We ventured closer to the gravesite just as the excavator located the first sign of the dead body. We carefully drew in as closely as we were allowed. I inclined my head forward and observed the exposed section of the carcass. There was fur that had detached and curled back, exposing a piece of decayed flesh. It wasn’t a human in the grave. I heard laughter from the middle of the road coming from Damien and Victoria. They had turned around and were slowly marching back towards Damien’s trailer.
“It’s probably somebody’s dead dog or something. How did they not know that?” Willow pressed with her high-pitched voice.
“Well, no bodies are supposed to be randomly buried in the land that belongs to the city like that. They searched for a body to go with the second murder and came across this. What did you expect them to do, ignore it?” I defended.
“Oh, no, not at all. It’s just unfortunate,” Willow added, looking over to watch them exhume the animal corpse.
“What’s really unfortunate is I missed my nail appointment to come see them dig up a dead dog, Fiona,” Lauren scoffed, barely giving me a smirk, flashing me her chipped fingernails as if I would feel sorry for her.
I looked down at my own nails with chipped blue nail polish. I wasn’t sorry for her in the least.
“I suppose we’re caught up to speed, when are we meeting as a club next? We really have to piece this together before spring break because my parents have rented a huge bungalow in Hawaii for the week. No way I’m missing that, but I want to be there when this suspect is arrested! I missed it last time!” Willow sighed, shaking her head.
“Go Doc! Let’s have you cuff ’em,” Lauren laughed, mimicking being in invisible handcuffs.
“Right, little Willow would be the last one I’d assign to handcuff a suspect!” Maddie scoffed, her lips curling up at the corners.
“Let’s go, Lauren. Maddie, would you like a ride home or do you want to stay here at the pet cemetery?” Willow chirped, sauntering towards Lauren’s car.
“I’ll stay here. You guys have fun. See ya soon!”
We waved goodbye to the inseparable duo.
“Yeah, we’ll have a meeting tomorrow afternoon or Monday,” I shouted.
We took our seats back on the curb.
“When are we going to get a break? This all seems so scattered!” Maddie grudgingly added, peering over her shoulder at the gravesite.
“Never,” Wolfe muttered, standing in front of us, facing the investigators.
“Well, I will tell you what is not scattered, Fiona,” Maddie said, her voice growing softer every word.
Suddenly, Wolfe gained interest in what she was saying and leaned down to hear our conversation.
“Let’s hear it,” I said.
“Carden came to my game last night. We won, obviously, and I scored a goal. Woot woot,” she cheered.
Wolfe shook his head and straightened upward, leaning towards the right to watch the investigators.
“You go, girl,” I chuckled, giving her a high-five.
“And afterward, not sure if you saw his ride in front of my house, but he came over and we watched The Golden Child, it’s an old movie from the ‘80s.”
“You serious? Well, don’t let Detective Chase hear that,” I whispered, seeming a little mollified. “He’s playing prison warden with Wolfe and me for no reason. We’re perfectly professional and he keeps giving me a mean mug,” I said in a muffled voice as to get out of earshot of Wolfe.
“Well, Fiona. I can see it. You don’t think you’re doing anything, but the way you two look at each other and defend each other with your eyes is so obvious,” she said.
I studied her face, not knowing if she was just saying that to be argumentative, or if she was serious. I looked over at Wolfe, who had moved next to Detective Chase. He turned around, seemingly sensing my eyes burning into him from behind, and smiled. I blushed. I agreed with Maddie, we were obvious.
My phone rang, I answered.
“Hello?”
“Fiona, thank God I got you. The man called again. The agents are here taking it all down, but I wanted to tell you what he said,” Janice frantically shouted into the phone.
“Go ahead. What did he say?”
Maddie perked, leaning towards the phone to hear what she had to say. I put the phone on speaker.
“There is nothing sweeter than the taste, but it should be served cold. Ice cold. It is mine.”
The answer to the riddle popped in my head like a vibrant neon sign.
“Revenge. The answer to that is revenge.”
19 ADMISSION OF GUILT
I needed a mental break, so I spent time with my parents playing card games, topping the evening with a discussion about Gerald Smith. We came to the conclusion we still knew nothing. My mother broke the news Haley would be leaving for New Zealand the following Wednesday, and I was more than elated. I went to bed somewhat early, as happy as I could be.
After snoozing my phone five times, I crawled out of bed the following morning. In a frenzy, I buttoned my lucky flannel, fidgeting with my jacket until it looked right against the long sleeves of my shirt. I gazed out my window to see a thick, cottony layer of deep gray clouds masking the sky, hovering above a light mist.
Via text, Detective Chase had scheduled a meeting at the station, and the team all responded they would attend. With an impromptu soccer practice she couldn’t miss because of the Friday night victory, Maddie said she’d drive to the station from the practice fields at our school— I would ride with Agent Bronson.
Rushing to his car through the cold mist, I buckled in; the smooth melodies made the weather seem trivial. As we took off for the police station, I soaked up the warmth from the car heater, enjoying the ambiance as usual until we pulled up to the station. The mist had turned into a light rain. I had to brave it without an umbrella.
“Hello, Fiona!” Ms. Spinks said cheerfully, waving her thick acrylic nails at me. “Everybody’s waiting in the conference room!”
“Good morning, Ms. Spinks!” I said, shaking off the raindrops.
Ms. Spinks clicked the green door open, and I scuttled to the conference room. The team was already there in their usual seats around the conference table. Juices were arranged in the middle of the table, and I grabbed a fruity V8. Within minutes, Detective Chase strolled into the room, files in hand, taking his seat at the head of the table.
“New news—Damien Lee’s story of the deer sacrifice checked out completely. The animal carcass we exhumed from the dirt grave was a deer with wounds consistent with being hit by a car. The stab wound in the heart was the cause of death. His claim of a mercy killing stands. Even though he did it as a ceremony for whatever, we are not going to charge him with animal cruelty at this time.”
“Oh yeah, the deer sacrifice story. I remember that!” Maddie exclaimed, still wearing her soccer practice uniform.
“Detective, I talked to my parents, Janice, and the agents working the Gerald Smith case last night. They believe he might be the one calling my home phone. They did make a match to the person who called and hung up on my phone a few times with the phone number that is calling my house now. It’s a pay as you go phone; I think they called it a burner, not a registered number.”
Detective Chase stared at me for a moment and nodded, his brows furrowed into an expression of concern.
“That’s not sketchy at all, huh?” Willow smirked, rolling her eyes.
“Well, that’s what criminal’s do, Willow. They don’t want to leave a trace. So we know it is an intentional caller and not a wrong number as Janice believed,” I countered.
“What was the first thing he said?” Wolfe inquired, gazing at me with intense eyes.
After a momentary stutter of concentration, I remembered.
“94 puppies, take 25 away. Are you left with 8 or 1 female?”
Lauren, the one in the club with the strength in figuring codes and riddles, pounded her fist on the conference table in frustration.
“
Detective Chase, I have been working on the riddle ever since we heard about it, and it doesn’t make any numerical sense whatsoever. I have tried absolutely everything with those numbers including logarithms, everything!” Lauren sulked, taking a huge swig of orange juice.
“This is true, she’s driven me crazy,” Willow murmured, shaking her head.
Lauren shrugged her shoulders in frustration and sighed.
“And I know the feds have it, but unless they’re convinced the caller is Gerald Smith and not a wrong number, they won’t go full force on it. I’m sure now he’s called again, and they’ve linked the number that was calling Fiona, they’ll get to work on it,” Detective Chase explained.
“What was the message the second time this guy called?” Lauren said.
“Two plus two, four. We figured since equals was missing, he wanted us to know the first code equaled something,” Maddie said.
“Revenge. It equaled revenge. What equals revenge is now the question!” I said with angst.
Ms. Spinks popped her gray spiky-haired head into the conference room, addressing us with a warm smile, “Detective Chase and friends, the first suspects are in the interrogation room #3. Whenever you are ready.”
He nodded to the group, rose from his chair, and moved towards the door.
“Thank you, Ms. Spinks,” he said, opening the conference room door. “Let’s see what Damien and Victoria have to say, folks. You will sit on the other side of the two-way mirror, and Fiona can come in and assist me. I’ll make sure the microphones are on, so you can hear what is going on.”
With widened eyes, the group stared at Detective Chase. We didn’t realize we would be interrogating suspects. We filed into a straight line as we walked down the sterile hallway towards the interrogation rooms. We walked through the third door on the left, and he pointed for the rest of the group to take their seats on the bench next to the two-way mirror. Placing his index finger to his mouth to signal silence for the remaining club members watching from the hallway, he opened the door to the room with Damien and Victoria. I followed quietly behind him and took a seat next to the detective.
“Good morning, and thank you for agreeing to come down and talk to us. I understand you might have some updates with your involvement in the Jody James murder. Am I correct in my assumption?” he said as he put his leather-bound notebook on the table and opened it to reveal a blank yellow pad of notebook paper.
Damien squinted his eyes as if sunrays had blown out of the detective’s mouth. Victoria, dressed in a pitch-black vintage sundress, suddenly drew paler than I thought possible. For the first time, they actually appeared nervous as if their hard outer shell had crumbled away, exposing a vulnerable core.
Victoria cleared her throat. Tossing her hot pink hair onto her back, she hissed through her teeth with black lips, “We do have something to say—Detective, Fiona.”
I was shocked Victoria knew my name. I figured she had done her homework on the investigators of the case, or maybe she realized who I was from school. For whatever reason, I was impressed she knew my name and was giving me respect as an investigator in the case.
“Let’s hear it, we’re all ears,” Detective Chase responded, tapping his pen on his notepad.
“We were there,” Damien interjected, his fists clenched at us, knuckle tattoos LIFE SUXX in full view. “We were early for our meeting, got there right after two, and found the body, already dead, on our altar. We immediately left.”
Damien dropped his partially shaved head into his hands, pausing, the long side of his dark locks cascaded onto the table in front of him. Detective Chase pointed to Victoria, who tilted her head to the side as if to invite him to speak.
“We have heard you possess a picture of Damien holding the sword over the victim. Can we see your phone, Victoria?” he inquired in haste.
Damien popped his head up, swishing his neck around to catch her reaction.
“I lost it,” she said without thought, her expression melting from remorse to disdain.
He rolled his eyes as he looked at me and then turned to write on his notepad.
“We saw that rat Sydney talking to you. Figured she was telling on us, so we decided to admit being there. We don’t believe in the justice system and knew if you guys knew we were there, you’d blame us for the murder because of how we look, and we’d fry in the electric chair or whatever it is you do to murder innocent people nowadays,” she scoffed.
“You can’t hide from forensic evidence and witnesses, Victoria. It was a very poor decision to lie to the police. I will have to report this immediately to the judge and district attorney to see if they want to revoke your bond. And yours as well Damien,” Detective Chase reached for the phone, pushed a button, waiting for the person on the other line to pick up.
“I knew we shouldn’t have said anything. That’s why Dimitri wanted us to wait to get enough cash for a lawyer, Damien. This was stupid,” she whispered, snarling, exposing the golden fang on her canine tooth.
“Vic, shut up! They can hear you, and they have those,” he whispered loudly, pointing to the microphones at the end of the table.
“Victoria, was Camber also at the scene with you two?” I added as the detective addressed the person on the other end of the line.
“Yes. She was there. All of the members of the Nightmare Army were there. We didn’t do anything wrong,” she scoffed. “Your friend Sydney was there. Don’t know what the snake told you, but it was her awakening night, and she was excited to become one of us. Although, Dimitri already considers her a member, even though it was never official. Nevertheless, she’s still excited to be a member. I’m sure she sold her soul to you because her parents are coming down on her right now. She’ll come around. She’ll be awakened very soon. Dimitri is writing a sixth tenet of the Order of the Black Moon in honor of Sydney and Camber. It’s about disloyalty,” Victoria whispered with a hiss, clicking her pointed black acrylic nails on the table.
“Yes, and the SVA will certainly accept it, knowing what all is happening with our House right now. Betrayal is running amuck. Needs to be in check,” he snarled, staring through me, his pupils blending in with his irises into deep, dark circles.
I felt uneasy. Damien and Victoria were the embodiment of wickedness, and I had become their focus. They most likely had consumed blood from another person’s veins. They followed a different set of guidelines from normal society. How could these people exist without being locked away in an institution for being so blatantly abnormal?
After a few minutes which felt like hours, the detective hung up the phone, turning to face Victoria and Damien.
“I have a deal to work out with you two. The judge will keep your bond as it is—without revocation—if you, Victoria, explain all involvement with the blood bank burglary which happened prior to Jody James’ murder. Now, I am going to give you one chance to tell the truth. I cannot guarantee you will not be charged in the break-in, but that is a far lesser charge than getting slapped with a murder charge tonight,” he glared blankly into Victoria’s yellow-green eyes.
She had looked intently at Damien for a long moment before she turned slowly to Detective Chase.
“I am going to phrase my words very carefully. I did not break into the blood bank. However, the blood from the blood bank did end up in my refrigerator. We were going to use it for Sydney’s awakening, but it mysteriously disappeared from the fridge,” she said in a calculated manner.
Detective Chase wrote down every word Victoria said before placing his pen on the table.
“You know exactly who stole the blood, Victoria. I guess I’ll call the judge back and say we have no resolve. To be honest, you are dead lucky he is even answering the phone on a Sunday and entertaining you.”
Victoria stared at Damien as if to gather his thoughts into her own mind. He nodded as if he had understood what she was trying to say to him.
“It was Dimitri. He stole the blood,” she mumbled with rueful eyes.
/> The detective looked down at his watch. He had stared at the suspects closely before he announced he would be in touch real soon and to wait right where they were for their escort out of the police station. We left the room, gathered the others, and hurried back to the conference room.
“I never called the judge, by the way,” he boasted. “There’s no way he’d have answered on a Sunday. I have a hunch those two kids didn’t do it, but might be covering for the one who did.”
We took our places in the conference room and enjoyed donuts and milk that Ms. Spinks was kind enough to get for us.
“Well that was downright creepy, Detective Chase,” Willow said in a helium voice, taking a hefty bite out of a chocolate frosted donut.
“I can’t believe you asked them about Camber, Fiona,” Maddie laughed and then shot an apologetic glance to Wolfe.
“I was getting the facts while we had them there,” I smiled, winking at Wolfe while nobody was watching. He winked back with a wicked grin, sliding back in his seat.
“Maddie, Haley is leaving for New Zealand, and this time it’s for real. My parents told me last night the reason she didn’t go the first time is that my aunt and uncle couldn’t pay the bill up front. Supposedly, this school is thirty-thousand bucks a year. My dad wrote the check, it’s a done deal, and her plane leaves on Wednesday,” I said with a huge grin on my face.
“Finally. I can’t believe your dad would even let her back in the house after what she did to your room or even after she broke in our lab, or even after any of the other horrible things she’s done since she got here last summer!”
“I know, she’s a massive nuisance. But she’ll be out of the country and out of our hair forever,” I sighed, suddenly calm.
Maddie heaved a sympathy sigh, holding up a donut for a cheers. We had laughed before taking a bite.
Detective Chase cleared his throat to get our attention as he stared at his phone.
“Alright, people. I just got a message. It seems as though Dimitri LeMorte’s alibi for the night of the copycat non-murder, I guess I’ll call it, has checked out. He was at a friend’s house by the Southfork Hills, as he claimed. He left at the time he stated according to how long it would take to walk on foot to the cave. As he approached the cave, he was spotted by the witness as he spoke to another man, identity unknown at this time. It seems to make sense that he might not have been involved with the second man. Evidence is evidence, however, and let’s see how it fits in the puzzle, shall we?”
Fiona Frost: Order of the Black Moon Page 21
