Episode 26: Shakespeare and Spy Missions
- Crystal Crawford
- Apr 1
- 6 min read
Updated: Apr 2
I went upstairs to grab the trifold and Emery’s notebook, then met Collin back downstairs in the kitchen.
“Okay,” I said to Collin once we’d settled at the kitchen table. “What was your murder board revelation?”
“Can I see the trifold?” he asked.
I opened it and set it up on the table, along with the little notepad I’d been scribbling brainstorm notes in, plus a blank notepad, a pen, and some tape in case we needed to add anything else to the murder board.
“Okay, great,” Collin said. “Now we just need to set up a section about the clues you found from the notebook, and what source texts they’re from.” He ripped a paper from the blank notepad and started writing.
“Where’s this going, Collin?” I asked.
He looked at me. “Just humor me for a sec?”
I nodded.
He tore little strips of paper and wrote Shakespeare, Poe, and Jane Eyre on them, then taped them to a blank section of the trifold like column headers. Then he grabbed a fresh sheet from the notepad, jotted down a summary of the locker clue on it, and taped it to the board under Shakespeare.
“Can you open to Emery’s quotes page?” he asked, turning to me.
I opened the notebook and slid it toward him.
“What about this one?” Collin said, leaning over the page. “This one is a Shakespeare quote too, right?” He pointed to the heart that contained the quote, ‘Tis bitter cold, and I am sick at heart.
I nodded. “Yeah…” I glanced at my scribbled notes from where we’d Googled every quote looking for any connections that might kick up new ideas. “Hamlet, Act One, Scene One, lines eight and nine.” I looked up at him. “Why?”
“I’m just trying to figure out why Jane Eyre and Shakespeare have two quotes each, and the others are only one quote per work. I mean, she was a huge Poe fan, right? So why two from those two sources and not more from Poe?” His green eyes were locked on me, intense.
I could almost see his brain turning.
That was his murder board revelation? I couldn’t help but be a little disappointed, though I appreciated his effort and enthusiasm.
I sighed. “I don’t know, Collin. Maybe it’s not about the sources, but about the quotes themselves. I mean, if Emery wanted to hide messages, she’d need to choose whichever quotes worked for that, right?”
Collin stared at Emery’s sketches, then deflated a bit. “Yeah, I guess you’re probably right.”
I gave him a tired smile. “It was a good idea, Collin. Don’t rule it out. I’m just too tired to figure out whether there’s anything to it or not.”
Collin laughed. “Yeah, I get that.” He smiled at me. “Maybe we should try to get some sleep in the—” he glanced at his watch “—forty-five minutes we have left before the school opens?”
I groaned. “It's almost morning already? Then yes. If I don’t get at least a quick nap, I’ll be too zombified to look for any clues.”
“Aubrey? Come in here,” My dad kept his voice low so as not to wake my mom, but the urgency in his tone had me on my feet in an instant, no matter how tired I was.
Collin and I exchanged a look, then hurried to the living room.
“What is it?” I was almost afraid to ask.
My dad looked up at me from his phone. “I’ve just gotten an encrypted message from Archibald.”
I stared at him. Since when did my father receive encrypted messages?
“It’s about that young man, Devin,” he continued.
“The guy from the ice cream shop?” Collin asked.
“Yes. After what you told me about Chloe’s interest in him, I asked Arch to look into him. Apparently, Arch’s contacts uncovered that another supernatural once reported sensing magic from Devin. The report is, as yet, unable to be verified… but based on Arch’s research, there is a history of powers in Devin’s bloodline, several generations back.”
I blinked. “Devin has magic?”
“Fire magic, we suspect,” my father said, “though we can’t prove it yet.”
An uneasy feeling settled in my stomach. “What does that mean?”
My dad looked me in the eye. “It might mean his proximity to Chloe’s last-seen location isn’t a coincidence… or it might mean nothing. It’s hard to say, yet. But I think we should—”
“Look into it. Yes. I’m on it,” I blurted out.
My dad sighed. “Aubs, this is dangerous stuff.”
I moved toward him. “I know, Dad, but I’m a regular in that ice-cream shop. At least let me go feel things out there. Let me talk to him. Maybe I can pick something up, or maybe not, but at least I’m less likely to put him on edge than an adult he’s never seen before.”
My dad squinted at me. “Or more likely, since you’re Chloe’s best friend.”
“Then I’ll do it,” Collin said.
We both stared at him.
“I’m serious,” he said. “Devin doesn’t know me from Adam, and there’s no way he’ll connect me with Chloe.”
“Unless he’s been watching Aubrey long enough to have seen you with her,” my dad replied.
Collin was undeterred. “If he has, then he’ll recognize you, too. And Lockley. And Aubrey’s mom. And probably the cheer hawks. So unless we want to send the trench-coated madman in, I still think I’m your best bet.” He glanced at me. “Let me help.”
I was antsy to do the questioning myself, but Collin’s logic was solid. I looked at my dad. “He makes a good point.”
My dad ran a hand down his face. “Okay, fine.”
“Yes!” Collin pumped his fist in the air.
“Wait, wait—this is still dangerous. You can go question him, but after school today. We need to keep up the appearance of a normal routine. I’m also going to reach out to Arch, so he or I can be nearby when you approach Devin, and we can have the cheer hawks in close proximity as our eyes and ears through your whole conversation. We don’t want to take any chances with your safety.”
“I get my own spy squad!” Collin whisper-yelled, then shot me a gleeful grin.
My dad groaned. “Collin, this is serious. Your life could genuinely be at risk if we don’t take precautions, and I’m just not okay with that. If we’re going to move forward with this, you will have to do as Arch and I say, at all times in the process. Understand?”
Collin forced his face into a somber expression and nodded enthusiastically. “Got it.”
Dad sighed, then looked up at me. “Aubrey, I’ll ask your mom to pick you up from school today so you won’t be with Collin when he heads to question Devin. If Devin hasn’t connected Collin with you or Chloe yet, we don’t want him to see you together. In fact, it’s probably best if Collin drops Lockley at home before heading to the ice-cream shop, just in case Devin would recognize Lockley.”
Collin nodded. “I’ll explain it all to Lockley on the way to school.”
Dad glanced at his watch. “Almost 6 a.m. The school should be opening soon. You two ready for some scrambled eggs before you head to check out those lockers?”
I drew a breath. “Yes.” My stomach was nervous, but my sleep-deprived brain would have a better shot at making it through the day if I had some food in me.
“I’ll make some for Lockley, too,” my dad said. “Collin, call her and let her know, will you?”
“Yes, sir,” Collin said, pulling out his phone.
Dad looked at me. “Want me to make a pot of coffee, too?”
I nodded. “Definitely.”
Collin, Lockley, and I were about to go look for clues that would lead us to who-knew-what, then sit through all our classes pretending everything was normal before Collin headed off to undercover-investigate a possible kidnapper. No way I was making it through all that on no sleep without at least one cup of coffee.
Even if everything went as planned, we still would have a long, anxiety-laden day ahead of us—and my gut said that at least something in our day wouldn’t go as planned.
Turns out…
I was right.
***
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