Summoning the Night (Arcadia Bell #2)(27)

“Nothing unusual,” Lon noted as he stuffed his hands in the pockets of a tailored brown jacket.

“No deserted playgrounds or creepy ravines,” I agreed. The house itself was small and square. “One bedroom. He never married or had kids, huh?”

“Nope.”

We climbed stone steps that cut up the hill to the front door. Lon peeked around the side, over a shoulder-high wooden fence, which still had lumber tags stapled to several boards. “Tiny backyard. Barely worth owning a lawn mower,” Lon said.

I stood on tiptoe and peered over the top of the fence. “No ominous old shed back there. No John Wayne Gacy crawl space under the house.”

Lon pivoted and surveyed the block. I did the same.

“What’s that at the end of the street behind the fence? Looks like a parking lot.”

Lon squinted. “If I didn’t know better, I’d say that’s the back of La Sirena Junior High.”

“Really?” I must’ve been turned around. I didn’t know La Sirena all that well, but I’d dropped off Jupe at school on occasion. And there was, of course, the time when Jupe had been held hostage by a rival magician, Riley Cooper. But I wasn’t paying much attention to the school’s location that night.

“We normally come from the other side,” Lon said. “This whole area’s changed. I didn’t realize this street butted up to Madison.”

“Was the junior high here thirty years ago?”

“Yep. The same one Cindy Brolin attended.”

“You mean to tell me that Bishop lived a block away?”

“It looks that way. Come on.”

We walked back down to the sidewalk and headed in the direction of the parking lot, crossing over Madison, and stopped at the chain-link fence. It was Jupe’s school, all right. And the bit we could spy from Bishop’s old house was faculty parking. The roots of a knotted cypress had buckled the sidewalk here. An old cement bench sat beneath the tree, its back touching the fence. The parking lot exit was only a few feet away.

“Jesus, he probably scouted out his victims from here,” Lon said.

The hair on my arms rose at the thought. But the new missing kids didn’t go here. They attended the private school across town. I was reminding Lon of this when a woman with a pale blue halo exited a door at the back of the school. An alarm beeped. She was heading toward a car parked nearby, on the other side of the fence.

“Ms. Forsythe,” Lon said in greeting.

She glanced up, confused, then smiled and stepped up to the fence, speaking through it. “Mr. Butler. I was just headed out to lunch. There’s nothing wrong, is there?”

“No, we were just in the neighborhood and thought we’d walk by the school.” He put his hand on my lower back. “This is my girlfriend, Arcadia,” he said, then turned to me. “This is Grace Forsythe, one of Jupe’s teachers.”

She was Earthbound, both a couple inches taller and decades older than me. She wore no makeup and was dressed in a flowing poncho-style shirt over polyester pants. Her hair was in a long, dark bob with straight bangs that covered her eyebrows. A little frumpy, a little flower-power. Exactly as I’d pictured her. Not only was she Jupe’s science teacher but also his homeroom teacher and his favorite. He talked about her all the time.

I held my hand up and waved once. “Nice to meet you.”

“Cady, right?”

“Yes.”

She smiled. “Oh, yes. I’ve heard all about you from Jupe.”

Uh-oh.

“I expected you to be wearing a rubber catsuit and wielding a sword.”

Errr . . .

“He’s got a big imagination,” she explained with a smile.

“And a bigger mouth,” Lon grumbled.

Her laugh was confident. “Better than being afflicted with shyness.” She turned to me. “You’re the one who’s been teaching him about constellations.”

The way she said this, I felt like I was in trouble. “Is that a bad thing?”

Her face brightened. “Oh, no. It’s good. Though he’s gotten a few wrong, and insists on correcting me in front of the class.”

“That’s Jupe’s short attention span, not her lessons,” Lon said with a hint of a smile.

“Oh, I never doubted that. You know, I think it’s wonderful that he has a new female role model in his life. I’ve noticed a real difference in him recently. He’s much more positive.”

“Thanks, but I doubt that’s because of me.” I shifted uneasily on my feet.

“Don’t be so sure. He’s more focused. Scoring better on exams, too. Confident—though he’s never really had a problem being sure of himself,” she said with a wink.

Lon crossed his arms over his chest. “He’s been more confident than usual around the house. Seems to think he’s coming into his knack.”

Ms. Forsythe’s eyebrows raised. “Oh, really? I haven’t heard this tidbit. He’s too young, don’t you think?”

I nodded. “That’s what we’ve been saying.”

“I once had a female student who came into her knack early, maybe ten years ago. But it’s rare. And I haven’t noticed anything unusual going on with Jupiter.”

“Well, if you overhear him claiming to be able to persuade people with the sound of his voice, please do me a favor and tell him he’s full of it,” Lon said. “He’ll listen to you.”