my shift at the grocery store, okay? Yes, I know. If you had a job I wouldn’t do this to you. Stop complaining. You got plenty of practice yesterday.” She hung up the phone, slipped it into her pocket, and returned the folder to her bag. The manic light brightened her owl-like eyes. “All right, time to go hunt a vampire.”
Chapter Fifteen
Keira followed Mason and Zoe back onto the main street. They led her toward the half of the town she hadn’t yet seen. Mason matched her pace and shared some of what he knew while Zoe loped ahead.
“Dane was born a few years after Emma’s murder and George’s incarceration, but he’s unfortunately been tainted by the association. As far as I know, the only person he’s on close terms with is Dr. Kelsey. Apparently, the families were friendly, and George paid for the doctor’s studies, so Kelsey continues to stay in touch with the grandson. Dane doesn’t leave Crispin House often, though I’ve heard some people have seen him wandering the streets at night, which is the basis for Zoe’s delightful vampire theory.”
“Is he a nice person?”
“I don’t know him well. Some people say he’s haughty and antisocial. I’m more inclined to think he struggles with anxiety and possibly a persecution complex because of what his grandfather did.” Mason pulled a face. “Some people in this town go to great lengths to make sure he doesn’t forget it.”
“Why doesn’t he move?”
“I’m not sure. It might be from family loyalty, fear of the unknown, or it’s possible he even likes the attention. Like I said, I don’t know him—the only time I see him is during the town meetings.”
“Oy!” Zoe turned so that she was walking backward and waved her arms. “If you’re going to natter away like a pair of old women, at least have the decency to talk about the interesting stuff. I heard Ol’ Crispy planted a tree in the place where his grandpa tried to bury Carthage. Like some sort of twisted monument.”
“That’s a rumor that has been floating around for years.” Mason put his hands in his jacket pockets and shrugged. “I’d be surprised if it were true.”
They were leaving the town’s center and passing through the residential areas. The farther they walked, the more rural the properties appeared. The houses closest to the main street had tidy suburban lawns, but farther out, they morphed into hobby farms and sprawling properties.
“The Crispin House is just through here.” Mason indicated what looked like the edge of the forest. “It used to be more open, but the Crispins planted the trees shortly after the scandal to help preserve their privacy.”
“Not that it helped much,” Zoe called over her shoulder. “They got dragged through the mud big time. Can you imagine? George Crispin, the guy who thought his family was so much better than the dirty peasants in town, murdered a local girl in a fit of rage. The newspapers had a field day.”
“And they’re certain George was the killer?”
Mason quirked his head to the side. “I suppose so. Who else would it be?”
“Yeah, of course.” Keira could feel him watching her. She ran her fingers through her hair so that some of it shifted forward to obscure her face.
She hadn’t meant to voice her pet theory so openly, but it was striking her as increasingly strange that George Crispin, a cultured, respected man, would murder a girl from a poor family, then do such a poor job of hiding his crime.
But if it wasn’t George, who did it? Surely not Frank. But perhaps one of George’s other sons was motivated by jealousy, or even one of the staff—though I can’t imagine George would take the fall for a staff member.
“Here we are.” Mason had stopped in front of a fence that was dense with ivy. He pulled back a swath of the vine to expose a wrought-iron gate, then gestured for Keira to step up.
She did and peered through two metal bars. The aging, dilapidated building at the end of the driveway was everything she’d been promised and more.
Zoe had called it a mansion, and it was very close to being one. The three-story stone building crouched like a sleeping monster on the overgrown lawn. The windows were black and lifeless, and patches of the roof were collapsing.
“It’s beautiful,” Keira murmured.
“Figures you’d say that.”
Keira glanced to her right and saw Zoe’s face poking through the gate. “You think Blighty is cute too. No offense, but whatever lost