“Hmm,” my mother said, taking the papers from me and looking them over. “Well, I suppose that’s easy enough to verify. But why you specifically, Wren? Why not one of us?”
“I don’t know,” I admitted. “I didn’t think to ask that question while she was here.”
“Well, we need to find her and find out. Maybe it really is all an innocent discovery, but I’d like to know for sure. Did Jess leave anything that would help us contact her?”
“No.”
“Hmm. Well, we might be able to find her through this Dr. Vesper, or that school she mentioned. Unless…” My mom sat up a little straighter. “How long ago did this woman leave?”
“I don’t know… an hour ago, maybe a little more?” I said.
“And did she say where she was going?”
“She… she asked where she could get food on the way out of town, and I told her to go to Xiomara’s, obviously.”
My mom jumped up out of her seat. “We might still be able to catch her. Come on, we’ll take the car.”
Before I could even process what was happening, my mom and I piledinto my mom’s beat up little Subaru and began speeding down the road toward town. As we got closer, the size of the crowds meant we had to slow down to a crawl. My mom, swearing under her breath about tourists, swung the car into a parking space just as another car vacated it; and we jumped out and began to weave and duck our way through the hordes on the sidewalks until we reached Xiomara’s Cafe.
“Do you see her, Wren?” my mom asked, as we surveyed the line of customers snaking right out the door.
“No,” I replied after scanning each face carefully.
We skirted the line and ran around the side of the building, where there was a door that led to the kitchen. My mom hammered on it and waited, bouncing on the balls of her feet. After a few seconds the door opened, and Eva stuck her head out. She looked startled to see us standing there.
“Wren! Ms. Vesper! What are you—” she began, but my mother cut her off.
“We’re looking for someone who might have just stopped by.” She turned to me. “Wren can you?—?”
“Uh, yeah, she was like mid-twenties, black dyed hair with purple highlights, all black clothes, kinda heavy on the eyeliner?” I said quickly.
Eva frowned. “I don’tthinkso, but I feel like I’ve seen at least a dozen girls who could fit that description today. Black clothes and colorful hair could describe like half the tourists who come in here during the lead up to Samhain. Sorry.”
“That’s okay. Will you text Wren if you spot someone who fits that description?” my mom asked.
Eva’s eyebrows pulled together. “Sure, sure. Can I ask why you?—?”
“We’ll explain later, honey, we’ve got to keep looking,” my mom said. “Thanks for your help.”
Eva threw me a curious glance as she pulled the door closed. I turned to ask my mom what was next, but she was already halfway back up the narrow alleyway toward the bustling street again.
“Mom, would you wait up? You don’t even know who you’re looking for!” I cried, hurrying after her. She didn’t slow, though,reaching the end of the alley and turning her head back and forth, scanning the crowd for any sign of Jess Ballard. I arrived beside her, panting.
“Mom, isn’t this a little… overkill?” I asked.
“Huh?” she asked, not even looking at me.
“This is ridiculous, Mom. We’re never gonna find her in this crowd. And anyway, she said she was heading out of town.”
“We need to talk to her, Wren. We need to find out more about how she came across that book.”
“I know, but this isn’t the way to do it. She left us Dr. Vesper’s card. Let’s get in touch with her. She’ll know how to reach Jess.”
My mom sighed, lowering her heels to the ground. “You’re right. This is a needle in a haystack situation. Let’s just walk the main thoroughfare once, okay? Humor me. If we don’t see her, we’ll go home.”
I agreed, and together we walked from one end of Main Street to the other, my mother pointing at every black-haired woman she saw and hissing, “Is that her?” over and over again until I was ready to scream. Finally, the shops trickled away, and the bustling downtown faded to a few cottages dotting the grassy dunes. Up ahead, we could see the Manor, home of the Claires, looming on the hill and marking the furthest reaches of Sedgwick Cove. My mother reluctantly admitted defeat, and we turned around and retraced our steps back to the car. When at last we pulled back up in front of Lightkeep Cottage, both Persi and Rhi were waiting on the porch for us.
“Any luck?” Rhi asked, though without much hope in her voice.
