Fiona Frost: Order of the Black Moon (44 page)

“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 th
e
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, s
he
’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
.

“
Y
es, 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
.
H
ow
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 befor
e 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
st
ole 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 con
ference 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 a
n apologetic
glance to Wolfe.

“I was getting the facts while we had them there,” I smiled
, winking
at Wolfe while nobod
y 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
, o
r
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 coun
try 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?”

“So what!
Dimitri
might not
have
had
anything to do with the
staged
murder
,
but Gerald Smith’s fingerprint was found there with the stolen blood that Dimitri, his cousin, had in his refrigerator.
Related!
”
Lauren scoffed before knocking back the milk in her carton.

“
Also
, Dimitri tried to set up Victoria by saying
she
stole
the blood when you interviewed him, Det
ective
,
”
I added brusquely.

“Yes, he did.
That’s rather interesting.
But if Victoria is romantically involved with Gerald Smith, how does she fit into this?
”
he
countered.

“Th
at’s the
million dollar
question,” I
said
, holding my half-eaten donut in the air.

“Detective and friends, Ms.
Emily
Vance is in
the
interrogation room #2.
The other suspects have cleared the building.
Whenever
you’re
ready,”
Ms. Spinks
said with a smile, tapping her
neon
acrylics on the door.

“Detective, why don’t you
allow
another member
to go in with you and Ms.
Vance?
I
’d like somebody else to have the
experience,” I
s
aid dryly.

“Certainly, who wants to assist me
?
”
he
bellowed, looking at the group carefully.

Wolfe looked down at the floor.
I assumed he knew I was going to
be
on the other side of the two-way mirror
.

“I wanna go, Detective,” Maddie sparked
brightly, taking the first spot in line as we filed out of the conference room
.

“That’s fine with me, that
hag
cree
ps me out,” Lauren added.

Willow widened her
eyes, nodding and s
miling at Lauren as she took her place in line behind her.

“
Alright
, guys, let’s go.
Like last time,
the remainder of the group will take their position on the bench outside of the room.
Maddie and I will
go in
, and you all need to remain quiet as not to alert the suspect to your presence.
”

“Aye Aye, Cap’n,” Wolfe smirked, following me closely down the hallway.

We took our seats on the
bench
,
Wolfe
taking the spot
next to me.
Emily Vance
was gazing
at herself in the mirror
, playing with her frizzy hair
. I questioned if she could see us, and
all I could do was stare back
at her
.
It was
uncanny—
sitting
as voyeurs with her unaware of our presence.
I cringed as she
opened her mouth,
exposing
her
gums,
teeth
missing.
Yet, when I had seen
her
before
,
I remembered a
full mouth of yellowed, jagged teeth
.