Now or Never: Wizards of Nevermore Read Online Free PDF

shot himself, and she never heard a thing.” Taylor sighed. “Well, no use standing out here and twiddling our thumbs.”
    Suicide or not, they still took the usual crime scene precautions. Both he and Gray gloved up and put booties on their shoes. Then Taylor opened the door, and they entered the dreary hallway.
    The linoleum floor was filthy—not to mention cracked and hole-filled. The turquoise walls were stained, and in several places paint peeled away to reveal faded flower wallpaper. It smelled like stale cigar smoke and old takeout. Some floral scent floated through the stink, but whatever attempts had beenmade to cover
eau de Atwood
failed miserably. At the end of the hallway was the staircase that led to the apartment. On the left was the single-door entrance to Nevermore Garbage Services. Taylor knew the small office held a desk, two chairs, and a worn-out coffeemaker, along with two large file cabinets that didn’t shut anymore due to Atwood’s lousy filing system (shoving receipts and written complaints into the nearest open drawer, for example).
    On the right was the door to the newspaper offices. It was slightly open, and Taylor pushed on the frosted glass etched with the faded gold words NEVERMORE NEWS . The door swung wider, and he stepped inside. Gray followed, and they both took a minute to assess the office. Two large desks—one antique and the other metal and Formica—were pushed together. A computer circa 1998 sat gathering dust on the metal desk, which held numerous piles of papers, files, thick dust, and Goddess knew what else—maybe the source of the bad smells. On the other desk, the typewriter looked as though it got more use than the computer, even though it was surrounded by the same amount of crap. The front windows were large, and had they not been filmed over with thick layers of grime, might have offered some light into the otherwise cavelike interior.
    “He really let the place go to hell,” said Gray mildly.
    “Ramona was the one who kept everything organized,” said Taylor, referring to Atwood’s deceasedwife. A decade ago, she’d gotten on a ladder to hang up Christmas decorations, fallen off, and broken her neck. The tragic accident had devastated Atwood. He’d always been a prickly sort, but without the steadying influence of his wife, he turned into a true curmudgeon.
    Everyone had been surprised when Atwood agreed to take in his orphaned nephew the previous year. Trent’s parents had died in a car accident, leaving the teenager without a home, and with only one living relative. So Trent moved to Nevermore and started working for his uncle. With Atwood’s health problems, the poor kid was actually running both shows. It was a lot of responsibility for a guy who’d just turned eighteen, especially one who was a necromancer, too. Trent was a talented wizard, but he refused to join a House. His father had been of Cherokee descent, so his views about magic tended to follow different paths.
    “I don’t think it’s possible to figure out if anything was disturbed,” said Gray. “I could do some spells, but I don’t think it would help much.”
    “We don’t know that we’re looking for anything,” said Taylor. “Not until we take a gander at ol’ Atwood.” To the left was another door, wide open, and he entered the small break room. It smelled rank, as if the refrigerator had been turned off and all the contents gone to rot. The sink was piled with crusty dishes and chipped mugs, and the small table held more dishes and papers.Two rickety chairs were tucked under the table, which looked as if it might collapse at any moment. Taylor shook his head in disgust, feeling bad for Trent, who had to put up with this chaos and his surly uncle every day. The next door led into the newspaper archives, and it was a bigger mess than anything else they’d seen.
    “Shit,” said Gray, staring at the towering file cabinets that filled the room. A single light in the middle of