Fiona Frost: Order of the Black Moon (37 page)

“What do you think
is
goin
g
on
, Fiona
?
Gerald Smith
?
”

“
T
he operator
said
it was a
threatening call
.
That is concerning
.”

I
pulled my
car
next to the curb i
n front of
my house
as
Detective Chase
pulled into the
driveway
behind Agent Bronson’s Lincoln
.
A
marked
police
car pulled
up next to the curb
behin
d me, shutting their lights off
as
two uniformed officers
exited the car
and sprinted
towards the
front door
.
We filed into the house to find a frantic Janice, trembling on the couch.
My parents, in their robes, were standing in front of her,
listening intently to
the story of what had happened.
My dad turned to Detective Chase and patted him on the back of the shoulder.

“Hello
,
Detective, if you’ll excuse me, I need to get ready for the day.
Janice received a call from an unknown caller
.
S
he didn’t realize all she needed to do was st
ep outside
to
notify the agents
on duty watching our house.
I
apologize;
she ca
lled 9-1-1 and started a frenzy on accident,
”
he
reported with a cavernous voice.

The detective
smiled, shaking his head
,
and waving his hand
in a gesture of
no big deal.

“Mr. Frost, not a worry in the least.
The police like to stay abreast of what is happening on all fronts.
I’m glad I’m here with these officers
while they take her
st
atement.
Have a good day, sir,”
he
said, shaking my father’s hand.

“You too
, Detective
.
Let’s go
,
Emma,” my father said to my mother, who rushed in behind him an
d disappeared around the corner towards their bedroom suite.

I
marched
over to
Janice
, taking a
seat on the couch next to her, grabbing her hand and rubbing the back of it gently.

“You
alright
?
”
I traced
circles with my index finger
o
n the back of her hand
as
I stared into her
worried
eyes
through her thin,
wireframe
glasses
.

“Oh dear, I’m fine.
Just a bit
disturbed
from the strange caller.
It was the same thing.
A weir
d, transformed voice, breathing,
and then he spoke.
He said the words
two plus two, four
—
and then hung up.
I just don’t think it’s a wrong number since it happened again
,
and I said
Frost Residence
multiple
times!
”
s
he shrieked, cheeks blushing.

“He said
two plus two equals four
and hung up?”

“No, he didn’t say
equals
,
”
s
he
said in an unwavering tone.

I
glanced at
Wolfe
, studying his facial expression
.
He was the best at profiling in our
club;
he could make sense of it.

He whispered loudly, “Maybe that’s the answer.
Equals.
”

“But
what
equals
what
?
”
I inquired.

“Did you ever
figure out what this guy meant from the
last call she
got
?
”
Wolfe asked.

“No, can’t figure it out
.
Last I knew, Lauren was working on it but wasn’
t having any luck, something about puppies, taking so many away, how many left or something like that.
She said it make
s
no
numerical sense
,
so she’s at an impasse
.
I figured if she
couldn’t
figure out a riddle, none of us
could
, so maybe it doesn’t mean anything.
To be honest, I think we both thought it was likely a wrong number so we didn’t take it very serious.
”

“
I think it might be intentional, Fiona.
And if the caller
wants us to know that
something equals something
,
w
ell, Janice bette
r answer the phone if it rings,” Wolfe said.

After
the police
had
left the house, my parents laid into me abo
ut leaving without a
n
escort
.
My mother’s point was I drove by myself, prior to being with Wolfe or Detective Chase.
I
apologized to my parents for being foolish
and
vowed never to leave the house again by myself without an agent with me until Gerald Smith was back in prison.

Thursday morning breezed
by
;
I was preoccupied with the case.
I coordinated a
meeting for
Friday morning
—
even though I had told Maddie I’d wait until Saturday
. W
e needed to have one
sooner, given the circumstances. I scheduled it
before
her practice time, nonetheless. It was going to be an early morning.

To my horror
,
during English class, I realized
the evidence Wolfe and I had collected from the second murder case was
left
in my forensic kit in the foyer of my home.
I still had the pictures, but the evidence wasn’t stored properly
. I ca
lmed myself, reasoning the collection of the data was
good
training
, and
we could still work on the pictures and get the lab reports from
the crime lab
.
The only thing of merit
we
had collected
were
the blood samples from
the altar
—nonetheless,
the
real investigators
had
collected
plenty
, without a doubt
.

When I got home from school, I slowly crept by Haley’s bedroom, ready to ambush her
.
S
he
wasn’t there, her bed still made.
Janice said
Haley
had contacted my parents and
told them she
would be sleeping over at a friend’s house for a few days.
My parents didn’t argue,
avoiding the imminent Armageddon when she returned
.

Grabbing my doorknob, I cringed. I pushed open the door, peeking
through my peripheral vision
first before I committed to a full view
.
Luminal’s
dog
bed was gone.
It was a relief
;
it would help me heal
.
He would always hold a place in my heart, but I didn’t need to grieve every day.

I scanned the room slowly, amazed.
The pink palace was better than before.
Janice had
put
everything
worth saving
back on the shelves, the dresser, and my nightstand.
Luckily, Haley
had spared
my clothes
.

She
had purchased the most
astonishing
bedding I had ever seen.
I
stood in awe, gawking
at the faux fur comforter with satin pillows.
The faux fur
bed
pillows with rhinestone accents
were
spectacular
.
T
his was
undeniably
an upgrade.
Thanks, Haley.

On my wall
hung
an enormous
corkboard
framed with a dazzling
fuchsia
glitter frame
where my
no frills evidence
board used to be
.
There were tons of
colorful pushpins
for me to attach and move data around.
I still wanted payback, but my bedroom upgrades were certainly going to ease
the
level of revenge
I would seek
.

I was oddly relaxed most of the night, arranging the
evidence
back in order on my new
corkboard
.
After I had finished,
I prepared new evidence reports for the club members for
the
upcoming
lab meeting.

Before bed, Maddie and I met at our windows
in
the side yard between our homes to discuss
her blooming relationship with Carden Doyle
—since we were little, we had communicated this way along with our Walkie
-
Talkies—it was great being neighbors with my best friend.

After a quick call to Wolfe, I c
rawl
ed
into my new
bedding, inhaling the aroma of cr
isp
,
clean fabric
softener
. After a few music videos, I passed out,
commencing
a
sumptuous
night’s sleep.

O
nly
minutes had
seemed to
pass before I
awoke.
I rushed
out of the house as quickly as I could
move
, scrambling
into the car with
Agent Bronson, my new evidence packets in hand.
Checking
my inbox
on the way to school, I noticed my
daily email
from Detective Chase.
I decided to wait to get to the lab
to print it off for everybody.

Agent Bronson
was exceptionally chatty during the car ride
talking about his favorite desserts. He must have been hungry. Once we arrived, he
escorted
me to the front
where Maddie
and Carden were
already waiting for me
on a concrete bench
.

We made our way to the lab, and it
was only minutes
before
the rest of the club arrived.
The inseparable duo
rushed in,
haggard,
immediately
apologizing for not answering my text messages
.
They
had pulled an
all-nighter,
for a physics retest
.

Wolfe arrived
with a charming smile
,
wearing a
dressy button-up
,
his
signature scent
trailing him as he
strolled to his seat
.

“Good morning!
Your
case evidence
packets are right in front of
you
along with a
copy of
the
report from the detective
.
Let’s all take a
few
minute
s
and
review
the documents before we discuss
.
I haven’t even had time to read the latest report from the crime lab
,” I said, grabbing
the document
and scanning it.

Within a minute, g
asps
of disbelief sounded across the room
.
I focused in on a particular piece of evidence before
addressing
the group.

“
S
eems they
’ve
been busy.
Let’s start with the new evidence
.
The bloody fingerprint found at the second murder scene
in
the cave,” I paused as everybody turned to the correct page.

“Whoa, Fiona.
It belonged to Gerald Smith
?
”
Maddie mumbled slowly.

“It’s not a serial murderer
, then
.
It can’t be.
He was still in prison during t
he first murder,” Willow added sternly, pointing
an
index finger at me.

“
Gerald’s
working with Victoria.
He has
to be.
I see
the crime lab
doesn’t offer
an
opinion on it here.
I’d love to know what the detective
thinks about this,” I said
directly
.

“They still haven’t found a body or a murder weapon
with the second murder
, right
?
My mom
heard about
the
second murder on the news
this morning
,
they’re still reporting it
as a
large amount of human blood
with
a
n outline of a body
,” Wolfe
reported
.

I sc
anned
the
report.

“
T
here’s been nothing found,” I
added.

My phone vibrated
.
A
tex
t message from Detective Chase.

W
ant to ride along this afternoon to visit Dimitri, Melanie and Victoria?
You can ask the group, I have room in the Impala
,
and it would be a
n
opportune
interview for them to be involved with.

I
presented
the offer.

“
Well, you know
I have a soccer game,” Maddie said.
“But I’ll
pop
over to your house
later
and catch up
.
”

“
I’d
go, but I’m not allowed
,
so I’ll keep my promise to Maddie to go
to
her soccer game,” Carden said, turning up a corner of his lip to Maddie who smiled in return.

“I’ll go,” Wolfe said happily.

“Count us in,” Lauren screeched.
“Finally, I’m involved
!”

“No doubt!
”
Willow laughed, smiling at Lauren.

“Oh wait, Fiona
.
I’m
supposed to go
to the Arles Cave tonight
,
but not until a little later
.
I’ll be there most of the night, until
early morning
!”
Lauren added.

“Why is that
?
”

“I
’m
going with the Harford
paranormal team—Professor Black invited me
.
They
sometimes
go during the
Witching Hour
to take readings, especially in th
at scary
orb room
, but
they’re going to investigate
the cave
, given
the murders
,”
she
reported, an edge of eagerness to her voice.

Another sly attempt
to commingle
pseudo
science with
the
real science
of my training program.
I was a
nnoyed.

“Lauren, remember our deal.
You focus on paranormal fiction once you get to college
,
but in here, in my club, we only look at tangible
data
.
It’s all my grant covers.”

“Here
she goes again,” Willow scoffed, brushing her hands through her shaggy locks.

“Fiona, it’s cool
.
I’ll
go
with Detective Chase
,
and then I’ll
head
to the cave
—
it’s around the corner from there.
And you
’re
all invited as
friends
—
not club members.
Okay
?”

I smiled,
“
Okay
.”

We breezed through the data in the report and discussed the suspects
in the Jody James case
one by one.
The consensus was there wasn’t enough data to exonerate anybody as of yet
,
and the fact that Gerald Smith was now
involved
in the second murder case
was
more than
disheartening
.