Dead Is a State of Mind (11 page)
Read Dead Is a State of Mind Online
Authors: Marlene Perez
Chapter Twenty-Three
My high heels would make too much noise on the marble staircase, so I kicked them off and tucked them in a corner before I went after Duke.
He seemed to be searching for something in particular. We were on the top floor of the mansion, which was clearly private living space for the Wilder family.
He almost caught me when he glanced back unexpectedly, but I ducked behind a huge statue. When I got the nerve up to peek out from my hiding spot, Duke had disappeared.
I tiptoed to where he'd been standing. The door was open a crack, so I looked inside. Duke was standing in what was obviously a lavishly decorated woman's bedroom. I suspected it was Mrs. Wilder's.
There was a cup of tea cooling on a carved ebony tray. Duke crossed to it and fumbled in his pocket. He found whatever he was looking for and dropped it into the tea.
I entered the room. "Is that how you did it?"
"Daizee," he said. "What are you doing here?"
"I could ask you the same question, but I already know the answer."
"Don't keep me in suspense," Duke said. He smiled nastily. I don't know why I ever thought he was cute.
"You poisoned Mr. Davis. And you used his own garden to do it."
"Why would I want to kill Mr. Davis?"
"Maybe because he knew that you're not actually a high school student and he threatened to expose you?" I ventured.
"You have no proof," he said, but he didn't look so cocky. I noticed that his accent had completely disappeared.
"Are you sure? I saw a photo at his house of three guys in a college play. I thought I recognized one of them. It took me a while to put it together because back then you had blond hair and glasses."
"Very good, Daisy," he said. "It's a pity you have such liberal views of those paranormal scum. We could have used someone with your brains." He drew a gun from his jacket.
I'd made a huge mistake confronting Duke, I realized as I stared down the barrel of a gun. I needed to stall him.
"What was the deal with the T-shirt in your car?" I asked, but I already knew the answer. The shirt I'd seen hadn't been for Cal State at all. Why would Duke want to go there? He'd already graduated from college with Mr. Davis.
"You're observant, Daisy," he said. "Yes, the T-shirt in my car was from my alma mater, Charles Fey College. A careless mistake on my part. I'd been assigned to track Dexter even back then."
Now I knew the real reason he had killed Mr. Davis. "You're part of the Scourge!"
"I'm impressed you figured that out," he said. "Now drink," he ordered, shoving the teacup to my lips.
Suddenly, the door opened and Bianca stood in front of us. She moved in a blur, and a second later she was gone and Midnight stood in her place. She flew at Duke and raked her claws in his face. He screamed and dropped the gun.
I dropped the tea as I scrambled to pick up the gun. I held it, hands shaking, as Duke grabbed my cat.
"Let her go," I said. "Or I swear I'll shoot."
He released his grip, and with an angry hiss Midnight came to my side and nudged my leg affectionately.
A minute later, Bianca stood beside me again. "Give me the gun."
"Don't do it, Daisy," Duke begged. "Come with me and I'll bring you to your father!"
My resolve wavered for a moment. Could it be that the Scourge had my father and that Duke really could take me to where he was? I thought how wonderful it would be to see him again, to hug him, just to know he was still alive.
"Daisy!" said Bianca urgently. She had saved my life. Duke had done nothing but lie to me and everyone in Nightshade. I handed her the gun.
"Good. You're doing great. There's a phone on the bedside table," Bianca said. "Call the police. Ask for Chief Mendez. Do not speak to anybody else."
After I called the chief and explained the situation, I helped Bianca tie up Duke while we waited for help to arrive.
"It was lucky you found us," I said.
She hesitated. "Not exactly," she confessed. "The council was suspicious of Duke from the beginning. Duke's not his real name. It's Herbert Hanson. Mr. Davis and Herbert attended the same college. Mr. Davis remembered his old friend expressing great distaste when he admitted to him he was a shifter, back when they were in school together. So you can imagine his concern when this person showed up in Nightshade claiming to be someone else."
"But I don't understand," I said, "If the city council knew that Duke—I mean, Herbert—was a bad guy, why didn't you expose his real identity and pull him out of school?"
"Well, we didn't know for sure that he was the killer," Bianca admitted. "Not until now. But we thought that until we had proof, it would be best to keep him under observance. And what better way to do that than to allow him to remain in high school, with Penny Edwards keeping an eye on him at home?"
Bianca winked at me. I wondered if there was more to Penny than I had previously thought.
"I can't believe he hated paranormals so much that he joined the Scourge," I said, shaking my head in disbelief. "How could anyone be so cruel and narrow-minded?"
"Unfortunately, paranormals are in more danger from his kind than you might think," Bianca said. "That's why we have to look out for each other. My assignment was to watch after you, Daisy." She smiled.
"But I'm not part of the paranormal community," I said. "Why would I need a guardian from the Scourge? Why would they want to kill me?"
"We don't think he was trying to kill you, Daisy," Bianca said. "We think he was trying to recruit you."
I shivered, then smiled at Bianca. "Lucky for me you're good at your job."
Chapter Twenty-Four
The rest of the night was a blur of noise and excitement. Chief Mendez, who I now realized was a Were and a member of the Nightshade City Council—like father, like son—managed to hustle Duke out of the Wilder mansion without many people noticing.
Ryan, of course, noticed my long absence, so we found a quiet corner where I could tell him the whole thing.
He paled. "Daisy, you should have told me. You could have been killed."
"There was no time," I said. "But I promise I'll try to find you
next
time."
He put his head in his hands.
"Next
time? I don't think I'll survive."
I kissed him and pulled him to his feet. "C'mon, this is our prom. It's time to dance."
I danced until my new high heels gave me blisters and I was dying of thirst. I finally collapsed at the table, and Ryan went to get me a glass of punch.
"Ready to head to the after party?" Samantha asked me.
"Honestly?" I said. "I'm ready to crawl into bed."
"You can't!" she said. "We still have the after party and then breakfast at Slim's. If you don't show up, you know it'll freak your mom out."
I groaned. I'd forgotten Mom was volunteering at the cupcake booth at the party. "You're right," I said. "She'll probably think that Ryan and I snuck off somewhere or something."
"Were you going to?" Sam said curiously. "Because I can cover for you, if that's what you had in mind."
"No!" I said. "We just got back together. That's definitely
not
what I had in mind."
"What's not what you had in mind?" Ryan asked. He handed me a glass of punch, which I drank gratefully.
"Another dance," I improvised. "I'm ready to head to the party. What about you?"
"Sure," he said easily.
I ignored Sam, who was smothering a laugh behind her hand.
The limo was waiting outside, and it took us to the park, where the Dark Carnival was set up. When we passed by Samantha's old house, Sean put his arm around her and she put her head on his shoulder. I was pretty sure we wouldn't see Poppy at the after party, and I was right. She didn't show. And who could blame her?
It was a good thing that the park was so huge, because it seemed as though everyone in Nightshade was there. Suddenly, I wasn't tired after all. The place looked perfect—perfectly creepy—with merry-go-round music playing on the loudspeaker and red lights strung up everywhere. Everyone kept telling me how great the park looked, and how much fun the party was. I was walking on air. The only thing that put a damper on the party was the dark, empty booth with a sign that read FORTUNES $1 where Duke Sherrad would have been.
But I passed by the booth a little while later, and there was Penny Edwards. She pointed to a copy of
A Goof-Ball's Guide to Fortune-Telling
and winked at me.
Two hours later I was bone tired, but I wasn't ready for the night to end. A bunch of us headed to Slim's for breakfast, so I called Rose to see if she and Poppy wanted to come.
"I'll ask," she said, "but don't count on it."
I turned to Ryan, who hadn't left my side since he'd heard about Duke. "It's a definite maybe."
Flo was working the morning shift and even gave us a grudging smile when she saw us in our prom finery.
She took our orders and then set down a pot of coffee and cups. I'm not sure that coffee was the best idea, since I planned to collapse in my bed right after breakfast, but it smelled so good I couldn't resist.
Nicholas and Rose showed up a few minutes later with Poppy in tow. She'd changed into jeans and a top. She was smiling, though it was a little droopy. Her eyes and nose were red, but she seemed okay.
All anyone could talk about was Duke.
"How did he do it?" Poppy asked.
"Remember those bushes we saw in the front of the house? Those are oleander bushes. He slipped oleander into Mr. Davis's tea," I said. "But he must have moved the body to the park to make it look like Mr. Davis had been attacked by a werewolf while he was jogging."
"What a horrible man," Rose said.
"And Mom kept seeing a cup. At least now we know how he was killed. And who did it," Poppy said.
"Rose, the day we were at his cottage, you said there was a piece missing from the set of china. Do you remember which one?"
She thought about it for a minute. "It was a teacup, I'm pretty sure."
"It's missing because Duke used it to poison Mr. Davis. He had to get rid of the evidence."
Conversation stopped when Flo came over, gave Poppy a hug, and whispered something in her ear. Flo never hugged anyone.
Ryan smiled at her. "I like your T-shirt," he said.
Flo positively glowed. She definitely had a soft spot for Ryan, but then again, who could blame her?
I took a closer look at her shirt. This one read, "
KEEP NIGHTSHADE WEIRD.
"
I agreed.
As I watched Flo and Poppy, my gaze collided with Elise's. Her eyes glowed a terrible orange. She'd heard us talking about who killed her cousin, all right. She said something to Bane, and then he threw a couple of twenties on the table and they hurried out.
" The Wilder family are all shifters, right?" I said in a low voice. "Why didn't Mr. Davis just shift when Duke attacked him?"
"Mr. Davis was a shifter, all right, but it wouldn't have done him much good. He shifted to a rabbit," Nicholas said. "Which made it interesting at family reunions, since the rest of the Wilder pack are hunters."
"What happens to Duke—I mean, Herbert—now?" Ryan asked.
"The Nightshade City Council will deal with him," Nicholas said.
I had a strange feeling, from the look I had seen in Elise's eyes, that Duke would be dealt with very shortly. "Or the Wilder family will," I said. "Either way, he probably won't make it to trial." I felt a twinge of pity at the thought of what would happen to Duke if Elise caught up with him.
If Elise didn't get to him first, the Nightshade City Council would do whatever it took to guard the city's secrets from the Scourge, or anybody else.
Nightshade was full of secrets. I glanced at Ryan, who put his arms around me.
"Ready to go?" he asked. I smiled and nodded, but part of me was wondering what other secrets Nightshade held. I'd let the town keep its secrets for now, but somehow I knew that there was a big secret still hidden, a secret that could change my life.
Acknowledgments
I'd like to thank my two favorite high school teachers, Ms. Raymond and Mr. Wagner, for being fantastic, inspiring people who made my high school years not only bearable but intellectually stimulating. Thanks to my online writers groups yawriters and yanovelists for their support and wisdom. And to my family for not locking me out of the house when I'm on deadline.
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