Fiona Frost: Order of the Black Moon (27 page)

In the silence of dawn, my phone alarm sounded directly in my ear,
bestowing upon
me an instant headache.
It was Monday morning,
5:30
AM, and
I
had a
6
AM
meeting
. I wasn’t prepared for I
had spent every minute with Janice before passing out from exhausti
on
the night before.

Throwing on my
heaviest clothes
, I took my medication and
jumped in
to
the car with Agent Bronson
.
He chatted
about different flavors of cupcakes his grandmother used to make
, and upon our arrival, he
escorted
me to
my
lab
, checking t
he
hallways
before taking his place
outside of my door
.
I felt important,
like the president
of the United States
,
and he was
my primary
secret
service officer.

Agent Bronson had
previously
retrieved the keys to the new lock on my laboratory door from Principal Dinges.
Switching on the light, I inhaled the familiar scent of xylene from
the
histology set up.
It was
delightful
to be back.
I glanced around the lab, checking the counters to be sure nothing had been moved or removed
. Everything was in order,
how we left it.
I quickly printed off the necessary documents
from the lab’s computer
, throwing
the
case
document packets
together
for the group members
.
Just as everybody arrived, I pulled warm copies from t
he printer and passed them out.

Lauren and Willow seemed more than excited with all of the new data and events in the case
,
and they took
the
time to
read
over
the materials.
I apologized
a second time
to Carden for accusations about Haley and
Maddie convinced
him to take
Wolfe
’s seat.
It bothered me a bit at first, but I was slowly getting used to
Wolfe’s absence
in my life.
I didn’t understand it but was ge
tting used to it, nonetheless.

We discussed each item on the data sheet and summarized each suspect.
This was the point in the investigation where we needed Wolfe the most.
He was excellent at profiling, determining motives and figuring out the chronology of the crime.

We came to an agreement that Damien Lee
and
Dimitri LeMorte
w
ere
the obvious choices as the main suspects
—
yet
we debated
any one of the others could have easily been the guilty party.
We all knew that Damien Lee
lied
abo
ut being in the cave that night
,
but we didn’t know why
he lied
—
other than the obvious
—
he didn’t want to be a suspect.
He had to realize, he didn’t have a choice in the matter.

Then, there was
the escaped prisoner,
Gerald Smith.
He was now tied to the vampire cult through the pink envelopes.
We reasoned that Victoria N
ewsted
wrote to him,
but
we
couldn’t figure out the reason
.
The hearts drawn on the envelopes were the
main
thing that confused us
as she was Damien Lee’s longtime girlfriend
, so why would she
write
love letters to a
forty-year-old
prisoner?
Maybe she did it behind
Damien’s back
? Maybe she had what Maddie
referred to as
daddy issues
and
turned to
an incarcerated man to listen to her problems.
As an alternative, we reasoned
it could have been Victoria and Damien’s
master
plan to use Gerald Smith for something by conning him into thinking Victoria was romantically
interested
in him.

During the meeting, I got an update from Detective Chase on my phone.

“Guys, new stuff here.
Pay attention,” I paus
ed
for everybody to get situated.
“
The detective just
said a full set of teeth
were
found
at
Love’s Truck Stop
—
the one
on Magnolia Avenue
.
They
are confirmed to be h
uman teeth.
He said they are analyzing them to determine if they match the bite marks found on the victim.
We find the owner of the te
eth, we might find the murderer,” I stated flatly.

Everybody looked disgusted.

“Fiona, that
’s insane
!
”
Maddie shrieked.

“Well, that’s not all.
Emily Vance keeps changing her mind whether or not she knew the victim. I saw her do it on the news report, as well.
”

“
Do you guys think
she is nuts
?
”
Willow
asked.

“Obviously,
Doc
,” Lauren giggled.

“Well,
Emily
stated to the police that the
orbs
told her they did it.
That
they
murdered the victim
,
”
I read
straight
from the email.

“The
orbs
?
Come again
?
”
Carden spoke softly
, barely revealing a dimple on his right cheek
.

I glanced
at
him
, impressed he was adding to the conversation
—
even if it was a
basic
question.

“She
often stays
in the Room of Orbs in the Arles Cave.
We all know it is
crazy
they believe actual orbs exist there
,
but no offense, I know your older brother Duncan is involved
with
the paranormal
group
at Hartford
,
” I reported
in a brusque tone
.

“
No offense
taken,”
he
said feebly, smiling.

Maddie and Carden took a moment
to
smile at each other.
I was happy for
her
;
she seemed
unusually
content in
his
presence.

Lauren tapped on the lab counter
for
everybody’s attention.
She
ensure
d
all
eyes were on her and
cleared her throat.

“So, this lady is crazy
.
Confirmed.
I think she did it then
.
She doesn’t even know what’s going on in her own head.
She was confirmed to be with the victim at the Jade Palace an hour before
the victim’s
death, there was blood in her
orb
room in the cave
matching
the victim, she was there
in the cave
with the victim at the time of her death, and she is certifiable.
What else do we need?
A video of her doing it
?
” she shrugged her shoulders and then turned to me, gazing at me with a smirk.

We all giggled for a moment.

“
However, we can’t call
Emily Vance
the guilty one
,
as s
he did have chloroform in her system.
Her story checked out—
the amount of chloroform detected in her blood was
consistent
with a previous dosage that would have knocked her out during the time of the murder.
Why would she chloroform herself
and
the victim
,
wake up, kill the victim
in seconds
,
and then go call the police?
Nevertheless,
she doesn’t seem like the type to go to the extreme of
making sure
chloroform
is in her
bloodstream as an alibi.
That would be
excessively
calculated for someone like her.
Plus, there would be a chloroform haze for a period.
Y
ou wouldn’t wake up from being knocked out
and be lucid enough to murder someone in seconds
,
” I said dryly.

“Sounds fishy to me, is all.
I’m saying she is our number one suspect
.
Be forewarned
.
I don’t
know why they don’t arrest her,” Lauren huffed.

She
shrugged a shoulder at Willow, who returned with a sarcastic eye roll.

“Because thus far, they don’t have enough evidence on her and have tons more evidence on the teens,” I reported
as my phone
rang.

I excused myself to the hall
way
with Agent Bronson
and without putting thought into it, answered
my phone
from a
blocked number.
Breathing on the other end is all I heard and the caller failed to speak. I returned to
the meeting, perplexed.

Skimming the
remainder of
Detective Chase’s email
,
he had outlined the police
investigated
Victoria’s house and found nothing
further
involved with Gerald Smith.
One more
compelling
thing was at the bottom of the email
,
and I shared it with the group.

“Remember
Parker Thomas, Sr.
from Silver Springs that died the day prior to the murder
?
”
I asked the group.

Everybody nodded
yes
besides Carden Doyle
,
who gave me a
wide-eyed
expression, waiting to
soak up
my words
.

“Well, Maddie found out Parker Thomas, III
—
Mr. Thomas, the math teacher here—
”

“He teaches freshm
a
n
math classes
, right
?
”
Lauren
interrupted
.

“Yes, and
he’s
a
really good
friend
of my favorite
bio teacher, Mr. Zuptus,
”
I added.

“What about him
?
”
Maddie asked
, shrugging a shoulder
.

“Well, it seems as though he was the last living heir to the estate of his grandfather.”

“So what
?
”
Willow jeered
in a high voice.

“Do you know
why
he was the last living heir
?
”
I said dramatically.

“Please, tell us!
”
Lauren yelped
.

“He was the brother of Jody James!
The victim!
”
I said breathlessly.

The room grew silent for a moment as everybody thought
through
the relationship
web
.