We went through the ballroom, the parlor, the powder room, and up and down all of the corridors in the back of the house, but there was no sign of Otto.
"Did he sneak upstairs?" Brianna asked, looking down the corridor to the pair of officers standing guard there.
"Hold on," I said, sitting down on a chair that was against the wall in the corridor, opposite a set of double doors I was sure went to Mr. McTavet's study. I could hear the murmur of male voices inside. The chair had a stale cigar smell to it and wasn't particularly comfortable, but I only needed a moment.
I closed my eyes and pushed my awareness out of my body. It wasn't hard to find Otto this way. I knew his pattern of threads well after our last adventure together.
I opened my eyes. "He's in the kitchen," I said.
Sophie nodded and looked around, but there was no sign of a kitchen door in our corridor.
"This way," I said, getting up from the chair and leading the way back to the ballroom.
The food on the buffet table was starting to look a little sad, and I was certain anyone who tried to eat one of the shrimp cocktails now was going to have regrets.
Then a waiter went by holding a tray of empty coffee cups. We three watched as he crossed the room, then pushed against what looked like any other panel in the wood-covered walls. It pivoted on unseen hinges, and he disappeared.
"Mr. McTavet certainly likes a bit of mystery," I said. We crept closer to the door and waited to see if anyone was going to come back out of it, but there was no way to tell. Then another waiter came towards us, this one carrying a bin filled with dirty plates. He gave us a little nod as we stepped aside to let him pass.
We waited a beat then Sophie pushed through the door after him. Brianna and I followed.
Now we were standing in a dark room filled with shelves, a bit large for a butler's pantry but clearly the McTavets liked to throw lavish parties. From the other end of the room, we could hear the clatter of dishes and the splashing of wash water as well as many voices conversing in low tones. The pallor over the party extended to the staff as well. Not surprising. Ivy had seemed well liked by everyone.
We crept closer to the light. Sophie peeked into the kitchen then quickly slipped across the open space in front of the door to the butler's pantry, disappearing behind a wall of empty crates that had once held bottles of champagne. Brianna watched for a moment then followed. Then it was my turn to watch the servants gathered at the far end of the room, washing dishes and filling pots with coffee and stacking trays high with clean cups. They were talking together, but discreetly, in low voices with their heads bent together. No one was looking my way.
I followed the others.
The space between the back wall and the champagne crates was darkened like the butler's pantry and narrow. I could see Sophie and Brianna at the far end looking down at something, and when I got closer, I realized they were both standing over Otto, who had made himself a seat out of an overturned crate and was drinking the contents of one of the bottles. Several empties were rolling on the ground at his feet.
"Is this helpful?" I asked him in a furious whisper that was still loud enough to make both Brianna and Sophie gesture with their hands for me to quiet down.
"It wasn't a hit," Otto said, over-enunciating each word.
"Well, who thought it was?" I asked, still a shade too loudly.
"Me," Otto said. "But it isn't. So."
"You thought one of your buddies sent someone up there to push Ivy over the side?" I asked. "Why? The only person here who ever expressed any animosity towards her was you, frankly."
"All I ever said was that she wasn't right for Edward," Otto said, pausing to take yet another gulp of champagne. "And I stand by that assessment."
"When was this?" Sophie asked, but I waved the question aside.
"Otto-" I began, but he made a frustrated sound and kept making it until I stopped trying to speak.
"Your argument makes no sense," he said. "Why would I want her dead the very minute it's revealed that she wasn't even going to marry Edward?"
"Because you didn't know until that minute either?" I said. "It doesn't matter. I wasn't actually accusing you."
"No, I suppose you could just look into my eyes and see my heart," he said, still angry.
"Not exactly," I said.
"Coco thinks there might have been someone else up on the balcony beside the family," Brianna said. "Is that true? Is that why you thought there might be a hitman?"
"I did not know that," Otto said and lurched to one side as he attempted to turn his head to look at her.
"Why would a hitman be after Ivy? You didn't explain that,” Sophie said. He lurched again as he turned his attention to her. She bent down and gently took the mostly empty bottle from his hands, setting it on the floor with the others. "Otto, is anyone else in danger?"
"No," he said. "Everyone I spoke to swore they weren't here for business, and I believe them."
"But Ivy-" I began.
"I didn't think she was the target," Otto burst out, prompting Brianna and Sophie to flutter their hands again.
"Someone else then? Thomas or maybe Mr. McTavet?" I asked.
"It doesn't matter," Otto said, lifting his hand then realizing the bottle was gone.
"You do know the police are looking to question you," I said.
"I had nothing to do with it," he said.
"They're looking to pin this on Edward. They're going to grill you about all of the details of his life now and of his childhood and about why you're still a part of his life if he's really living an honest life," I said.
"I've got nothing to hide," he said.
"You're not listening to me," I said, leaning down to stare him right into the eyes. He had a little trouble focusing on me when I was that close, but he gave it an effort. "They aren't looking for the truth. They're not even looking for juicy secrets. They're looking for any reason at all they can pin this on him. And if you try to talk to them the way you are now, you're going to be giving them everything they want and more."
"I told you," he said, raising a wavering finger at me. "I told you they would."
"So why are you drinking then?" I asked.
His eyes filled with tears and I threw up my hands in surrender.
"I can't help him," he said, putting an arm over his eyes so we couldn't see him cry. "I can't do a thing for him."
"Not like this you can't," I said, but Sophie shot me a quelling look.
She might have sympathy for him, but I had none left.
"You're letting him down," I said.
"I know," he wailed.
Sophie nudged me back so she could take my place in front of Otto. She put her hands gently on his shoulders and waited for him to pull himself together and lower his arm.
"Otto," she said softly. "Why would Thomas be a target? Is he mixed up with something dangerous?"
"Not that I know of," Otto said. "But his father is a lawyer. A good one. He's managed to get a few of the worse sorts of gangsters put away despite the corruption in the police department and the courts. Someone might want to teach him a lesson by going after his boy."
"But no one here," I said. "Wait, is Thomas' father here?"
"No," Otto said. "I asked. He's at the governor's do. Pretty much anyone who isn't here is over there. More proper businessmen, though. Fewer gangsters."
"So his parents weren't even here?" Brianna said. "This really was a last-minute engagement, wasn't it? How strange it all is."
A door banged open on the other end of the kitchen and the sounds of dishes being washed promptly stopped.
"Wrong door," one of the waiters said. "The ballroom is down that way, and the powder room just down there."
"We're searching all the rooms," another man said. "We're looking for someone who seems to be hiding from us."
I looked to the others in alarm.
"Just let them take me," Otto said, struggling to his feet. I reached past Sophie to put a hand on his chest and gently shove him back down.
"Not like this," I said.
"You suggest we hide him until he sobers up?" Sophie asked, raising an eyebrow at me.
"I can fix it," Brianna said.
"You can fix it," Sophie said. "How?"
"I know a spell," she said, pulling out her wand.
"You can sober him up with a spell?" I asked.
"Yes," she said, raising her wand. Otto's eyes went wide, and he pressed back against the wall.
"How long have you known this spell?" Sophie asked.
"Since high school," Brianna said, her cheeks reddening. "It comes in handy at parties when someone drinks so much they become an ass."
"Sounds like just the thing," I said, looking down at Otto.
"Quick, then," Sophie said. Brianna whispered a few words then touched the tip of her wand to Otto's nose.
Otto blinked and just like that his eyes were clear and focused.
"Nice trick," Sophie said.
"I might have to have you come around more often," Otto said.
"Why don't you just try not drinking yourself into a stupor?" I asked.
"I didn't mean for me," Otto said.
"Come on, we have to get out of here," Sophie said. "We don't want to be in his company when they catch him, do we?"
"No, you don't," Otto said and bent over to pick up the bottle that still had a measure of champagne sloshing around within it.
"What are you doing?" I asked.
"Luring them into a false sense of not taking me seriously?" Otto said. "Go on. I'm fine."
There was a chaos of noise from the other side of the crates as the officers searched all of the cupboards and closets and the staff started shouting protests at the disarray.
Sophie then Brianna slipped back into the butler's pantry. I spared one last look back at Otto.
"Good luck," I said.
"Hey," he said just before I darted across. I looked back. "You promise to clear Edward's name if he's falsely accused?"
"Of course," I said.
"And mine?" he asked.
"Of course, Otto," I said.
"Thanks," he said, then waved me away.
The police officers' search had nearly worked its way across the kitchen. If I had waited a moment longer, it would have been too late. And from the look Sophie and Brianna gave me when I joined them in the butler's pantry, they knew it too.
We didn't look back, just walked across the butler's pantry like it was the more natural place in the world for us to be, back to the light of the party.