“Where’s Flo?” I asked. I couldn’t wait to tell her what I’d found out about the piper.
“Vinnie’s disappeared,” Raven said.
“Vinnie is really missing?” I asked. Maybe the Piper had gotten to him and it was too late.
Andy nodded. “Flo went looking for him.”
“Why aren’t we helping her?” I asked.
“She took off without telling us where she was going,” Raven explained. “Flo’s freaking out after the stuff happening to bands in Nightshade.”
“She wasn’t thinking clearly,” Andy said. “I’ve never seen her so upset.”
“Did Flo mention hearing any strange music?” I asked.
Andy snorted. “She’s a virago and she dates a musician,” she said. “She probably hears strange music all the time.”
She had a point.
“Let’s sit down and see if we can figure something out.”
Slim’s was packed. Natalie was waiting tables and Daisy was in the kitchen. She flipped pancakes with a little help from her psychic skills. She turned around for a second and caught me watching and gave me a wink before she returned to her task.
Natalie took our orders and then we resumed our conversation. I told them my theory about Brett Piper being behind the strange things that happened to the musicians.
“I think you’re on to something,” Raven said. “My Aunt Katrina definitely has the weird obsessive thing going on with Brett. And that’s not like her at all.”
“It’s like she’s under his spell,” Andy said. “What exactly was that myth about the Pied Piper about, anyway? Maybe there’s a clue in it about why he’s doing this.”
“Revenge,” I said. “It’s about revenge. The Piper drove the rats from Hamelin and when the townspeople didn’t pay him as promised, he took their children.”
“What were the titles of the songs Dominic sang?” Raven asked. “Dom’s pretty good about providing clues, even if he doesn’t know what they mean.”
“True,” Andy said.
“He sang ‘Promises, Promises,’” I said. “And ‘Masquerade.’ And then when he sang ‘Stairway to Heaven,’ he repeated the line about the piper.”
“Dominic really hit the nail on the head this time, psychically speaking,” Raven said. “He practically drew us a picture. The Pied Piper is back and he’s in Nightshade.”
“We need to find out everything we can about Brett Piper and his band, Hamlin,” Raven said. “But first, we have to find Vinnie before he gets hurt.”
We asked Natalie for our check, but she shook her head. “On the house,” she said. “It’s the least I can do after you have done so much work on our house.”
“The house!” I said. “Did anyone think to check at the Mason house? Maybe Vinnie is there. He could be hurt.”
“It’s a possibility,” Natalie admitted. “Vinnie’s been helping out, too.” She handed me a key. “Why don’t you guys go check? But be careful.”
Andy drove us to the Mason house. “There’s no sign of Vinnie’s car,” she said.
“Let’s check it out anyway,” I said.
The house was dark. After I entered the front door, I turned on the light switch, but it was dead.
“I’ll get a flashlight from the car,” Andy said.
When she returned with the light, we moved forward. I heard a noise coming from another room and then froze, but the sound stopped.
“Do you think it’s rats?” Raven asked. She moved closer to us. I shuddered, remembering the rats in the Hunter’s closet.
“Why is the electricity off?” I asked.
A vaguely familiar voice answered me. Hunter. “We are in the middle of a remodel,” he said.
Had he been standing there watching us?
“What are you doing here?” I asked.
“I’m staying here, remember?” he said. “Flo called me a few minutes ago and asked me to turn off the power.”
It was a rat all right. A songwriter rat.
“But . . .” Raven started to say something, but I gave her a quick nudge and she stopped.
It was highly unlikely Flo had called him in the middle of our search for her missing boyfriend. Which meant he was lying through his capped teeth.
His gaze kept drifting back in the same direction. There was obviously something in the den that he didn’t want us to see.
“What are you doing here?” Hunter asked.
“Natalie sent us,” I said. “We’re looking for something.”
Someone, I amended silently. I didn’t trust Hunter enough to tell him anything.
“What does she want?” he asked. He moved in front of the den’s doorway.
Raven and Andy were catching on that something was up. “It is her house,” Raven pointed out.
“Yes, yes, of course,” he said, but he didn’t budge. He draped an arm across the doorway. It was an outwardly casual pose, but I ducked under his arm and into the room.
“You can’t go in there!” Hunter said.
“I’m already in,” I said. When I surveyed the room, I was shocked. The room was empty, but there were so many holes punched into the wall that it looked like Swiss cheese.
Raven and Andy followed me. “What happened in here?” Raven asked.
“I told you,” Hunter said. “I’m working.”
“I don’t remember Flo saying anything about tearing down walls,” I said. “I thought you were staying here as a paying guest, anyway.”
The holes were symmetrical and careful, not the kind of holes you made if you were renovating. He’d been hunting for something, but what?
Hunter’s eyes shifted to a large gap in the wall, near the window. Whatever he had been looking for, I was almost sure he’d found it.
He stepped in front of me when I tried to move forward, but Raven was quicker than I was and darted to the hole before he could stop her.
“This is what you’ve been looking for the entire time,” she said. She held up a large bag of indigo wishing powder.
“I thought the old witch had hidden more of that stuff,” Hunter said. “And I was right.”
“This belongs to Natalie,” Raven said. “Not you.”
“Be careful with that,” Hunter said. “It’s worth a small fortune.” As he reached for it, Andy swatted his hand away, then grabbed his wrists and tied them behind his back.
When I raised my eyebrows in surprise that she had rope with her, she just shrugged and said, “A virago is always prepared.”
I turned to our prisoner. “You’re not Flo’s friend. You’re a thief.”
“I don’t understand,” Raven said. “I thought he was a famous songwriter.”
“He is a songwriter,” I told her, “but he also steals whatever he can find.”
He had the sense to look abashed. “I need it,” he said. “I hadn’t written a hit song in two years before I found that wishing powder in the attic. My career was going nowhere.”
“So you did steal the wishing powder from my house,” I replied.
“You were wasting it,” he snarled. “Flo was stupid enough to tell me where you lived. I walked right in and helped myself. But it’s already gone.”
I moved forward until our noses almost touched. “Don’t ever call Flo stupid again,” I said.
“Or what?”
“Or you’ll be in jail so fast your head will spin,” I said.
“Are you the Pied Piper?” Raven asked.
I could understand her line of thinking. Hunter was a songwriter, had no compunction about dabbling in magic, and, most important, was desperate.
“What are you talking about?” Hunter asked.
“The rats?” Raven prompted. “Your pets.”
“Rats?” Hunter said. “I haven’t had a pet rat since high school.”
His closet had been full of rats. “I’ll be right back,” I said. Andy handed me the flashlight, and I made my way down the hall to the guest room. The closet door was open and I approached it
gingerly.
I shone the light in the closet. At first, I didn’t see anything, but then I noticed a hole the size of my fist in the back of the closet. The rats could have come through there.
I went back to the others in the hallway. “Do you know what’s next to your room?” I asked Hunter.
“Yeah,” he said. “Mitch’s room. You may think I’m scum, but I don’t use rats to scare people.”
We tried the door to Mr. Peverell’s room, but it was locked.
“What should we do with Hunter?” Andy asked. The way she said it made me think she had a few things in mind.
“Call the police,” I said. “Let them decide.”
I knew that Flo would be hurt by his actions. I wasn’t sure she could take the added humiliation of having everyone know he’d betrayed her trust.
Officer Denton answered the phone and came right over. I have to admit I felt a certain sense of satisfaction seeing Hunter escorted into the squad car.
“What should we do with this?” Raven asked, gesturing to the bag of powder.
“It’s Natalie’s,” I said. “She and Slim could sell it and take a really nice honeymoon.”
“Or at least patch up all these holes,” Andy com- mented.
She was right. The house was a complete disaster.
I picked up a broom. “Let’s get busy.”
Chapter Eighteen
Saturday was the day of the Battle of the Bands finals, and Vinnie was still missing. But the show must go on. A bunch of us were making posters for the event. Selena, Harmony, Andy, Raven, and I were all at Selena’s house with markers and poster board galore.
Selena’s room was immaculate, all white. It looked like an upscale hotel room. Even the carpet was white, so we’d taken off our shoes before we entered. The morning was chilly, so she had a toasty fire roaring in her fireplace.
“Where is everyone else?” Raven asked. “It’s so quiet here.”
Selena looked amused. “Sleeping,” she said. “My aunt is married to a vampire, remember?”
“Oh, yeah,” Raven said sheepishly.
“We can work on the floor,” Selena suggested. “We’ll have more room that way.”
I was horrified. “What if we get marker on the carpet?”
She laughed. “Don’t worry,” she said. “If I can get bloodstains out, I can get a few marker stains out.”
I didn’t ask what that meant.
Andy handed out markers and poster board. Harmony hummed as she worked, but when I looked over at her poster, she’d written HELP ME in big block letters.
“You guys,” I whispered. “Something’s wrong with Harmony.”
Harmony pitched forward and collapsed.
“She fainted!” Andy said.
“Get a washcloth and wet it with cold water,” I said. “And let’s move her to the bed.”
Harmony was unconscious, but breathing. We put her on the bed and covered her with a blanket.
“She’s been singing in German again,” Selena said.
“What? But I threw the sheet music away,” I told them.
“She got it back somehow,” Selena said. “I saw her with it yesterday.”
“We need to find that music and get rid of it once and for all,” Andy said. She rummaged through Harmony’s bag. “It’s not in here.”
“Where would she keep it?” Raven asked.
“Somewhere close to her,” I said. “Check her pockets.”
After a moment, Raven held up the sheet music. “What should I do with it?”
Either Harmony found the sheet music or the sheet music was finding Harmony. I wasn’t sure which it was, but there was only one thing to do.
“Burn it,” I said. I gave Selena a questioning look and she nodded.
Raven threw it into the fireplace and a sickly green glow emanated from it. We watched as the edges caught and then burned. Finally, there was nothing left but ashes.
Harmony sat up and put a hand to her head. “What happened?”
“I’ve seen spells like this,” Selena said. “That sheet music must have been feeding off of you somehow.” Harmony had been wasting away, losing so much weight.
“Try to sing, Harmony,” I told her.
A few sickly notes came out of her mouth. I’d never been so happy to hear out-of-tune singing.
“You’re back!” Selena cried happily. “I don’t care if you can’t sing a note.” She gave Harmony a hug. It was the most emotion I’d ever seen Selena display.
“How are you feeling?” Andy asked.
“Like I’ve missed out on something,” Harmony said.
“Don’t you remember?” Selena asked.
“The last thing I remember was the estate sale,” Harmony replied. “I have a gigantic headache. Anyone have any aspirin?”
Raven handed over some Tylenol and an unopened bottle of water. Harmony took it and a few minutes later, the color slowly returned to her cheeks.
“What are we going to do about the competition?” Harmony asked. “There’s no way we’ll win when I sound like my normal self.”
We’d been so worried about her, we hadn’t thought what it would mean for their band, Magic and Moonlight.
“Connor has a great voice,” I said. “Maybe he could sing?”
Selena narrowed her eyes at me. I hoped she wasn’t going to be snarky just because I’d mentioned Connor’s name. She surprised me when she gave me a small smile. “Great idea, Jessica. And Harmony, do you feel up to playing guitar instead?”
“I know all the songs,” Harmony admitted.
“Harmony plays something like twenty instruments,” Selena bragged. “She’s almost as good of a drummer as I am.”
“That gives me an idea,” I said. “Harmony, I have a big favor to ask you.”
After the posters were finished, Eva and I stopped by Slim’s to ask Natalie if there had been any word about Flo and Vinnie. To my horror, the diner was closed. The big bay window was boarded up and there were shards of glass on the sidewalk. I picked them up and put them in the trash.
Officer Denton pulled up in his squad car as I was leaving.
“What happened here?” I asked.
“A bunch of Hamlin fans went berserk and trashed the place,” he said. “It’s a wreck inside. They won’t be able to open up again for at least a week.”
“Are Slim and Natalie okay?” Eva asked.
“Shaken up a bit,” he said. “But they’re more worried about Flo.”
“We should help clean up,” Eva said.
“We will,” I assured her. “But first, we have to get to the park.” This round of the Battle of the Bands was held outdoors at the city park.
When we arrived, they announced that Hunter Verrat was no longer able to participate as a judge. He would be replaced by Professor Carmine, a semi-retired music professor at UC Nightshade.
The judges were sitting at a table front and center to the stage.
It was exciting. They’d narrowed it down to ten bands, and the finalists had been assigned slots at random, so Hamlin was performing first. Side Effects May Vary, which I guess meant us now, would be performing at seven on Saturday night.
Dominic peered over my shoulder at the list. “That’s the best performance slot,” he said with satisfaction.
“Do you really think we stand a chance?” I asked. “Jeff is a much more experienced performer than I am.”
“I don’t think Jeff loves music anymore,” Dominic said. “He just loves the attention. That wouldn’t get us any points from the judges. We’re better off with you, so don’t be nervous. Okay?”
He gave me a little sideways hug. I hugged him back. “Okay.”
While we talked, Brett Piper rushed by. “Has anyone seen my guitar?”
Another missing instrument? It could be a coincidence, but my curiosity was piqued.
“Let’s help Brett find his guitar,” I said. I grabbed Dominic’s arm and dragged him along with me.
Brett shou
ted at the poor guy who was their roadie. “What do you mean, you haven’t seen it? It’s your job to look after the equipment.”
“Brett, it was here a minute ago,” the guy replied.
“It’s not here now!” Brett screamed. “Hal, I can’t go on without my guitar. Now find it!”
“On second thought,” I said, “Brett can find his own guitar.”
I wondered if Brett’s guitar was magic too. Come to think of it, I’d never seen him playing that magic flute that the Piper used.
The public library was adjacent to the park, so they’d temporarily converted offices into dressing rooms for the bands. Musicians were crammed into every available space.
“Do you want to hang out and catch some of the other bands?” Dominic asked.
“Are you asking me as a band mate or as a date?” I replied.
“Both, I guess,” he said. “I want to spend time with you and I want to hear what you think of the other bands.”
“Then lead on,” I said.
Dominic took a quick look at the schedule. “Drew Barrymore’s Boyfriends are up next,” he said.
“Even without Scotty?” I said. “That seems harsh.”
“I know,” Dominic agreed. “But the rest of the band is convinced that Scotty would have wanted them to play.”
“It’s so sad, though.”
He nodded. “It is. Want to get something to eat and then check them out? I think they’re our biggest competition.”
We walked to a food kiosk for a quick snack, then headed back to the stage to watch the performance.
Drew Barrymore’s Boyfriends had just started their set. Trevor announced that the first song was a tribute to Scotty Turntable, who’d tragically drowned. It was called “Couldn’t Even Swim” and was a lament about how confusing Scotty’s death was, considering he usually went to great lengths to avoid water.
Brett Piper from Hamlin was sitting on a blanket on the lawn, surrounded by a bunch of college girls.
DBBF did two original songs and then a cover of a Go-Go’s song, which was an interesting choice for them. The crowd’s applause was loud and long.
When it finally died down, Dominic said, “That’s what I thought. They’re the band to beat.”