The headmaster whirled around, satisfied with the students’ progress, and briskly moved toward Embry. “Miss Woodcross, through the window? Like a common cat burglar?Really?You do understand that this will not reflect well on your assertion that you had nothing to do with what happened to Miss Riddle.”
In the middle of her chastisement, the headmaster’s gaze caught on something beyond Embry. Not the window—thank the Goddess—or even the backpack, which was dark and grubby, but something Embry knew would ultimately be far worse.
The gown. Bloodred, impossible to miss. And when the headmaster and the investigators got a closer look, the stain remover from Embry’s own stash would be right there—intent glaring, a story unfolding.
Embry Woodcross snuck into her dorm room to cover up evidence that she killed Oakley Riddle before the Table’s warrant came through. Balthazar’s efforts were perfectly timed.
Embry had a lot of explaining to do and very little ground to stand on.
CHAPTER 34
DOWN AT THE STATION (ACT 3)
IT WAS NEARLY MIDNIGHT WHENINSPECTORBROWN SLUMPEDinto the seat across from Embry looking like a slice of pizza slipped off the plate and halfway onto the place mat.
“Miss Woodcross, can you give me a detailed description of all of the places you have been since we last spoke?”
That was not the opening gambit Embry expected as she’d waited alone after being unceremoniously handed off by Headmaster Martinelli under the guise of breaking and entering into her own dorm room. But it also truly didn’t matter what line of questioning the inspector took. Her policy was the same as it had been the first time they met. So, Embry shifted her expression from placid to a kind smile. “Inspector Brown, we’ve been here before. You know I won’t say a thing without a lawyer present.”
Brown didn’t smile back. Didn’t even budge. Didn’t blink, didn’t shift his facial features in any way. “We’ve called your people, but they haven’t picked up.”
A pang of panic ignited in Embry’s gut. Shehopedno answer meant that Rye had made it out of the dorm and off the grounds to Lazarus, and that they were pulling together her defense. Yet that drop of panic flickered and grew with worry that Ryehadn’tmade it safely out of her dorm room after all. Or if he had, perhaps the flotilla of lawyers Lazarus had hired in her defense decided she wasn’t worth the effort of the paycheck and dropped her case.
Then that panic flared with the truly terrible idea that the vampires had returned and gone after Daddy. But if they had, Inspector Brown wouldn’t be here, right? Or he’d have told her?
It didn’t matter, even if Embry’s heart started to quicken its pace, rabbiting against her breastbone. Acting skills firmly in place, she shrugged as if she wasn’t flooding with worry.
“I guess we won’t talk for a bit, then.”
Brown just sat there, pale, puffy hands folded atop his belly, and replied, “How about I just talk, then, and you listen.”
It wasn’t a question. Fine. Let the inspector show his cards.
Brown didn’t tell her and Daddy about Alistair’s vision on Saturday, so she didn’t have much faith in him spilling any beans he wasn’t a hundred percent ready to spill, but Embry would take any stray beans he tossed her way just so she could know what he thought about Oakley’s dress, the stain remover, the backpack, the corsage, and anything else.
“It’s my understanding that you, a student currently suspended from Raven’s Head, broke into your assigned dorm room to remove evidence connecting you to the death of Oakley Riddle before the eventual execution of the Table’s search warrant of said room.”
The inspector’s expression may not have changed, or really even his tone of voice, but there was something about the way he said it that made Embry’s gut twist with an unsaid accusation. Still, she didn’t nod him on. Didn’t move a muscle.
“Now, what doesn’t make sense was your scream, which alerted the adults in the building to your presence.”
Embry bit the inside of her cheek—she’d told the headmaster about Balthazar being there, too. Inspector Brown knew that, even if Embry hadn’t personally explained it to him. She had the feeling it wouldn’t matter anyway.
“It could be that you injured yourself while in the room.” Here,he actually moved a muscle, but it was to wave a hand over her visibly uninjured self. “It could be that you believed being caught would provide you with some sort of benefit I haven’t considered.”
Embry waited for the last deduction, hands pressing into her thighs to brace for it under the cover of the table.
“Or,” he continued, “it could be that, as you told Headmaster Martinelli, you were accosted by one Balthazar Hale, who just happened to be inside your locked dorm room at the same time you were therenotto hide evidence, per your insistence.”
Embry’s molars ground into her cheek tight enough now to draw blood. She wanted so badly to tell him that her explanation to Headmaster Martinelli was the truth after that sorry lineup of potential reasoning. Especially because they were dealing with someone who stopped time in the blink of an eye without seemingly any effort.
“Headmaster Martinelli described you as adamant that you’d been in that room with Balthazar Hale.” He paused, just to make her wait for it. “But here’s the problem I have with that particular turn of events: No one has seen or heard from Mr. Hale since Friday night.”
The metallic tang of blood filled Embry’s mouth. She didn’t move, even though her brain was shoutingI HAVE! RYE HAS!She wished she hadn’t given Rye her phone, that she could show Brown the texts to prove that he’d been active recently, but she wasn’t sure any of it would help. Conversely, she knew that if she had pointed to information on her phone and willingly unlocked it, everything else on there would be subject to investigation without a warrant per the laws of the Table.
“In fact,” Brown went on, “the Hale family has filed a missing person’s report.”
Confirmation that Balthazar was the missing student washelpful and Embry’s speeding heart backed off on the gas, but only for a moment.
