Guardian Of The Grove (4 page)

“Tell me what you found out.”

“It’s not something you would understand as a man. It’s so many little things that she does; I can just tell something is off.”

I snorted. “Come on April, that isn’t enough for me to kick her to the curb. That just sounds like nothing.”

“Has she told you where she went after our battle against Gaston yet? How much do you even know about her? Has she told you anything about her family, anything at all?”

“You’re right. There are things I still need to sort out, but until I do, I wish you would come and hang out with us sometime.”

“I can’t watch the two of you together. I want you, Jackson, as more than a friend.” She let out a huge breath of air. It must have taken a lot for her to say that out loud. We had always just tiptoed around it in the past. “Until you can make that choice, I think we should just spar and keep each other at arm’s length. You’re too important for me to stop training you, but I can’t watch you hurt yourself.”

She stood up and started walking to the door. I stood up, slowly following her. “Damn it, April! You know that I like you. I just can’t abandon Britta because my heart is changing sides. I need it to make sense all the way around. I miss you.”

“I think you should go.” She opened the door and moved to the side, her eyes cast to the floor.

I stopped in front of her, unsure of what I was going to do until I did it. I reached out and pulled her into a hug. She felt right in my arms, as if she had always been meant to be there. I felt her sobs start, and then I felt my own tears start to fall. This meeting hadn’t gone anything like I thought it would have. I needed this woman in my life. What in the hell was I going to do?

We broke apart, and I kissed the top of her head. “I’ll see you at our next session.” She turned and started to walk back into her suite. “And April, you mean more to me than I can express in words. Just don’t give up on me yet. Ok?”

She didn’t turn around; I didn’t really expect her to. I closed the door and started walking. Maybe this trip away from the academy would be exactly what I needed to clear my head. A little time alone was what I needed to sort through my feelings and decide what I was going to do. It was time for me to take a break. My feet felt a little bit lighter as I headed toward Adam’s office. I needed to go home, if only for a few days.

I
walked
into the chamber outside of Adam’s office, and Henry rose to his feet to greet me. I smiled warmly at the man and accepted his hug. I made a gesture for him to sit back down. “Don’t trouble yourself for me, Henry. Is Adam in?”

“He is in a meeting right now. The funny thing is he just asked for you.”

“Interesting. Who is the meeting with?”

“Sarah is there with him now; they said to send you in when you got here.”

“Well, I guess that it was lucky I was heading here to talk with him anyway. Talk to you soon, Henry.”

Henry was a great guy, probably the nicest and most sincere person I had met since coming here. He had been injured in the fighting eighteen years ago, and the magical wound hadn’t healed correctly. Nothing the healers tried was able to fix it, so now he walked with a limp. It seemed to only bolster his reputation among the rest of the Gifted. No one would tell me exactly what he had done, but everyone held him in high regard.

I opened the door to Adam’s office, and the two people inside stopped talking immediately. I smiled when they turned to look at me. “Don’t stop speaking on my account.”

“How did you get here so fast?” Adam asked.

“I was actually coming to see you about something. It was really just blind luck that you wanted to see me too.”

“Please, sit.”

My mother stood up and gave me a hug. It was good to see her again. Since she had joined with us in the battle against Gaston, she had been moving around the Southwest, recruiting. She now had eight Lycans in her pack. I had to assume that she was heading out on another recruiting trip. I didn’t know why they would need me for that, though. We broke apart, and she smiled. I sat down next to her and waited for Adam to speak.

“Jackson, Sarah is heading back to Tucson on one of her recruiting trips. We both thought it would be a good idea for you to join her.”

I spared a glance toward my mom. She didn’t say anything or even look at me, but I could feel her tense. It had to be hard for her to ask; the fear of rejection had to be very real, for both of us. I thought back on meeting her a few months ago for the first time. We had been taking our reunion slow, and so far, it had worked out perfectly. There wasn’t anyone else who I would rather go on a road trip with. It would let me accomplish a couple of things at the same time. I would get to learn more about her and handle what I needed to.

“Of course I want to go. I was actually coming to tell you that I needed some time away from here.”

They shared a look, and my mom spoke. “I was telling Adam that it would be a good idea to let you visit so you could pay your respects to the people who raised you. I know it’s something you have wanted to do for some time.”

“Last night I realized it is more than that. It’s not just something I want to do; it’s something I need to do. I owe them and myself that much.”

“Well, then it’s settled,” Adam said with a smile. “You can leave in the morning.”

Sarah got up and nodded to Adam. He stood and stretched out his arm; I placed mine against his, and we clasped wrists. He gave me a warm smile and then sat back down. My mom and I walked out of the office together. She stopped to give Henry a hug, and I just gave him a smile before we continued down the hall. “What time do you want to leave?”

“We should probably get started early. How does seven sound?”

“Perfect, I’ll see you then.”

She gave me another quick hug before leaving, and I smiled all the way back to my room. It felt good to know that I had family left alive. There had been a time when I thought all four of my parents were dead. At least now I had my biological mom. After things had settled down, she had promised to sit down with me and tell me all about my father. I couldn’t wait for that to happen. There were just so many questions I had to ask.

When I got back to my room, Britta was gone. She had probably gone back to her own place to make sure it was still clean and to give it a quick once-over. That or she had hit the gym with some of her friends. I grabbed my duffel out of the closet and filled it with some clothes. I mostly just wore relaxed workout clothes now, so I had to dig around to find a few T-shirts and a couple of pairs of jeans. I planned on spending the afternoon zoned out in front of the PlayStation. After a few hours, I would take a break, maybe grab something to eat, and go right back to it. Then it was time for me to cook dinner.

* * *

C
ooking was
something I had never done at home, but the more I got into it, the more I realized that I had a passion for it. There was just something about preparing your own meals that made them better. Fresh ingredients really just let you know how much you were missing when you ate the prepackaged stuff. I messed up about as much as I had succeeded early on, but I had found my stride now. Tonight we were having a blue cheese stuffed chicken breast with homemade baked French fries.

I was putting the finishing touches on the plates when Britta walked in the door. She had a smile on until she saw my bag on the couch. “Going somewhere?”

“I’m taking a short trip back home with my mom.”

“Are you sure that’s a good idea?”

“I don’t see how it could be a bad one.”

“It’s just that there were people after you before. What if they are still looking for you? You should stay here.”

“This is something that I need to do, for me. There is so much going on here; I just need some time to clear my head.”

“What does that mean?” she said with a frown.

“It means I need some time to think about everything. Mom’s going to be doing some work down there, and I’m going to get some time alone to figure things out.”

“Damn it, Jackson. If you are going to dump me, at least have the guts to do it now.”

“I’m going on a trip with my mom. Where does dumping you come into play?”

“I know you went to see April today.”

“Yeah, she is one of my best friends. Why wouldn’t I be able to go see her?”

“Come on, she has a thing for you and is jealous of me. It’s so obvious that you want her.”

“Britta, I just stopped by her place to see a friend. What’s going on with you?”

“Whatever, I’m heading back to my place. Let me know what you decide.”

“Decide about what?” I shouted after her. What in the hell just happened? I hadn’t done anything wrong by going to see April, and just how had she found out anyway? Was she following me? Jesus, sometimes she made things so fucking complicated. On the plus side, I had two chicken dinners now. At least that was something.

I needed to figure out what I was going to do about all this. I almost wished we were leaving right now. I was ready to get the hell out of Dodge. Some time apart might be good for us; maybe she could figure out if she really wanted to be with me. I wouldn’t put up with guilt trips. I hadn’t done anything with April; she had no reason to be mad. I started to dig into the first chicken breast; it came out better than I had expected. I was already pushing the other thoughts away and thinking of how I could improve the recipe. A good night’s rest would be just the thing I needed to start tomorrow on the right note.

W
hat was
I going to do? I was losing him, and if that happened, Stillman would stop protecting my family. There had to be something I could do some way to stop this from happening. I had lost my cool back there, and it had backfired. Why didn’t I just play along? I couldn’t care less if he was screwing April. I was just here to be Stillman’s eyes and ears.

That wasn’t true anymore; something had changed. Somehow I had fallen for him, and it hurt that he wanted her more than me. It shouldn’t have. There was no way I should have ever been in a position to fall in love. I was using him for my own ends, to keep my family safe. Love should have been the furthest thing from my mind. I needed to call Stillman and tell him what my plan was. If he heard from anyone else, I would be in a world of trouble.

I pulled the prepaid phone he had given me out of my underwear drawer and dialed the number.

“Hello?”

“Mr. Stillman, I have an update for you.”

“Couldn’t this wait? You aren’t scheduled to update until next week.”

“It can’t wait, sir.”

He sighed into the phone. “All right, tell me what is happening.”

“I’m losing him, sir. He’s fallen in love with someone else, and I don’t think I can stay in place as his girlfriend.”

“Well, that is very unfortunate. I’ll let your family know that you let them down.”

“Damn it, wait.” I could feel the tears coming, but I choked away a sob. Stillman was a predator, and I couldn’t negotiate from weakness. “I have a plan to stay close to him.”

“I’m intrigued. Tell me more.”

“If I manage this break-up the right way, we can stay friends. That will give me just enough guilt over him that I can still get whatever we need. If there is a time where I sense a moment of weakness between him and his new girlfriend, I’ll reinsert myself into his life.”

“It seems I may have underestimated your commitment, Britta. Keep me informed of your status. Let’s push our next meeting back a week. If I need anything sooner, I’ll leave a message.”

“So my family is still safe?” It pained me to ask and it made me look weak, but I had to know they were being cared for.

“They are and will remain so as long as you can get what I need.”

“Thank you, Mr. Stillman.”

The line went dead. Fuck, I hated that guy. I couldn’t wait for the day I could tear my family away from him.

M
y coffee was still warm
when I got out of the shower and I thanked God for small blessings. I dressed quickly and headed out the door. The rookie was parked outside just as I had expected him to be. When he saw me coming, he got out of the car and opened the door for me. I smiled at the courtesy he was showing to a superior officer. As a woman, it wasn’t often that I received the same respect as my male counterparts.

“Detective.”

“Morning rookie. Remember where we are going?”

“Yes, ma’am.”

“Perfect, then let’s get going.”

He handed me a blue case file. I was surprised he remembered to get it, but I was pleased with his performance so far. “Keep it up and I’ll have to mention how well you did to the lieutenant.” He smiled briefly but kept his eyes facing out the front window. The car pulled out onto the main street, and we were on our way.

We reached the house about forty-five minutes later. There was one unit parked outside to make sure that none of the press got too nosy until we finished with the crime scene. We got out of the car, and one of the uniforms exited their vehicle. He nodded in our direction and took down our car number and names before letting us enter the property.

“All right rookie, you’ve seen the pictures. Now walk the scene and tell me what you think.”

He moved into the kitchen, slowly turning his head to take in the whole room. He didn’t gag, which was uncommon for rookies. The house still smelled of death; the dried blood and other bodily fluids were still sprayed around the room. They couldn’t be cleaned until we released the house back to the family. I watched him work the room for a moment before I started to do my own recreation of what had happened here.

While he only had pictures to go off of, I had the scene burned into my memory from last night. I could still see the bodies as if they were right in front of me. I suspected that it would have taken at least two people, but maybe more. Probably three, if the son was here. If he had been here, then where was he now? That was the next thing we had to answer. If we could eliminate him from the suspect pool, then we could focus on the real criminals. Until we did, we had to assume it was him or that he had something to do with it.

I looked up from my musings to see the rookie staring at me. “Ok champ, what do you have for me?”

“All right, this might sound weird since everyone is saying the son is obviously to blame, but I see it differently. Three attackers enter the kitchen; two go after the husband, and one grabs the wife. They beat him until they can get him up on the stool. Then they ask him questions while two of them go to work on the wife. He won’t give them what they want, so they slit her throat, dumping her there.” He pointed to the spot on the floor where her body had been. “Then they continue to ask him questions when he doesn’t answer. Bam! And the body ends up there.” He pointed to the overturned stool.

“Ok so tell me, where did you come up with this question angle? Tell me how you can see that through the evidence.”

He made a frown and shook his head as if trying to figure out how to explain how he felt it in his gut. “It just makes sense to me. I mean, why else hold him at gunpoint on the stool after she is dead? It doesn’t look like anything else in the house was touched. So it wasn’t a robbery. They were looking for something specific, or needed to know something.”

“I can stand by that reasoning, but don’t forget we know that he was beaten. So there had to be a reason for it. This doesn’t feel like a blitz attack. I have a feeling the blood spatter will show he was hit multiple times before he was placed on the stool, and then he was hit again.”

“So tell me what you see?”

“I see the exact same thing except for this.” I turned and pointed at the kitchen door jam. It had splintered a tiny bit at about shoulder height. “I have a feeling there was a third victim in this kitchen, and that they were taken. I won’t bring it up unless I can find more evidence to support it, but that is what I see.”

He walked over toward the door and looked at the wood. “What if they picked someone up here but hit them against the wall? Would that account for the damage?”

“It could; we won’t know for certain until we find one of these guys. It could have happened during the initial assault as well. We can’t know for sure until we get a few more pieces in place.”

“So what now?”

“Now you get to wait outside with your buddies. I’m going to walk the house for a few minutes. Then we are going to try and track down anyone who knew this kid and see if we can’t get some answers from them.”

“Thank you for giving me a chance, Detective.”

“You earned it, and we still need to discuss that coffee you owe me.”

He nodded once and walked out the front door. There was no doubt in my mind that when I walked out of the house, he would be standing just to the right of the door. Probably in the exact same position I found him in last night.

It was finally time to get a look at the kid’s room. I tied my hair back into a ponytail and slid it inside of my shirt. The plastic gloves slipped on pretty easily as I walked up the stairs. Sometimes those things were a real bitch to get on, but today wasn’t one of those days.

The kid’s room was pretty clean for a teenage boy. There were some clothes on the ground, but the desk was neat and tidy, and most of the clothes had actually found their way into the hamper, which probably put him in the minority of teenage boys. The real mess was by the futon in the corner. Several empty cans of soda and a half-eaten tub of red vines dotted the landscape. Wires for charging game controllers and speakers cluttered up the area.

There was no doubt that if I were his age today, I would have killed for a room like this. It had a gaming area, a desk, and a bed. Most kids couldn’t dream of having that kind of space. The blessings of being an only child, I guess. Nothing looked out of place except for the military foot locker on his bed. There was a key in the lock; maybe there was something inside that could give me some real insight. All I got for the rest of this room was the lonely nerd vibe.

I moved toward the box, my arm extended. I felt something weird, almost like a static shock as my hand got closer. I reached out for the lid anyway. My fingers had just brushed the top when a jolt ran up my arm. I flew back a foot or two from the box, landing on my ass in the middle of the kid’s floor.

The large thump must have made enough noise for the rookie to hear, because he shouted up the stairs. “You ok up there, Detective?”

“Sure am. Can you call the bomb squad for me? I have a box up here charged with some kind of electrical current.”

“Sure thing, Detective.”

I could hear him on his walkie, calling it in. I gave the rest of the room another glance. Again, nothing seemed out of place. I gave the box one last look, shaking out my arm. I sure as hell didn’t know what was in it, but if it was booby-trapped with some kind of electricity, it must be important. I got downstairs, and the rookie was waiting for me just inside the door.

“Bomb squad will be here in twenty.”

“Well, we aren’t going to be able to do shit until they clear the scene, so we might as well get the hell out of here when they show up. I’ll have to give a report to the squad leader, but then we can start interviewing some of the neighbors, find out if anyone saw anything. Maybe we can come up with a way to start hitting this from a different angle. It’s time we tracked down some of this kid’s known associates and asked them some questions.”

* * *

A
fter interviewing
several of Jackson’s former friends, all of them pointed us toward one girl—Abigail Jones. She came up clean on all our background checks, not so much as a minor in consumption on her record. I called the school, and they faxed over a copy of her file. Not much to go on. By all accounts, she was the perfect kid.

Captain of the volleyball team, straight A’s except for advanced calculus. Really, who could blame her for pulling down a B in that one? Especially when she had so many other activities outside of class. Besides volleyball, she was on the student council and part of some group that helped at the local food bank on the weekends. She even worked part-time at her uncle's copy shop.

Every single witness told us that she was best friends with Jackson, that they were almost inseparable. Seemed odd that the kid accused of arson was best friends with America’s ideal girl next door. Except for the fact that she didn’t live next door, at least not next door to Jackson. She lived about twenty minutes away, on a good day. The more I thought about it, the more I wondered if this kid got a bad rap. Something just didn’t fit when it came to sizing up Jackson.

He maintained good grades, A’s and B’s, for the most part. Actually, if anything, his grades had been improving at the time of the murders. The exact opposite could be said of his social activities. Something had happened to him senior year. By all accounts, he had become a self-imposed social pariah. Originally the principal had feared drugs, but four random locker searches and a search of his backpack revealed nothing. He refused to see the school counselor, and they couldn’t force him. All they had were vague suspicions and a quiet kid.

The car pulled into the parking lot of the copy shop. The rookie tried to follow me in, but I waved him back. “I think it might be a little too much if I bring in a uniform. I want her to talk to me, not be too scared about her friend to open up.” He nodded but didn’t look pleased about being excluded. Well, tough shit. You had to earn the next grade by paying your dues on the street. I had no doubt that detective was in his future, but until he was a plainclothes detective, most folks would just clam up around him.

Let’s just say the shop was no Kinkos, but everything here looked clean and well maintained. The lighting was bright; the entire shop was fitted with those white light daytime bulbs. Probably made it slightly easier for people to see the colors on their copies. There was a man behind the counter, and I could just make out the top of a ponytail sticking up behind a large poster machine. The thing was huge; it looked like it could produce extremely large items. Maybe this was what kept them open. Movie posters, banners, digital art, all probably helped to pay the bills.

I ignored the man and walked further into the building, edging around the giant machine. The girl in front of me was engrossed in her work. I sat back and watched as she moved the glossy reproduction off of the machine and onto a large flat table. She weighed down the corners before turning to face me.

“Can I help you?” She gave me a smile, but her eyes darted to the counter.

That was a feeling I understood a little too well. Sometimes it didn’t pay to say anything, but you always wondered how some people could be so lazy and still keep their jobs. This time, it wasn’t his fault. I wasn’t looking for help with copies. But from that one scathing look the girls shot him, I had the feeling that he spent most of his day behind that counter doing absolutely nothing.it happened more times than not. I turned back towards the girl. “Abigail Jones?”

“Yeah, that’s me.”

“Detective Velasquez, you can call me Gina.” She gave me the slightest frown before it vanished and was replaced with a small smile. She didn’t manage to keep the sigh from slipping out, and the eye roll she gave me was enough for me to know she was already tired about being asked questions about her friend.

“What’s this about, Gina?”

“I just had a couple of questions for you.”

“Yeah, you and everyone else. Let’s get this over with. No, I don’t know where he is. The last time I saw him was two weeks ago. No, he wasn’t my boyfriend, and I don’t think he had anything to do with what happened to his family.”

“Well, that almost wraps it up. Mind if I actually ask a few of the questions myself?”

“Knock yourself out.” She turned away from me and started to work on putting a wooden frame together for the picture she had just printed.

“Great. Can you tell me why it has been so long since you have seen him? Everyone else I talked to said you guys were inseparable.”

“We were. My uncle had to let him go. We didn’t have enough work for two people overnight. Then our hours were messed up. I’d be here all night and then sleeping; our schedules just got thrown off.”

“So no hard feelings between you two.”

“Not at all.”

I had to give it to her; she was good. The lies came out smoothly, without a hint of what she was doing. Ten years on the job had taught me to spot even the smallest bit of untruth when someone was talking. I decided to let it drop for now. “You said he wouldn’t be responsible for anything like this, but I saw his school records. Jackson has been in a lot of fights.” She whirled around, and the look of rage on her face had me taking a step back. I felt my hand instinctively go down to my gun before I pulled my hand back in front of me. What in the hell had I been thinking? I couldn’t pull a gun on a teenage girl for being mad when I prodded her, trying to force a reaction.

“Listen to me when I say this because I am only going to say it once. Jackson didn’t have a mean bone in his body. Every fight he got in was to save someone else from being bullied. He had a real thing against anyone who picked on someone else for being different.”