Fiona Frost: Order of the Black Moon (10 page)

“
Yep,
the
natural
blonde
—
he dyes it jet black
,”
she
added
.

“
He
has tattoos across his knuckles that read
LIFE SUXX.
He lives with his grandmother in a trailer by Silver Springs Marina
, and s
he
has
an advanced case of
Alzheimer’s
disease
.”

“You know what, Fiona.
That guy
always has
an
Addams Family lunch box with him.
I wonder what’s in
there.
”

“Funny you mention that
.
It says
here
he had it with him
when he was picked up
, as well as a backpack.
The backpack had school folders, pens, pencils.
The lunch box
contained
a
small
black book containing guidelines for vampires, a black candle and some unmarked
vials of oil.
No
prior arrest
record
and never
been in trouble at school.”

A
minute
of
silence
passed
while I
glanced over
the rest of the email.

“
Hi
s GPA is 1.9.
He’s either rebellious or not very smart.
He
stated
he joined the vampire cult at the age of
thirteen
.
He is dating
another
cult member, Victoria Newsted.”

Maddie nodded her head in sarcasm
.

“Figures.
Who else is he going to date?
He’s n
ot exactly somebody to bring home
to meet
the parents
.
”

I shrugged a shoulder;
I suppose I agreed.

“And they’ve already made a match with the latent and patent fingerprints on the sword.
There were multiple prints belonging to each cult member including Victoria, Camber, Damien and even Sydney.
Also, there are
prints belonging to Emily Vance and an unknown individual.
There was one patent print belonging to Damien Lee.”

“A bloody print
?
”
Maddie inquired.

“Yes, and the r
est of the prints were latent.”

“How is there a bloody print of Damien Lee’
s if he claims
he wasn’t a
t the cave
?
”

“Good question.”

St
udents
exited
in increasing numbers
, I checked the cafeteria’s clock—almost time for the bell
.
I scanned the email
at a
faster
pace
.

“Oh,
wait;
it seems
Camber Johnson
didn’t have a long stay in jail.
Her parents posted bond within thirty minutes of her arrival.
She
c
laims to
have been at
home
and not in the cave that night
.
Her house is
huge;
her p
arents claim
she was home
and
in her
bed
room
, although they admit to never seeing her
.
”

“Figures.
She
’s
the only
one with money
in th
e
group.
Of
course,
her parents popped her out of jail immediately
.
Probably had their butler go to the station
and
escort her to
a
limousine,” Maddie whined cynically.

I heard a particularly
distinctive voice from behind me.

“Oh crap,
”
I mumbled dismally
, dropping my shoulders, twisting around to see if my ears
had played tricks on
me.

“What is it, Fiona
?
”

Scanning the cafeteria, I stop
ped on a familiar lanky blonde and
lock
ed
into a
n antagonistic
gaze
with her
.
My cousin Haley
had taken her place in line and was
smil
ing
at me like the Cheshire cat
.

“No freaking way
!
She
didn’t get on the plane and
crept
back
in
to school!
”
I shrieked
, spinning my head back around to face Maddie
—her face
a mask of fury
.

“Text your
parents
right now
,
tell them
,
”
she demanded,
glaring
over my shoulder at Haley.

Cursing under my breath,
I frantically shot off a text to my mom and
another
to my dad.
I figured that
she
faked them out at the airport and probably hitched a ride back to school.
This was
just the kind of thing
she would
pull
, especially with Janice ill
. I
wasn’t surprised af
ter
my
initial shock wore off.

“Great, like we don’t have enough on our plates right now with everything that’s going on with my father!
”

I sulked as I
leaned down to grab my backpack
.

The rest of the day was a mental nightmare.
P
anicked
and saddened
from Wolfe’s note
,
I
couldn’t come up with a viable solution
—
it was a
solid
out for me in one instance, but my heart
screamed it was a
mistake to let
go of him that way.
My parents
had
warned
me at an early age that
a boy could derail my ambitions, s
o I
had always
remained
cautious, never seeking
relationships
, keeping my nose in books
.
I had the rest of my life
to
worry with
boys
.

As soon as the
end-of-the-day
bell rang
,
I rushed into my lab for the
scheduled lab meeting
.
Lauren and Willow filed in
,
followed by Maddie and Carden
, who
scrambled to his
seat
at the back of the lab, as usual
.
I waited for Wolfe for a few minutes before checki
ng my text messages.
Nothing.

“Oh, Fiona, I forgot to tell you.
I saw Wolfe in the hallway
,
and he told me to let everybody know he had to
jet
after sch
ool and would miss the meeting,” Lauren reported in a raspy voice.

“Yea
h
, I saw him talking to that vampire chick, Camber, after fifth period, by the way,” Willow added sarcastically
, laughing under her breath
.

I
rritation surged from my core at her words.
I couldn’t believe that
he
wouldn’t tell me directly he was missing a lab meeting
, as he’d
never missed a lab meeting before.
This was entirely strange.

“He was talking to one of the suspects, Willow?
Are you sure
?
”
I asked cautiously.

“Uh, yea
h
.
She’s my
next-door
neighbor;
I
know her
.
They looked a little flirty if you ask me, but I could be reading into things
.”

After
swallowing the news
of Wolfe’s hallway encounter, I rushed through the lab meeting and got everybody up to speed on the details from Detective Chase.
I wanted to get out of there as soon as possible.
We
processed
the evidence
and organized
who would be in charge of
each type of data before engaging in
experiments on the samples we had collected.

The lab was dead silent, and I
had forgotten about Gerald Smith until
I noticed
Agent Bronson
pop his head into the lab
—he had
moved positions from the parking lot because
the
school had let out.
He
had taken a position
outside of the laboratory door.
After giving me a
quick smile
, he
retreated to
his spot
in
the hallway.

My phone vibrated
,
and I rushed to pull off my gloves to see who the text message was from, hoping it was from Wolfe.
It was my
father
.
He
said Haley
would
stay with us until
further notice
.
There was a last
minute issue
with the boarding school
, and he
promised to g
ive me the details
later
.
This was not
good
news.
A text message came through a second later from my mother that essentially said the same.

After working in the lab for most of the evening,
my assigned black suit
followed me home, and I entered an
eerily quiet
foyer
,
exhausted
.

I wandered around the house, looking for signs of life as
I received a message from Detective Chase
with an offer t
o buy
us
lunch at Chuck’s Diner the following day
to
discuss
the case.
I
replied with a yes and
forwarded the message to everybody
on the team
.
Within a minute,
Willow
responded
s
he
had
a
potential
conflict,
Lauren and Maddie responded
yes,
and
to my sadness,
there was no
response
from Wolfe.

After checking on the status of Janice, Luminal
,
and Gerald Smith
with my parents
,
and finding out there had been no progress on any of them, I
jumped in
to
bed with my clothes
on
from the day
, quickly drifting off
to sleep.

Saturday
came in a flash.
I had set my alarm to allow extra time to take a hot, soothing bath, which usually made the world right, but this time,
the steamy soak
didn’t work.

Agent Bronson followed
Maddie and me
to
Chuck’s Diner
.
We climbed out of the car, walking by the sculptures of pink and turquoise
fifties-style
cars in front of the glass façade of the restaurant.
We entered the
main dining
room;
the scent of warm cheeseburgers invad
ing
my nostrils.
The black
-
and
-
white checkered floor was disorienting as I gazed downward
. Rounding the corner, I caught
Lauren’s raspy voice.

W
earing camouflage overalls and a matching cap,
she sat
solo
at
a
glittery table, rimmed with a replica car bumper at the front
.
Agent Bronson
grabbed
a table next to us, ordered coffee, and started reading the paper.
Willow
, in a navy blue
pant
suit,
showed up a few minutes late
r
, explaining
she had to attend
her father’s medical lecture at Hartford
, but
she explained she snuck out to
come to
the
meeting.

“
Who’s
th
e
hottie
that keeps
staring
at you
like a stalker
?
”
Lauren whispered
from across the table
as she gestured
secretly
towards my black suit
.

“
That’s Fiona’s assigned
federal
stalker,” Maddie whispered, laughing. “
I f
igured
y
ou, of all people, would
take notice
of his appearance
.
”

Maddie burst
into a fit of
quiet
laughter.
Lauren was
the
boy
-
crazy member of our club.
She was the first to
make her opinions known about attractive boys
, especially older ones
.
I gave her leeway on this
observation,
as
I had to agree wholeheartedly with her.

“
W
ith Gerald Smith on the loose
and wanting to get my dad, they
’re
watching my family until
they catch him.
They don’t think it will be too long, he’s not that smart.”

Lauren leaned forward
, clearing her throat
.

“
T
hey couldn’t have picked a hotter agent to follow you
—
I think I might come over to your house tonight and hang wit’cha
.
”

“
Um,
he’s probably about twenty-five. Gross,” Maddie countered, smiling.

“G’morning girls.
Can I get you something to drink to start?” a busty bleach-blonde waitress asked as she held a pen to her notepad.

We ordered our drinks and explained to the waitress we would wait for
the detective
before we ordered lunch.
It was difficult to focus
on
the
upcoming meeting while
watching
Lauren
openly gawk
at Agent Bronson.
O
verwhelm
ed, we were
all
still reeling from the last murder case. I had
a huge
rock in my stomach
for every issue that was wrong
in my life
.
I thought wrapping
my mind
around
the
case would help to reroute my
attention
and pull me out of the slump.
I was only partially right.
  I just needed time to pass.

“Fiona, you don’t look too good.
Did you not sleep last night
?
”
Maddie asked cautiou
sly as the waitress set down a tall glass of
Dr. Pepper in front of her.

Lauren interjected, “Uh, yea
h
, I was going to say something too, but I thought it was rude.”

I held my palms in the air to stop the catty interaction.

“Not rude
.
I just haven’t felt good lately
.
I think
I might have a touch of what Janice has,” I lied.

I was an emotional
train wreck
.

My phone rang from inside of my pocket
,
and I reluctantly pulled it out.

“Hello.”

“Fi
ona, it’s Wolfe.”

A calming warmth radiated from my heart as
I anticipated his words.

“
Sorry,
I didn’t respond to your text
.
My p
hone died
,
and I just charged it enough to turn it on
.
I can’t make the meeting, but
I would like to add my thoughts to your discussion with Detective Chase, if I may.”