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Unfamiliar!
    “I don’t know if you can understand me,” Min said to Topher, “but thank you for coming. Thomas was such an inspiration to all of us.”
    Topher lunged—lurched, more like, but feebly—toward Min. “You’ve got so much nerve to say that, to show your face here!”
    Min’s expression was one of confusion and hurt.
    “Sit down, Topher,” Old Murray said calmly—and there it was again, that ripple in the air that hurt my eyes.
    When Topher sank to the floor, his wispy gray-and-white hair falling all over his face, I thought the Unfamiliar had succeeded in controlling Topher too. I ducked back around the corner.
    Min almost stammered but quickly recovered the poise that he’d learned in his time away from Wonder Falls. “I hope you don’t mind waiting a little longer.”
    “Nah,” Old Murray answered. “Although if you can get us any of those little sandwiches that they’re passing around…”
    “We’ll do that.”
    Min’s voice was too close. I tiptoed—in heels as high as the ones I wore, there was no other choice—down the hall, slipped into the function room, and pressed my ear against the door so that maybe I could catch what they were talking about as they passed.
    Min asked, “Was that enough to confirm your suspicions?”
    “No,” Blake replied. “I can’t deny my suspicions either, but I want to.”
    “Maybe we should have brought Cath in this time.”
    “We didn’t have to,” Blake said. “She brought herself.”
    “She what?” Min exclaimed.
    The door I wasn’t leaning on opened, and Min and Blake peered into the function room.
    “How did you know I was listening?” I asked Blake.
    “I’m a detective,” he replied coldly. “I notice things.”
    They walked in, and Blake shut the door behind them.
    “Old Murray Willis is my prime suspect,” Blake explained. “I don’t know how, because none of the evidence adds up to anything that makes sense, but Old Murray acted suspiciously and lacks an alibi. He had Cody bathe Burger when I told him that the dog was evidence. What do you think?”
    It was really too bad that I knew that the crime had been committed by an Unfamiliar possessing Old Murray, but I couldn’t tell either of them. “You can’t arrest Old Murray on a hunch.”
    Blake shrugged. “We can interrogate him. With lack of evidence, a confession will do.”
    “With the way you interrogate,” Min said to Blake, “I think that’s too harsh. I would know, since you ripped me to pieces in that interrogation room.”
    “He did?” I asked Min. “When?”
    “Doesn’t matter now,” Min muttered.
    “You’re still alive,” Blake said. “Samantha Perry was brutalized and left for dead. No justice and no peace. For anybody.”
    “I’m a grown man, and I can take your interrogation methods,” Min said. “Murray is the sole guardian of a minor—Cody. He’s Topher’s only friend. Topher lost his mind and is practically a hundred years old. This won’t end well. Cath, am I wrong?”
    “Unfortunately, no,” I told him.
    Blake’s expression was usually a glower, so I didn’t know how to describe the look he shot Min. He did say, sharply, “Cath and I spend at least one afternoon a week with Old Murray at the animal shelter. We know what good he’s done. But if he’s guilty of a murder in this town, we can’t stand for it.”
    “I’m not telling either of you, or anybody, to stand for it,” Min said, opening the door to the hall. “I just can’t be around when you take any of your terrible options.”
    I sighed when the door swung shut behind Min. “Why did Topher Thompson accuse Min of doing something to Alice? Who’s Alice?”
    “Who knows? Topher knows, obviously, but good luck getting him to explain.”
    “Couldn’t he get taken into custody too? I don’t mean like an interrogation; he needs a doctor.” I added to myself that Topher also needed some expert witches to look him over and check to see that he didn’t catch