Hot Blooded (Wolf Springs Chronicles) - By Nancy Holder Page 0,38
Rock soon after as her parents had split up and her mom had a new job. Before leaving, she’d given Katelyn some news clippings and a pen-and-ink drawing of a heart-shaped boulder and a waterfall that her mom had found when sorting out some old boxes. The image had struck a chord, but Katelyn couldn’t place why.
“She’s glad she moved.” He smiled sourly. “I told her about Mr. Henderson and we got to talking about everything that’s been going on. Her mom overheard the doctor talking on his phone when they brought Becky’s body in.” Becky had been the second girl to have been mauled to death out in the forest. Katelyn shivered. But Trick was continuing. “Apparently, the police said they had evidence that showed she’d been sneaking into the Inner Wolf Center. And that her body had been moved after she was killed.”
“Sam told me the same thing,” Katelyn said. Sam’s mother had worked as a nurse at the local clinic.
“I think she told Beau, too, as he’s been emailing her. Told her his grandmother saw something in her window and then had a stroke.”
Katelyn frowned. She didn’t know Beau had told anyone else.
“So now Mr. Henderson’s missing. Though I guess Cordelia’s family has accounted for her?” Trick looked at her, and she felt her face prickle. Did he know?
“She’s not home,” she said cautiously, “but no one has told me where she went. Some kind of family stuff, I think. Her family have talked to the school, apparently.”
He shrugged as if that was a good enough reply. Trick really hadn’t liked Cordelia.
“I’m not going to sit around and let more people die,” he announced.
“What are you going to do?” She tried to sound casual, but she was afraid for him. He needed to stay well away from the secrets of Wolf Springs.
“Well, Sam got me thinking, and maybe there’s something odd out at that Inner Wolf Center. I’m going to go check it out.”
“What, just walk in and say hi?” A light, panicky sensation threw her off balance, and Katelyn nearly dropped one of her books. She and Cordelia had had a run-in with two slightly drunk executives who had been taking a seminar there. Jack Bronson, the man in charge, had arrived and booted their butts on the spot. But Katelyn still didn’t trust him.
“Maybe, but we can sneak in around the back — there’s a way through the old buildings,” he said. “Anyway, I can’t think of anything else to do. And I really liked Mr. Henderson.” He paused, and then he said, “Do you want to come with?”
What she wanted was for him to walk away. But she knew Trick well enough to know that he wouldn’t. And if he found out something that could help her, it would be good.
“What the heck,” she said, and he smiled at her. He hadn’t done that much lately. It was nice.
They took his Mustang. Soon they were speeding along a one-lane, back-country road. She rested her head against the back of her seat, remembering half days at Samohi when she and Kimi would pile into Kimi’s convertible and drive to the beach. There was no beach in Wolf Springs.
Wolf Springs was situated in a valley, surrounded by heavily forested hills. As they crested the rise, she saw a battered old sign that said WOLF SPRINGS CLUB. She and Cordelia had read about the old hot springs resort. A man claiming to be the descendant of the Spaniard who’d first discovered the mine had died of a heart attack on the grounds. In his last, agonizing moments, he’d claimed he’d been attacked by the Hellhound.
The car drove into deep shadow, and then Trick whistled in appreciation, prompting Katelyn to peer up through the windshield. Above them, sharp silhouettes of steep Victorian gables, cupolas, and arches frowned down at them. As she moved her head, the sun glinted off squares of leaded glass windowpanes, disappearing where the glass had been blown out. It was a craggy ruin, unwelcoming, and Katelyn felt the hair on the back of her neck rise up, like the hackles of a wolf.
“This is the back way in,” Trick said. He waggled his brows at Katelyn. “We can just . . . help ourselves.”
“See, this is why you get in trouble with the law,” she said with asperity.