Dead Is a State of Mind (5 page)

Chapter Ten

Two nights later, the Giordano family went to Mort's, along with what seemed like everyone else in Nightshade, for Mr. Davis's memorial service. It was rare that Mom got out of work so early, and I was a little sad that we couldn't spend the evening doing something fun together instead of hanging out at a funeral home. But I hoped I'd be able to pick up some clues at the service about Mr. Davis's mysterious death.

The Eternal Rest Room was packed. I drifted over to where Samantha was standing with a gaggle of weepy cheerleaders. I craned my neck to get a look at the casket over the crowd standing around it. It was closed. It seemed I wouldn't get a look at Mr. Davis's body after all.

A tiny woman wearing a lace veil stood in front of the casket, greeting mourners.

"Who's that?" I whispered to Sam.

"Mrs. Wilder. Matriarch of the Wilder clan. I met her when I booked the Wilder mansion for prom. Strange lady. Sweet, though."

I was confused. "Wilder?" I said. "Was she related to Mr. Davis?"

"Didn't you know?" Sam said. "Mr. Davis was Mrs. Wilder's grandson."

"That makes Elise and Mr. Davis cousins," I said.

"Duh, Daisy," hissed Penny, who was obviously listening in on our conversation. "Everybody knows that."

Sure enough, there was Elise at the front of the room, looking gorgeous even with red-rimmed eyes. I felt a little less sympathetic when I saw who she was talking to. Ryan.

"Excuse me," I mumbled, and pushed my way out into the hall. I could see Penny's gloating smile out of the corner of my eye.

I leaned against the wall and sighed deeply. Evidently there were others who needed a break from the service, too. There was a commotion in a little sitting room across the hall, but nobody else seemed to notice. It was Bane Paxton's parents, their youngest son, Wolfgang, and a beautiful woman I didn't recognize. She had shiny midnight black hair that hung long and straight, past her waist. She was petite but muscular-looking. I was drawn to the feeling of immense power she gave off in waves.

As I watched, Wolfgang started to shake, and a minute later hair sprouted all over his face, his jaw elongated, and sharp fangs jutted from his mouth.

"Wolfgang!" his mother said. "Please control yourself."

"He's so upset," his dad said to the raven-haired woman. "Mr. Davis was his favorite teacher."

The beautiful woman put a comforting hand on his arm. "He's young," she said in a soothing voice. "Controlling a shift takes years of practice. Let me talk to him." She threw her cloak over Wolfgang to hide his condition and led him out of the building.

I had no idea that the Paxtons were shape-shifters. Was the beautiful woman a shape-shifter too? She seemed to know what she was talking about when she spoke of shifting.

I heard someone calling my name from another doorway down the hall. It was Poppy summoning me to the Tranquility Room.

"I should have figured you'd be in here," I said. There was Gage, pacing in front of the fireplace.

"Gage just told me there was a Nightshade City Council meeting here last night," Poppy said excitedly. My ears perked up.

"Was it about Mr. Davis?" I asked.

Gage nodded. "They think they know who killed him. The Scourge."

I frowned. Who or what was the Scourge? Where had I heard that before? "Are you sure that's what they said? They didn't mention a werewolf?" I asked Gage.

Gage nodded resolutely. "I was there the whole time. The Skull with the gavel said the Scourge was involved."

I flopped down on a velvet-covered couch to think. So much for a spy on the inside. Gage's information wasn't much help. But he and Poppy weren't focused on the case anyway—they were flirting in the corner. I had to admit there was something appealing about Gage. He was still sexy, even though he was see-through.

The door inched open and Rose and Nicholas entered. "I noticed you two disappeared," Rose said. "I figured you must be here."

I could hear Elise's voice wafting from the Eternal Rest Room. I couldn't hear everything, but it was clear she was giving a speech about her cousin.

"I recognize that voice," Gage said. "The girl with the amber eyes. She was at the city council meeting." Poppy looked a little annoyed at Gage's wistful description. I didn't want to remind her that
she
shouldn't be the one jealous of Elise.

I sat up, eager to hear more. "So if the Wilders are part of the city council, that must mean there's something ... different about them," I observed. I looked to Nicholas for confirmation.

"Yes, Daisy, the Wilders are shifters," he admitted.

"So Mr. Davis was a werewolf?"

He shook his head. "There are many kinds of shifters—wolves, big cats, even fluffy little bunnies."

Fluffy little bunnies?
I swallowed a giggle.

"Well, do you think it was a Were that killed Mr. Davis?" Poppy asked, tactful as usual.

Nicholas looked stung. "No, in fact I know it wasn't," he said. "But whoever did it went to great lengths to make it look like a Were attack."

"How do you know?" I asked.

"I thoroughly inspected the body before my father prepared it for burial," Nicholas said. "Those marks were made by a human, probably using some sort of metal instrument to make it look like he was clawed. We Weres have excellent olfactory senses, you know." With that he swept out of the room.

"I hope we didn't offend Nicholas," Poppy said. Rose shot her a sharp look and followed after him.

I didn't feel like being a third wheel on Poppy's date with the dead, so I returned to the Eternal Rest Room, which was clearing out after the service. Ryan wasn't there. Neither was Elise.

My mom was still there, talking quietly with Chief Mendez. Were they flirting? It was hard to tell. "I'm telling you, Pete," I heard her saying as I got closer. "I can't help that. It's what I see. A cup. Nothing more."

The chief's brow was creased in concentration, but he snapped out of it and smiled when he saw me approaching.

"There you are, Daisy," Mom said. "Let's get going. Are your sisters coming?"

"I think they want to hang out here a little longer," I said.

We said good-bye to the chief. "Daisy, Ryan told me to tell you good night for him," he said. "He's sorry that he had to go without talking to you, but something came up."

I shrugged. What else was new?

In the car, Mom asked me if everything was okay with Ryan and me.

"He's avoiding me," I admitted. "Something's wrong, but I don't know what."

Mom looked sympathetic. "Oh, don't worry about it so much, Daisy," she said. "It's probably just temporary. A hormonal thing."

A hormonal thing? What was she talking about? It's not like guys had to worry about that time of the month. Besides, she of all people should understand why I have abandonment issues. I decided to change the subject.

"Mom, what's the Scourge?"

Her eyes widened and darted away from the road and onto me for a second. "What did you say?"

I repeated my question. Mom pulled into our driveway but left the car running. She seemed relieved not to be on the road anymore—obviously what I had said had her distracted, though I didn't know why.

"Daisy, how did you hear about the Scourge?" she asked in a shaky voice.

"Let's just say a ghost told me," I said.

Her expression was grave. "Don't joke around about them," she said. "They're very, very dangerous."

"Them?"

She hesitated a fraction of a second before explaining more. "They're a group of people who have sworn to eradicate all paranormals."

"Eradicate? You mean..."

"Kill? Yes, that's exactly what I mean." She shut off the car engine and spoke to me in her most serious tone. "Daisy, I know you've got the makings of a great psychic detective. But this is way over your head. You do not want to get mixed up with the Scourge. They can make people disappear if they want to."

Disappear? Now who did that remind me of? I nodded, chilled by my mom's words. Sure enough, she was fiddling with her wedding ring. She only got this emotional when Dad was involved. But what was my father's connection to the Scourge?

"If you know something, please tell me," Mom said.

I wished, more than anything, that I had the answers she wanted. But the truth was, I was more confused than ever.

Chapter Eleven

Despite warnings from Mom and Chief Mendez not to get involved, I couldn't help myself. I had to find out what happened to Mr. Davis. I figured the best way to proceed would be to start where he started. So the next day after school, when Mom was still at work, I said to my sisters, "I'm going to go check out Mr. Davis's house. Want to come with me?"

Rose sighed, but she grabbed the keys. "Let's go," she said. I guess she figured coming with me was better than my going alone as soon as I could give her the slip.

Rose drove, Poppy rode shotgun, and I got stuck in the back.

One advantage to living in a town the size of Nightshade was that every girl in school who had even a slight crush on Mr. Davis had gushed about his house, a quaint little cottage on Hart Street, which meant that I didn't have to try to get his address. It wasn't as if any student had actually made it inside his place, because Mr. Davis was always proper and aboveboard about that sort of thing, but many a lovesick girl had driven past his house night after night.

We parked around the corner and walked as casually as possible down his street. The air was still and hot, and there was nobody around.

The cottage reminded me of something out of a Beatrix Potter book, complete with a picket fence and roses on a trellis. Several flowering bushes with pink blooms framed his front door. I half expected to see Peter sneaking into Mr. McGregor's field, but all I saw was a small vegetable garden with no sign of the famous rabbit.

The police had obviously been here before us, judging from all the yellow and black crime-scene tape. Part of me was relieved that they'd already been through and swept the place for clues, but part of me worried that there wouldn't be anything left for me.

"Let's go around back," I suggested. "Maybe there's a door that can't be seen from the street."

"How are we going to get in?" Rose wanted to know. "We shouldn't leave any fingerprints."

Good question. We both looked at Poppy, who grinned.

"Okay," she said, "but if we get caught, it was already unlocked."

She stared at the door, her forehead wrinkling only a second, and then the door flew open.

We stepped inside gingerly, careful not to touch anything.

The cottage was just four rooms: a kitchen, a small dining room, a living room that evidently had also served as Mr. Davis's bedroom, and a bathroom so tiny that the three of us could barely fit in there at once.

"What are we looking for?" Rose asked.

"A clue. Something out of place," I said.

We checked the kitchen first. My powers weren't under control enough for me to try to use them at a crime scene, so Poppy had to use her powers to open every cupboard in the room. Once she finished, she wandered into the dining room.

" That china is beautiful, and it has to be over a hundred years old," Rose exclaimed. "Too bad there's a missing piece."

"Look at all these pictures," Poppy called from the living room/bedroom.

Rose and I moved to where Poppy stood in front of a wall of framed photographs.

There were several photos of Mr. Davis with Elise Wilder, Mrs. Wilder (I almost didn't recognize her without the black veil), and other family members.

"Mr. Davis was in drama club," Rose said.

I looked over to where she was pointing. In it, a younger Mr. Davis wore a suit and tons of stage makeup, and he stood next to three other guys. One of them looked familiar, although I couldn't place him. He had blond hair and thick black glasses.

"He looks so young," I observed.

Rose agreed. "Nice costumes, though."

"Arsenic and Old Lace,"
Poppy commented.

"How do you know that?" I asked.

"I dated Sam Tsai, the drama king, for three weeks during last spring's production. Penny Edwards played one of the little old ladies. Don't you pay attention to anything that goes on at school?"

"I must have missed Penny's stellar performance," I said. My sarcasm was lost on my sister. "He must have gone to an all-guys school," I commented, since the cast of this production appeared to be exclusively male. I peered closer. There was something familiar about the guy in the photo, the one with glasses and the case of bad acne that showed even through his makeup.

"It looks like a private school," Rose said. "Charles Fey College." She pointed to an orange and navy scarf that was draped over a chair and was stamped with the school name.

I noticed a leather-bound date book on the desk below the photos. Hoping I wouldn't mess up and break anything, I picked it up telekinetically and flipped to the date Mr. Davis had died. He had jotted, "Tea with HH."

"These Wilders sure love their tea," I observed. "Samantha mentioned to me there's a tearoom at the mansion."

"I wonder who HH is," Rose said as the datebook wobbled from side to side as it hovered in front of her. "I can't think of anyone in Nightshade with those initials."

"Maybe it was a date," said Poppy.

Our discussion was interrupted when we heard a car pull up and a door slam. I dropped the datebook and froze as I heard the click of high heels coming up the walkway. I couldn't resist a peek through the peephole. Elise Wilder was only feet from the front door. She stopped and sniffed the air. Her nose twitched as if she smelled something bad. I jumped back. I could have sworn that her strange yellowish eyes could see me through the heavy oak door.

"We've got to get out of here," I whispered.

Poppy and Rose nodded to signal that they understood, and then as quietly as possible, we went through the back door. We broke into a jog and didn't stop running until we'd reached the car and pulled away.

" That was close," Poppy said.

"I wonder what Elise was doing there," I said.

"He
was
her cousin," Rose said. "She was probably just checking to make sure the cottage wasn't totally trashed after the police left."

"Oh no!" Poppy said.

"What?" Rose and I exclaimed together.

"I didn't have a chance to shut the cupboards. They're still wide open."

"Maybe Elise will think the police left it that way," I reassured her.

"I hope so," she replied.

But that night, I dreamed I was a frightened rabbit being chased through a forest by Elise, who had morphed into a killingly beautiful wolf.