“That girl is a piece of work,” Shepard said, somewhere between admiration and despair.
“Holmeses.” My father laughed, and reached for his car keys. “Would you know she’s one of the nicer ones?”
seven
IT TOOK SHEPARD LESS THAN A DAY TO AGREE TO HOLMES’S terms.
“You have until Thanksgiving break,” he said to us; I had him on speakerphone. He’d spent all that morning sleuthing in Holmes’s and Lena’s room, and come up empty-handed. I wasn’t surprised. Holmes, of course, had been thorough. “That’s a little less than a month. We’ll share information. Share it, do you understand me? DI Green warned me about how you like to play the magician so you can do the big reveal at the end. That won’t fly here.” A long, scratchy pause. “The only reason I’m allowing this Encyclopedia Brown business is because I don’t want any more hurt kids. You two are included in that. So, Jamie, I need you to keep an eye out for her. I’ve heard you’re a brawler. I’m okay with that.”
“Do you honestly think I can’t take care of myself?” Holmes asked, draped over the love seat like a boneless cat. “I’ll have you know I’m an expert at singlestick and baritsu.”
“Yes, and sometimes a pair of fists is much more useful,” I said, “if less dramatic. I’ll keep an eye out, Detective. Will you clear us publicly?”
“Terrible idea,” Holmes put in. “It might lead to escalation on the murderer’s part if they think they need to reconvince the police of our guilt. No, tell the school privately, but don’t let anyone release a statement.”
“Fine.” More crackling. “I’ll send over what we have so far on the snake.”
“And a copy of The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes,” I said.
“Fine. You should know that we found the ski mask the intruder used in a garbage can outside Stevenson Hall, but we weren’t able to lift any prints off it.”
“These people are too good for that,” Holmes said. I coughed. “But yes, send over the bit about the snake. And I want access to the personnel files of all of Sherringford’s students and employees, including any EU immigration information.”
“I’d lose my job.”
“You’d lose your job anyway when they find out you’re letting us help.”
Static.
“Done,” he said finally. “Charlotte, Jamie—just keep your mouths shut.”
“Yes, yes,” Holmes said, “thank you,” and hung up on him.
It was Monday at lunch. I’d hidden away in Holmes’s lab in an attempt to finish writing my poem for Mr. Wheatley’s class that afternoon. It was already going badly, but then I watched Holmes finish her calculus problem set in the ten minutes between concluding some frothy, smelly experiment and picking up her violin for a spin through Beethoven’s Kreutzer Sonata as if it were “Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star.”
She threw her bow down. “I have to wait until the school day is over to investigate. Two hours!” she said. “Do you think, if I set fire to the maths building—”
“No.”
“But—”
“Still no. Why don’t you help me with this poem?” I asked, an attempt to derail her. “It needs to be one that’s ‘difficult for me to write,’ whatever that means.”
“What do you have so far?” she asked.
“‘The.’ Or maybe ‘A,’ I’m not sure.”
“I’m bad with words.” She sat down next to me. “Too imprecise. Too many shades of meaning. And people use them to lie. Have you ever heard someone lie to you on the violin? Well. I suppose it can be done, but it would take far more skill.”
“Speaking of lying,” I said. “Who played your masked man, the other night?”
“One of Lena’s on-and-off hookups. I knew I needed a failsafe, and Lena was willing to play along. We’d laid the groundwork up a week ago. All she needed was the go-ahead. She’d been telling him she loved scary movies, and being afraid sort of turned her on, and asking him if he had a ski mask—that sort of thing. All she had to do was mention that I’d be away on Sunday night. He didn’t question it at all when she screamed and chased him out, and after, I had her put a fresh mask I’d taken from the athletics shed into the bin outside. Really, it’s a good thing she’s so completely insane. It means she can get away with anything.”
“And how is she holding up, after her ‘scare’?”
“Oh, fine,” she said airily. “I think she’s counting the days until her new handbag comes in the post.”
I put my pen down. “I thought you might pay her off. With what money?”
She bit her lip. “She wouldn’t take any. Which, to be honest, makes me nervous.”
“The fact that she likes you enough to help you for free? That makes you nervous?”