Fiona Frost: Order of the Black Moon (20 page)

She
slowed
the car
, trying to determine where
he
went.
Agent Bronson
darted his Lincoln
towards the
passenger’s side of
her
car.
He signaled for us to go straight home before raising
a
CB
radio
to his mouth
.
Without delay, she
whizzed the car down
the street
and pulled next to the curb between our houses.

“Fiona
!
I bet
it
was Gerald Smith!
I recognize him from the news!
He
was going on the side of Sydney
Sergeant’s
house!”

“Are you sure that was him?”

“I am positive
.
I watch the news, Fiona.
I’ve seen that man’s
ugly
face
a hundred
times!
Get in the house!”

We rushed in
to my
house, followed by my black suit
who was
r
eporting the sighting
to his superiors
.
We settled into my living room and
soon after
,
more
agents
arrived
.
Within ten minutes,
Gerald Smith’s
sighting was blasted on the local news.
I was amazed at how quickly things could hit the media.

By the time the club meeting began, I
had succumbed to my sickness and
all I wanted to do was
throw myself in
bed.
I was too sick to care that Wolfe and Carden didn’t show up, but
I
hurried through the evidence,
nonetheless. T
he group
compared notes
,
and
Maddie took over
, leading the
discussion of the data analysis
on the case—but only after she forced everybody to eat three Airborne immune defense gummies. She was a germaphobe when it came to being around sick people. Being a starter on the varsity soccer team was likely her reason—she couldn’t afford to be sick and miss a game.

The inseparable duo
showed deep dissatisfaction of the laboratory
’s shut down
.
Lauren
t
hreatened to write
a
letter to the grant administrator about how outraged
she was
the school district
would take it out on us because
of what happened at
our lab.
I talked
her
out of doing it and assured it was being handled
—
we would get back into the lab soon enough.
We had enough data to work through from the previous Friday night to keep us busy
,
and Detective Chase
had
handed over
tons of
data
reports from his lab for us
to sift through.

Nausea washed through my body at the thought
Wolfe
had ignored my text message about the meeting.
It wasn’t like him to behave like that.
Nobody knew his whereabouts.

I
checked
Haley’s room
;
she wasn’t there
.
I assumed she was still with Camber Johnson.
It
fit
together like pieces
of
a puzzle where Ca
rden and Wolfe must have been.

As soon as the club members left, I
threw on my pajamas
,
popped more Tylenol,
and
climbed
on top of my bed covers. Within seconds, I was in a deep sleep.

My
phone
alarm
must have been blaring for a spell
as
my
mother
rushed into my
room, grabbed my phone,
turning
it off.
She inspected me as I
awoke
, putting
her hand on my
sweltering
forehead.
The foggy, dark morning enticed me
to stay in bed.

“Oh, Fiona.
You’re sick.
You have a fever.
Let’s go.”

A
microbial
eighteen-wheeler
had run over me and my body had been
cooked in the hot sun
—or at least that’s how I felt.
M
y throat
was
a blazing desert.

“What do you mean, let’s go?”

It hurt to speak.

“We’re going to the doctor
—no
delay
.
You could have the same thing that landed Janice in the hospital, dear.”

“How is
she?
”
I asked feebly.

“
O
n the upswing
.
I’ve got my fingers crossed.
Let’s go, Fiona,”
she
ordered.

Without an argument,
I crawled out of
bed
like a
meager
ninety
-
year
-
old
, threw on a set of my nicest pajamas,
and stumbled out to my mother’s Town Car,
license plate
Frost
1
.
I despised having to
visit
the doctor
, feared
medical
exams—
especially blood tests.
The older agent assigned to my mother
tailed us on every turn.

She
broke a few speed limits along the way as if getting me there a couple of minutes faster would
speed my
recovery.
She pulled into the circle drive, demanding I get out of the car and wait for her in the foyer
—
as if walking from a parking lot a few more steps would prevent me from getting worse.

After a few minutes, we
were in th
e waiting area.
A couple of kids, mucus streams flowing from their noses, were busy playing with a germ-infested toy, pushing buttons
, making
various
plastic
things pop up.
I missed how
uncomplicated
life used to be when
toys
could hold my attention.

There was
entertainment value, however, in
the
3D
animated
movie playing on the television
. Engrossed in the story line of colorful monsters, it seemed as though time sped up
b
efore we were called to the examination room.
My mother
inspected
every
inch of my face, my neck and
interrogat
ed
me
before the doctor entered the room as if she w
ere
going to assist in the diagnosis.
She was a doctor, but
not medical—a c
ollege professor
,
chemist.
She knew enough about the body to know
I wasn’t
well.

“
Good morning,
Fiona.
I see you
are under the weather today
,” the
chubby
doctor boomed as he entere
d the room
, grabbing m
y chart from the clear plastic tray on the wall.

My mother
listed
my symptoms and
explained to
the doctor about
Janice
.
He
examined me and decided
on a
throat swab.
We were instructed to wait t
en minutes for the
results
,
and he
gave me a fever-reducing pill,
covering
me with a
blanket
as
I waited on the examination table.
I
drifted
off to sleep,
feeling a tick more t
han dreadful.

“I knew it!
”
t
he doctor exclaimed as he sauntered back in the room with my discharge papers and a few prescriptions
in his thick hands
.
“Strep throat.
It’s going around
,
and nearly hal
f of the schools’ kids have it.
We’ve been real busy with this outbreak.”

I opened my eyes in a confused daze, allowing the artificial lights of the exam room to penetrate my retina
s
as I focused on the animated doctor’s
round
face.
It was creepy that
he
was gleaming over a diagnosis of strep throat.
How would he react to something more serious, like Ebola?
Would he throw a party right here in the exam room with all the nurses and patients in the waiting room?

“So you’re certain it is not meningitis?
”
m
y mother questioned
abruptly, hands on her hips as she
raised
her chin to soak in his answer.

“I am pretty
certain
.
She has the symptoms and tested positive for strep
—
it is highly unlikely that she has
meningitis as well
, but please
,
bring her back in if anything changes
,
or
if
she doesn’t see improvements from
the a
ntibiotics
,
”
he ordered as he shoved the paperwork into
her
hands.

We gathered our things
and checked out at the front
desk, stopping at the adjacent pharmacy connected to the clinic through the foyer
.
We strolled back to the car, discussing
how my diagnosis was the
best-case
scenario.

On the way back to the house, my mother received a call from Janice, still in the hospital.
She r
eportedly sound
ed like her chipper self and was dying
to get home
immediately
to take care of our
family.
She told my
mo
m
the doctor said she would be released on Sunday i
f she continued her hasty road to recovery.

As soon as we got
h
ome, I took my medicine and jumped back into bed.
I glance
d over at the corner of my room.
Luminal’s bed was still there
.
Taking it out of my room would have been something Janice would have taken care of for me. I was far too
sad
to touch it—somewhere in the recess of my mind I believed he’d come trotting back into my room.
S
orrow took control
of me
and tears flooded
m
y fevered cheeks.
Within minutes, I was asleep.

Hours passed before my phone rang and
woke me
from a deep, healing sleep.
I grabb
ed the phone from my nightstand. My father.

“Hi,
Daddy!
”
I mumbled as I
struggled to sit up in
my bed.

“Fiona, I have some great news for you.
Oh, and I’m sorry you are sick
.
I didn’t get to see you before I left for work because you were at the doctor’s office
,
but I’m glad it is only strep and not what Janice was
stricken
with.”

“
Yeah,
I feel absolutely horrid
.
However,
I can tell
that
I already feel a little bit better now.”

“Great news.
I heard back from your grant administrator.
You not only got your lab immediately reinstated
,
but your renewal has officially been approved
—
in writing
—
for four more years
at one hundred thousand per year
.
The packet with all the documents is being overnight shipped to the house.
Now, you’ll need to search for replacements
to run the program next year while
you’re off to college
.
Get
busy doing some recruiting, Fiona!”

“Oh my gosh, Dad.
That is the best news
.
Thanks for making a bad day turn awesome.”

“Love you, Fiona
.
Go back to sleep and get rest.
See you later.”

A h
ealing burst
flew through my veins
,
probably due to the adrenaline
rush upon receiving
the
excellent
news.
I popped out of bed
and rushed to the kitchen with a huge grin on my fevered face.
I
took my next dose of medicine
, pouring a tall glass of water and
tossing in a
few ice cubes
.
I
ambled
into the living room
, the
feeble
sunrays
shined in the adjacent vestibule
.
My house was eerily
quiet
. No Janice hums, Luminal barks.
It’s funny how you miss things that annoy you
after
they are gone.

I
peeked
outside
to
the driveway
,
and Agent Bronson was
parked in his Lincoln,
looking at his iPad
.
I dropped down on t
he couch and grabbed the remote, switching on some mind-numbing show about how to cook pasta.

After getting bored of watching the
monotone
chef knead the dough,
I called
to check in with
Detective Chase
,
and as I waited for him to answer, I flipped through the channels
, trying to find something more stimulating.
After three rings, he answered the phone in a chipper tone.

“Hello, Fiona.
How are you doing?”

“Hi
!
Just checking in with you.
I am
sick, home
,
but I had to tell you the news I just heard from my father.”

“
Oh, sorry to hear you’re sick. It’s g
ood
news
, I hope.”

“Yes, wonderful.
My training grant was renewed for four more years at one hundred thousand dollars a year!
”
I exclaimed softly, grabbing the blanket from the end of the couch
,
pulling it up to my chest as I stretched out my legs.

“That is wonderful news.
I
assume they reinstated your lab
, correct?”

“Of course, immediately
.
As soon as I can get up there, I’m going to finish processing the rest of the cave samples we got.”

“Well, if you
feel
up to it, I’m going to go over
to
the county jail and speak to Damien Lee
later
today.
I have questions I need him to answer.”

“I wouldn’t miss it.
I’m still
a touch
under the weather
,
but
I’ll be fine.
”

“
Are you sure? No need to come if you are sick.”

“I’m
okay, taking medicine, getting out of bed will take my mind off it, so please, let me come along.
”