Fiona Frost: Order of the Black Moon (50 page)

I’m going to visit Beth Thomas this afternoon
.
You can attend with a club member if you wish
.

Maddie nodded that she was in
,
and
I responded
with a text to Detective Chase that we were in.

After school, Maddie and I
drove to the station and
waited
next to his
car
after
notifying
him of our arrival.

“I can’t believe that Sydney’s leaving Godley Grove.
I mean, she hasn’t even been here that long, gets into a little trouble
,
and
has to move in with her uncle?”

“Sounds like Haley, actually.
I guess when a kid is so far gone in one place if the parents can’t move away because of their job or house or whatever, I guess it makes sense.
Haley would have been in jail by now if she stayed in New Jersey
—
at least that’s what my aunt and uncle say.”

Detective Chase
barreled
out of the police station, apologizing for keeping us waiting
.
They
had finished their analysis of the cave’s samples
—the
composition of
lime
rock
sludge
w
as
different enough
throughout the cave
to place suspects in various
areas
of the cave
if they needed to
.
He said it was
particularly
useful data that we
could
use once we
acquired
a definitive suspect
and said
the results in our lab’s report of the samples that we collected were in agreement with his lab’s analysis.
This made
Maddie and I
smil
e, for she had worked very hard on that report.

“We’re headed to the Thomas house, folks.
Buckle up!
They live on Dearing Drive over by the Southfork Hills in the southeast part of town.”

“But I thought they were millionaires, why don’t they live in the northwest part of town with the rest of them
?
”
Maddie exclaimed.

“They only
recently
inherited the money
, and I’m not sure if they’ve received the check yet, to be honest.
I’m sure they’re going to move
once they do
,”
he said,
heading
south on Astantine Street.

The car ride
g
rew silent until we pulled up in the driveway at the Thomas’s house.

We ambled out of the car, walked down the sidewalk to the porch, and rang the doorbell.
Within seconds, a freckled
-skinned
Beth Thomas swung open the door
, ushering
us into the living area
.
She was somewhat tall and thick, her fire-colored locks in tight rin
glets cascading down her back.

“Good afternoon.
I’m
Beth;
can I get you something to drink?”

I surveyed the living room and gathered a
truly
homely sentiment with the slate blue and yellow color scheme and country chicken décor.
I reasoned
that
they
hadn’t received
the
inheritance
check yet.

“No, we are fine and thank you, Mrs. Thomas,” Detective Chase said.
“You called and wanted me to come o
ver
to talk, so what can we do for you?”

“Well, Detective
.
I know my husband is lying about going to the reception
.
I know he wasn’t there!
At the last minute, he springs up
,
says he has to go to this thing
for his job
,
and I checked our bank statements
.
He
never paid for this
as
he said he did.
There’s not a confirmation in his email about it.
He is lying!
I want you to find out where he was.
Oh, and I can tell you this, I do know he was with his buddy Zuptus.
Those two are up to no good, I tell you.”

My eyes widened.
My biology teacher, Mr. Zuptus, had always been there for me.
I didn’t like the thought of him being implicated, in any manner, in anything deleterious.
She was wrong about him.

“We will see what we can do as far as finding out where he was, Mrs. Thomas.
Rest assured, w
e will get to the bottom of it,”
he
promised.

I was startled as an oversized gray cat hurled itself on top of the television, knocking over a mini statue of a farmer holding a chicken by the neck.
Beth scrambled over to collect the cat, placing the figurine back on top of the television.
She was unfazed, probably had done the same thing over a hundred times. I would never own a cat.

“Oh
,
one more thing.
B
ecause I’ve been following that murder case in the papers, I know the
Newsted's
are involved with what happened
.
I just thought you might want to know that Melanie Newsted works at the prison.
I see her there sometimes.”

“Yes, we are aware that she works at the prison
,
”
he
countered without emotion.

“Well, she came in my wing while I was at lunch.
I am in charge of the
visiting
hours in the men’s prison, Building B.
I noticed when I got back that there was a
code yello
w on my register.”

“What exactly is a
code yell
ow
?
”
I asked directly.

“It means that an employee of the prison is visiting a prisoner.”

“
Oh, I see
,” I added.

“And it was Melanie Newsted.”

“Is this uncommon?
I mean, are
code yel
lows a common
occurrence
?
”
he
said
, an eyebrow arched above the crinkled furrows surrounding his eye.

“No, they are rare
,
and that’s why we
flag them
.
Melanie has never had a
code y
ellow in the years she has worked at the prison.
But what I found interesting is the prisoner that she was
visiting
.
It was the escapee Gerald Smith.”

After spending most of
Wednesday
evening with Maddie, listening to her gush about her new relationship and eating Janice’s cookies with
Carden + Maddie
=
l
ove
decorated with
frosting,
we added the
latest
evidence
to
my new
corkboard
—
a
new
column for Beth Thomas
and
we removed
Camber and Sydney fro
m our list of viable suspects.

We
decided on a lab meeting for
Friday afternoon
, and after we had exhausted all efforts with the board,
I made a
n overdue
c
onfession about my feelings for Wolfe.
Once again
, she encouraged me to pursue the relationship
;
I became even more befuddled.

After a dreamless sleep, I awoke to
a data report from the detective, with a text that he w
ould
visit
both Melanie Newsted and Mr. Zuptus
, my favorite teacher,
that afternoon
. As
usual, he extended an offer
to
me
and one other club member
to attend.
Maddie had a date scheduled with Carden, so I told her about it, knowing she would decline the offer—she
needed
time to get ready and there was never
a
guarantee of how long these
investigative
outings
would take or what detours we’d
make.

Wolfe accepted the offer within seconds.

The day whizzed by
,
and at lunch, Maddie
couldn’t stop rambling on about her date, detailing her plans of going to the mall after school to find something cute to wear—even though she
already
had
a full closet
of clothes
.
I
was sad that I couldn’t
tag along
with her, but
she
understood, showing
a reciprocal
remorse that she couldn’t
go
with me and the detective.

I was happy that
Carden ditched the mini date idea and
had planned a fun night that would start with French cuisine at a swanky bistro in
Silver Springs
,
a larger city adjacent to Godley Grove. After the culinary treat, they would
enjoy a
magic show at a
comedy club
—one that I was dying to go to
. I was duly impressed
he had spent
so much effort to
plan a
date
such as
that
, especially
for a
Thursday
.
I
was
jealous
.
I craved the feeling of being as
excited
as her about
a future
date
with Wolfe.

At seventeen and only months from graduating high school, I had never been on a date
or even had a
boyfriend.

The school bell
ended the
day
,
and
I rushed to my car, receiving a text from Detective Chase that he was only seconds away from the student parking lot.

As if on cue,
the Impala pulled up
behind my car. Wolfe and I climbed in as the detective
shot me
a look of surprise. I assumed he expected Maddie
to climb
into the backseat
. I
didn’t want to have to explain because I’d either have to lie or betray
her
. After he
had
continued to
gawk at me
, I was forced to say something.

“I offered the ride along to everybody
,
and
he
was the first to respond,” I whispered softly as Wolfe
shut the car door and snapped into his
seatbelt
.

“Of course he
was,” Detective Chase
grumbled
.
“We are off to Mr. Zuptus’s house
.
He doesn’t live far from Willow and Wolfe, by the way
,
”
h
e
said
, changing
the subjec
t to my relief.

“
Yeah,
I
know his house.
It looks a little retro
.
He has
lava lamps and stuff in his windows.
I’ve never been inside, but if his house
i
s anything like he dresses, it’s going to be funny,” Wolfe said
in a light-hearted tone
.

“
H
e’s got the retro th
ing down, for sure,” I laughed, easing a smile on my face.

He
pulled
the car
next to the curb and halted the engin
e.
We made our way
towards the
front patio
, and
Wolfe
knocked
on the orange-painted door
,
surveying
the
doormat
—
a
colossal,
colorful flower in bright orange, yellow and pink.
We all
had
exchanged glances, smiling,
before the door swung open, a light film of
incense
smoke billowing into
the fresh open air.

“Hello!
How are you guys doing today
?
Please, come
in!
”
Mr. Zuptus said
, donning a paisley
satin
shirt
and vertical
ly
striped pants
as
he held open the door
.
“Let’s journey on into the kitchen
.
I’ve got some hot tea ready and just put some cookies on a plate.”

“It won’t be Janice Cookies,” Wolfe lamented, ducking to miss a low-hanging fabric light fixture.

We gathered in the kitchen as
the lanky
Mr. Zuptus served us tea and cookies
on a psychedelic platter
.
The bright orange Formica countertops were a perfect vintage balance to the bright yellow and pea green curtains covering the window. Hospitable to say the least, Mr. Zuptus acted as if
we we
re over to pay a personal visit
. However, he had served cookies from a box.
Wolfe
grinned
behind
his
back.

“I’m coming over later to get Janice
c
ookies,” he
whispered
.

“Deal,” I grinned.

“Mr. Zuptus.
I won’t take up much of your time.
Were you with
Parker Thomas, III the night of Jody James
’
murder?
Mr. Thomas
is a suspect in the case simply out of circumstance and motive.
We would like to clear him, but he lied
about
his alibi.
We understand that he was with you, but we need to know where
you were
,”
he
said, taking a bite of a
hard, crunchy cookie, the tiny crumbs spewing
from his mouth like a confectionary
hailstorm.

Mr. Zuptus nodded, gazing directly into the detective’s eyes. Reluctant, but without a shade of anxiety. Whatever it was that he was going to say, he believed it to be true.

“Yes, I was with him.
We were at Fox Sports Grill.
We watched the game, started playing darts
,
and time got away from us.
He didn’t want
to tell Beth,”
he admitted.

“Why not?
Why would he not be honest?
Why lie to the police?”

“Beth doesn’t like him hanging around with me
.
She says that I am a bad influence.
Really
?
Me
?
I think not.
We were having a harmless guy's night out
,
and he had to lie to her because she would have made a thousand excuses for him not to go.
So, he made it work
-
related in a sense
,
and she gave him the
kitchen pass
,”
he
said
, stroking
his goatee.

“That makes sense.
Do you have receipts
,
and do you
remember
when you left
that night
?
”
he
added.

“Yes, I do, hold on a quick minute,”
he
said as he dashed
down the
hallway.

After about two minutes, he returned with a receipt in hand.

“I remember we closed the place down
.
It’s open until
two in the morning.
We had the entire place
betting on
our darts
tournament
.
Here’s the receipt
,” he said, handing a wrinkled receipt to the detective. “
Parker said it was my turn to buy that night because Beth checks the bank accounts and tracks
him
like a hawk.
Now I know why I’m not married
.”

Mr. Zuptus laughed
;
Wolfe and I
gave him a courteous grin in return. The detective
scanned
the receipt with a cheery smile and a nod.

“
Yep, y
ou paid the tab
at 2:25 AM. Everything checks
out
.
Not that I wou
ld have thought any differently
, you
know this is a formality.
Thanks so much for your help
and the cookies
.”

“Bye, Detective
,
glad I could help
, hope you can keep this information from Beth for Parker’s sake
.
Goodbye
, Fiona, Wolfe!”

We scooted out i
nto the Impala in high spirits.

“Well, I guess that takes Parker Thomas, III off the list, huh?”

“Well, not off his wife’s hit list,”
he
laughed.
“But
,
we’ll clear him
;
his alibi is now credible and solid.
I’ll forego
imposing
sanctions
on Parker
for lying to
us
this time
,
but
I’ll
need to
deliver a stern warning
,” he said, shrugging a shoulder. “
I’d be afraid of
his wife
too, she seems like a fireball,”
he
chuckled.

My muscles tensed during the ride to the Newsted home
.
I never wanted see the inside of that house again.
W
e
didn’t have an appointment
this
time;
we
had no clue of what we would face
.

We approached the porch, and t
he front door
was slightly ajar
,
a television on low volume.
Wolfe took a p
rotective stance in front of me behind the detective.

“What the heck.
Do you think everything is okay here
?
”
I said
, peering
around
the human blockade in front of me
.

The detective
knocked lightly on the door, which incidentally opened wider, exposing the scene in the living room.
Dimitri LeMorte was lying on his
bat
couch, covered with a
furry
blanke
t.
The television was blaring, flickering onto his sunken
, tattooed
face.