Page 95 of Haunting the Deep

I lean my head on my hand, and my eyelids droop.

“Samantha,” Elijah says, and I sit up so fast that I smack my elbow into my desk.

Mrs. Hoxley gives me a warning look.

“I have just come from the records room,” Elijah says.

One look at his face tells me I’m not going to like whatever he has to say. He never visits me in school.

“I did, in fact, locate the digital scans of those newspapers. However, the ones we want were missing.”

Damn.I pull out my notebook and open it to a fresh page.

I write:Is there a backup?

“Also missing. What is odd, though, is that the scans were on a machine in a rarely frequented storage room. Everything was covered in a layer of dust,exceptthat one hard drive. I believe that is what it is called.”

Me:Someone rushed over there in the middle of the night?

Elijah waits for me to finish writing. “Someone alive. Spirits do not leave fingerprints.”

Me:Whatever was in those newspapers must have been revealing. Do you think there was a name we know in those articles? Someone we would immediately recognize?

“Likely. I will also check neighboring towns to see if any of their records might be helpful.”

Me:And I’ll ask the girls if there are any other ways to get old Salem newspapers.

He hesitates. “Be cautious, Samantha. I do not know what we may have triggered with our visit last night.”

Me:I’m always careful.

He raises an eyebrow and blinks out.

I write down our entire conversation and pass it to Susannah, who reads it and passes it to Alice and then Mary.

The bell rings.

“The town hall is really the only place to get local newspapers. Some of the historical societies around here keep their own records, but mostly on the Witch Trials. I’d be surprised if they had much on theTitanic,” Mary says, and we all stand up.

“If our grandmothers were still alive, they might know where we could start,” Susannah says.

We make our way into the hall.

“The thing that worries me,” I say in a hushed voice, “is that if someone went to the town hall in the middle of the night, that person has to be here in Salem.”

“I was thinking the same thing,” Alice says. “And no one would do that unless they thought we’d recognize their name in the paper. I think we just confirmed that we must know the person who’s doing these things.” We all look around the hall suspiciously. “Everyone be extra careful today. And as soon as we’re out of here, we’ll figure out how to help Elijah get more information.”

The girls and I nod and share a worried look. We turn our separate ways down the hall.

I open the door to Wardwell’s AP History class.

“Ah, Miss Mather. I will see you during my office hours after school today,” Mr. Wardwell says.

“Actually, I can’t today. I have—”

“That’s what you said yesterday. But unfortunately, I’m going to need you to make time today. Thursday and Friday are impossible for me because of Spring Fling preparations.”

“Is there any way we can do it next week?” I ask.