T*Witches: Building a Mystery (5 page)

But if Sara, who had died just weeks ago, was their mother, then who was it the madman, the murderer, Thantos, said he could take them to? Cam shivered as the thought occurred to her that it was Sara he was talking about, that he could take them to meet a dead person.

Yet what if Sara was not their real mom? What if Alex, like Cam herself, had been duped? What if the woman Alex had called mom for fourteen years was no more her true biological mother than Emily was Cam's?

Camryn looked up at the monitor again. And saw:
[email protected].

A familiar feeling shook her. Shoulders hunched, she hugged herself and trembled.

Why hadn't she thought of it before, she wondered, smiling. Alex didn't want to talk about Sara—but maybe Doris Bass would.

"Stay out of your mind, but it's okay for you to break into my e-mails?" Alex accused a few minutes later when she came out of the bathroom.

"How embarrassed am I that I read two whole sentences on a subject you already discussed with me? Hello. Not very. Or did you forget you told me you were going to ask Library Lady about the creep's name?"

"Oh, I'm so sorry," Alex responded sarcastically. "I guess you just had an irresistible urge to stare at the screen."

"I've got better things to do," Cam said. "Like making up an invite for the Halloween sleepover I'm going to throw."

"Halloween's my birthday," Alex said without thinking. Her hand, the one which she grasped her mother's necklace, was growing warm.

"What a coincidence. It's mine, too."

Alex walked over to the computer and glanced at the monitor. There was a bright orange pumpkin on the screen. Then, with a click of the mouse, the silhouette of a witch on a flying broomstick appeared.

"Cool," Alex wanted to say, but the word "hot" left her lips. The gold charm was searing her palm. She opened her fingers and stared at the graceful crescent moon.

"Hot? Well, I wouldn't go that far." Cam laughed and swiveled around on her computer chair. "Als, what's wrong?"

Alex's face was flushed and frightened. Her hand seemed to be moving on its own toward her twin's throat. She couldn't pull it back. Worse than that, she didn't want to.

Cam stood, took a step back, then realized that the charm in Alex's open hand looked like a mirror image of the one dangling from her own necklace. She lifted her shimmering chain to check out the similarity.

Before it totally registered that her pendant had rays like the sun, while Alex's looked more like a half-moon, Cam could feel the chain straining against the back of her neck. She could feel her charm pulling toward Alex's.

With a sudden surge, they connected.

Alex's crescent-moon and Cam's radiant sun linked with a bang!

Together they formed a perfect circle.

All at once, soft voices filled the room.

Aron, they're beautiful.

I made them,
a man's voice responded.
This one's for you, Miranda. These are for our daughters.

With great effort, gritting her teeth to keep from grunting, Alex pulled back her hand. The bond that linked the necklaces was broken. The voices stopped, as both girls were thrown backward. Alex landed on her back on the bed. Cam fell into her computer chair, which wheeled wildly across the floor, until it crashed against the wall.

Trembling, they looked around the room. "Who was that? Who said that?" Cam asked in a hushed voice. But she thought she knew.

With a solemn, sinking heart, because the woman's voice had not been Sara's, Alex had the same idea.

But was it possible? Had they heard the voices of their true parents?

Alex couldn't accept that, didn't want to believe it. "Who said what?" she responded, turning her back on Camryn.

"Als," Cam pressed, "I think I heard our parents. Did Sara have a soft voice and, don't think I'm crazy, but did she smell like pine trees and baby powder?"

Alex couldn't help herself. "No," she admitted, staring down at the charm Doc had given her. "My moms smelled like violets. They were her favorite flower." She saw drops splash onto the golden moon in her palm and realized that she was crying.

Cam's fingers, identical to Alex's but for the nails—Alex's bitten and painted blue; Cam's neatly polished with clear gloss—came into view. Gently, they lifted the necklace from Alex's hand and fastened it around her neck.

She might just as well have fastened their veins together. Wearing their birth necklaces, one pulse beat between them, strong and demanding.

They clutched each other's hands, feeling the strange surge of power racing through them.

Alex looked up. She stared directly into her sister's eyes, which were now as misty as her own.

"Als, I think it was them," Cam said.

The afternoon, which had been mild for autumn, turned suddenly stormy. Wind set the trees creaking. Branches tapped at their windows. There was a lonely howling outside, broken by a crackling spear of lightning. Somewhere a loose shutter banged against the house.

Alex and Cam stood in the center of the room, holding on to each other. The noise and chaos around them was fierce, but they were surprisingly unafraid.

"Could you, like,
be
less enthusiastic to see me?" Bree asked. Gathered in a high ponytail, a shock of blond-highlighted hair erupted from the top of her head. The 'do reminded Cam of Wilma Flintstone and Alex of Old Faithful. "I mean, like who were you expecting, Ben... Brad... Brice?"

"Probably me," Dylan cracked, following Bree into the twins' room. She had changed from her Alloy skirt and sweater outfit to an after-school ensemble of crop top and clam-diggers. "Wait till you hear Banana's latest scoop."

Bree tried to glower at the boy but couldn't. She was too psyched. Her green eyes glistened happily with dish.

Cam's heart sank. She and Alex had seemed so close to a connection with their parents. "Oh, hey. Hi, Bree."

"Okay. Well, later." Alex tried to pull away from Cam.

"But Alexandra—" Bree pretended to pout. "You'll miss the dirt of the decade. And it's all about that IP who's so crushed on you."

"IP?" Alex drew a blank.

"Improvement project," Cam translated. "She means... Cade, right?" she asked, hanging on to Alex's hand.

"Bree says he's loaded," Dylan spilled the beans. "His parents bought that awesome sick mansion in the Heights—"

"See if I ever give you firsties on a hot headline again!" Bree pouted for real. "Before Dyl-erious blurts the best part, guess why the police were at school today?"

"Obviously, it has something to do with Cade," Cam said impatiently.

"Go, mojo girl," Bree teased. "Seems there's been a series of B and E's at Chateau Richman—"

"B and E? What's that short for," Dylan asked mischievously, "Bree and Eddie?"

Alex and Cam looked at each other. Was baby bro getting in touch with his mojo side, Cam wondered, because Eddie was who she was just thinking about.

How did Dylan know that? And, more important, how had Eddie Robins known that Cade was rich when no one else at school seemed to get it—certainly not by the way the new guy dressed and acted.

Good question
, Alex agreed, tuning into her double's thoughts to discover they were the same as her own. "Let's ask Eddie," she said aloud.

Cam's free hand found her sun charm. It was warm. A faint buzzing tickled her fingertips when she touched it. It had never felt like that before.

Then again, it had never moved as it did minutes ago, never sought and found its missing half.

She glanced at Alex and saw, with wonder, that her twin was doing the exact same thing, resting her fingers lightly on her moon charm.

Cam's sight began to blur. The low-voltage tingle she'd felt in her fingertips had become a ripple of energy that passed through their clasped hands. Cam felt herself growing dizzy. Again, she heard the squeal of tires, screeching laughter, and then a bloodcurdling thud.

"Yeeow!" Alex freed her hand from Cam's suddenly crushing grasp. "What's up with you? I'd say, 'Get a grip,' but you so already have!"

"I saw it again," Cam whispered.

"I know," Alex responded softly. "I heard it. There was a crash. And then a scream—"

Dylan was checking them out, trying to hear what they were saying. Bree, however, was a few beats back and oblivious. "Ask him?" she cried indignantly. You can't think that bald Barney and I have anything in common!"

It took a moment for Cam and Alex to realize that she was talking about Eddie.

"B and E is cop-speak for Breaking and Entering," Brianna instructed. "As in: Someone's been breaking and entering Cade's casa, and leaving with sacks of Benjis."

"Money," Cam agreed. "Lots and lots of it."

Ask Eddie. Find out why he called Cade "Richie Rich Kid" and how he knew Cade's father made "big bucks." That was the mission.

It was also a way to duck out of dealing with what had happened before Bree and Dylan showed up.

Alex didn't want to talk about their weird necklaces or the spooky voices they'd both heard. Maybe Cam was right. Maybe the voices did belong to their "real" parents. If it was true, Alex wasn't ready to face it. She didn't want to find out that the mother she'd loved and lost had been just as dishonest as Emily and Dave.

Cam was just as willing to drop the touchy subject. For now.

Following her hunch that Doris Bass knew more about Alex's other and missing father than Alex herself did, Cam waited until Alex was asleep and e-mailed the Crow Creek librarian asking for her help. Until she had an answer, she'd just as soon avoid arguing with Alex about who their parents were.

So they were both relieved to focus on unraveling the Eddie-Cade connection. But the bully didn't show up for school the next day. Not until Friday did they get their chance.

Marble Bay High School was still humming with guesses and rumors about what the police were doing there earlier in the week. Like salsa, theories ranged from mild to spicy. Bree's scoop was among the hottest. Her expose of the mysterious robberies at Cade Richman's "castle" had drawn a crowd of gossip groupies.

Moving past Bree's audience to their own lockers, Cam and Alex spotted Edgar Robins plowing down the hall. Alone. Caught up in his own thoughts, the bully was mindlessly elbowing people out of his path. Cam had never seen him looking so grim and hassled.

"What luck. There's our boy." Alex tossed her afternoon gear—gym clothes, science syllabus, and math books—into her locker.

"Maybe we should interview him another time," Cam suggested. "He so does not look Barbara Walters-ready."

"We'll just ask how come he knew Cade was rich. One quick question—"

"Yo, dude-esses. S'up?" Dylan caught up with the twins and peeled off from his grungy gang—all of them in low-slung baggies, XL T-shirts, and ridiculously huge unlaced high-tops. They also sported earrings, eye rings, nose rings, lip rings, tongue rings, and a rainbow of hair colors—though only Dylan's was striped neon blue.

Which, for some reason, caught Eddie's eye and seemed to offend him. "Dyl-pickle," he called out as soon as the rest of Dylan's crew had disappeared around a corner. "Who puked in your hair?"

Dylan took a step forward. Cam looked down and sighed. Alex shook her head at Eddie and said sadly, "Your learning curve must be a complete circle."

"Huh?" the hulk replied, his brow dipping lower over his little pig eyes. "You wanna start something, double trouble?" Surprised and pleased by his sudden surge of wit, he added, "Ha-ha-ha."

Alex and Cam rolled their eyes at the same time.

"Hey, Pistachio's blue period—" Eddie said to Alex.

"Pistachio?" Cam echoed, perplexed.

"He means Picasso," Dylan translated.

Eddie ignored him and continued sneering at Alex. "Where's that butt-ugly skull you were wearin'?"

Automatically, Alex grasped her half-moon charm. It seemed to be heating up again. Cam's hands flew to her sun charm. Eddie caught the motion. With a mean gleam in his eye, his hand shot out, intent on snatching Cam's necklace.

She spun out of his reach and he cried out in agony, blisters welling up on his fingers.

"Yo, wha—?!" Dylan gulped.

Go, you fire girl,
Alex silently congratulated Cam.
You stir-fried the porker.

Whew. Major hex, Als!
Cam said at the same time.
That is so the spell I'd like to learn.

"Excuse me?" they both said together. "You mean you didn't...?" They both stopped and stared at each other's necklace.

It's the charms,
Cam guessed.
Mine's heating up again. What about yours?

Simmering
, Alex agreed.
Is it 'cause we're wearing them together?

Cam had no time to answer. Eddie's flames had gone out and he was lunging at her.

Dylan jumped between them, his fist cocked. Before he could fully connect, Eddie broke into a spastic dance. The bristly headed boy's legs flailed and twisted. "I'm burning up!" he shouted. His arms made weird circles in the air, as if he were trying to keep himself from falling backward.

"Yo, I barely laid a glove on him," Dylan explained to a group of bug-eyed kids who'd heard the commotion.

"OMG.!" With one hand still clutching her own heated charm, Cam whispered, "Alex, you'll never believe this. I did it! I mean, I sort of wished it."

"I totally believe you. Too bad he wasn't holding a ball," Alex mused, wistfully recalling the time she'd gotten a trash-taking girl bully to bean herself with a basketball. That was when Alex discovered she could make stuff move just by thinking about it. Now she tapped her chewed-up nails against her half-moon necklace, then smiled as, out of nowhere, she pictured Eddie lying helpless on his back, limbs tangled uselessly.

A second later she heard him flop like a sack of raw dough onto the green linoleum tiles of the corridor. Gasps and giggles rippled through the gathered crowd.

"I didn't do it." Dylan scanned the mob for witnesses, while Alex and Cam knelt beside the thrashing bully.

"Don't touch me." Eddie cringed. "What are you, witches?"

"T'Witches," Cam whispered impishly.

"Twins. Witches. Get it?" Alex laughed. "We're T'Witches. Which means we can unpretzel you—for a price."

"That ain't fair," Eddie growled. "I got no money. I don't even get no allowance anymore."

"Okay, then just answer a question. How did you know that Cade's family was rich?"

"My old man, he's a landscaper. He works at the Richman house, up there in the Heights. Couple of times this summer, I went along to help him out. They've got money, okay, but I wouldn't trade with them, no way," he asserted. "Cade's got this sister—she's a mess, popping Prozac and crying all the time. She was supposed to be in summer school, but she came back early, had a nervous breakdown or something—"

"Oh, no. Not again, not now." Cam's eyes had begun to tear. She pressed her hands against her throbbing temples.

A second later, Alex whispered, "I know. The car. The crash. I heard it again, too."

Eddie tried to sit up. And failed. "That's it. That's all I know," he said, trying to keep his voice down. " 'N' I don't care what you are. Witches, whatever. I told you what you wanted. Now undo me!"

Alex and Cam exchanged nervous glances.

"You're kiddin' me, right?" Eddie panicked. "You knew how to get me into this WWF hold, but now you don't know how to get me out?!"

"And we thought he was stupid," Alex said.