Fiona Frost: Order of the Black Moon (49 page)

“Did the man
go
free on the murder charge?”

“No, there was enough evidence
to
convict him, so it worked out.
I think the arresting officer engaged him in enough conversation about it that they found the murder weapon and used that against him.
The Chief is proactive on th
ese things.
Wanna ride along?”

“Certainly.
This should be interesting,” I said, grabbing my phone to send my mom a quick text of what I was doing.

We jumped into his Impala
and sped off
towards the
city park.

“So, Detective.
What about Parker Thomas, III?
Why is he acting so shady?
I mean, he inherited
millions;
the victim was his sister
and
the only other living heir to their grandfather’s estate.
Why
do you think
he lie
d
about where he was the night of the murder?”

“Donno.
It seems quite odd
,
and we will be in touch with his legal team, for sure,”
he
said
as
he
whipped around to Cryton Drive.

We were at the
park
within two minutes from leaving the high school.
The Impala came to a halt,
and we jumped out of the car.

“Whoa, Fiona.
With a 10-50 or 5150, I’m going to have to ask you to stay in the car and watch from there.
Your safety is my priority.”

I turned
around
, climbing
back i
nto the passenger seat, facing the window
to get a
decent
look
at
what was going on
with Emily Vance.
In the distance, I could see a crowd of people scattered around her as she jumped up and down, falling into a froglike position
at random.
Everybody had their phones pointed at her, filming the chaos as she screamed
and perform
ed
an occasional roll on the ground towards the bystanders.
The uniformed police officers
directed
the bystanders
to l
eave the area
, but as soon as one group would leave another would approach and take a front seat
.
A red-headed
officer had a can of mace spray
in his hand as he approached Emily
.

Detective Chase drew near the fray,
notifying
the officers of his presence.
He tried to
speak to Emily and then
he
wave
d
off the
ginger
officer
with the mace
.
Emily
respond
ed
to Detective
Chase
as she stood
upright
, finally appearing
to behave
normal.
That is, until sh
e grabbed the waistband of her elastic pants and pulled them down to her knees, exposing her undergarments
—
red with white hearts on them.
Detective Chase stepped back and a uniformed officer struggled to handcuff her as a female officer rushed up, pulling her pants back to her waist. She was escorted
towards
a police car as the bystanders
marched
alongside the scene
, filming the episode
with their phones
.

Just as
the officer slammed the car door,
the news team arrived, rushing out of their van with cameras in hand.
A
female
news reporter
, pausing
for her makeup artist to dab powder on her face
, held a
microphone
to her face
and started speaking
into the camera.
The
cameras panned to Emi
ly Vance in the back of the car. She was
slamming her head against the window.

Detective Chase soon joined me in
the Impala.

“Well, that was quite interesting.”

“You never told me, Detective
.
What is a
c
ode N
?
For nude?
Since she was about to be nude,” I said
as
we both broke into laughter.

“Well, that makes sense, but it’s actually a code for newsworthy.
Gives us all a heads-up that the reporters might
show up,”
he
said, firing
up the
car
and heading
towards the
high school.

“What will happen to Emily now?
Jail
?
”
I mused.

“Well,
I’m sure if she is not under the influence of drugs, she will most likely follow the orders of the
McNaughton
Rule or
the Omnibus Crime Code for Insanity.”

“She’ll be tested by a psychiatrist?”

“Well, insanity is a legal term and is d
etermined by the judge and jury,”
he
informed, stopping at a stop sign.
“
The psychiatrists
d
iagnose
mental disorder
s
, report
them
to the court, and then the court declare
s
insanity.
The
McNaughton
Rule
has
the jury
pose the question if the suspect
with
the mental condition
w
ould have been able to understand the nature and consequences of their actions in the crime.
In other words, you can’t be guilty of murder if you didn’t understand that murder was wrong
,
so they’ll declare you insane
,
and you go to a mental hospital instead of a prison.”

“Since she may be nuts, do you think she did it?
Is she your guess now?”

Detective Chase shook his head.

“No, Fiona
.
She is crazy, but I really don’t think it was her.
The chloroform in her system at the amounts detected isn’t incidental.
She’s going away, nonetheless.
The Room of Orbs now has a vacancy.
The Hartford researchers should be happy about that.
I heard they had some
past
incidents with
her
.
”

“I can only imagine that they did,” I laughed.

Detective Chase pulled up next to my
car
in the student parking lot
of the high school
and
killed the engine.

“How is your cousin Haley
?
She took a massive hit to the head, I heard.”

“
S
he’s still in the hospital, but my mom sent me a text earlier that she’s coming home tonight.
It isn’t anything serious, but she got stitches
,
and they did a bunch of tests to make sure she didn’t have any brain injuries
.
She’s a tough kid,” I said with
a hint of sincerity in my voice.

“You know, Fiona.
She was brave doing what she did.
Shows she has a heart and does care about you.”

“I know.
She didn’t have to do what she did
—she could have stayed in her closet and he’d have never known she was there.
Maybe she’s not all bad.
My mom also said
she
’s
not going to New Zealand now.
She can’t send her off
across the world
after being injured like that.”

“
I agree, blunt force trauma to the skull is nothing to ignore.
She should be watched for a while
—
even if she does tes
t normal.”

“You know what?
Maybe that actually knocked some sense in her
?
”
I
said,
grabbing my bag and climbing out of the
car.

At school the following morning, there was a ton of gossip going on in the hallway about Emily Vance as
many of the videos taken that day had gone viral on
YouTube.

At lunch,
Maddie and I finally got to talk about the case.
I got her up to speed about Parker Thomas, III
,
and she instantly selected him as her pick of whodunit.
She said the one with the biggest motive is
always
the one
,
and
the evidence around him was far too shifty.
I officially disagreed with her
,
something was devious with his story, but I just didn’t feel he was
guilty
.

Without warning,
the pink-haired
Victoria Newsted
slammed
her tray of cafeteria cuisine next to Maddie
, taking a seat by her, wearing her usual
G
othic 1960’s style dress, custom made—they didn’t have Goths back then.

“Have you seen it?
”
s
he
scoffed
in an irritated tone
.

“Uh, no.
Seen what
?
”
Maddie asked
with a curious voice.

“The
Facebook posts that Damien made!
”

Instantly, I grabbed my iPhone
and pulled up my
Facebook app
.

“No, Victoria, but I don’t think I am friends with Damien,
or
is his account open
?
”
I said quickly, waiting for
it
to open.

“Yes, anybody can see his posts, he wants
everybody
to see his posts,”
she
mocked, her straight pink locks waxed into shaggy points.

I searched for Damien Lee
,
and his
shocking
profile
picture
was in
full
G
othic makeup
.
He looked like what I would have imagined Count Dracula
looked like
in his day
.
I clicked on his account and scanned his posts.
He had made three posts, all from 19 minutes prior.
Maddie pulled it up on her phone
,
we simultaneously gasped in shock as we read his first post.

To all my haters and the haters of the House of the Nightmare Army, including my ex-girlfriend Victoria Newsted.
May my wrath seek you out and destroy you
.

Then, I scanned down to the second post.

Camber Johnson, Sydney
Sergeant
and any future chicken %$#$ traitor of the House of the Nightmare Army, including Victoria Newsted
—
love your tongues now for they
shall
be ours.
I am the only one who is a true vampire.
I am the only one who could hold the Sword of Moartea
.
I am the only true link to the underworld.
As I held the sword on many times b
efore, you stood back, mocking the sanctity of the
N
osfu Vampire.

Then
, with a sickened stomach, I read the third post.

Dimitri LeMorte is a God.
I am nearly a God.
The rest of you, prepare for the uprising.
Your l
ife
s
uxx
, not mine
.

“V
ictoria, you two broke up?
”
I inquired
slowly;
the words seem
ed
to come out like a badly rehearsed script.

“Obviously
.
We had a fight.
Damien was angry that I told the police that Dimitri broke in the blood bank and stole the blood.
Damien and Dimitri are taking this vampire thing a little too far.
I mean, I’m one of them, but I don’t obsess about it 24-7.
I like to have fun being a
normal teenager on occasion, you know
.
Not everything needs to be focused on becoming a Nosfu vampire and gaining power to the underworld,” she sneered, rolling her eyes.

“I understand, Victoria
.
Why do you think he wants everybody to die
?
Why do you think he made these posts?”

Victoria
pursed her blackened
lips and shrugged her shoulder.

“I suppose he just wants attention
.
He is mad that Camber and Sydney quit the cult
,
and now it’s just us two.
We also fought about getting some new recruits
.
I like
d
it just being us two
,
and he wants
to recruit
more
members
.
He said we’re the smallest House of the Order of the Black Moon and that it is shameful as a leader only
to
lead one other person.
He was reminiscing
about
how large the House was many years ago.
Dimitri LeMorte was promoted from the House to the Order of the Black Moon, and then became the leader of the Order when he became a Nosfu vampire and wrote th
e
tenets.
The others in the House either moved away or were sent away over the years.
Damien just needs to get over his quest to rule a massive amount of people.
”

Maddie shrugged her shoulders, her palms facing the ceiling in a
so what
pose.

I sent a quick text to Detective Chase to notify him of Damien Lee’s posts
.
I figured the police might want to act on it as a
potential
threat to the student body.

“Seems like a better scenario to me
—fewer
people to deal with,” Maddie said playfully.

“Hey, Victoria.
You didn’t by chance find your phone, did you
?
I mean
,
the phone that you had the night that Damien held the sword over the victim.”

Victoria slid her phone across the cafeteria table to me and stared at m
e
intently.
I picked it up
, opened her camera, scrolling
through her pictures.
I
landed on
the pictures from the night of the murder
,
and in disgust, focused in on the pictures of Damien and the sword
as he posed over the victim.
As
described to the police, Damien had posed with the victim in various positions holding the sword.
Scrolling backward in her camera roll on her phone,
I
didn’t locate any pictures of the victim prior to the murder
.
However,
I wasn’t
naive
enough to think that this was
n’t
a ploy to get their involvement in the case minimized.
She could have easily deleted any pictures from her phone
prior to allowing me to view it.
On the other hand,
she couldn’t have realized that I would ask to see her phone if she came over to speak with me about Damien
.
I slid the phone to Maddie so she could get a look
,
and she instantly no
ticed something that got by me.

“Fiona, look.
Look at Camber Johnson,” Maddie said
, sliding the phone back to me.

I picked it up
,
zoomed in on the picture
, and
noticed to the left of Damien was Camber Johnson
.
Camber’s
hand
was
over her mouth and her eyes
were
widened in disgust.
I flipped to the next picture.
She was even further back with her head turned away.
The next picture showed that she was walking
towards the
stairs with an angry look upon her face.
It didn’t seem from the pictures that Camber was pleased with Damien’s actions.

“Camber didn’t want to be there that night, huh
?
”
I asked slowly, placing the phone back on the table and sliding it
towards
Victoria.

“No, she was disgusted by the dead body.
I thought it was
somewhat
cool, to be honest.
I mean, we didn’t do anything wrong but take some pictures.
At first, w
e didn’t think about being blamed, figured the justice system would do their jobs and find the
real
killer,” Victoria snarled her lip at me
, exposing her golden fang
.
“Oh and
S
ydney
’s
being shipped off to live with her uncle in New York.
Sounds a lot like somebody I know,
Fiona
.
”

“Haley
?
”
Maddie added blithely.

“
Yeah,
she’s a cool chick.
Maybe Damien can get her
in with us one day.
That is, if I go back with
him
.
I’m not sure what I want to do at this point.
I have some friends in Silver Springs that I may move in with, but I’m not sure what I want to do.
”

I narrowed my eyes in disgust.

“No, I think not.
But one more thing, Victoria.
What kind of curse did Dimitri put on Detective Chase?
He’s broken out in a strange rash that the doctor
says
is stress.
Is there a cure for what he did
?
N
ot that I believe in that
crap, but I’m curious, the oil could have had poisonous vapors or something
.”

Victoria laughed maniacally before standing up and grabbing her tray.

“Don’t be so gullible, Fiona
.
We’re not magic
al
, you know.
It’s called
a
placebo effect.
It’s in his head.
It is stress
—
it can do wild things if your imagination is unleashed,”
she
sneered
, gr
abbing her phone from the table
, she
walked
away.

“Well, she’s a breath of sunshine, huh
?
”
Maddie sang, taking a bite of her pizza.

“
Yeah,
not!
”
I laughed.

“Guess what, Fiona!”

“
What?
”

“Carden asked me on an official date for tomorrow night!”

“No way
!
Finally!
But why a Thursday?”

“He said if it works out,
and we have fun on a mini date on a weeknight, we can go out again on Friday,” she laughed.

“Well, I guess that is cautious.
He’d hate to waste a Friday night
if you
two are not compatible
eating
together and going to a mov
i
e
, huh
?”

I shook my head in a good-natured disgust.

“But then he also said that he chose Thursday because he can’t wait until Friday,”
she
grinned.

I feigned poking my finger down my throat to
elicit
a gag response, and
she
laughed even more.

“What about Wolfe, Fiona?
Have you hooked up with him officially yet?”

“No, Maddie, we are just friends.
Get off that kick!
”
I giggled nervously.

“Okay, Fiona
.
Sure.
I’m your best friend, remember that
fac
t.”

My phone vibrated
,
and I checked the text message from
Detective
Chase, showing it to Maddie.