This lock was almost insultingly easy. Inside were shelves with small jars and bottles and boxes. Some had vividly colored warning stickers. “Acetone,” I read. “Blood typing kit. Carbon. Charcoal. How nice, they’re alphabetized.”
I glanced at the S section. I saw no jars labeledShoggoth Slime, but...“That’s an awful lot of sulfur for high school chem.”
“It’s a useful ingredient in summoning spells.” Temple peered over my shoulder. “So is sodium chloride—salt—and mercury. You could cause a lot of chaos with this stuff if you knew what you were doing.”
Several places on the shelves were noticeably empty, with ring-shaped stains showing where canisters and jars had been removed.
“Bastard.”
I had my knife out before I registered who had spoken. Anger had made Jenny’s voice almost unrecognizable.
She stood behind the teacher’s desk, gripping the back of the black roller chair with both hands. Her fingers had pierced the thin padding. Her eyes shone. “It’s him.”
“Alex?” I replaced my knife and stepped closer.
“His smell has changed a bit over the years, but...” She nodded. “He’s been teaching them, Annette. For weeks, judging from the scent. Maybe months. Right here in Salem. Right under my nose all this time.”
“Morgan mentioned getting a new chemistry teacher back in February,” I said slowly, trying to remember the details. “A long-term sub. None of them knew what happened to the usual teacher.”
How hard had Jenny clung to the possibility she’d been wrong? I’d had my share of betrayals and cheating lovers but nothing like this. Jenny’s old team had been like family. Finding irrefutable proof of Alex’s lies must have been tearing her up inside. I searched for words that would bring any measure of comfort, but this kind of comfort had never been my strength. “What can I do?”
She turned toward me. “Help me stop him.”
That, I understood. Set emotions aside and focus on solving the case. Work through the facts. “Was Alex qualified to teach chemistry?”
“I don’t think so.” Jenny’s forehead crinkled. “He told me he was dating a chemistry teacher.”
“Maybe he was.” I should find out more about the teacher Alex had replaced. “Or maybe he was dropping half-truths to toy with you.”
“If he wanted this job, he had ways to make it happen.” She pulled open one drawer after another, examining the contents. “We all picked up tricks and trinkets over the years. There was an amulet with persuasion magic Raj took from a shapeshifting con artist. Emily had a beauty charm she kept after we busted an illegal magic shop.”
“Could Alex have taken the amulet after Raj died?” I asked.
“I wouldn’t have thought so, but...” She shrugged and slammed a drawer.
Why pretend to be a teacher? There were other ways to get access to kids, but he’d chosen to work at a high school. To return to the environment where he and Jenny and their friends had first come together. “He’s stuck in the past.”
A clatter drew our attention to Temple, who’d been going through the supply closet. He had paraffin, chalk, and rubbing alcohol laid out on the table closest to the closet, and he’d just knocked over the rubbing alcohol.
Ronnie caught the bottle before it fell to the floor.
Temple barely noticed. He used the chalk to draw a ring of symbols on the table. Then he licked the block of wax.
“If you’re hungry, I’ve got granola in my purse,” I said.
“Saliva’s part of the spell.” Temple rolled the wax into a ball, tossed it onto the center of the table, and snapped his fingers. A deep red flame grew from the wax-and-spitball. Rivulets of molten wax dripped and spread across the tabletop.
“Alex worked magic in this room. I’m trying to see what he did.” Temple doused his hands with rubbing alcohol and waved them over the red flame. The fire jumped to his hands. He pressed them together, then flicked his fingers. Tiny dots of fire rained onto the table.
The flames spread out, merging with the liquid wax to take on the shapes of seven tiny students seated at a table. An eighth figure joined them. While the figures had few details, this one was clearly missing most of his left arm.
Neon blue sparks formed a triangle between the people.
“They’re using sulfur for the base of the spell,” Temple murmured. Yellow sparks joined the blue. “Salt. I can’t tell what kind.” A scattering of purple appeared within the triangle. Temple cocked his head. “No idea what that might be. This could take a while to decipher.”
I grabbed Jenny. “Come on.”
“Where are you going?” asked Ronnie.
