Mary focused on the air again, then turned to me. “She went through a passage behind a mirror in the annex off the living room.”
“Thank you, Mary. I’ve got to go.” I gave her a quick hug, then shot a text to Riley telling him to meet me in the annex, but I stopped at the bathroom door and turned to Mary again. “You haven’t seen Graham’s ghost around, have you?”
She pushed her glasses up her nose. “No. Not everyone’s ghost lingers once they die.”
“Okay,” I said. It was a relief knowing he wasn’t haunting the town, but also having the chance to talk to him sure would’ve made it easy to find his killer.
I made it back to the main room and almost ran into Mom, who was sipping a drink and gossiping with friends while watching Charles and Jane dance.
Just barely I kept myself from saying, “Mom” and ruining the anonymity of my costume. While I was dying to ask her what she and her busy-body friends were doing here, I had a feeling I already knew if the way she watched Jane and Charles dance was any indication. She really needed to stop crashing events that people over fifty had no place at.
“If Jane keeps this up, we’ll have another marriage in Austen Heights soon,” Mom said in a voice that was tooeasy to be heard even over the music. “In fact, if my girls play their cards right, we might even have two.”
I winced at her words and the looks she was getting from some of the other party-goers. Two weddings? Was she trying to marry off Frank and Mary? That was the only thing that made sense considering the rest of us didn’t even have boyfriends.
Before I had to watch any more of Mom’s embarrassing display, I slipped into the annex. Now wasn’t the time to let my family distract me. It was time to find Eve. I turned on my phone flashlight, but it abruptly died. Pulling my hood off once more, I flipped the switch on the wall, but it didn’t work. Shapes and lights flashed on the surface of the mirrors from the corner of my eye, but anytime I looked directly at them, they disappeared.
I forced myself to go deeper into the room and feel along the edge of the mirrors. The first few I tried refused to budge, but I continued on, pressing against a mirror whenever I found one to look for the hidden passage.
“Kitty?” Riley asked a minute later.
“I’m in here,” I said, a strange sense of relief going through me at his return.
“Why are you in the dark?”
“The lights won’t turn on.”
“That’s okay. I’ve got this.” A golden flame appeared over his palm, highlighting Riley’s outline. He pulled his mask off and stepped closer. “What are you—”
His flame flickered out, then blazed to life again, illuminating the furrow in his brow.
“What’s wrong?” I asked.
“I’m not sure.” He frowned down at the fire as it sputtered then came back stronger. “It’s like someone is constantly blowing at my magic to put it out.”
“That’s not creepy at all.” With the extra illumination, I checked the mirrors around the perimeter much faster, a layer of dust building along my gloved fingertips.
“Did you find something?” He stepped closer.
“It’s a long story, but I think our suspect went through a hidden passageway in here.”
“What hidden—”
The next frame I pushed on slid to the side, revealing a dark hole that smelled musty.
He sighed, but a corner of his mouth lifted. “Do I even want to know how you know about that?”
I thought of Mary and her ability to see ghosts. “Um, probably not. But a girl with a pumpkin costume supposedly went this way.”
“Let me go first. I’m not sure what we’ll find.” He offered his hand to me, and I took it against my better judgment. My breath caught at his touch, and I fought to breathe normally. Riley couldn’t know the very real effects he had on me—not while everything was fake for him.
Riley led the way, the golden flame above his open palm throwing dancing shadows on the stone walls. I moved closer, letting the brush of his shoulder steady me. The tunnel sloped upward, the floor turning into roughly hewn steps that must’ve led us to the upper floor.
A cool breeze blew across the back of my exposed neck, raising goosebumps.
We made it to the top and Riley pushed open a door that led us out on the other side of a painting. It slid back into place once we were through. Lanterns flickered on and off down the hall, flaring to life then dying again just as suddenly.
The echo of footsteps reached us, and I stiffened and grabbed the back of Riley’s costume with my free hand. “Do you think that’s real?”
