“Well, if you find out who it was, I wanna know. People aren’t helpful out of the goodness of their heart. Creeps me out.”
My thoughts drifted back to the conversation the night before. Why the hell would Houdini have helped us? It didn’t seem in character. Maybe he’d done it to redirect focus away from his business. I found myself keeping so many secrets lately to protect him. If Wyatt or anyone else knew he had provided the blueprints, they might go after him. Worse, they might think that we’re conspiring and I’m feeding him information about Keystone. Maybe his plan was to sabotage me. Or maybe he wanted to test my loyalty to Viktor since telling the truth might get me fired.
Damn his games.
I spotted Blue perched in a tree. Like me, she was comfortable with heights, but I suppose that had to do with her being a falcon. “I guess my case is closed.”
Wyatt draped his arms over the armrests as if he were tanning on a Hawaiian beach. “What’s the trouble?”
“I’m running in circles trying to find a missing piece, and maybe there isn’t one. Now I’ll just have to tell Ren we’ve got nothing.”
“I wouldn’t be so sure about that.”
The little boy who’d approached Christian last night jogged down the veranda with a girl at his side. They skidded to a stop at the foot of Wyatt’s chair, and the boy asked, “Why do you haveLost Soulwritten on your hands?”
Wyatt drummed his fingers on the chair. “None of your beeswax.”
“Are you sure you didn’t meanlost sock?” The two giggled.
Wyatt sat up and lazily waved them off. “Scram!”
I watched them race each other down the long walkway, laughing the entire way before scaling the wall and flopping onto the grassy side. It gave me hope that they might be okay. At least they knew how to read.
I turned my attention back to Wyatt. “What were you going to say?”
“About what?”
“The case.”
He scratched his scruffy jaw. “Oh that. About a week ago, someone tracked in a freshy.”
“Yeah, sorry about that. We ran into a few uncooperative Shifters we had to put in their place.”
“See, that’s what I thought. So I ignored him. The minute you start paying attention to the dead, they stick to you like glue. They wantfavors,” he said, using his fingers to make air quotes. Wyatt sat up and adjusted his chair to an upright position. “If they don’t get what they want, they turn into little demons. That’s why most Gravewalkers look like they’re running on two hours of sleep. Things were peaceful for a while, and now the new guy decides to keep me up all night singing.”
“Wish I could help, but it’s not my problem.”
Wyatt slid his glasses down his nose so I could see his bloodshot eyes. “He keeps asking me to give a message to his father. What am I, the Pony Express?”
“Does he want you to do it for free, or does he have some way of paying you?”
“See, that’s where it gets weird. He says if I do him this favor, he’ll help us. Normally I don’t trust freshies, but I’m desperate. Even after my near-death experience last night, he kept me up. All night. I lost him earlier in the east wing and came out here, hoping to avoid him long enough to get a nap. When they attach themselves to a house, they don’t like leaving. I’m sleeping out here if that’s what it takes.”
“How exactly can he help us?” It didn’t seem logical. “Can they see something we can’t?”
“They can go wherever they want and eavesdrop on anyone. But most freshies have short attention spans. They spend more time focusing on their life, trying to hold on to the memories before they get all mixed up. Seriously, if ghosties could be spies, we’d have a real business. But most of the older ones have the memory of a goldfish. And the new ones have a whole catalog of issues I don’t subscribe to.”
“What exactly does he know?”
Wyatt shrugged. “It’s up to you if you want to find out.”
I stood and put my hands on my hips. “Then I think we need to have a séance later on. Have you seen Christian?”
“He took off.”
“Did he say where?”
“Maybe for a Brazilian wax.” Wyatt pushed his sunglasses back up. “I’m not his babysitter.”
