Fiona Frost: Order of the Black Moon (30 page)

“I value your friendship, Wolfe
.
I never want to lose you as a friend again.
I was
miserable without you in my life.
”

His mouth twitched into a
twisted
smile as he s
natched a cookie from the plate, smiling at the wolf
head
drawn on the cookie with
frosting.

“
I a
gree, Fiona
.
We are friends for life
—
no matter what.
And maybe more
than that, huh?
”
h
e
smiled
deviously
, unveiling his luminous teeth.

“Let’s be friends, great friends
…best friends.
Later
, who
knows?
I
don’t want anything complicating it and messing it up again.
And
I apologize for being so jealous.
I had no right to be like that.
I guess I’m protective o
f
you,
I was kinda acting a little psycho,
”
I sighed, closing my eyes, hoping he wouldn’t agree.

“Yes, you
were,
Fiona,” he smirked.
“
But
I give you the right to act however you want if you feel that way.
I’m
actually
flattered
you’d be jealous,
”
he said, his face radiant.

I shook my head and couldn’t help but smile.
He
had
nearly devoured the cookies by the time Janice delivered the chocolate milk.

I believed
nothing in the world would ever be wrong again.
I never wanted
anything to get in the way of
my friendship with
him
again.
I
hopelessly
wanted more
,
but would settle
for
the meantime.

Wolfe
and I ended up spending the rest of the evening
chatting with
Janice
.
After
he
had gone
home, we spent
a
couple of hours on the phone talking about nothing.
D
evoted
friends again, I was overjoyed to have him back in my life an
d reinstated as a club member.
I fell asleep with a smile on my face.

Detective Chase
woke me with a call to invite the team
to the police station to
discuss
the case
after school
.
I coordinated the meeting with the rest of the club, who all
agreed to attend.

Agent Bronson
turned
the radio on the news
station
during
the drive to school, and
I was shocked to hear
t
he
remaining
three teen suspects
in the
murder case were
about to be released
on bail
via
money
raised by
Dimitri LeMorte
’s fundraising event
.
I would most likely run into at least one of them at school.

The morning brushed by
,
and I walked into calculus, grinning as I spotted
Wolfe
in
his
original seat
across the aisle from me
.
W
e smiled at each other
during the entire class period. I
daydreamed
about
hugging
him
and
about our future first kiss. I didn’t hear a word of
Mrs. Garcia
’s lecture
.

The final bell rang
,
and M
addie, Wolfe
,
and I piled into Agent Bronson’s
spicy
pine-scented Lincoln
.
I
opened the door to the b
ackseat
and climbed in, Wolfe follow
ed
my lead.
Maddie shook her head and laughed as she took the front passenger’s seat.

Carden, Willow
,
and Lauren piled into Lauren’s
car, a burgundy Acura
,
and we headed off to the police station
to meet
with Detective Chase.
Agent Bronson kept our car ride lively with questions about
our high school, the marching band,
our sports program and our mascot
—
the wolf.
The time flew by
,
and we were
soon
pulling up to the station and climbing out of the car.

Reaching
for
the door first, I held
it open
for my club members
.
Carden and Maddie
continued
their
flirtatious connection
, an
d I was more than happy for her—however I winced, hoping they’d be incognito around Detective Chase.

Wolfe was the last to enter
, taking
hold of the door for me, nudging me
mischievously
to go inside.
T
he dirty sock and strawberry cream aroma
was in full force
.
I waved to
Ms. Spinks
at the reception counter
, passing by the mismatched chairs of the waiting room
.
She
pointed
with her neon orange acrylic nails
towards the
green door
as
she pressed the button
under her desk
.

“Hello
,
Fiona and friends, go on back!
”
s
he sang.

“Hello
,
Ms. Spinks!
”
I countered,
passing through the green door.

We made our way into the conference
room
and waited for
Detective Chase
.
No windows, the newly remodeled conference room
remained slightly
dark
, even with the lights on
.
The room was shaped longer than wide
—
perfect for a long conference room table.
The eight chairs surrounding the dark wood table were plush brown, matching the suede wallpaper on the walls
with
recessed lighting along the ceiling
. There was a
bar at the end of the room where coffee and water were always available.
I organized my
documents
in front of me and pulled out my favorite purple pen
as my
phone rang
. Janice. I answered it on speaker.

“Fiona, I just received a disturbing call
.
Do you have a pen?”

“Yes, you
alright
?
”
I said carefully, looking at the group as they shot their attention
towards my
phone.

“Yes, of course
.
But somebody called the house phone
a few times, didn’t say anything, and hung up.
Then, they called again,
and it was a man with a deep voice
.
The caller said
94 puppies, take 25 away.
Are you left with
8
or 1 female
?
It doesn’t make any sense to
me;
he was so cryptic
and
ended the call
with no further explanation
.
It might
have been a wrong number, but just in case it’s not.
”

I wrinkl
ed
my nose
, contemplating
whether this should mean anything.
I wrote down the message on my notepad.

“That’s pretty weird
alright
.
Well, I’m in a meeting with
the detective i
n just a minute
,
and we’ll discuss.
The agents
are
still
watching the house outside
, right
?”

“Oh yes, dear
.
And there is one inside as well
.
They know about the caller, but I wanted you to know since you work on those crazy codes and riddle things with your
group.
Anywho, i
t
was probably the wrong number.
”

“Thanks, Janice.
I love you!
See you later!”

I
ended the call, looking around the room and s
haking my head in confusion.

“I didn’t quite catch what she said
,
”
Lauren said.

“Well,
she
was getting weird calls where nobody was talking and then hanging up
.
I’ve had a few
strange calls like that
on my phone.
A
man called
, said something cryptic and hung up
—
94 puppies, take 25 away.
Are you left with
8
or 1 female
?
”

Lauren
gaz
ed
at the ceiling for a moment, her bushy locks looking more wild than
usual,
as she wasn’t wearing a cap.

“Hmm, that seems very odd,”
she
said
slowly
.
“But I’ll study it after the meeting and see if I can mak
e any sense
of
it,” she
said, scrawling the riddle down on her notepad.

Detective Chase ambled in
, shutting
the door behind him.
He tossed a file at the head of the table, pulled his chair out, and rubbed his
plump
hands together.

“First, I have to show you this,”
he
opened
the
cuff of his shirt and displayed a circular rash on his wrist.
It was
bright
red and in the shape of a perfect circle.

“Poison Ivy
?
”
Wolfe asked.

“
In my opinion, it l
ooks like eczema,” Willow stated bluntly
, pushing up the sleeves of her
red
blazer
.

She was the medical expert of our group, besides Detective Chase, that is.

“Well, I just want you to know that these crop circles are on my arms and nowhere else
.
I went to
a dermatologist
this morning
,
and they’ve never seen such a thing.
They don’t itch, they don’t hurt,
and they’re
just there.”

“Aren’t you a doc, Detective Chase?
Can’t you just diagnose yourself
?
”
Wolfe exclaimed.

“Yes, I am, but I’m a pathologist and a forensic scientist.
Not a dermatologist and I don’t treat the living,”
h
e chuckled, inspecting his rash.
“At least not since medical school and that was long ago.”

“The curse
?
”
I laughed
, viewing his rash intently
.
“Are you thinking i
t’s Dimitri’s curse, Detective?
Maybe he used the Rinden bowls and did some black magic
—
you said he was using oil, right?”

“
Uh, yes, Fiona.
He did use oils with his chant, and I’m hoping he wouldn’t have used Rinden bowls on me,” Detective Chase paused for a long sigh.
“
Well, I was going to mention it in passing I had some weirdness going on.
Coincidence, I am sure.
But if I turn into a pumpkin at midnight, well, you know what happened.”

The room erupted with laughter as
he
buttoned his sleeve back a
nd thumbed through his papers.
At the opposing end of the table, I caught Maddie and Carden in a loving gaze.
I waited until she looked at me and I shot her a nonverbal warning with widened eyes. U
nable to
look in
Wolfe
’s direction, I
smiled at Willow, sitting directly across the table.

“
Alright
, folks.
Let’s get you up to speed
and
through the status of the suspects starting with the number one
suspect
—
Damien Lee.”

“He’s number one on the list
?
”
Carden inquired.

I was proud that
Carden, the newest recruit to my lab and junior at
our high school
, was
finally speaking up in the meetings.
I thought it was probably to impress Maddie, but whatever worked was
okay
with me.
He
was
not officially
allowed to attend the police station meeting with Detective Chase
, but
since we were not going to the crime lab
,
the detective
had made an exception
.
I needed Carden for my program for the following year when I went to Hartford, but I was worried
—
he
had never shown any lea
dership qualities
and was going to be lucky
to
keep his membership on the new team
if he didn’t step it up.

“Yes.
He
’
s the leader of the Nightmare Army,
Cosmar Armata was scrawled on
the altar
where the victim was found,
and patent
prints of the victim’s blood were on the murder weapon
. Damien
professes not to value life and has a prior history of fighting with the victim who was his neighbor at the Lakeside Trailer Park.
He still
contends
he wasn’t in the cave that night, but we are certain he is lying.
Recent evidence has come from another neighbor said he heard Damien Lee threaten to
skewer the victim and cook her with onions and peppers on the grill.
”