Tired, for me, was a bit of an understatement. I could’ve understood my weariness if I'd been through one of Mill's extra-long training sessions that ran and parkoured me all over Tampa. Or if I had spent the night fighting vampires, fleeing from them, staking a few as I went.
But mentally tired? That was a whole different level of torture.
I’d spent way too much time thinking about Derrick's situation with his dad before falling asleep. The things his mom had said about what she'd seen, gone through...it was haunting me. I was strangely glad that Mill was a vampire and had been since we'd gotten together. Having a boyfriend who was a good vampire seemed so much easier to cope with than a werewolf, even absent the hairiness and beastly behavior.
I stirred, sitting in my seat in class, so much of the day left to live through. The classroom was warm and it was making everyone sleepy. That didn’t help. It also didn’t help that our teacher, Mr. Penhallow, was rambling on about the difference between atoms and molecules. His voice was about as exciting as the hum of an industrial fan and he was spending the entire lecture with his back to us, scrawling notes so tiny across the whiteboard that I could hardly read them.
This left me with plenty more time to agonize over Derrick's situation, unfortunately.
Laura was in this class and I watched as she spent her time doodling on the corner of her notebook. Either she already knew what Mr. Penhallow was saying, or she was just as bored as the rest of us. The kid in front of me was openly snoring, a little puddle of drool staining the notebook that he was laying on.
A sharp tap tap tap against the window caused a stir in the class. I swiveled to look and my mouth fell open. Jedediah was standing outside the window in his Amish suspenders and hat, peering in. When he made eye contact with me, his whole face lit up and he waved. At me.
Every head in the room, apart from Mr. Penhallow, who was still rambling on, turned to stare at me.
I shrunk in my seat.
“Oh my gosh!” one girl nearest the window said. “Put the campus on lockdown!”
“They Amish don’t believe in violence, moron,” another student said.
“Yeah, what’s he going to do, a barn raising?” another asked. He snickered with his friend beside him, who had clamped his hand over his mouth to keep from laughing.
I glanced at Laura and she was staring at me, knowingly. She'd met Jed. She knew who he was and what his presence here meant. I shrugged as the rest of the room dissolved into whispers and pointing.
Mr. Penhallow remained as oblivious as ever. How could he not notice the low din?
“Who's he?”
“Why's he looking at Cassie?”
“Why's she ignoring him?”
I looked at Jed reluctantly.
Come on, he mouthed.
How? I mouthed back, staring daggers at him. He just waved again.
I rolled my eyes, sinking back against my hard, plastic chair. This was ridiculous. This is what I got for getting involved with the Amish kid.
I raised my hand and the room went silent. “Mr. Penhallow?”
“Miss Howard,” he said, turning around. “What do you need?”
Howard? Did he say everyone’s name wrong? “Can I go use the little girl’s potty room?”
He blinked at me, eyes widening. “Oh. Yes. Of course.” He was back at the board before the classroom door shut behind me.
The school still had pretty tight security. The administrators had asked the police department to send in a few officers to protect the students, afraid that the crazy man who had infiltrated it a few days before was going to come back. There hadn’t been anything on the news about him being found by the cops and I knew there likely never would be.
As soon as he went werewolf, they’d lose the trail.
There were a handful of side exits from the school that I counted on to be unwatched. It wasn’t possible to get into the school through those emergency exits, but I’d be able to get out. I made my way through the halls in the oldest part of the school where the security cameras hadn’t been installed yet. It was just outside of the gym and since class was in session, I was able to sneak by undetected, the sound of echoing balls ringing out through the gym doors.
I double and then triple checked down the hall, making sure no teachers or security guards were coming. When I was sure the coast was clear, I shoved my weight against the heavy metal door and stepped out into the hot sunlight.
I wandered around the side of the building, staying close to the wall and ducking under the windows until I found Jed. He was standing on the lawn, rocking back and forth on his heels, hands in the pockets of his black trousers.
“Dude,” I said under my breath. “What are you doing here?”
His eyes got wide. “What?”
“Don’t you understand what a campus lockdown is – never mind,” I said. “What’s up?”
Jed’s excitable demeanor shifted and he looked around nervously. “It’s Old Man Bauer. He got messed up last night, but he won’t tell us what happened.”
“You think it was Thomas?” I asked.
Jed nodded. “He barely let his own wife tend to him, he refused to speak about it. And that’s as good as telling us what happened.”
“You think Thomas attacked him?” I asked. “That seems awfully convenient, especially after we were just over there to speak to him.”
Jed gave me a pointed look. “That’s exactly what my father said. It’s too much of a coincidence.”
I frowned. “You don’t think it could be because he’s just embarrassed to tell the truth? Maybe he tripped and fell in the dark or something.”
Jed shook his head like a dog shaking out his coat. “No self-respecting werewolf would ever trip over himself and claw himself.”
“Wait, there are claw marks?” I asked, my heart thudding.
“What do you think I’ve been trying to tell you?” Jed asked. “And more than that, somebody saw the attacker leaving the scene.”
“Okay?” I asked. “And?”
He looked at me blankly. “Um…and what?”
Oh, come on, this kid. “And did you talk to this person that saw the attacker?”
He blinked at me. “No.”
“Why?” I asked.
“Because I came to get you,” he said.
“What? Why didn’t you just ask them what they saw?” I asked.
“Because I came to get you,” Jed said again.
What a sight we must have been, standing there on the school grounds out of sight of the windows, him saying the same thing over and over and me about to experience a brain aneurysm. And at such a young age.
I sighed, rubbing my face. “How did you get here?”
“I got a ride from one of the drivers my dad always hires. He's waiting in the parking lot.”
I laughed dryly. An Amish teenager had come to convince me to cut class. This was weird from end to end. “So you want me to come with you…right now?”
He nodded. “The sooner the better, obviously.
I rolled my eyes. “All right, let’s go.”
I couldn’t believe I was doing this. I was ditching school. Why was I doing this? This was crazy.
But Derrick’s dad was attacking people. I needed to be sure, because if he was, then he’d probably go after Derrick or his mom next. We had to find him so we could deal with this.
How we were going to deal with it, I wasn’t sure.
Like everything else these days, I’d just have to figure that out when we got there.
Chapter 21
It was about noon when we got back to Sarasota. I was starting to learn the streets and exits. I also realized that I was starting to feel some mild affection for the area. It was so pretty and green and more spread out than Tampa was. Not to mention the proximity to the beach.
I made a mental note to drag Mom and Dad down here eventually…after all the werewolf stuff blew over.
Jed instructed the driver to go down a few st
reets, right down the street from a restaurant called Yoder’s. Wasn’t that the one that Xandra mentioned? We turned down another street and came to a stop a few miles down the road.
A few Amish ladies on their three-wheeled bikes rode by, their baskets between the two back wheels packed with paper grocery bags.
“Come on,” Jed said, getting out of the car, giving the driver a wad of cash. I thanked the driver, too and crawled out after Jed, leaving him to be on his way.
The house we were standing in front of was a tiny little place and it seemed quiet. It had a red tile roof and cream siding. Children were chasing each other around out back and a woman in a blue dress and white bonnet was hanging her washing on the drying line.
“Mrs. Kauffman?” Jed asked, making his way out around the house.
Did he have no manners? Shouldn’t he have knocked on the door, first?
Mrs. Kauffman, however, didn’t seem all that surprised that someone just waltzed into her backyard and started talking to her.
“You’re Obadiah’s boy, aren’t you?” she said, tossing a sheet over the line. She pulled a few pins from the pocket in her apron as the fabric flapped in the wind.
“Yes, ma’am,” he said with a polite nod. “My friend and I were hoping to speak to your husband. He saw what happened with Mr. Bauer last night, right?”
Mrs. Kauffman glanced at her children, both of which were under the age of five. They were squealing with delight, chasing each other in and out of the sheets, dresses and trousers on the line. “He should be inside,” she said, glancing over her shoulder.
Jed and I made our way to the screen door at the back of the house and I was very grateful, not for the first time, that I lived in a home with air conditioning. Sweat was already beading on my forehead.
All of the windows were open, letting in the heat and moisture. Gorgeous, handmade wooden furniture filled the house. A quilt was tossed over the back of the sofa, all checkered reds and greens and pinks. It smelled of furniture polish and warm bread.
“Mr. Kauffman?” Jed called.
A handsome man in his early thirties peeked his head around the corner from the next room. His eyes were a piercing green and his hair and eyebrows were as dark as coal. “Jed. Can I help you?”
“This is Cassie,” Jed said. “I brought her with me to ask you some questions.”
Mr. Kauffman looked back at Jed. “Are you here about Mr. Bauer? Your father’s already come around.”
“I assumed he would,” Jed said. “But my friend here is friends with Mr. Bauer’s grandson.”
Mr. Kauffman’s eyes widened. “Bauer has a grandson? Suppose that isn’t a great surprise, but no one’s heard from Thomas since he left.”
“You knew him?” I asked.
Mr. Kauffman shrugged. “I knew him.”
“Did my father tell you that he tried to attack his son’s school?” Jed asked.
“I don’t pity Mr. Bauer right now,” Mr. Kauffman said, shaking his head.
“But Thomas left,” I said. “Mr. Bauer isn’t responsible for him, anymore.”
“It doesn’t work that way.” Mr. Kauffman shook his head. “Parents always are invested in their children, even their children that leave the community.” He sighed. “But this is not about the matter at hand. You came here to ask me about what happened last night, right?”
“Yes, please,” I said.
Mr. Kauffman sighed. “I didn’t see much. A car drove by in a fearsome hurry and then there was some shouting down the road a bit. When I went over there, I found Mr. Bauer on the ground, beaten and bloody.”
“What do you think happened?” I asked.
He looked over at me. “He wouldn’t say, but it looked like whoever was in that car did a right number on him. It’s a real shame. Who would harm an innocent man like that?”
“Mr. Kauffman,” I said. “You didn’t by any chance get a good look at the car that drove off, did you?”
I hoped to find two things with this question. One, to confirm my suspicions that it was Thomas. Second, maybe we’d be able to find him if we knew what kind of car he drove. I knew it was a stretch. Unless he saw the license plate and remembered every number and letter…
“It was red,” he said. “I remember that much. A car, not a van. But other than that, I'm afraid I can’t help you.”
Jed looked disappointed. If Jed had seen the car, he would have easily been able to tell us. Probably could have told us if it had a Hemi.
I pulled my phone out of my pocket and knew that I had drawn the gaze of both Jed and Mr. Kauffman. Technology, right?
I heard Jed’s sharp intake of breath. “Are you going to Googer it?”
I looked up at him, eyebrow arching up to my hairline. “Googer?” He nodded. “Yeah…I’m going to Googer it,” I said, smirk tugging at the corner of my lips. Oh, the irony of an Amish kid using Google as a verb. My fingers hovered over the keys for a second.
“What are you waiting for?” Jed asked.
“I’m trying to remember the name of the car I saw him in,” I said.
“You don’t remember?” he asked. “Well, what did it look like?”
“Well…it was red,” I said, somewhat embarrassed. I knew that wasn’t helpful in the least, but my knowledge of cars was about on par with Mr. Kauffman’s. “It was a Dodge something. I saw the little ram symbol on the front.”
“Dodge Viper?” he asked.
“Uh, no.” I shook my head. “It wasn’t that nice. I know those are the expensive ones.”
“Maybe a Charger?” he asked.
I typed that in and scrolled through the photos. “No, this isn’t right, either. It was an older car, or at least it looked older.”
Jed’s eyes grew wide. “Try Challenger,” he said.
“My, son, you have quite the knowledge of those English cars,” Mr. Kauffman said. His eyes were wide and just a little suspicious. I couldn’t tell if he was impressed or disappointed.
“That’s it,” I said after the images loaded. “Definitely a Challenger.” I showed the picture to Mr. Kauffman. “Was this the car that belonged to whoever attacked Mr. Bauer?”
“That seems right,” Mr. Kauffman said, then took a subtle step away from me, like I had the devil in my phone. “I remember those headlights.”
I turned my phone off and returned it to my pocket. “Thank you, Mr. Kauffman,” I said. “That’s a big help. Is there anything that you can tell us about the driver?”
“Didn't see him.” Mr. Kauffman shook his head. “I’m sorry.”
That figured. If he knew Thomas and had seen him driving, he would have recognized him. “All right,” I said. “Well, I guess we at least know that.”
“Is there nothing else you can tell us?” Jed asked him.
Mr. Kauffman slid his hands into his pockets. “Well, it wasn’t so late that there was nobody about. But it was late enough that there weren’t any Amish around until all of the commotion started up. It happened right outside of Yoder’s restaurant. Perhaps someone there saw what happened or got a better look at who was in that car.”
“Thanks, Mr. Kaufman,” I said, feeling a little like a hardboiled detective. “If you think of anything, please, uh...” I froze. It wasn't like I had a card, or he had a phone. “Uhm...tell Jed's dad, I guess?” I shot a look at Jed and he shrugged.
After a moment of uncomfortable silence, we both headed for the door and made our way back out of the house, heading toward the sidewalk. “Well, that wasn’t a complete waste of time,” I said, pulling my phone out again. “We learned that Mr. Bauer's assailant drives the same car that Thomas does. That's pretty conclusive in my view.”
“Right,” Jed said, peering over my shoulder at my phone. “See? Aren’t you glad I came to get you?”
“I’m not really sure how to answer that,” I said. “Unfortunately, we still don't know why he did it, or where he is.”
“No,” Jed shrugged. “but someone at the restaurant might be able to
help us.”
“Great,” I said. “We're back to relying on the kindness – and memory – of strangers. Who don't care about cars. Or technology.” I ordered an Uber. I felt lazy, knowing the restaurant was only a few minutes away, but it was hot and I didn’t want to be a disgusting, sweaty mess on the walk over.
“Hey, it could be worse,” Jed said, eyes flashing with a wicked sort of look, slipping into a slow grin. “You could be looking to rely on the kindness of English city folk.” He arched his eyebrows like he'd just told the funniest joke in the history of the world.
“You have got to get out more,” I said, shaking my head. Why did the Amish call everything American 'English'? The little countdown timer said my ride was still ten minutes away. I wondered if I'd melt by then, or just lose my mind.
Chapter 22
The Uber driver was a skinny woman in her forties with a bad blonde dye job and her dark roots showing through. Her muddy brown eyes were encircled by cheap eyeliner and purple eyeshadow. I had a feeling she was the type who drank nothing but cheap vodka and smoked cigarettes in her spare time. She had a nose piercing that didn't help her look any younger at all.
“I’ve never been in a car that smelled like fried fish before,” Jed said after we'd been in the car a few seconds. She didn't have the AC on for some reason and as I looked around the small vehicle, I wondered if it was because she enjoyed the heat or because she didn't want to increase her carbon footprint by running it.
I held my breath, feeling a little pained, as the driver gave him a nasty look in the mirror. I gave her one right back. Get your car cleaned and start running the AC if you don’t want a naïve Amish boy to comment on the smell.
“So, what, like, are you two together or something? Thought that was forbidden, or whatever,” the driver said after giving us some choice glare for a few seconds.
“Definitely not,” Jed said.
Heir of the Dog (Liars and Vampires Book 6) Page 10