The Sorcerer Heir (Heir Chronicles) by Cinda Williams Chima Read Free Book Online

know—it was Halloween.”
    “What happened next?”
    “Well, I ran into this girl, Leesha Middleton, and her friend. They went on to get some drinks, and I walked back to the house.”
    “Ms. Middleton says you tried to keep her and Fitch from walking out there alone.” The chief paused, and when Emma said nothing, added, “Why?”
    “Look, maybe it doesn’t make sense now, with the lights on, but I had this creepy feeling,” Emma said. “I’m a city girl...I guess I’m not used to being in the woods. I thought it might be a bear or something.”
    “Did you see the bodies?” the detective asked bluntly.
    “No, sir, I didn’t.”
    “Did you know Grace Moss?”
    “No, sir,” Emma said, her heart spasming painfully. “I mean, not really. I met her tonight for the first time.”
    Childers sighed, the lines on his face deepening. “You know she’s dead.”
    Emma nodded miserably.
    “Somebody slashed that little girl right across the throat. At least she died quick.” A muscle in the detective’s jaw twitched. “I used to see her around town sometimes.” He cleared his throat, resting his large hands on the keyboard. “You didn’t happen to see her, down by the lake maybe?”
    Emma shook her head. “I saw her in the audience when we were up on stage,” she said. “That’s the last time I saw her.” Emma hesitated. “I just can’t—” She stopped, looking down at her laced fingers. She was about to say that she couldn’t imagine anyone doing such a thing, but what was the point in that? Somebody did.
    “What happened to your shoes?” Childers pointed toward the floorboards.
    Emma looked down at her stockinged feet. “I kicked them off when I started running,” she said. “I don’t know where they are.”
    “Are these them?” Childers held up a plastic bag containing her strappy black shoes. It must have been next to his feet, but Emma hadn’t noticed it before.
    “You found them!” Emma said, reaching for the bag.
    He pulled it back, out of her reach. It was then that she noticed the evidence tag on the bag. “These have been entered into evidence,” he said, his eyes searching her face. “See, they’re spattered with blood. We found them in the gazebo. There’s a lot of blood in there, too, like there was some kind of a fight.” He paused, waiting for a response.
    “Really?” Emma said, thinking, This is what happens when you lie—you get caught. “I wonder how they got there.”
    “I wonder,” Childers said gently. His eyes narrowed, focusing on her jacket. “What’s that all over your jacket?”
    Emma looked down. The battered brown leather of Tyler’s jacket was spotted with darker red-brown stains. Instantly, she knew what it must be. Rowan’s blood. Rowan DeVries had been stabbed. And here she was, looking guilty as could be.
    She scraped at one of the stains with her fingernail. “I don’t know,” she whispered. “This jacket belonged to my father. I guess I never noticed there were spots on it.” That, at least, was true.
    Childers’s expression said he wasn’t fooled, not at all, and yet it was somehow kind, as if this whole thing was a problem they would work out together. “I’m going to need to borrow your jacket, Emma, and run some tests. And see if the blood on your shoes matches the stains on your jacket.”
    “You think it’s blood?” Emma whispered.
    “That’s what it looks like to me,” Childers said matter-of-factly.
    Wordlessly, Emma shrugged Tyler’s jacket off her shoulders and handed it to Childers, who slid it inside a large plastic bag. He scribbled some notes on a tag with a marker, and attached it.
    Emma shivered as the cold air hit her bare skin. Or maybe it was the realization that if she didn’t tell the truth, she’d be in more trouble than ever. And that little girl, Grace Moss, might never find justice.
    Despite the roaring heater, she felt exposed, her skin pebbled with gooseflesh. Childers reached for the dashboard.