Truly Devious (Truly Devious #1) - Maureen Johnson Page 0,43

soon as I realized something was happening.”

“For all of us, Flora. A rising tide sinks all boats.”

“We need to do something,” Flora said.

“Such as? I don’t know where she is. I barely know where I am.”

“We have to think. Who would do this? Maybe we should tell them everything. Maybe we have to.”

“Flora,” Leo said slowly, “I realize you have a conscience and that’s what’s talking now, but how will that help? It won’t help us and it certainly won’t help Iris or Alice.”

“You don’t know . . .”

“Think, Florie. Think. Have you noticed where we are? We are in the remote home of Albert Ellingham, tycoon. Anyone who likes money could have taken Iris and Alice, and everyone likes money. And anyone could do it because we are up on the side of a mountain. Albert will pay them.”

Flora sank back against the wall.

“You, my dear, need something for your nerves,” he said.

“No,” Flora snapped. “I don’t.”

They were interrupted by a heavy rapping at the door. Leo motioned for Flora to open it.

“Morning, Albert,” Flora said. “I was just getting Leo out of bed. Everything all right?”

“No,” Albert said, all pretense gone. “It’s not. Nair, I need you to make a batch of your invisible ink.”

“I don’t have my equipment.”

“We have a fully equipped science lab here.”

“Of course,” Leo said. “Give me a few hours. . . .”

“No,” Albert said. “Immediately. This moment. Make as much as you can as fast as you can. How long does it take?”

“An hour?” Nair said, looking at Flora uncertainly. “Maybe two. It depends on the quantity.”

“Then you have an hour. You take whatever is necessary from anywhere, but you must be quick.”

“Let me get dressed and I’ll get to it.”

When Albert was gone, Flora pressed the door closed.

“Ink?” Leo said.

“Ransom money,” Flora replied. “He must be marking it. You get to it and I’ll see what else I can find out.”

Once Flora was gone, Leo locked the door and went to his closet. Inside, on a small table, was a small setup of scales and beakers and burners. There were delicate blue bottles that contained not an insignificant amount of chemicals of all sorts. Leo had always loved chemistry as a child. He mixed his own paints, which was why they had such an unusually vivid hue. He also made makeup, which was how he got blue nails and Iris and Flora got such remarkable eye shadows and blushes. It was why his own cheeks often sparkled faintly of silver.

This was not a paint set. Or a makeup set.

He didn’t waste time. He put the bottles and beakers into his satchel, pulled a pair of trousers on over his nightclothes, and walked downstairs as if he didn’t have a care in the world.

10

STEVIE HAD GREAT HOPES FOR THE BOARDING SCHOOL DINING HALL. She knew better than to hope for floating candlesticks and ghosts, but long wooden tables didn’t seem out of the question. Long tables were also featured in so many murder mysteries, when all the guests of the house were arranged, eyeing each other over their wineglasses, wondering who Lord Dudley was going to put into his will or who might have killed Ratchets with the golf club.

What she actually got was something that looked a bit like the buffet area in the conference hotel she stayed in with her high school forensics club when they did a tournament in Hershey, just a little more artisanal and maybe crossed with a bit of ski lodge. (Or what she understood ski lodges to look like. She had never been to one.) It had a high, peaked ceiling made of bright pine-and-stone walls, scattered with tables of varying shapes and sizes—round ones that could fit a large group, square ones for four, and quite a large number of small ones that could fit only one or two people. There were also some plaid sofas and beanbags along the wall farthest from the food, with a few low tables—clearly some kind of coffee shop area for people who were too far up a mountain to get to a Starbucks.

The chalkboard menu really seemed to emphasize that everything was local and that everything had maple syrup in it. The BBQ beef was in maple syrup BBQ sauce. The mac and cheese was made with smoked maple cheese. There was maple tofu and maple-syrup dressing for the salads.

“Did you forget you were in Vermont for a second?” Stevie said to Janelle as they took their trays.