Fiona Frost: Order of the Black Moon

by Dr. Bon Blossman

  “This can’t be good. I guess the date with Maddie didn’t work out, and he’s calling me for advice. The last thing I want to do is get in the middle of a new relationship. If Maddie wants to talk, she’ll call me. Since she hasn’t called, she’s probably too mad to talk about it right now.”

  I lunged for my window, gazing across the side yard at her house. Her lights were off; I assumed she had sulked herself to sleep. I checked to see if he left a voicemail, he did, so I played it on the speaker.

  “Fiona, this is Carden Doyle. I don’t mean to bother you, but I need to talk about Maddie. I just don’t understand her.”

  “Knew it!”

  24 MISSING

  After Wolfe had left my house, I planted my feet in front of Haley’s door, lightly knocking until she responded, telling me to enter. Janice had asked me to allow her to rest for the night, but I needed to see her. I took slow steps inside. She was propped upright with pillows, her eyes blackened from her head injury. The television was on, volume barely audible. I crossed her room, kneeling by her bed, afraid to touch it in case I moved it and hurt her.

  “Haley, I wanted to thank you for saving me. You didn’t have to do what you did. I appreciate it.”

  Her platinum curls, some still coated with dried blood, poked out from the bandage wrapped around her head. She squinted her puffy eyes and nodded.

  “It’s cool, Fiona. You’d do the same for me,” she mumbled.

  At first, I wasn’t sure if that was a true statement, and I felt like a horrible person, rotten to my core. After reasoning the scenario, I realized I would have done the same for her, but maybe after a brief hesitation.

  “So you’re not going to New Zealand now, huh?”

  “No, but I’m gonna go home to New Jersey as soon as I can fly. I hate that alternative school. I know if I keep gettin’ in trouble, I’ll end up in prison. After lookin’ into that dude’s eyes, I realized those people are really scary and I’m not one of ‘em, don’t belong there. I’m gonna start actin’ right,” she lamented with a remorseful tone.

  “I’m glad to hear that, Haley. I hope your head doesn’t hurt too badly,” I said ruefully, standing up.

  “I deserve it for what I’ve said ‘bout your family, Fiona. I didn’t mean any of it. I was just tryin’ t’get under your skin,” she said in a crackled voice. “I’m sorry. For everything.”

  “Apology accepted. Well, take care of yourself, and I know Janice will make sure you get what you need,” I said, hearing footsteps shuffling down the hallway.

  I stepped out of her room, Janice shooting me a cautious glare. I had disobeyed her orders.

  “G’night, Janice!”

  “Good night, my sweet Fiona!” she said, popping into Haley’s room with a pill bottle and a glass of water in hand.

  I threw my pajamas on, hurled myself into bed, and the next thing I can recall, I was rushing around to get ready for school.

  I swiped open the drapes, and the light rays scattered from behind white, puffy clouds. The glass of my window had a slight chill—the setting for a perfect day.

  Receiving my daily report from Detective Chase, I was shocked as I read they had discovered a bag of bloody clothes in a field outside of the cave, the DNA from the clothes was a match to the staged murder. I called him in haste, knowing I had a limited time before I had to get to school.

  “Detective!”

  “Hi Fiona, so you read the report, huh? We had a busy night last night.”

  The crime lab never slept, especially their fearless, workaholic leader. It seemed they worked around the clock during an active case. I realized why they were all addicted to caffeine.

  Attempting to put the final touches on my makeup while standing in front of my dresser, I put the phone on speaker.

  “What is the deal with the bloody clothes?”

  “The suspect put on the clothes and positioned themselves on the altar in the Dracul’s Den to stage the copycat murder. A second suspect poured the blood on them, most likely on the chest region as that is where the bloodstains are concentrated on the shirt. The blood seeped down onto the altar and made the outline of a body.”

  “Wow, yeah, makes sense. What was the size of the clothes—men’s or women’s?”

  “Women’s clothing, size eight—a white button-up shirt and jeans. The lab’s searching for trace evidence on the clothes and in the cave. They made a match to some sediment in the cave in the Open Council Room. The suspect must have washed off the residual blood from their hands prior to removal of the clothes. The sediment was found on the bottom side of the shirt and the jeans; most likely, they wiped their hands on their clothes to dry them.”

  Grabbing my blush brush, I made a couple of soft strokes on my cheeks to add some color before putting my glasses back on. I still wasn’t very good at applying makeup, so I tried to stay as minimal as possible.

  “Sediment from the cave?”

  “Yes, appears so. We’ll refer to Maddie’s analysis, as well as ours—the two reports are very similar, by the way. Tell her I said good job. It would be nice to nail down exactly where this suspect was standing along the river when they washed their hands, so we can fine tune where to search for additional evidence.”

  “Your report also says that the gloves found in the orb room had blood on them, matching Jody James, correct?”

  “Yes, these gloves were found during the initial investigation but due to an oversight in my lab, they were overlooked until now. My new serology techs are a mess, one of the new hires made a mistake.”

  “Oh, well, we’re all human and at least he caught his oversight. So, it matches Jody James. What do the gloves tell us?”

  “They are a women’s medium, rigid, slender fingers. There is no way that Emily Vance could have fit her thick, stumpy fingers into these gloves, so they don’t belong to her. There was no evidence found on the gloves besides the victim’s blood, but we can assume the murderer’s fingerprints are not likely to be on the sword if the murderer wore these gloves,” Detective Chase said, his voice animated.

  “And it would explain, somewhat, how the victim’s blood got into the Room of Orbs, right?”

  I surveyed my room, gathering my things I needed for school, grabbing my backpack. I set out for the kitchen.

  “The murderer could have thrown them in there on their way out, but it doesn’t make much sense that a murderer would intentionally leave evidence behind. For some reason, the murderer might have gone into the Room of Orbs after murdering the victim. Remember, Emily Vance was in there, knocked out with chloroform. There is bound to be blood on the suspect’s clothes from the murder—we’re looking for another set of bloody clothes.”

  “I would think the murderer would have destroyed that evidence by now, huh?” I said in a blunt tone.

  “If they were smart, but possibly, they might be too scared to try to destroy it – for fear of being caught in the act or of somebody finding it. I’m going to Dimitri LeMorte’s house again this afternoon – you in?”

  “Yes, of course. I’m off to school, I’ll see you later!”

  I sent a text to Maddie to invite her to come along, but I didn’t get an immediate response. Checking the time, I reasoned she was probably at soccer practice.

  “Good morning, Fiona!” my mother said, ambling into the kitchen and approaching me for a long hug.

  “Good morning, Mother!” I said, countering her tiny frame with a tight embrace.

  She reached up towards my hair, swiping the strands from my face and placing them behind my ears.

  “How are you doing? Are you feeling alright after what happened? Dad and I just realized you were never examined by the paramedics after the attack. Should we have you checked out? I feel horrible all of our attention has been on Haley.”

  “Absolutely not! All he did was point a gun at me, I’m a little mentally shaken, but it will heal with time. I’m fine, Mom. Please don’t worry about me. I need to head off to school, love you!
”

  I lied. I had multiple bruises where he pressed the gun to my chest and on my leg where it slammed against the frame of my sofa. The worst discoloration was on my wrist where he grabbed me with the force of five men. My mother didn’t need to know about these injuries, for there was nothing she could do but stew about it. Haley needed her full attention.

  “Love you, Fiona,” she said in a daze, grabbing the newspaper and removing the rubber band.

  “Breakfast! Your favorite, Fiona, chocolate chip pancakes with a whipped cream face,” Janice sang cheerfully from the hallway, returning from tending to Haley. “Over there, dear. No getting away!”

  “Thank you. I better hurry though, I was on a call with Detective Chase that made me behind a bit,” I smiled, hurrying to the dining room table.

  I inhaled my favorite breakfast and rushed outside to the circle drive, searching for Agent Bronson in the driveway before realizing what I was doing. I missed him.

  before rushing off to school. English was never-ending, history was a drag, and computer applications class seemed to last an eternity. Even in the hallways, school dredged by ultra-slowly. The highlight of the day was calculus with Wolfe across the aisle. I thought about what Maddie had said—I should accept my feelings, and that I only lived once, but he was giving me guarded smiles. I realized he was suppressing his thoughts of me, per my unspoken request, and I appreciated that. But at the same time, it saddened me, and I was worried his thoughts of me would wane with time, and he would fall for somebody else, leaving me in the dust. A viable risk.

  The bell rang for lunch, and I rushed into the cafeteria to discuss my conundrum with Maddie and make a final decision about Wolfe. She wasn’t there. She wasn’t waiting for me in our spot, so I checked the line. Grabbing my phone, I checked for missed texts, voicemails. Nothing. Not even a response from when I texted her about riding along with the detective. Something was wrong. Maybe she came down with strep? Maybe she caught bacterial meningitis from Janice and was in the hospital? I sent her another text, telling her how worried I was about her and stepped in line.

  Within a minute, Mr. Dinges, our big-nosed principal, entered the cafeteria, scanned the room, and marched straight for me.

  “Fiona, please come with me immediately. I’ll have an office aide get you some lunch,” he snapped, gesturing for me to follow him, bullhorn in one hand, and Walkie-Talkie in the other.

  “Mr. Dinges, what is the matter? Is something wrong?” I panicked, following his lead.

  “It’s about Maddie. Her parents are here in the office, along with some officers. Since you’re her best friend, they need to get some information from you,” he informed, stopping for a quick moment to shout on his handheld megaphone at a rowdy table of boys who were throwing food.

  We rushed to his office where Maddie’s parents were waiting. Her white-haired father, a retired Air Force Colonel, was pacing the room. Her mother, a beautiful Japanese woman, was in a chair holding a tissue, tears streaming down her face. My stomach twisted into a knot. Something bad had happened to Maddie.

  When I stepped into the room, her mother rushed towards me, grabbing me, pulling me in for a frantic hug. Her copper face was puffy, eyes reddened and hair disheveled.

  “Oh, Fiona. Oh, Fiona. My Maddie is missing. Please help us!” she cried uncontrollably, hugging me tightly.

  Mr. Dinges gently pulled her away from me, asking her to sit back down in his guest chair in front of his desk. He handed her a fresh tissue.

  “Mrs. Christie, we need to get as much information from Fiona as possible—as quickly as possible. Let’s focus on the facts and not emotions,” he said bluntly, as he gestured for the officer to speak.

  Mr. Christie marched towards the desk, standing next to the officer and staring directly into his face.

  “Fiona, my name is Officer King. I need to know everything that Maddie said yesterday about where she was going, what she was doing and whom she was going to see. Don’t leave out any details, and be completely honest, please. No matter what,” the officer barked, pen poised on his notepad.

  I nodded, thinking for a moment about the chronology of what had transpired the day before.

  “Maddie was excited about going on a date. He planned the date, and they were going to go to a French place, a restaurant, in Silver Springs—”

  “Silver Springs! We no allow her to do that!”

  She balled up her fist, pounding them onto her lap as tears flooded the rims of her eyes.

  “Mrs. Christie, please. This is not a time for discipline. We need for Fiona to be honest, and if you’re going to be angry at what she says, she might be reluctant to tell us what we need to know,” Officer King said calmly.

  Mr. Christie moved over towards his wife, wrapping his arm around her for comfort. He nodded at me to continue.

  “Carden Doyle was going to take her on a date to Silver Springs—to a French restaurant and then to a comedy club magic show. Have you spoken to him?”

  “Yes, we have. He just left, actually. He never saw Maddie last night. He claims she was supposed to meet him at his house and she never showed up.”

  Surveying the eyes in the room, my body shuddered. At this moment, I realized something was drastically wrong.

  “Why was she meeting him at his house? Why wouldn’t he pick her up?” Mr. Dinges asked.

  “She told her parents she was spending the night with you, Fiona. The story doesn’t make sense because you’re next door, and her car would be missing for the night, but maybe she hoped her parents wouldn’t realize, who knows? As you can tell by Mrs. Christie’s reaction, she would not have allowed her to go on a date to Silver Springs,” Officer King said softly.

  “Yeah, it never crossed my mind, but to think of it—I could have guessed that. So, is Maddie’s car at Carden’s house?”

  “No, we found it at the Godley Grove Galleria.”

  I shook my head in frustration.

  “That’s right! She wanted me to go shopping with her to find an outfit for her date!” I lamented, regretting not going to the mall with her.

  Officer King had jotted notes down before he responded, “Anything else to add?”

  I remembered the call from the night before.

  “Carden called me last night. It was around 9:45 PM. He wanted to talk to me about Maddie, and I assumed they had an argument or something, being the first date and all. I didn’t want to get in between them, but now I’m so sorry I didn’t answer the phone. We would’ve known sooner that something was wrong!” I said, fighting impending tears.

  Two knocks and the door swung open. It was Detective Chase.

  “Sorry, folks, busy in the lab. We found some interesting evidence, Fiona. I’ll catch you up to speed in a minute,” he stated sternly.

  Upon hearing of Maddie’s disappearance and being called to the Galleria to search her car for evidence, the detective showed up to offer his assistance as he knew the Christie family quite well. We outlined the chronology of events the best we could and he promised Mr. and Mrs. Christie that he would do everything in his power to assist the officers assigned to her case.

  “Principal Dinges, would you consider excusing Fiona from her next couple of classes, so she can ride with me to interview a suspect in a case we are working on? Some new evidence has come up, and we have to act quickly, Fiona will be a great help.”

  “Certainly, Detective. The school will always be supportive of the training program’s efforts. God speed, you two. My prayers will hold for Maddie’s safe return as well,” he said, removing his glasses from his stately nose and shaking the detective’s hand.

  “Bye, Fiona. Please bring my Maddie home,” Mrs. Christie said with a heavy accent.

  I blew her a kiss, nodding, promising to get my best friend back as quickly as possible. Mr. Christie expressed his appreciation for me, stating how proud he was that I had come so far to be involved so heavily in police investigations. I responded that Maddie was equally involved in th
e program, and he cracked a restrained smile, tears welling up on the rims of his eyes.

  Detective Chase and I scurried out of the school, sprinting to his Impala parked in the front circle drive. We headed to Dimitri’s house by the marina.

  “Well, what is the new evidence?”

  “The Silver Springs document analyst finally submitted her report to us. The handwriting sample on the pink envelopes was analyzed; a match was made.”

  “To whom? Victoria?”

  “No, Melanie Newsted. She was the one in a relationship with Gerald Smith. Dimitri’s his cousin, and it’s obvious now how she got to know him.”

  “So, she was borrowing Victoria’s envelopes,” I said, thinking a deep thought for a moment. “What does this mean for the Jody James case?”

  “That’s what we are going to find out. Something tells me that if pressed, Dimitri will sing like a bird if anything is fishy with Melanie or Victoria. He doesn’t seem like the altruistic type,” he said bluntly.

  “Isn’t he facing charges for the blood bank break-in? Can’t we make a deal if he knows anything?”

  “Absolutely, and I know your father would trade a blood bank burglary based on nothing but hearsay evidence for a murder case to be solved.”

  I nodded affirmatively.

  “Yes, my father would undoubtedly go for that deal.”

  We rounded the corner, parking on the street in front of Dimitri’s house. We climbed out of the car, jogged towards the front door and knocked gently.

  “I hope Dimitri isn’t still sick, I just got over strep; I don’t want to get sick again!” I shrieked, stepping back from the door as if it would prevent me from breathing in germs.

  “Come in!” Dimitri LeMorte shouted from inside.

  We cautiously entered the house and stepped into the living area to find him in the same spot on the bat couch with boxes of empty tissues piled up around him and an empty bottle of Nyquil on the floor.

  “I see you are not feeling any better, Dimitri,” the detective said, taking a seat on the adjacent loveseat.

  “No, it’s all part of the process, Detective. I’ll get better soon and be even more powerful than before,” he sparked with a pseudo accent in a nasal tone from his respiratory infection.