“No, I happened to see the confrontation when I was trying to catch The Fish.” The Fish, also known as Vern’s archnemesis. Before he left, one of the seniors had charmed one of those animatronic singing bass to life. Every few weeks, it would appear out of a shelf, singing Billie Eilish and telling really bad fish puns before knocking downThe Old Man and the SeaorMoby-Dick.The thing drove Vern nuts.
“I swear I wasthis closeto catching it when the damn alarm went off and startled the entire library. I peeked through the shelves to see the boy running off in tears, the feet of the little clock chasing like mad after him, and Joselyn standing there, book in hand, looking victorious. Wouldn’t want to get on her bad side.”
“Do you think it’s possible she’d do something more serious?”
He raised an eyebrow. “Now, don’t you go twisting my words. I never said I thought she did anything to that girl.”
“Sure, sure,” I said, the excitement mounting in my chest. “But why would she have a book on curses?”
“Well now, it’s not only curses. There’s lots of history in there, too. Early natural Magic, the movements of trees, water, and the like …”
Vern realized he’d said something that would lead to a confrontation and quickly tried to backpedal. But this wasn’t something I could ignore. Not if he was right and Joselyn did have something to do with it.
“Dr. Strauss said himself that the physics majors are very competitive. And they are competing for the same spots—they basically kill themselves to get an edge. And they were roommates, too. All that festering tension from being together all the time …”
I was talking very fast now, my thoughts racing ahead of me. Suddenly, I stopped and smacked my hands down on the desk. Vern jumped. “If I didn’t know any better, I’d call that a motive.”
Vern faltered, voice weak. “I mean, I suppose it could be possible …”
I threw my stuff in my bag, shouting over my shoulder. “Thanks, Vern. I owe ya!”
An hour later, I’d got the rankings for the physics majors. “Dani and Joselyn are within only a few percentage points of each other. Joselyn is third in the class. Dani is second.”
It was a slow afternoon in the library; exams had been postponed. Only two other students were inside. “Not this again,” Vern said. He chewed on a ham sandwich and a bowl of goldfish crackers. Every so often, one of them would float up and up and try to swim toward the Marine Biology section, and he’d have to snatch it out of the air and push it back into the bowl. He released a string of expletives under his breath.
“It’s a potential motive. I can’t just ignore it.”
“Say that’s all true and she did go and off her competition. Why not go for the first in the class?”
“Maybe she was making her way up into it,” I said.
Vern sighed, setting down his sandwich. “Now, I know you’ve gone and given up on people. ‘There’s no hope for humanity’ and all that, but you can’t always look for the worst in everyone. She’s just a kid.”
“It’s not that I’ve given up on humanity. I just … would rather not study them, or allow myself to get disappointed by them any more than I already have.”
He raised an eyebrow. “Uh-huh.”
“Whatever. I don’t see the worst in everyone. I don’t see the worst in you.”
He snorted. “That’s because I am a goddamn delight.”
I took a bite of his sandwich and continued. “Hey!” he said, reaching for it.
“Someone hexed Dani, Vern. How do you explain that? Max and everyone else would be fine if I just ignored it, if I concluded that she simply did all this to herself. But who’s looking out for Dani?”
Vern took off his glasses and set them on the table, rubbing his temples wearily. “Just be careful, is all I’m saying. You’re messing with dangerous business here. If Joselyn or someone else really did do something to that girl, I don’t think they’d take too kindly to you looking into them.”
I nodded. “I know. But she’s got nobody but me, Vern. And she’s running out of time.”
I’d protested, but the council hadn’t called Dani’s parents yet, said they didn’t want to “cause them unnecessary panic,” though I think it was more likely they didn’t want another set of parents harassing them for information they clearly didn’t have.
“Just watch yourself. Don’t know what I’d do if you were floating there in Maritza’s cottage. They’ll be asking me to fix you next, and I’m afraid all I could do would be to throw a book at you, try to knock some sense into that brain of yours.”
“Well, hopefully it’d be a heavy book. You know I’ve got a thick skull.” I grinned and took another bite of his sandwich. “One for the road.”
“Hey!”
“I’ll see you later!” I said, rushing out, letting the door swing closed as I left.
