles after Kai, who does indeed appear desperate for relief as he rushes inside the block holding the bathrooms.

More shoes sound in the graveled car park, and I look around.

"Fuck!" breathes out Dale, and before I can turn back to him, he snatches the mole from me and scarpers into the woods.

Rowan makes to follow, but as the figure approaches, I grab Rowan's arm to stop him. "No," I whisper. "You won't catch Dale, and if this person is who I think, running away will imply guilt."

As I suspected, the curator, wearing a padded green jacket, is the one who emerges from the night and haughtily stalks over, darting a look between us and the direction in which Dale ran.

"Good evening," I say lightly. "Any reason you've decided to take a nighttime walk to the location of the blackmail plot? We were here to retrieve the mole for you. Don't you trust my abilities?"

"No. I don't trustyou," he says. "I wanted to catch you all. Iknewyou were in on this. Someone saw you with the Sawyer kid and his mates at the cafe. He stole the mole, didn't he?"

"Good grief," I retort. "I'd never join forces with imbeciles, and Itoldyou that I'd find your exhibit in return for information held inside the museum. Why interfere?"

Oh.

A thought strikes.

Does the curator not wantmeto handle the mole?

"I'm here because the longer the mole is out of the museum, the more chance the exhibit could get damaged. I justknewsomeone would bring the mole here tonight. Give it to me."

Damaged.

"The boy who ran has the mole still."

"You didn't stop him!" shouts the curator.

"Excuse your tone, but you interrupted, Mr. Wright. I was on the verge of apprehending the teens and retrieving your mole." I thin my lips. "You should not have requested my help if you were going to interfere."

"Get me that godforsaken mole tonight or I'm reporting you all for blackmail!" he yells. "This exhibitmustgo back to the museum before anything untoward happens."

"And I shall meet you there later this evening, with the mole," I say calmly.

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