Killer on Call 6 Book Bundle (Books 1-6)

by Gwendolyn Druyor

  The ma’am threw Kissy for a second but she rallied. “You don’t like whiskey.”

  “Coach says you learn to like it.”

  “Now why are you taking life advice from Coach Koehler?” she pushed.

  Shawn couldn’t answer. He shook his head and reached for the rocks glass. Kissy picked it up and threw the drink back. She slammed the glass onto the cleaning wand in the sink.

  “What’s your favorite food, Shawn?” she asked as she scrubbed. “Are you a chips guy? You like cake?”

  He blinked a few times and then blurted out, “I like those cookies you get with Chinese takeout.”

  “Fortune cookies?”

  “No, the ones that look like peanut butter cookies without ridges.”

  Kissy smiled as she started mixing liquids in the shaker. “Almond cookies. I like those too.”

  She poured a frothy amaretto sour into the cleaned rocks glass, garnished it with an orange slice and set it in front of Shawn. “If you don’t like it, it’s on me.”

  She spun to the back bar and checked the levels on all the bottles, glancing over to see if the smartphone couple needed anything. She felt her own phone buzz in her apron pocket and reached in to grab it. It was Avi.

  Seen Tim?

  Wondering, she typed back, He’s here. Why? and stared at the phone for his reply.

  “Excuse me.” A small voice made her drop the phone in her pocket and turn back to the bar. The beer drinking boy on the end pushed his bottle towards her.

  “I’m Kissy.”

  “Dan,” he said.

  “You ready for another?” she asked.

  He replied, “I like almond cookies.”

  She mixed another Amaretto sour and swapped it out for the beer. “Were you a student of Koehler’s too?”

  “Guy’s field hockey.” Dan raised a hand in a mock two-finger salute. Shawn and the kid in the middle both raised their hands as well.

  “You’re not drinking whiskey,” Kissy observed.

  “He’s a dick.”

  “Fuck his whiskey rule,” echoed the Middle.

  “No offense kid,” Dan leaned in and hollered down to Shawn. “We been where you’re at. It’ll get better.”

  “Not for the girls.” The Middle took a long slug of his beer.

  Shawn and Dan both looked down at their drinks.

  Kissy leaned on the bar. “What do you mean?”

  Shawn answered, “His new office would have a door.”

  “With no windows,” the Middle added.

  “The office he’ll get when he’s superintendent you mean?”

  They all nodded.

  “So you don’t want him to get the job.”

  The two older boys kind of shrugged.

  “Well, see,” Shawn croaked out, “my baby sister has Freshman Bio next semester.”

  Shawn stared at his glass. The other two boys drank.

  Kissy popped the top off a fresh beer for the Middle and went to find Tim.

  Eleven

  Avi slipped his arms carefully under Emily’s knees and behind her back. Despite her incessant, terrified keening she didn’t struggle.

  “Kimi, can you climb on my back?”

  Kimi did and whispered in his ear, “Her skin is bubbling. There’s an emergency wash station in here but I couldn’t find it.” Her voice cracked with fear.

  “It’s okay. You did good.” He turned to Emily as he stood. She was a large girl of his own complexion whose face was mutilated by pain and some kind of chemical burns. “I’m Avi. We’re gonna get out of here and find you some help. Okay?”

  The girl had stopped screaming but the fear in her eyes was just as painful. Avi wanted to race out of the room and all the way to the hospital with Emily, but he could barely see with Kimi’s tiny light now over his head. He stood slowly and inched his way toward the doorway. Emily didn’t move while Kimi wrapped her legs tightly around his waist.

  “Can you shine your light at our feet, Kimi?”

  A beam of light suddenly cut through the thick air from another corner of the room bobbing as it came closer.

  “I stole the flashlight from that weird kid’s UV project.” Jacob made his way to Avi and lit the floor in front of them. “It’s kind of ruined now anyway,” he added apologetically.

  When they got to the door, Ralph was gone, to Avi’s great relief. He asked Jacob to keep directing the light at the ground and they made their way to the central commons just in time to see Terry running through the doors, leading two EMTs.

  “The fire department’s pulling around to the science wing exit,” he yelled, passing the quartet. “I’m gonna go open the door.”

  The squat male paramedic started examining Emily’s face even as Avi lowered her onto a cafeteria table that hadn’t been folded away after lunch. The woman with a long ponytail tried to lift Kimi from his back but she cried and held on tightly to his neck.

  “Help her! I’m not hurt.”

  The woman clearly knew how to pick her battles and after getting a nod from Avi that he didn’t need immediate assistance, she turned to the giant medical kit she’d set on the bench of the table.

  “I’m Jen and this is Curt. Can you tell us your name?”

  Avi stepped away to give them room and swung Kimi to the floor. He saw a few cuts on her arms but she didn’t look too badly hurt. “You stay here. I’m going back for Moira and Conner. That was his name, right?”

  Kimi grabbed his arm before he could turn away. “Moira’s not there.”

  Jacob added, “Moira’s been missing since lunch.”

  “Before lunch.” Kimi started crying.

  Avi took Kimi’s hand from his arm gently. “We’ll find her. But I have to get Conner first.” He turned to Jacob who was only slightly calmer than Kimi. “Was there anyone else in the room?”

  The boy shook his head. Avi turned back to the science wing to see Ralph wrestling a boy built like a scarecrow out into the clear air of the common. It was only Ralph’s decades of disliking children that was giving him the power to win the struggle. The kid was taller, stronger, younger, and determined to get free. It seemed to be Ralph’s unwise but firm grip on the kid’s hair that was deciding the battle.

  “I got the last one.”

  Ralph used too much energy for this pronouncement and finally lost his grasp on Conner. The kid could have gotten away if he’d taken the opportunity to run. But he decided instead to take some quick revenge on Ralph before his escape. He got one good punch to the old security guard’s paunch before Terry materialized from the gloom and scooped him smoothly up over his shoulder.

  Conner struggled, but Terry carried him as easily as a sack of potatoes over to Avi. Jacob and Kimi perked up a bit to see their friend humiliated. Avi pulled the cuffs from his belt and tried to get a hold of Conner’s wrist. The kid was squirming like a three year old at nap time, though it made no difference to Terry.

  “Give it up, kid,” Avi advised. “Terry bends marble to his will. You haven’t got a chance.”

  When he finally managed to grab the wrist and loosely close a cuff around it, Terry set the kid on the cold linoleum floor where Avi clicked the other cuff closed around the leg of the table.

  “Stop moving the table, shithead.” It was Jacob who got his friend to stop thrashing. “They’re working on Emily up here.”

  The male paramedic, Curt, turned and bent down to look Conner over. “You’re okay? You feel like hurling or anything?”

  Conner shook his head. “She poured a bucket of water over the fire. The rest of us wouldn’t go anywhere near the lamecano once it started sizzling.”

  Curt nodded but he gave the boy a quick exam anyway. Then he turned and looked over Jacob and Kimi. Finally he checked Avi and declared them all free to go with an ironic look at the handcuffed Conner. Then he headed up to help Ralph who had doubled over on the ground.

  “Is it Moira’s fault the volcano exploded?” Avi asked.

  “Yes,” Conner
answered too quickly.

  Jacob heard it as well. “What did you do, Conner?”

  He shot back, “You put magnesium in it.”

  “That wouldn’t blow up just cuz she doused it in water. It would go out.”

  “Thermite.” Emily said it so quietly the paramedic repeated it for the others.

  “Thermite.”

  “Thermite and water would react like that.”

  “Where would he get thermite?” Jacob demanded incredulously.

  Emily spoke coldly. “His brother found a recipe online.”

  “You could have killed all of us!” Jacob started kicking Conner. His first kick landed but then Avi pulled him away.

  “I wasn’t aiming for you, Em.” Conner curled up against the assault. “I didn’t think we were gonna light it today.”

  Emily whispered, “You thought he’d douse it with water.”

  “I figured it wouldn’t hurt to have a backup plan. Probably it wouldn’t matter anyway cuz we’re all gonna be in grief counseling tomorrow.”

  There was finally a pause in the confessing. Avi waited for someone to speak up but no one seemed to know what to say.

  “Why would you be in grief counseling tomorrow?

  “Because Moira’s missing,” Emily answered.

  Then Jacob added, “No one’s seen her since lunch. Mr. Koehler said she went home sick.”

  And Kimi finished, “But she’s not there.”

  There was something the three of them weren’t saying. But before Avi could push them further on it, Emily body jackknifed in the throes of a seizure.

  Twelve

  Kissy checked in on the various other guests who’d pulled up a seat at the bar. Tim was not among them. She saw Koehler shaking hands and chatting as he made his way back to his stool. Looking beyond him, out the glass front of the restaurant, she saw that Tim was still at the valet stand though Brit was no longer with him.

  “Sweet thing, you are just gorgeous.” Koehler slugged the last of his drink. “You will always look like you’re twelve, won’t you.”

  Kissy looked down at the man and considered what really mattered in life.

  “You got family, Kevin?”

  “I think of my students as my family,“ he responded automatically.

  Kissy stopped wiping the bar and leaned both hands on it. “Parents? Siblings? A wife?”

  “I am available if that’s what you’re tip toeing around here.” Koehler put a hand on hers.

  She pulled it away and took his glass. “Is there anyone who would notice if you went missing?”

  “You know, it’s amazing how long a person can be missing before anyone notices. Everyone is an island.” He looked at his watch and glanced at the door. “I would love to go missing with you, darling. But I have an appointment this evening.”

  Koehler reached into the pocket of his blazer and pulled out a small pill holder. He made no attempt to hide it as he jiggled out a little blue pill and popped it into his mouth. Kissy pulled the soda gun and a clean glass. She handed him the water without smiling.

  “My mother died when I was very young. My brother is no friend of mine. And Daddy, well, he doesn’t even know his own name anymore. So any time after school gets out, I can safely take you and get missing for as long as your heart desires.”

  Kissy cleaned and rinsed the highball glass. She set it back on the bar. “Another?”

  “I should never have an empty glass in front of me,” he scolded. “You’re new. You’ll learn how to serve me.”

  And it was as easy as that. Kissy picked up the old glass from the speed rail. She turned away to pour the drugged drink into a shaker and add a little more Tanqueray. She shook it up, poured it out and popped a lime onto the rim.

  “My apologies.” Now she smiled sweetly. “Drink up.”

  Koehler picked the drink up and toasted her. Then he took a deep sip.

  “Whoa there, friend!”

  Kissy looked up to see Tim standing behind Koehler with Avi. Avi was looking at her in shock, Tim, with admiration. But then Tim reached around and swiped the glass right from Koehler’s hand. The glass crashed to the bar with most of the drink spraying Kissy. Tim ignored the mess and perched on the stool beside the teacher. He leaned in, put his hands on either side of Koehler’s neck and pulled him in to kiss him on both cheeks.

  “Time to move on to whiskey,” Avi declared as he pounded Koehler on the back like an old friend.

  “Real men drink whiskey, right Koehler?”

  Tim took his hands away and turned to look at Kissy, finally noticing that she was dripping gin and tonic. But she couldn’t take her eyes from the small round patch now affixed to Koehler’s neck.

  Thirteen

  Avi Kee stood six feet four in socks. He had the chest of a quarterback. He skin was so dark he disappeared in pictures. He was not the natural choice to babysit the fifteen year old best friend of an abduction victim. But when he offered to stay late since he already had a rapport with Kimi, his offer was gratefully accepted.

  The detectives had been unable to reach Kimi’s mother since she was in surgery at the same trauma center Emily had been taken to by Curt and Jen. When Moira’s fathers, Kimi’s uncle and his husband arrived, her uncle acted as her guardian through questioning. But Kimi didn’t tell them anything useful. She’d seen her cousin in the halls before lunch and then gone home sick herself. When she’d gone back to school to return a book to Moira, she’d been unable to find her.

  Wanting to focus on the parents and not upset Kimi anymore, the detectives had been happy to let her leave the room with Officer Kee.

  He escorted her to an empty interrogation room. The room was cold. Bare gray painted cement block walls except for the mirror. Three green plastic chairs faded from the constant fluorescence surrounded a cold metal table. Though the nearest microwave was four rooms away the smell of burnt popcorn permeated the air.

  Avi had stood at attention by the door after settling Kimi in a chair at the steel desk. He watched her swipe at the tears pouring down her cheeks.

  Feeling like a horrible person he asked her, “What happened to the book?”

  She turned her bright green eyes up to him, questioning.

  “The book you came back to school to give Moira. You didn’t have a book when you got off your bike.”

  Kimi looked away from him. She glanced up at the mirror on the wall. Then she toed the metal loops seated in the cement floor under the chair and tried moving the table. It was bolted down. She felt the metal loops under the lip of the table and bent over to peer at them.

  “This is a place for really bad people,” she whispered. It wasn’t really a question. “For,” she looked again to Avi, “for murderers.”

  He considered and then nodded. She looked so scared. Her short red hair curled out of control all over her head. The tears never stopped as she examined this place which was no sanctuary. He softened, reminding himself he was a peace officer.

  “You don’t belong in that seat.”

  He thought of where he could collect a few supplies and barely heard her whisper, “Yes, I do.”

  He asked her, “Why?” But she hung her head and wouldn’t answer.

  Avi slipped out of the room. He hurried down to the box of emergency supplies in the kitchen. He took the whole box, grabbed the CPR dummy and then swiped a pile of blankets and towels from the homeless collection bin. When he got back to the interrogation room, he found Kimi standing at the mirror, staring at her face. She jumped when he entered the room.

  “Are they watching me?”

  “Who?”

  “The suit cops.”

  Avi smiled. “Detectives. I don’t think so. Would you like me to check?”

  Kimi nodded, her curls bouncing.

  Avi dumped his supplies on the table and slipped next door. He checked that all of the recording equipment was off. He flipped the switch that turned on the red do-not-disturb light outside the room and rejoined Kimi.


  “Nope. No one’s there. The cameras and microphones are all off. I made sure.”

  “Thanks. What’s all this stuff?”

  “Well, pull that chair over here and I’ll show you.”

  Kimi pulled the chair from the corner and set it beside the one with its back to the mirror. Avi grabbed the defense dummy and set him in the murderer’s chair. He threw a patchwork comforter over the paired chairs and draped two paint covered tarps over the table. He set up emergency candles on the table and handed Kimi a book of matches. He pulled a couple bottles of water from his pockets and set them with a box of tissues on the tarps. Once the girl had lit all the candles, Avi turned off the overhead fluorescent tubes.

  “What do you think?”

  Kimi grabbed the comforter off of the chairs and threw it on the floor. She pushed the chairs to the corner and then grabbed the rest of the blankets and towels and put them on the floor under the mirror. She sat on them and leaned back against the wall, tucking her knees up to her chin. She’d left a space beside her.

  Avi adjusted his nightstick and folded himself down onto the floor beside her. They sat in silence, watching the flickering candles. Avi was about to give another go at getting her to tell him their secret when he heard Kimi stifle a sob.

  “What are you thinking, Kimi?”

  “Conner.”

  “Conner is in that chair in another room with his parents and some other detectives.”

  “He’s a jerk.”

  “Yeah? But is he a murderer?”

  Kimi shook her head. “He’s an idiot.”

  “And right now, the kind of guy who belongs in that chair.”

  “Officer Kee, I belong in that chair too.”

  “Call me Avi.” He went on reassuring her just to keep her talking. “We’ll find your friend. We’re all gonna work hard to figure out what happened to her.”

  “Moira’s my friend and my cousin. We grew up together. She always looked out for me.” Kimi was crying so hard Avi had trouble understanding the words.

  He put an arm around her. “It’s gonna be okay.”

  “He was gonna take me but she sent me home,” she wailed. “You’re never gonna find Moira.”

  Avi’s breath caught in his throat. When she didn’t go on, he tried reassurance again. “If you tell me who he is, we can make him tell us where she is.”