CHAPTER TWELVE
After finishing with the lay staff – other than Abigail Hollander, most of the staff had little interaction with the sister – they moved on to Catarine’s students, a string of wretched wide-eyed children still traumatized from the recent tragic losses.
The death of their fellow student had many of them close to hysterics though none of them professed to have been friends with Cassie Graham when asked directly.
Keen found it obnoxious and said as much to Hero.
He needn’t have. Even Hero recognized the dramatics as a bit over the top.
Perhaps they felt bad about how they’d treated the dead girl?
She hadn’t exactly been popular. Only a vanishingly few of the students seemed genuinely distraught over Cassie’s death, and these she let Keen handle in his gentle way, observing in silence for the most part.
Nothing any of these kids said opened new doors: Catarine was their favorite teacher.
Everyone adored Sister Cat. Cassie Graham was weird, unpopular, always being dramatic.
Her death was a shock, but a surprise? No.
Catarine, on the other hand… well, she’d had everything to live for.
After an hour of questioning, the onslaught of fragile human emotions was making the inside of Hero’s skin itch and she was about to suggest they break for lunch when the name of their next interrogee stopped her cold.
“Did you say Franke?” she blurted, sitting up straight in her chair as PK Coates, an officer so young he still had pimples, led in a girl with long, dark braids and a heart-shaped face. Hero stared at the newcomer. The pertness of her nose and her plain brown eyes were very familiar.
“Yes, Inspector Viridian,” Coates said. “This is Molly Franke.” He gave the girl a gentle push toward the chair facing Hero and Keen’s table.
Showing remarkable courage, Coates fixed them with a stern gaze, or at least as stern as a boy with a spotty face could get.
“Be easy, please, DH Keen, Inspector Viridian. This is Lieutenant Liam’s daughter. ”
Keen gave a slow nod. “Understood. But, Officer, we have a job to do. We don’t play favorites for anyone.”
Officer Coates ducked his head and exited, pulling the door closed behind him.
Hero leaned forward, arms on the table. The girl across from her couldn’t have been more than fifteen or sixteen, so she must have been born before Hero had gone to prison but after she’d torched the abbey.
Her eyes were red rimmed, cheeks puffy and nose swollen.
Waves of fear and despair rolled off of her, more so than any other student Hero and Keen had interviewed so far. Genuine grief. Interesting.
Hero smiled, or gave as close a facsimile as she could manage. Basic human expressions didn’t work quite right on her not-entirely-human face. The girl blinked and hiccupped and somehow managed to lose more color from her pasty cheeks.
Keen cleared his throat.
“Do you know who I am?” Hero asked before Keen could say a word.
The girl nodded, eyes wide. “You’re my aunt,” she said faintly, lips trembling. “I’m sorry. I don’t know your name, ma’am.”
“Ma’am?” Hero chuckled. “I honestly don’t believe anyone has ever called me that.”
“S-s-sorry!”
“No, don’t be. It’s amusing, that’s all. What did your family tell you about me?”
“Is this pertinent, Inspector?” Keen interjected.
Hero silenced him with a raised hand then gestured for the girl to answer.
“Nothing,” she said, a bit too quickly. “Really. I mean, just that you went to jail a long time ago, because you were cursed–” A look of horror crossed her face and she almost seemed to shrivel.
Hero could hardly blame her, here in this cold room being questioned about dead nuns and dead friends.
Who wouldn’t want to shrivel up and disappear?
Especially in front of a cursed aunt she didn’t know at all except by reputation.
“Don’t be afraid,” she said, rather gently considering the roiling emotions in her belly.
Cursed, was she? Fucking assholes . “I suppose it’s nothing but the truth.
Cursed with demon blood, aren’t I? Not through any fault of mine.
But. There it is. You can call me Auntie Hero, or Aunt Viridian if you want to be formal.
The family pariah. The burned sheep.” She laughed, a brittle sound.
A small, desolate moan slipped from the girl.
“Never mind.” Hero waved a hand. “On second thought, call me ma’am. Shall we begin the questioning, DH Keen?”
Lips pinched with annoyance, Keen let out another aggrieved sigh and rearranged his notes. “I was about to make the same suggestion, Inspector. Now, young lady, you knew both victims, I understand? My condolences.”
“Th-thank you.”
“In fact,” Keen continued mildly, “you were the last person to speak with Miss Cassie, weren’t you? Other than the revered mother, of course.”
The girl jerked like she’d sat on a pinecone. “I–”
“Was there anything she said to you in that final conversation? Anything that might have hinted at what she planned to do?”
“N-n-n-o! Nothing! She was… she was just sad. Like all of us. Distraught.”
“Afraid?” Hero interjected. This child reeked of fear.
Molly nodded, looking both relieved and alarmed.
Her mouth worked like she wanted nothing more than to speak.
“She…” The word pulled from her reluctantly.
Her plain brown eyes flicked toward the mirror.
The child of a PK officer would no doubt understand what that mirror hid.
Her father was watching, listening – as was his right, legally.
“I don’t want to say the wrong thing,” Molly said miserably, fixing Keen with a pleading gaze.
“Chief Dewey,” Hero said, raising her voice. “Could you please ask Sergeant Franke to step away. Sometimes, it is hard for girls to speak of… uncomfortable things in front of their fathers.”
There was a click and shuffle as someone opened the speaking tube, then a disembodied voice spoke into the room. “Is that absolutely necessary, Inspector?”
The girl scrunched her shoulders tight to her ears, but her look told Hero it was indeed necessary. “Send him away, Chief. That’s an order from an inspector death speaker.”
There was a muffled curse from Liam before the tube clicked closed.
Hero waited an appropriate amount of time, dead certain Dewey would do as she asked. He wanted this case solved more than he wanted his sergeant coddled, she suspected.
“Now, feel free to speak, Miss Franke,” Keen urged gently, pouring on that useful charisma of his.
Though not exactly handsome, there was something about the young man that seemed to put people at ease, a genuine kindness beneath his stiff professionalism.
Hero was almost starting to like him, and he’d drugged her and tried to take her head off already.
“It’s just us, here in this room. Everything you say is confidential.
” For now , she added silently. Unless it pertains to the case. Unless it points to the guilty party.
PKs knew how to lie. Easy as breathing.
“She told me something horrible.” Molly leaned forward in her seat, eyes wide and hands gripping the chair beneath her thighs.
She crossed her feet at the ankles, maintaining propriety in her plaid skirt even in these difficult circumstances – a good girl through and through. “I – I didn’t want to believe her.”
“What did she tell you?” Keen nearly whispered, not wanting to break the fragile atmosphere. “Was it about Sister Catarine?”
She nodded miserably. “But it can’t be true! Nothing she said made any sense. Cassie thought she was to blame for Catarine’s death, for something Cassie told her about–”
Both Hero and Keen held their breath, waiting.
Molly glanced toward the mirror and leaned closer to the table. “About Bright Renewal Academy.”
Hero exchanged a glance with Keen; he seemed flabbergasted, too. He shuffled through his notes as if maybe he’d missed something, but Hero was sure up until now no one had mentioned the place. “What is Bright Renewal Academy?” Keen asked.
Molly stared at him as if he’d lost his mind. “ The Academy ,” she said with emphasis. “Where bad kids go to get reformed.”
“Is this a new school?” Hero said. She’d been gone from Havenside for quite some time, after all. Things changed.
The girl blinked. “Maybe. I suppose, compared to Clementine Prep. But Bright Renewal has been a Havenside institution for as long as I can remember. But… I’m young. I might not be the best to ask about its history.”
Another glance between Hero and her partner. Keen looked as confused as she felt. “You don’t know the place, Keen? You left Havenside, what, six years ago?”
“I’ve never heard of it,” he admitted, frowning. “You say this place is for bad kids?” he asked Molly. “What do you mean exactly?”
“Not bad, I guess, but kids who get in trouble, kids who need help so they don’t go down the wrong path.
It’s a good place,” she insisted with another glance toward the mirror as if it was unwise to claim anything differently.
“But Cassie didn’t think so. Her brother was sent there, and she was upset about it.
She said she went to Sister Cat because she was worried about Cole.
I don’t know why she was worried. I really don’t know much of anything.
” She was beginning to speak faster, words spilling out.
“I don’t understand why Cassie was so afraid, and I don’t know what she said to Catarine. Not exactly. I swear I don’t!”
“But she was afraid, is what you’re telling us,” Hero urged, trying to dredge up the truth. “Did she think this Bright Renewal Academy had something to do with Catarine’s murder?”