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“Well, Relda wasn’t really telling the truth when it came to the gnomes. They do grow a bit of it, though they’re not supposed to grow poisons or anything that can be used against someone. They used to grow some wolfsbane, and one night a werewolf who shall remain nameless got into it and it was awful.”
“I didn’t mean to,” Fen said, putting down his controller and turning my way. “I was fourteen. I’d never seen it before. It looked pretty, and Evan’s favorite color was purple.”
Evan smiled, a bright expression. “He picked it for me. It was so sweet, and then I had to take care of him for two days. I thought he would never stop scratching. Rhys and Lee laughed for the longest time.”
Every story they told me about their childhood had a bittersweet bite to it, but now wasn’t the time to get all angsty. I focused in on the important part. “So the gnomes are growing things that are not allowed?”
Jade winced. “I don’t want to get them in trouble, and the belladonna is being grown in a safe way. Only Relda has it. Had it. She wanted to keep it around for medicinal purposes.”
“Is there any way Relda was involved in what happened to Alvis?” I had to ask the question. If she threw Relda under the bus now, I would have some information. I liked Jade but I also wasn’t going to be naïve.
Her head shook. “No. She loved Alvis. She adored him, said he’d saved her. She would never, ever have harmed Alvis. She wanted to find out who killed him.” Jade’s face flushed slightly. “She wasn’t sure you would do it.”
“Solve the crime?” I asked, curious.
“She thought you would be too busy with your prophecy to care about Alvis.”
“Well, I can’t really get anything done with the prophecy until all the mourning rituals are over,” I pointed out. “If someone wanted to put me off the prophecy stuff, this would be a good way to do it. But I don’t think that’s what’s happening here. Too many things are leading me to think this is a problem that’s been going on for a while.”
“But Alvis would have been the primal most likely to solve the prophecy,” Evan countered. “I think this is about you.”
I didn’t. I was going with instinct on this one. “Nah. They can only slow me down for a day or two, and there are many primals well versed in prophecy. No. Alvis found something out, and I would bet Relda did, too. It has something to do with those paintings. What do you know about the latest class?”
“I know Relda was a bit obsessed with it,” Jade admitted. “She was super sad when Alvis canceled the last couple of classes and told her to stop working on the paintings.”
“He told her to stop?” There it was—that one seemingly random fact that could start me down the right path.
“Yeah, he said he wanted everyone to stay on the same pace, and that meant taking a break,” she explained. “At least that’s what Relda told me.”
“But she didn’t stop, did she?”
“No. She said she felt compelled to follow where the muse led her. She was kind of weird about the painting stuff,” Jade replied. “She started about two years ago when Alvis invited her to join the group he teaches. She found it soothing back then, but she wasn’t, like, crazy obsessed with it the way she has been the last couple of weeks.”
“What changed?”
One slim shoulder shrugged. “I don’t know. They started a new series.”
I remembered how those canvases had been sitting around her apartment, ghostly and silvery. “The nighttime series. She had three canvases, right?”
“Yes, and she never seemed to be done with them. Like they would look great and I would think she was done, and the next day she would be there at the canvas adding on to it. She said they weren’t perfect, and then she would spend hours staring at them. I know that sounds weird, but it was kind of who Relda was. She would really get into whatever she was doing, whether it was spellcasting or knitting, and she could focus.”
“You never tried?”
Jade chuckled. “Oh, I tried. I’m like the anti-artist. I can’t draw more than stick figures, and I flunked finger painting in preschool. I took one class and knew it wasn’t for me. Now I wish I’d kept going, if only because Relda wanted me there.” Her tears were back. “I treated her like an overly pushy mom, but that’s what she was and now she’s gone.”
Evan reached out as Jade broke down again, and I realized that was probably all I was going to get out of her.
“I’m going to go check on some things. Evan’s going to stay here with you. I’ll take Fen with me.” I pushed back from the table.
“I thought Fen was supposed to make sure I don’t run,” Jade said between sobs.
“I’m not really worried about you running,” I admitted. “But if you tried, I assure you Evan could stop you.”
“I won’t.” She turned and cried into Evan’s shoulder. “I don’t want to go anywhere.”
Evan glanced up, mouthing the words I’ll watch her.
I walked out of the room, frustrated but knowing what I needed to do next. I started down the hall, feeling Fen moving behind me.
