Page 50 of Wicche Hunt

“Like you said before,” Sofia said to Hernández, “a lot of them ignore us. We go in, clean, and leave, and they never look up from their work. Others, though, will stop what they’re doing to ask how my day’s been, how my kids are doing, what my plans are for break. There are a lot of good people who work here, but not all.”

“That sounds like just about any job,” Hernández said, and both women nodded.

There was a buzz and they both looked at the bands around their left wrists. “Sorry,” Sofia said. “It’s the headmaster. We need to get back to work.”

“Of course,” Hernández said, pulling business cards out of the inside pocket of her blazer. “I don’t want to get either of you in trouble. Thank you so much for speaking with me. If you think of anything—anything at all—that might help my investigation, please contact me. Okay?”

They both studied the cards, nodded, and slipped them into their pockets.

“It was nice meeting you,” I said.

Sofia smiled but Isabel gave me a wary look before they both hurried off down the long hall.

“Let’s head out. I’ve already kept you longer than I intended,” Hernández said, letting me go first down the stairs while she tied together the ends of the police tape I’d snapped.

On the drive home, I rolled down the window. It was a beautiful warm day, and I was very happy to be out of that building. “So, do you think you’ll get to handcuff the headmaster after all?”

The corner of her mouth kicked up. “I’ll look into it, but he doesn’t strike me as someone who wants to invite scandal into his precious school. Firing the dean gets the job done.”

“If he’s allowed to fire him,” I said. “Schools like this have boards or trustees or something. It may not be his call to can the dean.”

“I’ll look into that too. I also really want to talk to Mr. Reed. He’s no longer affiliated with the school and worked there going on twenty years. Hopefully, he can tell me about the power dynamics in the school: grudges, scandals, affairs, bribes. All the things that make people kill.”

“And that building fund,” I added. “What were they really paying for? In the vision, the killer was arguing on behalf of a student the dean was suspending for plagiarism.”

Hernández shook her head. “I’ve got so much bouncing around up there, I forgot to ask you what you saw. Can you run through it for me?”

I did and she pulled over to take a few more notes.

“The dean said,You should know that better than anyone. Is that right?”

“Yup.” I checked the time on my phone and groaned internally. This was taking way too much of the day. I also had a missed call from my mother. Maybe she had the fingerprints for me.

“Odd phrasing, don’t you think?” she asked.

“Yes. He was dismissive of the person—who feels male—that he was talking to. But from what Sofia and Isabel said, he was a pretty cranky guy. The fact that he wasn’t rude to the cleaning staff, and instead defended them, makes me think well of him.”

Hernández nodded. “Can you imagine working at a place where every time you busted a kid for doing stupid kid stuff, instead of saying sorry, they hit you with,Do you know who my father is?You could not pay me enough. If I had that job, I’d be pretty cranky too.”

She turned off the long road from the school and buildings began to pop up again. “Tutoring. Do teachers tutor on the side to make extra money or was this not a teacher? I need to find out who the new housemaster is, see if he also tutors. You keep seeing that corridor and they said the male housemaster’s room was down there.”

“In the vision, the killer attacked when the dean refused to listen. He was on his way to call parents. So, was the point of the killing to keep the dean from talking to a parent? To keep the kid from getting in trouble? The dean might be gone, but the teacher who discovered the plagiarism is still there. Killing the dean doesn’t make the cheating disappear.” I had a horrible thought. “Then again, we have a dead teacher too.”

“We do. I’ll talk with Arthur, see if we can find a connection beyond working at the same school.” Hernández tapped a finger on the steering wheel, thinking. “These places are seen as a pipeline to the Ivy League. We hear about parents and schools doing shady stuff to make sure junior gets into his school of choice. Grease the right palms, do well on the right tests, their future is set.”

I nodded, considering. “And paying people to take those tests and ace them for you is not unheard of. Maybe that was what the tutor was freaking out about. He wasn’t tutoring. He was writing the paper, for a fee, and he screwed up and plagiarized. Can’t have Daddy know the money he spent for an A ended up getting the kid an F. That’s going to screw up his transcript.”

“Hmm.” She put on her sunglasses. “I like that. Another avenue to investigate.”

“Will they let you, or will they shut it down?”

“I have enough. I can convince my captain to keep working. After I drop you off, I’ll head to the coroner. I need them to confirm blunt force trauma that’s inconsistent with a fall. We’ll see.”

TWENTY-ONE

Untwisting Curses

When Hernández dropped me off, I saw that same middle-aged man was back, parked on the side of the road, staring at the mural.Shit.His car door opened as I walked past him.

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