“You cannot associate personally with suspects and also investigate them; it’s just how it is. And we shouldn’t refer to our fellow lab member as eye candy,” I restrained a laugh, “See you on Monday!”
“Bye, Fiona!”
I hung up the phone, even more frustrated with him than before. Why did he have to tell Lauren and not me? I was the club leader, not her. I had always been the closest one to him. It tore me apart to have our friendship ruined. I despised Camber for no other reason than for taking my place in his heart.
After watching enough television to rot my mind, I dashed down the hallway into the pink palace and threw myself on my bed.
After a long night’s rest, the sunrays beamed energetically though my window. It was Sunday and Janice was coming home. I popped out of bed and got ready as fast as I could move my body. As I brushed my teeth, I noticed that my pale skin had become insipid, probably an effect of strep throat. Grabbing a makeup brush, I put some color back on my cheeks so my mother wouldn’t worry.
I rushed into the kitchen and met up with my mother who was gathering her things to leave the house.
“Janice is coming home today, Fiona!” she said in a loud, musical voice, swiping her handbag from the counter.
“I know, I’m going with you to pick her up!”
She studied me for a moment as she held a conference in her head about whether or not she wanted me to ride with her to the hospital.
“You can ride in the car, but you’re not going inside. The hospital is filled with germs.”
She always worried, but I was happy to ride in the car so I could see Janice’s rosy cheeks walking out of the hospital. Once the positive force of Janice Parker was back in my daily routine, nothing could go wrong again.
The car ride to the hospital seemed like it took forever. The agent, a tall, gray-haired man, assigned to my mother, trailed us at every turn. It wasn’t long before we pulled into the circle drive of the Godley Grove Hospital. She parked in the loading zone, instructing me to lock the doors.
As I gazed out of the back window, our assigned black suit waved at me. The front of the hospital was bustling with people rushing about. Pregnant women, elderly folks, and small children seemed like the majority of the cases headed inside. About an equal amount of former patients were headed out to their cars with release papers in hand.
After about ten minutes of playing a game of hangman on my phone, I caught sight of the sapphire eyes and perfect white bun. I rushed out of the car and gave her the biggest, tightest hug I could muster. She giggled as she hugged me back. As my mother would do, she stepped backward, checking me over from head to toe.
“How are you feeling, Fiona? Are you all better now?” she anxiously gazed into my eyes, searching for any signs of illness.
I was technically still sick as I was still on medication. However, I didn’t feel the remnants of strep throat anymore and was myself again. I knew I didn’t look my best, however, and she’d know something was off with me.
“I’m great but even better now because you are coming home. I love you, Janice!” I purred, giving her a second hug.
“I love you too, Fiona! I’m so glad to come home. The hospital doesn’t serve cookies, you know,” Janice giggled as she ushered me towards the car.
We caught up on everything during the car ride home and as we pulled into our garage, I got an email from Detective Chase. The email stated the pink envelopes from Gerald Smith’s prison cell were a match to blank envelopes that were found in Victoria Newsted’s bedroom.
Great, I mused. Now the insane vampires, the murderer, and the crazed escaped prisoner trying to get my family were linked together in some way. This was not pleasant news.
12 EXTRACTIONS
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 exhaustion the night before.
Throwing on my heaviest clothes, I took my medication and jumped into 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 the 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 the 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 getting 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 were 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 about 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 Newsted 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 paused 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 human 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 teeth, 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 ensured 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 she 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. You 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 hallway 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 freshman 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.
“Well, over three million dollars is a pretty big motive for murder,” Maddie exclaimed, shaking her head.
“Detective Chase always says the one with the biggest motive is typically the one whodunit,” I said in a hard voice.
We ended the meeting by discussing the results of the sediment, water, cave wall and cave sludge analysis we had collected and analyzed. We identified the scorpion that Wolfe had found in our initial investigation of the crime scene and mapped out the changes and composition of the represented areas of the cave.
We sent over a copy of our sediment and sludge map, so when they needed to track somebody’s route in the cave using Locard’s Principle, they could use it to find exactly where they had been. Detective Chase would have this information for his lab’s meetings about the case and hopefully, it would become useful.
The bell rang, signaling the beginning of the school day. I was energized for the first time in a long time. Even seeing Wolfe in calculus, sitting at the front of the room, I was still happy.
Janice was healthy, growing stronger by the minute, and the case was coming together like pieces of a puzzle. Time sped up throughout the day and soon, I was entering my assigned black suit’s car. We both snapped on our seatbelts as he drove away, classical music resonating from the car speakers.
“Fiona, we spotted Gerald Smith over by the Silver Springs Marina this morning. We didn’t need to bother you with it because we felt you were safe at school, but just so you know, he is still in Godley Grove. We believe he might be staying with someone in the Lakeside Trailer Park, and we have the whole place under surveillance right now. I hope we can catch this guy, and your family can get back to normal. I know you’re tired of me,” he smiled a crooked smile.
“Nah, I’ve kinda grown to love you, Agent B. You’re like a brother to me now. Or I suppose more like an uncle,” I said happily, laughing.
“Hey, Fiona! I’m only twenty-five,” he chuckled as he shook his head.
After receiving another strange phone call of breathing followed by silence, it hit me it could be Wolfe calling from a different phone, not knowing what to say to me. I realized he had called out to me the day I stormed away from him. He might have thought I was angry with him. And in ways I wasn’t proud of, I was angry with him for being with Camber.
I decided to call him on his phone to see if he was trying to get a hold of me. Dialing his number, I started to tremble; the pits of my stomach grew deeper. I raised the phone to my ear, my face flushing. I scooted in my seat towards the car window as if doing that would prevent Agent Bronson from knowing what I was doing. I hung up after the third ring in a panic. I couldn’t allow the agent to see me react this way to someone I was calling.
Moments later, my phone rang and Wolfe’s picture splashed across my screen. Gasping, I was elated he had called—even if only calling me back to see what I had wanted.
“Hello,” I said cautiously, turning to look outside of the car window.
“Fiona, this is Wolfe. I missed your call.”
“Well,” I had to swallow the lump in my throat. “Um, I was calling you to see if you had been trying to get a hold of me. I mean, I’ve had a few calls I was unable to answer, or I think maybe whoever it was couldn’t hear me or something,” I was rambling. I had to get to the point. “Were you trying to call me?”
“I didn’t think you would want me to call you. No, I haven’t called you.”
The pits of my stomach flattened, feeling as though they filled up with pellets of lead. A wave of nausea devoured my stability. I was a fool. Not only to Wolfe, but I was certain that Agent Bronson was listening in to what I was saying. Of course he was, what else was there to do while driving?
“Sorry about that. I won’t bother you—”
“Wait, Fiona. Is it alright if I come over for a minute? I really want to talk.”
The lead in my stomach disappeared, morphing into a million butterflies. Gasping in silence, I paused to allow my mind to unscramble.
“Uh…yes, I’m almost home. Come on over whenever,” I agreed dryly, starting to sweat for no apparent reason.
“Will you tell Janice I’m coming?”
How did he know Janice was home? Or did he ever know she had been gone? I was puzzled for a moment before I realized he wouldn’t have known she had been sick, much less that she had a stay in the hospital.
“Yes. Sure. See you in a few,” I trailed off, hanging up the phone and restraining a celebratory scream.
“Who is coming over, Fiona?” Agent Bronson inquired with a smile. “You seem very happy with the outcome of that phone call. Not that
I meant to eavesdrop.”
“Uh, a boy named Wolfe Nero,” I said softly.
“Boyfriend?”
“No. Nothing like that.”
“Are you his tutor?”
I shot an astounded glance to my black suit. Why was he so nosy? I couldn’t help but smile. I sighed, shrugging my shoulders playfully.
“He’s a boy in my forensic club. He missed the last meeting, and I’m sure he wants to catch up with the case,” I became more animated as I spoke.
“Hmm. Seems as though you perked up the moment you heard his voice on the other end of the line. I’ve been around a few more years than you. Seen more, done more and heard more. I’m saying whoever that guy is to you, he certainly makes you a happy girl,” he said; chin raising a fraction as he sported a firm grin.
I was amazed he could detect my elation from a few words I had spoken.
Nearly too humiliated to speak, I responded in a timid manner, “Well, maybe you are right.”
“I am in the FBI for a reason, Fiona. I might be young for an agent, but I was the best profiler in my class during training at Quantico. I know people’s motives. I can read people like a book,” he laughed, pulling into my front circle driveway.
“Great, good to know,” I countered with a grin.
Wolfe was a fearsome profiler too. Now I realized it must have been a requirement for a profiler to be drop dead gorgeous.
Wanting to hide, I rushed out of the car and into the house. Sprinting to the kitchen, I found Janice, mentioned Wolfe was coming over, and darted to the pink palace where I changed clothes into something a little cuter, more colorful, and checked my makeup and hair.
After doing a few touchups, I picked up my room a bit and paced nervously. I tried to recall the last time Wolfe had come over to talk to me. I reasoned it had been never. He had only come over with a group of friends or to get cookies from Janice.
Thoughts poured through my mind of what he would want to talk about. Was he was dating Camber, and wanted my blessing? Was it to elicit my help with her imminent tongue removal by Dimitri LeMorte? Maybe he wanted back in the club? Was he going to request to permanently split from the club? I didn’t like the last option, it made me nervous.
Fiona Frost: Order of the Black Moon Page 13
