A Bad Day for Sunshine (Sunshine Vicram #1)(34)

“I’m sorry, Mom. I wanted to help with the investigation. I wanted to help you find Sybil.”

All three of them blinked at her.

Sunshine sobered first. “And just how was your breaking and entering going to help us find Sybil?”

Auri hadn’t wanted this. She was usually so good at these kinds of things. She could find a needle in a haystack given the right tools. Through all the cases she’d worked—she preferred to call them cases as opposed to favors since she’d started charging for her services—she’d never been caught. But one day at Del Sol High, and her perfect record had come to an unfortunate and terrifying end.

“I was going to interview her friends, but I don’t know who her friends are, so I wanted her class schedule so I’d know where to start, but I knew they couldn’t just give it to me, so I needed the password to hack into the system and get it.”

The three adults in the room stood for a solid minute, and Auri could tell her mom wasn’t sure what to do. Now was her chance to plead her case.

“Who better to investigate a teen than another teen?” she asked. “I mean, I can gather intel here while you’re investigating out there.”

When Sun finally spoke, the edge in her voice hadn’t softened one iota, much to Auri’s disappointment. “Aurora Dawn Vicram. You broke the law. And you had plans to break it even more. Since when do you hack into someone’s computer?”

The sting in the backs of Auri’s eyes caused her frustration to spike even further. “I can help, Mom. I’m very good at getting information when I need to, and Sybil is missing. Isn’t that all that matters?”

Sun sat in the chair next to her. “Sweetheart, did Sybil say anything to you?”

“Not directly. That’s why I wanted to talk to her friends. She seemed to know something was going to happen.”

“In what way?”

“She texted me a couple of days ago.”

“When you met up at the Pecos?” The Pecos Percolator was one of three coffee shops the tiny town had to offer.

She nodded. “She was acting strange, saying things like she was so glad we got to be friends, even for just a little while. I didn’t understand, but I think someone was following her, Mom. Or threatening her. I mean, why would she say something like that?”

Quincy knelt in front of her. “Okay, bean sprout, did she say anything else? Anything that could help us identify who it was?”

“No. And I didn’t push.” The wetness she’d been fighting slipped past her eyelashes. She swiped at the trail, annoyed. “Quincy, she’s so nice. We have to find her.”

Without another word, Quincy pulled her into his massive arms. His hug felt like home. Warm and comforting and oddly constrictive.

Principal Jacobs stood. “Aurora, I need to know you aren’t going to try to hack my system again.”

Hope blossomed inside her. “I won’t try again. I swear.”

“Well, then, I don’t see why we can’t let this slide, considering the circumstances.”

While Mr. Jacobs seemed satisfied, the new sheriff wasn’t so easily placated. Her expression remained impassive as she scrutinized her daughter.

“Mom?” Auri said, her chest squeezing her lungs until they hurt.

“And,” the principal continued, addressing the surly woman in black, “since there’s an ongoing investigation, I suppose giving you a copy of Sybil’s class schedule wouldn’t be breaking any laws. If it just happened to slip out of your hand and into someone else’s—like, say, a student’s—that wouldn’t be on me.”

Her mom deadpanned him. “You’re encouraging my daughter to insert herself into an ongoing missing persons investigation?”

A wicked smile spread across his face. “I try to nurture the talents of all my students. Not just your daughter, Little Miss Sunshine.”

Auri almost snorted aloud. Instead, she slammed a hand over her nose and mouth to hold it in.

Her mom cast him a withering scowl. “You know, you got away with that nickname when I was in high school—”

“And I’ll get away with it now.”

Ignoring her indignation, he walked to his office door. “Corrine, could you print a copy of Sybil St. Aubin’s schedule?”

“Of course,” she said, stuffing the last bite of her sub into her mouth and swinging her chair around to her computer.

Two office aides had come in to work, a boy and a girl, both of them upperclassmen and each one of them on separate tasks. They both paused and focused their attention when Principal Jacobs walked to the door. But what Auri found interesting was when the principal asked Corrine for the schedule, the guy whipped his head around in surprise.

He caught himself and recovered quickly, bending over a stack of papers he was separating into three mystery piles, but the knee-jerk reaction was hardly subtle.

Auri made a mental note to check him out later. Unfortunately, when she turned back to her mom, she realized she’d made the same mental note.

Auri gestured toward the guy, urging her mom to let her help, to let her question him, but Sunshine fired a warning shot over the bow of her ship. A ship called In Your Dreams.

As frustrated as Auri was, she did understand. A girl was missing. Her life was in danger. Auri had to remember that. Not only could she get caught up in a bad situation, she could botch the entire investigation.