Mary May waits for me at the front door. The press aren’t allowed to photograph her, but I know they’re loving this. They can sense that I’ve done something wrong, that I’m in trouble again. Big news day. Already upset by what has just happened in the Tinders’ house, I don’t think I can take any more. Mary May steps aside so that I can enter.
Juniper and Mom are standing nervously in the kitchen. Ewan runs upstairs and away from me as he always does, afraid to be in the same room as me.
“What did you do?” Mom asks quietly.
“Nothing,” both Juniper and I reply at the same time, which makes us look at each other and smile for the first time in a long while.
Juniper throws me a worried look and whispers, “Did you do something yesterday?”
I swallow hard. I think of meeting Crevan and wonder if he discovered I was looking for the guards and Mr. Berry, and if so, what is my punishment. Mary May marches into the kitchen in her black-and-red coat and looks straight at me. I’m so afraid that it has something to do with my trip to Highland Castle and asking for the guards that when she produces a newspaper and slams it down on the kitchen counter, I’m relieved.
Now I know that I can’t trust Pia. It’s a ridiculous article about how I am getting preferential treatment at the school by missing classes and swimming, something I know was written purely to pressure the principal to make me leave the school. If he is seen as aiding a Flawed, or even making my life easier, then the parents will want his head on a plate. The picture that appears alongside it is a photo of me taken sneakily by someone at school. It’s supposed to be a photo of me with my braids down, covering my temple, which is against Flawed rules.
“That’s not me,” I say instantly.
We all huddle in closer.
“That’s me,” Juniper says.
“You understand the rules, young lady,” Mary May says to Juniper. “You cannot lie for your sister, or you will face punishment or incarceration or both.”
“I’m not lying,” Juniper says, and I can sense her getting a hot head. The old Juniper is back.
“The newspaper says it is Celestine,” Mary May says, a little put out, folding the paper again. “This photograph is a clear breach of the rules, Celestine. You will receive a punishment.”
“I’d like you to call the newspaper and get clarification,” Mom says quickly. “A mistake has clearly been made here. I know my daughters, and that is not Celestine in the photograph.”
Mary May is having none of it. “For a total of one week, starting Monday, you will be under house arrest. You cannot leave this house after school hours.” She signs a form, leaves it on top of the newspaper, and leaves.
“I hate her,” I say quietly, watching Mary May drive away.
Mom shushes me even though she’s too far away to hear.
“She’s just a stupid woman in a ridiculous costume,” Juniper snaps.
“No, no, no.” Mom grabs her by the shoulders and looks her straight in the eye. Juniper is startled by Mom’s aggressiveness. Mom realizes what she’s done, and she sighs. Then she leads us both to the kitchen table and we sit. “Girls, we have to be careful. You think she’s a woman with a grudge, but Mary May is one of the most senior Whistleblowers, and do you know why?”
“Why?” Juniper asks.
“She reported her sister to the Guild as soon as the Flawed rules were introduced. And then when her family turned its back on her, she reported all of them. Her father, her sisters, and her brother, something to do with their family business. Everyone was taken away, branded, punished.”
“What?” I gasp. “Her own family?”
“She might look like a woman in a stupid costume, but she’s dangerous. Let’s not find out how far she’ll go.”
I swallow and nod. I may have gotten away easily here. My weeklong detention isn’t the worst punishment in the world. It means that I can still go to Logan’s party tomorrow night, which I’ve been excited and anxious about, but it will pause my Carrick-finding mission, and I need to find him before Crevan manages to make any more people disappear.
FORTY-ONE
“SO DID YOU speak with the guards?” I ask Pia, biting into my apple.
An urgent request to meet with me has brought Pia to my house extremely early Friday morning. I can hear everybody getting ready for school and work, but I’m in no rush because the principal just called to say that due to the reaction to Pia Wang’s article, I can’t attend school until we figure out other arrangements. They have finally gotten their way, and they’re using the article to get at me, no doubt Crevan’s idea. I’m gone, now Art can attend. He just needs to be found first.
Pia is in casual mode, jeans and pumps and a cotton T-shirt, which is unusual on her. She almost looks human.
“I asked for Tina, June, Bark, Funar, and Tony at reception, just as you told me to,” she replies.
“Great,” I say enthusiastically. “So they were all able to back me up, corroborate my story?”