I recalled his stick figure drawing. He even said that he can’t write poetry... which is crazy, seeing as he’s written all of his songs.
I recalled the way Justin described songwriting—like writing a poem and setting it to music.
How was it that Gordon was such a terrible poet, yet he was able to write a chart-topping hit for himself, once a year?
Once a year...
The thought tickled something on the edge of my mind, but I couldn’t pull the wisp of a thought forth.
I have no idea how he manages to put out hits, I thought, but his songs really are beautiful. And they’re all so different, too. It’s almost as if a different person wrote each one.
Wait a minute!
My eyes widened. What if Gordon didn’t write his songs? What if he stole them?
What if he killed the actual artist who created the song, and then claimed it as his own?
That would mean that The Groover was actually here in Hillcrest not to deliver a prize to Justin, but to kill him!
It would also explain Gordon’ Groover’s surly attitude—he didn't care about making a good impression, he just wanted to kill Justin and steal Justin’s hit song.
But why hadn’t he succeeded? I wondered.
I pulled out my phone and peeked at the time.
It was 10:55.
I didn’t have a minute to waste.
Chapter Seventeen
I hurried back across the roof to the ladder. As I started climbing down it, Skili swooped through the air near my shoulder.
“Why are you on that ladder?” she asked.
“It’s faster than the stairs,” I responded. “Plus, I don’t want to risk the chance of being slowed down by one of the guests if I took the interior route.”
“What’s the rush?” she asked. “Whats going on?”
“I figured it out,” I said. “I figured out who killed Robert.”
“Whooooo! Wooo, whooo?” she called out aloud.
“Gordon Groover,” I told her with my mind. I was halfway to the ground. I moved my arms and legs swiftly and carefully. The last thing I needed was a fall. I had to hurry if I wanted to stop Gordon before he had a chance to hurt Justin.
“Skili, can you fly ahead to Justin’s house? Circle around it and let me know if The Groover’s in the vicinity. If he is, I need you to dive bomb him, and don’t be afraid to use your talons and your beak. This guy deserves it.”
“Are you sure?” Skili asked me.
“Positive,” I said. “I’ll explain when I get there.”
Skili soared off. When my feet hit the ground. I ran around to the front of the building and then sprinted across the lot to my van.
I pulled a small broom with a bright yellow handle from a long storage bin. I hoped on it, and within no time I’d levitated off of the ground. I steered the broom up at a steep pitch, and then sailed through the magical barrier. The pinkish-purple air felt cool against my skin. At an altitude of about thirty feet, I started flying toward Justin’s house.
I try to fly my broom only in emergencies, seeing as it was a risky activity. If one of the townsfolk saw me soaring along on my broomstick, I’m sure they’d be mighty confused. I wasn’t crazy about heights, either. Usually, I just drive my van. But I knew that I had to get to Justin quickly—there was no time to waste. I only hoped that I’d get to him before Gordon Groover did.
I was relieved when I heard Skili’s voice in my mind. “Just did a lap around Justin’s place. No sign of Gordon,” she said.
“Great,” I told her. “I’m almost there. Keep it up and let me know if you spot him.”
“Will do,” she told me.
I sped up, and minutes later I came in for a landing on Justin’s lawn. I was glad his roommates weren’t out on the porch to see my little feat of paranormal travel, and the street out front was empty as well, except for two little girls on their bikes. I waved at them, and they hesitated, but then waved back. I was sure they were going to have some interesting tales to share with their parents around the dinner table that evening, but I wasn’t worried about that.
I had bigger fish to fry.
I bounded up Justin’s front steps, and then pounded on his door.
His roommate, Dan, opened up.
“Hey, is Justin here?” I asked breathlessly.
Dan thought about this—for way too long. I pushed past him and was already halfway down the hallway to Justin’s room when Dan answered with a dull, “Uh... I think he’s in his room.” Then, “What the—hey! Get out of here!” I heard him stumble a little bit, and then Skili soared down the hallway toward me.
“Don’t worry, she’s with me!” I called out over my shoulder, before greeting Skili with my mind.
“I just saw Gordon,” she told me. “He’s about a half a block away.”
I reached the end of the hallway and burst into Justin’s room. Skili flew in at my side.
Justin was sitting in his desk chair with his guitar in his lap. “Mar, what’s going on?” he asked at the sight of me.
I hurried over to one of the two windows in his bedroom, and pulled the shade down. I didn't want The Groover to peek in at us, should he arrive. The other window was covered with a tapestry, so I didn’t have to worry about it.
“What are you doing?” Justin asked. He placed his guitar onto the floor, and stood up.
“Justin,” I said, “Gordon Groover is going to try to kill you. He’s on his way over here now!”
“He’s not going to try to kill me, Mar,” Justin said with a lopsided grin. “What’s gotten into you? Gordon’s coming over because he wants to say goodbye and deliver my prize money before he heads back to LA. He should have been here half-an hour ago. Guess he’s running late.”
“Unh-uh,” I said. “Nope. He’s not going to deliver prize money. That’s a lie. Think about it, Justin. Think about his hit songs. Don’t they all sound totally different? Yet he said he wrote each one himself. He’s lying.”
Justin looked up and to the left, as if thinking this through. Then he started humming to himself. I paced back and forth as he processed this. After humming a few lines of “Shine On ‘Cuz You’re a Star” to himself, he said, “I never thought about it, but they are very unique.”
“That’s because he didn’t write them,” I said. “He puts a call out, all over the world, for entries to his songwriting competition. He sorts through, and picks out the best one, and then claims it as his own.”
“No way,” Justin said. “He’d never be able to get away with that. He’d get sued.”
“Not if he killed the contestant who entered the song in the first place,” I said.
It took a minute for this to sink into Justin’s consciousness. Justin is creative, strong, relaxed, funny, and caring, but I have to admit that he’s not super bright. That’s fine by me. I think intelligence is overrated.
“Babe,” I said, “Gordon’s been trying to kill you all weekend.”
Thanks to the urgency of our situation, I’d forgotten about the fact that Justin wasn’t really my “babe” any more. We’d decided to part ways for a year, but I pushed that from my mind as I went on.
“Think about it,” I said. “On Friday night, you were wearing a dark rain jacket. You stepped outside so you could take a phone call from Sarin. You crossed the deck and then hurried out into the woods for privacy. Gordon must have followed you outside. He looked around for you, and spotted Robert climbing the fire escape ladder up to the rooftop to cast his spell. Poor Robert—he was in entirely the wrong place, at the wrong time. Gordon must have assumed it was you going up to the roof. You and Robert both were wearing dark raincoats that night, and Gordon told me himself that he forgot his glasses.”
Justin jumped in. “So he followed Robert up to the roof, and pushed him off?”
I nodded. “Yeah. Gordon must have been pretty shocked to find out he killed the wrong guy. He knew he’d have to try again, so he waited for his chance. He snagged Margie
’s knife from the lobby, and on Saturday night he threw it at you—only he didn’t hit you. He hit Penny instead. She was practically invisible thanks to this camo she was wearing—long story—and she jumped up at a really bad time.”
“Oh man,” Justin said with a groan. “This is crazy! We’ve got to go to the cops!”
“But are they going to believe us?” I asked. “Gordon killed Robert up at my center and we didn’t report it. We have to leave that death out of it. We’d have to get him locked up for the other murders he’s committed—the other songwriters—but for that, we need evidence.”
I stuck my hands in my pockets, and again narrowly missed squashing the truth berry within. I plucked it from my pocket. “I’ve really got to get rid of this thing before it bursts in my pocket,” I said to Justin as I held it up.
Justin only half looked at the pearlescent berry in my hands. “What is it?” he asked, in a distracted manner. As he spoke he walked over to the window and peeked outside. “You said Gordon’s on his way over here now?” he asked.
I walked toward a small trash bin by Justin’s desk. “Yeah, Skili said he was a block away, and that was at least five minutes ago.”
“Do you think he’s gonna knock on the door, or pull some kind of psycho move and break in?” Justin asked nervously.
I was about to tell Justin that I wasn’t sure, when Skili flew over to me and landed heavily on my shoulder. She used her wing to point to the berry in my hands.
“Do not throw it out,” she said.
“Why?” I asked her.
“Think about it, child,” she said sternly.
I thought about it. Then I understood her point.
“Justin,” I said aloud. “What if we could get Gordon to swallow this berry somehow? It would make him speak the unfiltered truth—we could get a confession out of him.”
Just then, we both heard a distant knock on the front door, followed by the sound of Dan’s voice. “I’ll get it!” he called out.
There was the sound of Dan shuffling down the hallway in his slippers toward the door. The guy didn’t do anything quickly, and that was just fine with Justin and me.
“Give me the berry!” Justin whispered urgently. “I’ll offer Gordon a beer, and I’ll drop the berry into it.”
“He’s not here to drink a beer with you!” I whispered back. “He’s here to kill you!”
“Yeah, but I have a few really good microbrews in my mini fridge!” Justin whispered back. “How could he say no to that?”
“It’s not even noon yet!” I said.
“So what? It’s the weekend. I bet he’ll have a beer with me first, and then try to kill me!”
“I hope you’re right!” I whispered, just as we heard Dan call out, “Justin, bud, you have a visitor!”
We heard the front door close, and then I heard the sound of Dan’s voice again. “Man, I really love your songs,” he said. “I can’t believe you’re here in Hillcrest.”
“Is his room down this way?” Gordon asked.
My heart hammered in my chest, and my hand shook slightly as I handed the last truth berry over to Justin. “I’ll hide in the closet and record the confession,” I told him. “ And I have a spell on the tip of my tongue so I can intervene if anything goes wrong.”
I signaled to Skili, and together we stuffed ourselves into Justin’s messy closet. I pulled the two bifold doors shut just as Gordon stepped into Justin’s room.
“So... this is where you write your songs?” Gordon asked. “Nice space... Are the walls soundproof at all?”
I groaned internally. Was he trying to judge how loud Justin’s screams would be as he died? I reached into my pocket, and carefully pulled out my phone. I wanted to have it ready if and when Gordon started to confess.
However, I wasn’t sure that Justin’s plan was going to pan out. I knew that Justin thought the world of beer, but would Gordon go for a drink?
I held my breath as I heard Justin ask, “You want a beer, man? It’s a real honor to have you here. The least I can do is offer you a drink.”
“No thanks,” Gordon said.
Unicorn poop! I thought. It’s not going to work! I racked my brain for a possible plan B.
Then I heard the clanking of bottles. “You sure?” Justin said. “They’re brewed right here in Colorado, not far from Hillcrest, made with water straight from the Rockies. This IPA is to die for.”
I thought it was a fitting description, given our situation. If things didn't go right, someone could die.
I tilted my head, anxiously waiting for Gordon’s answer.
“Oh, why not,” he said after a tense moment. “It does sound pretty good.”
I let out an exhale of relief. Then I moved ever so slightly, so that my eye was lined up with a crack between the two closet doors. I could see a sliver of the room beyond. Justin passed through it, with the beer in hand. I heard Gordon say, “Thanks.”
There was another quiet pause. Then Gordon spoke again. “Ahh!”
I could tell he’d just swallowed. Good. He was drinking.
“Dang, this is good,” he said. “Hey, while we’re just sitting here—why don't you tell me about what was going on for you when you wrote ‘She Makes me Go-Go Bananas’? You know, like if you were in an interview, and someone asked you, what would you say?”
I rolled my eyes. Gordon was shameless. Not only was he trying to steal my boyfriend’s amazing song, but he was also trying to steal quotes about it.
“Um....” Justin said.
I couldn't see Justin, but I could picture him rubbing his chin and then taking a sip of beer as he thought about this. His voice sounded a bit tense as he answered, and I couldn’t blame him for that. After all, he was talking to a murderer.
“I guess I was sort of talking about that feeling when you’re so amped up that you have to just move around and shake and go crazy—you know, go bananas,” he said.
“There’s got to be more to it than that,” Gordon said. “It’s about a chick, right? That Marley girl from up the road?”
Another pause.
“You okay?” Gordon said. “You seem kinda amped up right now. Why are you tapping your foot like that?”
Inwardly I groaned. Justin tapped his foot when he felt nervous. I hoped his body language wasn't about to ruin our sting operation. Come on, babe, I thought. Keep it together. You got this.
“Just excited you’re here,” Justin said. “I’ve been a fan for a long time.”
Nice save, I thought. Keep it cool.
“This beer has a funky taste to it,” Gordon said. “Different. I like it. What is that... raspberry or something?”
I knew it was the truth berry that Gordon was detecting. I waited anxiously for Justin to reply.
“Um, probably,” Justin said. “Yeah. Raspberry. I think I taste it too.”
“So—come on,” Gordon said. “Dig deep. What were your thoughts when you were writing your song?”
“Okay” Justin said slowly. “I guess I was thinking about how when we’re out in... um... today’s society.... we’re supposed to act a certain way and move a certain way and no one just lets loose—really goes bananas.”
“Oh, that’s good,” Gordon said. “I like it, I like it. Kind of a rebellious theme going there hm? I can use that.”
“Use it?”
“Nevermind,” Gordon said.
I heard a tapping sound as one of them set down their bottle. Who was it, Gordon or Justin?
Justin spoke next. “You all done, man?” he said. “You’re a fast drinker.” He raised his voice. “You’re all done with your beer!” he exclaimed pointedly.
I knew that was my cue. Gordon had polished off his truth-berry infused drink, which meant he’d be compelled to speak the truth.
“Yeah, I am,” Gordon said, as though he thought Justin was nuts. “You don’t have to announce it.”
Yes, he did, I thought to myself, as I swiped the screen of my phone. I pulled up a video app
, and then held the phone out toward the crack between the doors. I knew it would pick up whatever was about to go down in the room beyond.
“Did you come here to Hillcrest with the intention to kill me?” Justin asked swiftly.
“Yes,” Gordon said. Then, “What the... why did I say that? I- I -I—” He stuttered, as if his voice was a skipping record. I figured he was trying to tell a lie, and the Truth Berry wasn’t letting him.
Justin was all business. “Did you kill other songwriters who entered your contest?” he asked.
“Yes,” Gordon said. He followed this up with a string of curse words.
“How many?” Justin asked.
“Five,” Gordon said.
“How?” Justin asked. “When?”
What followed was a gruesome and rather depressing outline of the murders he’d committed in the past, as well as exact dates, and how he’d disposed of the bodies. Gordon finished up by saying, “What is going on here? Why am I telling you all of this? I must be going insane. I’ve got to get out of here.”
That was my cue. I tucked my phone safely in my pocket, and stepped out of the closet.
“You’re not going anywhere,” I said, as Gordon swiveled his head to look at me. I held my palm out, facing him, and shouted “Stun Spell!”
I’d practiced the spell before, and every time I practiced it, a bolt of pale blue light burst from my palm and landed on whatever I was focusing on—usually just a pile of rocks, not an actual living entity. I was excited to see the magic work on a real live being. I expected him to fall, unconscious, to the floor.
Blue light burst from my palm.
It zoomed toward Gordon.
But then it started to bend.
Gordon was staring at the light with intense focus. I watched the blue light curve away from Gordon, and then collide with Justin’s chest. Justin shook for a few seconds as if he was being electrocuted, and then he collapsed onto the floor.
The Stun Spell had worked alright, but it had affected the wrong guy.
I’d stunned Justin instead of Gordon.
The Artist's Alchemy Page 15
