Legacies (Mercedes Lackey) - By Mercedes Lackey Page 0,42

doesn’t make sense! Spirit thought. Not if we’re all here to be trained as magicians! And the prospectus said we were all going to stay here until we were twenty-one . . .

But as she glanced at the others, none of them looked really suspicious. Even Loch only looked puzzled.

“Whoops,” Muirin said bitterly. “Here come Mulder and Scully.”

Spirit glanced over her shoulder. A sheriff’s car was coming around the side of the Main Building. Its blue and red crash-bar was flashing, and the searchlight on its door was lit. Suddenly there was a click and a grating squeal as its bullhorn woke to life.

“Attention Oakhurst students! Please return to the Gymnasium immediately! This is an order! Return to the Gymnasium at once! Attention Oakhurst students—”

“Ow, my ears,” Addie said. “I guess we’d better go.”

“Yeah,” Burke said. He forced a smile. “If Camilla’s out here anywhere, she’s sure to hear that.”

None of them answered him. They didn’t think—any more than Burke did—that Camilla Patterson was anywhere on the Oakhurst campus.

When they got back to the gym, somebody had already shut down the music and everybody was standing around talking at once. The sound was deafening. There were two McBride County sheriff’s deputies standing next to a man and a woman who weren’t part of the faculty by the other door to the gym, the one that led in through the classrooms. Two of the teachers—Ms. Holland and Mr. Bridges—were with them, and so was Ms. Corby. Spirit could see a couple of the other teachers and several of the proctors moving among the students, separating them out into groups.

As the five of them walked in, Kelly Langley came over to them.

“Doctor Ambrosius called the Sheriff’s Office as soon as Nick said Camilla was missing. They sent some detectives over to talk to us and a K-9 unit to search the grounds. They want to start with everyone who knew her best,” she said. Her expression was solemn. “That would be you.”

“It won’t—” Muirin began angrily. It won’t do any good.

“We have to try,” Addie said quietly.

“Go on,” Kelly said. “I see Nick and Brendan. I’d better go round them up.”

They walked toward the waiting adults. Ms. Corby was holding a clipboard and talking to the two detectives—probably telling them there wasn’t anything to detect, Spirit thought ungenerously. “These are some of Ms. Patterson’s friends,” she said, when they got there. “Ms. Carson has opened two of the classrooms for you to use. Right this way.”

Spirit had thought it would be done like it was on television, with the cops interviewing them one by one in private, but it wasn’t like that at all. The police brought all five of them into the same room—one of the English classrooms—and dragged chairs around and told them they could sit anywhere they wanted. While they were doing that, Kelly arrived with Brendan, Nicholas, and Cadence Morgan and Sarah Ellis. Sarah was on the boxing team with Camilla, and Cadence was another member of “their” group.

Ms. Corby hadn’t stayed, and Kelly left once she’d brought the other four in. Spirit wondered if the detectives were going to talk to anyone else—Camilla had been here for two years; she knew most of the students.

“I’m Detective Beth Mitchell and this is my partner Tom Carter,” the woman said, perching on the edge of the desk. “We’re with the McBride County Sheriff’s Department. We understand that you think that a friend of yours has gone missing tonight. We’d like to ask each of you a few questions to help us find her. Who wants to go first?”

There was a moment where they all stared at each other in stunned disbelief. Burke beat Nick and Muirin to volunteering to be first by half a second, and walked up to the front of the room.

Neither Mitchell or Carter bothered to keep their voices down, so the eight of them could hear every question they asked. Had Camilla been happy? Had she been doing well in school? Had she ever talked about leaving? Had she been corresponding with anyone outside the school? Did she have a boyfriend? Had she broken up with him recently? Did she do drugs?

Spirit thought that Burke really had an awful lot of patience, because he answered all their questions as if they were actually serious. Nicholas was sitting behind her, and Addie was holding his hand and Brendan was kicking him in order to keep him quiet. As soon as Burke got to his feet, though,