Fiona Frost: Order of the Black Moon (48 page)

“Haley was here when Gerald broke in
—right before
you arrived
. S
he
had skipped class
—no surprise
. She heard him
come in
, but first thought it might
’ve
been Janice
home early
from her appointment
, so she hid in her closet
.
W
hen you got here
,
she heard your voices
,
and that’s when she
sent a text to Camber for help, and Camber sent a text to me, knowing I would come right over.
”

My phone
vibrated with a text message. Lauren. I read it,
rolling my eyes as I finished.

I cracked that stupid riddle
:
94 puppies, take 25 away,
are you left with
8
or 1 female.
94 is the year 1994
.
25 is the day of the month
,
and
8
is the month,
August
,
and you are the one female
.
The riddle is deciphered to your birthday
—8
-25-94.
It’s
so stupid
, by the way
, but what do you expect from a prisoner?
He sucks, but how does he know your birthday and why does he care? You should tell Det. Chase.

“Oh gosh.
Well, Lauren cracked the riddle
about the puppies
, by the way.”

“What was it?”
he prompted.

“
It was
me
.
My gosh, it was that easy.
So Gerald was telling us that
I equaled revenge
.
G
lad we saw that one coming—not!
How did he know my birthday,
anyway?  G
ross!”

Wolfe smiled
, giving me an awkward expression, grabbing
my hands
,
cupp
ing them. He rubbed
my wrists with
his
thumbs.

“
W
hat do you think about what I said, Fiona?
I’m feeling left out in the cold, vulnerable.
I have no idea if I
’m
fired from your club or if
…
I’m your boyfriend.
But I know how you feel about me, you don’t even have to say it,
”
he
said coyly with a
grin
.

My eyes dropped to my
floor
. I was
frustrated with a sick feeling in my stomach.

“Wolfe, we can’t.
Detective Chase said—
”

His
face melted
into sadness
as he held
a palm in the air
to silence me.

“I overstepped my boundaries.
I am so sorry,”
he
dropped his head in a hand basket on his knees.

I rubbed his
shoulder
—still
at a loss for the right words
to say, and how much to admit about the truth
.
I loved him too, but Detective Chase
had
warned me
—
I
was afraid
, petrified
.
I
desperately
wanted
him
to be more than a friend
, but I wasn’t prepared to throw away my training program
or disappoint the most important person for my future as a criminal investigator
.
Yet
I needed him as a friend, as a best friend.
I
was awkward with
words
.
Not knowing what to do,
I lean
ed down and embraced his back.

“We
’ll
be
alright
.
You are
one of my
best friend
s
,
an
d that will never, ever change,” I said softly with
an undisclosed regret.

The next day was oddly foggy, a thick
,
cold mist hung low in the air, coating my exposed skin
as
I walked from the parking lot to the back of the school to the student entrance.
It was great to be free, without federal surveillance.
In the hallways
as
I saw the club members
,
I had to recount my
Gerald Smith
story each time, barely making it
to each class
.

Other students who were typically catty to me found reasons to spark a conversation to get the details of what had happened. They were just nosy, but oh well, it was better than hearing the usual foul names they would shout at me. I was sure things would be back to normal within a few days and I’d once again be the nerd they loved to pick on.

During
c
alculus
, i
t was awkward between
me
and Wolfe. It was
uncomfortable
because
he
had been honest about his feelings, yet I
hadn’t been
truthful
about mine
.
The only thing that consoled me is he said he knew how I felt, and
that
I didn’t even have to say it.
However,
I don’t know what that meant for us.

Maddie and I had fun discussing the case at lunch
,
but questions about the attack kept infiltrating back into conversatio
n
. I became mentally exhausted.

With all the bustle about Gerald Smith, the day flew by
.  After the bell, I strolled
across the lot
to my car
. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw
D
etective Chase
’s Impala
roll
ing
up to the front
driveway
, and
I
sprinted
across th
e lawn to catch up with him on the front steps of the school.

“Hey, Detective
.
What are you doing up here
?
”
I panted
;
I wasn’t in the best of shape.

“Hi
,
Fiona, I sent you a text.
I’m up here to visit with Parker Thomas, III
.
Want to join me?”

I glanced down at my phone to find a few text messages
, feeling
incompetent for missing them.

“Sure
.
What is this about, his inheritance?”

“Not really.
His alibi didn’t check out for the night of the murder.
I need
to
find out why he lied
.”

“Where did he say that he was
?
”
I said, walking
towards the
enormous
glass foyer of our school.

“He reported he was at a School Science and Mathematics Association reception at the Grande Palace Hotel in Si
lver Springs.
He wasn’t there,”
he
held open the heavy glass door for me
,
and we entered the foyer
, walking on the speckled tiles
towards the
main hallway
.

I dabbed the mist from my face carefully with my jacket sleeve
.

“But the reception wouldn’t have been as late as the time of the murder, right?
What does it matter what he
did
earlier that night
?
”
I questioned, passing the main office.

“
H
e report
ed
he stayed at the reception until after midnight,”
he
scanned his notes as we traversed the foyer.
“He said he left the hotel around
2 AM
, actually.”

We headed
towards
Mr. Thomas’s classroom
in the freshman wing
.
The hallways were already vacated, as the students
never wasted
time getting out of school for the day.

“And that’s about a fifteen
-
minute drive, so he wouldn’t have been home until
a quarter after two
.
What about his wife, did she go with him to the hotel?”

“No, she did not.
She did corroborate his initial alibi by stating Mr. Thomas left the house to attend this reception and that he didn’t get home until
a quarter after two in the morning.
”

“So then, his story checks out
?
”
I pondered.

“No, we received the attendee list from the School Science and Mathematics Association this morning.
He wasn’t registered for the event
,
and he definitely wasn’t on the attendee
list,”
he
said, straightening
his CB radio on his shoulder
and
searching above the doors
for
the room numbers.

I
pointed in the
right
direction
we were to go and we
walked in silence
towards
Mr. Thomas’s classroom
.
I
nodded as we rounded the corner
and w
e
halted abruptly
at
room 117
. Shouting could be heard from the other side of the door.

I said that I was there, and I was there, Beth
!
Stop questioning me!
Now, I have these detectives coming up to
the
school to ask me about this.
I
know you called them to get them to investigate where I was that night just because you don’t trust me
.
Get over it!

Detective Chase
put his ear to the door
, his pen furious against his notepad.
After silence ensued,
he
lightly knocked on the door
,
and
a flustered Parker Thomas, III surfaced on the other side
.
I
knew
he
was
friends with my favorite biology teacher, Mr. Zuptus
, so I didn’t want to think the worst of him.

Mr. Thomas had a different style
.
His mousy hair was light and windswept
,
and
he donned
bow
tie
s
, usually red,
with
dorky,
matching
suspenders
,
He captured
the essence of nerd in
every way
.

“C’mon in
,
have a seat in any of the desks,” he said
, openly ruffled
as
he
propped himself
on
his desk, facing the empty classroom.

“
Thank you
, Mr. Thomas.
I won’t take much of your time.
My name is Detective Chase
,
and this is Fiona Frost—
”

“I know all about the famous Fiona, Detective.
Good day to you
—
and to
you,
Ms. Frost,” Mr. Thomas smirked, exposing his crooked teeth.

I smiled at his acknowledgment
, certain he had heard all about me from Mr. Zuptus.

“I’ll get straight to the point.
Where were you Wednesday,
the
23
rd
, the night prior to the Jo
dy James murder that occurred early
Thursday
morning
?”

“I have already made a statement, Detective
.
Why did you call me today
and
come here to the school to ask me again
?
Let’s get straight to it,”
he
said bluntly.

Mr. Thomas was frazzled.
He curved around his desk
and dropped down into his chair.
He bent a
n elbow on his desk
and plac
ed
his cheek in his cupped hand.

“We have the records from the reception that you reported you attended that night.
We know you were not there.
I know your wife’s name is Beth
,
and you were just speaking to
her ab
out this on the phone.
Beth is not the one who called us, by the way.”

Mr. Thomas
gazed
out of the window
at the murky day, focusing on the students walking by.
He
was obviously
marinating
on
what Detective Chase had said
and
deciding
how to respond.

“I no longer wish to speak with you, Detective.
You can contact my legal team if you need to talk to me further,”
he
said coldly
and
gestured
towards his
classroom door.

The detective
nodded at me and pointed his eyes
towards the
door as he
rose
from his seat.

“Thank y
ou for your time, Mr. Thomas.”

Detective Chase strolled towards the
classroom door.

“Thanks, Mr. Thomas,” I added, following
the detective out into the hallway.

His
CB radio
beeped
, followed by a noisy bout of static.
He unhinged it from his shoulder harness
and
twisted a knob until the voice came clear.

“Radio to Unit 218,
c
opy,”
the radio sounded, followed by a short beep and static.

“Godley Grove High, go ahead,” he said into the speaker.

“218, Please respond to Godley Grove City Park,”
the operator sounded.

“218, 10-4,” he responded, eyebrows pulled
towards the
center of his forehead in uncertainty as he gazed at me.

“
We have a
co
de N, involving the James
c
ase 207
.
Be advised that we’ve received three citizen complaints of a
middle-aged
female, silver hair, navy shirt, green pants
,
approximately 5’3”, 1
7
0 pounds,
possible 10-50 or
5150
.
Suspect believed to be Emily Vance.
Officers en
route to the scene, but they might need a friendly.
”

“Copy, en
route, clear and direct,”
he
buckled his radio back onto his shoulder harness.

He
shook his head.

“What
’s a Code N,
10-50 or 5150
?”
I inquired.

He
chuckled as he picked up the pace
towards the
front of the school.

“A 10-50 is a possible case of a suspect being under the influence of drugs, usually hallucinatory with that code, and 5150 is a straigh
t up mental case,” he said bluntly,
engaging a
half-
jog towards his Impala.

“But why would you, from the crime lab, be asked to go?
I mean, don’t they have the other police to do that?”

“Well,
if it
involves
suspects
in
an active criminal case, the Chief wants me there
in case I am the only one the suspect will trust since I’ve been working with them on the case.
That’s why she asked for a
friendly
.
Plus, you never know when new details will come out.
Once, the police arrested a murder suspect on an unrelated criminal trespassing charge.
The man was under the influence
and
confessed to the murder while he was being arrested.
The
y had a little trouble in court
and
would have preferred to have the homicide investigators there on
the
scene to take an official statement upon his confession.
The prisoner refused to talk a
bout it when he got to the jail,
and the defense s
tated that he was under duress while
being arrested
and
didn’t know what he was saying
.
Even though the man said something along the lines of
you can’t get me on a murder case that I’m guilty of, but you get me on this nonsense?”