“If you will have no objection, you can hear it from the agent himself.”

“I have no objection,” Liz replied. “I would very much like to see who has been the spy in our midst.” Liz squared her shoulders and leaned forward in her seat. I slid lower in mine and prayed silently that there was more than one agent working for IMPIAD and that the one they had called wasn’t Frank Delmarco.

Chapter Twenty-Six

CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

WITHOUT LOOKING TO his left or right, Frank Delmarco entered the room. He walked to the chair set at the end of the table, slouched in his seat and glared at the Grove members. When his eyes met mine he started to smile, then scowled, straightened his suit jacket, and pulled at the cuffs of this shirt. I’d never seen Frank in a suit jacket before. He looked like he was wearing a medieval torture device.

“Please state your full name,” Adelaide said.

“Frances Dante Delmarco,” Frank said with a look that dared anyone in the room to crack a smile at his middle name. Which wasn’t likely. I could feel Liz’s shock as she struggled to absorb the fact that brusque, gruff, but kind and decent Frank Delmarco had been a spy. At least Soheila would be spared seeing the man she secretly loved betray Fairwick – but then I recalled the video monitors. Damn.

“And please state your affiliations.”

“I’m a full professor of American Studies at Fairwick College,” Frank said, looking straight at Liz. “I received tenure five years ago.”

“I’ll be damned if that’ll keep me from firing you,” Liz muttered under her breath.

“And …?” Adelaide prompted.

“I also work for the Internal Affairs division of the Institute of Magical Professionals. They – specifically, Dr. Greeley, here – asked me to report on any suspicious or unusual supernatural occurrences at the college.”

“And have you found any suspicious or unusual supernatural occurrences here at Fairwick?”

I held my breath. Last winter when I’d found out that he was an operative for IMPIAD he’d gone on a rant about the unorthodox and dangerous activities on campus – ranging from unauthorized tampering with the weather to harassment of civilians by supernatural creatures. And that had been before he’d had to save me from a winged, life-sucking liderc.

Frank sighed. “I compiled my report for IMPIAD, not the Grove. I was never told that the information I was gathering would be used in a witch hunt …”

Loomis Pagan and Eleanor Belknap gasped.

“We are hardly likely to instigate a witch hunt,” Adelaide said, enunciating each word, “since we ourselves are witches, Dr. Delmarco.”

“I was using the term figuratively. I’m a witch myself, although I prefer the term wizard. Hunting down creatures because of their supernatural identities is just as intolerant as persecuting witches for their practices.”

“So you think it’s acceptable for supernatural creatures to prey on human beings?”