Liz Jasper - Underdead 02

by Underdead in Denial

  As I drove up to campus, a giant pink gorilla was swinging from the front gates. Roger, who was a few cars up from me in the morning traffic line, stopped to give the ape a vehement dressing-down. The ape shrugged and started to walk away but a car full of laughing kids in front of me got him up and swinging again. As I got near the gates, I recognized him as a cheerful, wacky history teacher whom I rather liked, and honked along with the rest of the cars. As I slowly passed by, he jumped off the gates and popped his furry pink head in my passenger window, “Bless me, Sister, for I have annoyed your department chair.”

  “Not to worry,” I told him. “We’re having him excommunicated.”

  He gave me a high five, scratched his underarms and jumped back up on the gates amidst loud hoots from the car behind me. His performance seemed to cheer everyone and cast a lingering good mood over the campus that stretched well into the day.

  My students were in rare form, cracking jokes instead of looking for costumes to mock. Which, if I’m being totally honest, was a lucky thing for some of the kids. I mean, I’m all for personal expression, and I don’t think parents should helicopter their kids into being carbon copies of the popular group. But when your thirteen-year-old is about to commit social suicide with a My Little Pony costume, maybe it’s time to step in with a little guidance.

  It was a perfect day for dousing the lights and teaching in a pitch black classroom. The one benefit of having a “sun allergy” was that I had been able to replace the tatty gray plasticky curtains with solid blackout blinds. When I projected the night sky on the ceiling, it looked really cool. Class participation was at an all-time high.

  I had planned to spend all the breaks holed up in my classroom so I wouldn’t have to spend another terrible day being publicly shunned by my former best friends. But I really was having such a nice day that when one of the sweet, slightly geeky girls who had gone all out on her witch costume (She had green skin and black buckle shoes and everything.) shyly asked me if I was coming to watch the costume contest during lunch, I couldn’t say no.

  I had followed the crowd downstairs and was standing in the covered walkway outside the entrance to the first floor of the science department, unwrapping the scarf from around my face, when I realized my shoelace had come untied. In my mind, that was the best part of Halloween—I could wear my comfortable running shoes and real socks instead of librarian-dress-police-approved flats and those stupid little nylon jobs.

  “Excuse me, er, Sister?”

  I felt the tap on my shoulder more than I registered the words.

  “Yeah?” I peeked around my wimple to see Gavin, dressed in his work clothes of slacks and a nicely ironed button-down. He projected an image of calm authority, but I knew him well enough to see the frustration bubbling underneath. There were faint shadows under his eyes and he had lost enough of the summer tan that the slight crook in his nose stood out.

  He wasn’t looking at me but was busy scanning the crowd. I got to my feet but kept my knees bent so I was a full head beneath his six-one instead of the usual three inches. I clasped my hands and stood demurely, tilting my head down so the habit hid my features. “Yes, my child?”

  “I’m wondering if you can help me find one of the teachers here? Jo Gartner.”

  “Of course,” I murmured. “What does she look like?”

  “Tall, red hair, hazel eyes.”

  “Is she pretty?”

  He was thrown by the question. “Very. But, I, er…” His pale gray gaze shifted suddenly from his study of the quad to me. “Jo?” His mouth tightened in a sharp line.

  I straightened to my full height and crossed my arms over my chest, careful not to smoosh the rosary. It had belonged to my grandmother. “What do you want, Detective Raines?”

  “I— Is there somewhere we can talk?”

  My stomach did a flip. Quite against my will I remembered that kiss as if I’d been in his arms only seconds earlier.

  “I’m busy. I’m expected at the middle school costume contest in the cafeteria.” Which wouldn’t take place for at least another twenty minutes. “Perhaps you can call me.”

  “Your phone seems to be out of order.”

  The walkway was deserted, but I lowered my voice anyway. That’s as far as my discretion went. I couldn’t quite keep the anger out of my voice, but at least I controlled the hurt. Letting Gavin know that his rejection had cost me the slightest pain would have been unbearable.

  He might want to talk to me, but I didn’t want to talk to him. “Out of order, huh? What a shame. I’ll be sure to look into that.”

  We both knew I was lying. A student burst through the door from the first floor of the science wing at a run. Immediately, Gavin and I pasted benign smiles on our faces. As she became a green plaid dot in the distance, Gavin’s smile grew brittle.

  I said, “This isn’t a good time. If you need to talk to me, you can stop by my—”

  “I’ve tried your place. You’ve had company.” His face was carefully blank.

  “Can’t help it if I’m popular, can I? Look, I’m sorry but—”

  “It’s either here or I bring you to the station. Which is it going to be?”

  I heard brisk footsteps coming up the path behind me.

  “Fine.” I rewrapped the scarf around my head and shoved on my sunglasses. I tucked my hands back away in the long, full sleeves of my costume, and through the material grabbed up a handful of the skirt to keep myself from tripping over the hem as I jogged back upstairs.

  Gavin followed me in as I unlocked my classroom. He shut the door behind us. “Well?” I pulled off my protective sun gear. The veil came off with it. I tossed it on the counter and ran a hand through my hair, which I’d worn loose. The last thing I needed was to have habit-head in front of a man who’d rejected me.

  He stood a few feet away, hands on lean hips, watching and waiting. His expression was growing colder by the second. “You went out with Will. Any changes I should know about?” Without warning, he closed the distance between us and reached a hand to my neck to check for fresh vampire bites.

  I slapped his hand away. “Don’t you dare!”

  He and I glared at each other for a long moment and then he stepped back and lowered his hand.

  “All right, then. You tell me. What did he want? Start with the first night.”

  I shrugged and turned toward the window. As usual the view—a drain pipe and the west wall of the theater—was hidden by the curtains. “We went to dinner.”

  “You had dinner delivered, remember?”

  “I had coffee and dessert. A chocolate pot. It had whipped cream and a tiny mint leaf—”

  “I don’t give a damn what you ate!” He ran a hand down his face and turned away. He wasn’t as controlled as he would have liked.

  “Natasha was there. She has a new boyfriend. Lenny.”

  “I’ll let missing persons know.” A grimace of profound regret skittered across Gavin’s profile.

  It was so exactly how I had felt when I’d seen Lenny on Natasha’s arm that I forgot for the moment that Gavin and I were at odds. I stepped closer and touched a finger to his arm.

  “He’s the one I saw her with at the haunted house, before she disappeared. About my age, your height, blond, blue eyes, very fit. Could be an underwear model.”

  Gavin’s face grew more inscrutable. He nodded tightly.

  “There’s something else. Remember that night at the diner? You were with your girlfriend.” Until I mentioned it just now, I’d forgotten he had a girlfriend. It made his behavior the other night all the more deplorable.

  “Sara is not my girlfriend. And yes, I remember the night at the diner.”

  Not his girlfriend? But— I cut off the line of thought. It didn’t matter. Wasn’t any of my business. I told him about Tom’s excitement over the manuscript he had “bought” at the garage sale.

  “I think Tom was the murder target all along. Someone knew about the manuscript, knew how valuable it was.
”

  “How do you know it was valuable?”

  “Will told me. He…” My triumph faded under Gavin’s wintery gaze. “He knew the author, a local playwright named Solaire.”

  “Of course.”

  “The point is, the manuscript was virtually worthless to anyone else as long as Tom was around. They could steal it, but they could never market it. And how better to get everyone off the track than by feeding Tom poisoned cookies belonging to someone else? We all knew he had an insatiable sweet tooth and saw nothing wrong with helping himself to other people’s candy stashes. It was all too easy to believe he was ‘hoisted by his own petard’.”

  “If Tom told you, a virtual stranger, about his precious find, he probably told the entire theater troupe.”

  “Then why isn’t the entire theater troupe talking about it?”

  Gavin shrugged dismissively. “The latest ‘great find’ of a garage sale junkie? Why would they?”

  “It wasn’t like that. It’s true Tom was excited, but he was guarding that secret like the entrance to Tut’s lost tomb.”

  “Yet, he told you.”

  “Yes,” I snapped. “Would you like to speculate why?”

  “It’s an interesting theory,” Gavin said after a moment’s silence.

  “Interesting theory? It’s right and you know it.”

  “I don’t know it, and neither do you. And before you go off half-cocked, what makes you think we ever stopped considering Tom as the intended victim?”

  “I thought the LBPD had finally accepted that Dan might be the real target.”

  “That’s one of several possibilities being explored. Let the police handle this.”

  I snorted. “Which police? The branch that can accept that there’s a man alive who saw Solaire working on his masterpiece? Or the ones who still think vampires exist only in fiction? And if they’re exploring reasons behind Tom’s death, why hasn’t anyone noticed his apartment has been trashed?”

  “Don’t tell me you went to that hellhole, in prime gangbanger territory.”

  “Will was with me. I’m sure I was perfectly safe.”

  Gavin closed his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose. “Jesus, Jo.” His pale gray gaze lifted bleakly to my face. “I don’t know what to do with you.”

  I felt something tangle deep inside me. The anger and confusion I’d been suppressing the past couple of days poured out.

  “Why didn’t you warn me? About the vampire allure. You saw it that night at the diner, didn’t you? When Tom was pouring his guts out to me like I was his most intimate acquaintance.”

  His silence was admission enough.

  “Why didn’t you tell me?” My voice cracked as I thought of all the problems that could have been avoided with just a few words from him.

  “I didn’t think it was a good idea.”

  “Why? Did you think I would use it? Run around and mesmerize all the men I could find and led them to their doom like the pied piper?”

  “No.”

  “What was it then?”

  Concern flickered across his face. “I hesitated to tell you because I was afraid you’d take it as a bad sign.”

  “How else could I take it? How else should I take it?” My nails dug into my palms so hard they left marks. “You should have said something. You should have at least shut the door behind you so my best friend didn’t have to see her boyfriend inexplicably making a pass at me.”

  “Becky was there? I didn’t realize.”

  “No, you were too busy watching, waiting for me to fail. Sometimes I think you want me to finish the transformation so I fit into an easy category…”

  “That is not true.”

  “But I’m still alive. I’m still me.” My throat was so tight I could barely get breath for the words.

  Gavin reached for me then, offering the comfort I so badly needed, but I turned away. After a long silence, one so absolute I could hear the clock over the whiteboard tick the time, he headed for the door.

  I heard the doorknob turn, but he didn’t leave, not right away. He spoke so softly that I barely heard him.

  “Jo?”

  “What.”

  “If you need me, I’m here.” He closed the door quietly behind him.

  *

  I tried for lunch a second time. This time, I actually made it through the door of the first floor science wing before someone stopped me.

  “Jo!” Dan was heading down the hallway in my direction, a friendly smile on his golden-boy face. “Hey, how come you weren’t at the haunted house last night?”

  His question flummoxed me. As did his relaxed friendliness. Didn’t he remember our near embrace the night before last? I guessed not. Apparently my vampire allure came with a convenient amnesiac aftereffect.

  I let out the breath I was holding. But I made sure I didn’t keep eye contact too long. Just in case.

  Dan held up a hand. “No need to answer that. You deserve a night off and I don’t want you to think we don’t appreciate all the hours you’ve given to the LBP.”

  “I’m sorry, Dan. I guess I assumed you didn’t really need me. Not with all the new volunteers.”

  I noticed the tightness in his body then, as he released it in an exhaled breath. “Of course. I’ll bet Becky thought the same.”

  “Wasn’t she there last night?”

  His easy smile seemed a smidge forced. “No. Total no-show by the science department. In fact, that’s why I’m here. Hoping to get my best people back.” His glance flicked betrayingly toward Becky’s door. He pulled himself together with an effort. “The temporary volunteer squad from the other night has all but disappeared, and I’m afraid we’re going to be even more short-staffed than before.”

  I found myself saying, “You can count on me. I’ll be there.”

  “Thanks, Jo. I really appreciate it.”

  The bell rang. Great. I’d missed the costume contest and lunch. Dan looked back over his shoulder at Becky’s door.

  “I gotta go,” I said.

  “Me too.” Dan wrenched his attention back to me. He seemed to take in my outfit for the first time. He grinned. “You should wear that tonight. Great costume.”

  *

  I made up for lunch, in every way, by eating tons of Halloween candy. I started coming down off my chocolate high on the way home.

  It was tempting to try to bump up my flagging energy levels by ripping into the bag of Hershey’s Kisses in my purse, but I knew I’d be better off eating dinner, even if it was hamburgers again.

  I sighed aloud as I walked sluggishly up the stairs to my apartment. If I kept up these eating habits, I’d have both feet in the grave before I reached the age of thirty. I’d have to let Will finish turning me into a vampire just so I didn’t upset my parents by dying before them.

  I was so caught up in my morbid thoughts that I had actually touched my key to the lock before I noticed my front door was ajar. I stood frozen for a long moment, deliberating what to do. I dithered so long that, if someone was inside my apartment, they were either unnaturally quiet, or dead. I know I should have turned around right then and left, but I didn’t. I pushed open the door.

  Chapter Sixteen

  I didn’t go in right away. It was dark enough outside that the building’s automatic outdoor lights had flicked on, and the inside of my apartment seemed black as pitch. I scrabbled a hand along the wall for the light switch and was momentarily blinded by a beam of light shooting upward from the floor through a broken lampshade.

  When my eyes adjusted and I could see again, I gasped. And then I whimpered. My bag slid from my boneless arm to slump in the doorway at my feet. Every piece of furniture was overturned. Couch cushions pulled off, slashed open and tossed. Books pulled from the shelves and scattered, ripped and broken. Papers and clothes were twisted throughout the mess as if by a tornado. My apartment was as quiet as a grave except for an occasional soft squeak.

  A squeak? I bolted in, slipsliding over books and p
apers, nearly turning an ankle on a geode bookend. Climbing over the upside-down couch, I reached the cat condo. It was tipped flat on its side. The door holes were pressed against the carpet and weighed down by a heavy bookcase.

  “Fluffy?”

  I heard a squeaky meow and a rumbling purr resonated loudly inside the cat cave.

  “Oh thank God!” I righted the bookshelf, shoved a mess of books and papers out of the way and rolled the carpeted cylinder around so the entry was free.

  “You poor thing. How long have you been like that?” I reached inside and Fluffy bit me. She was fine. I sagged against the nubby-carpet side in relief.

  Nursing my hand, I climbed to my feet and looked for some sign of my phone so I could call the police, as I should have the moment I realized my front door was open. I couldn’t find any sign of it in the mess. Picking my way to the overturned table where it had been, I decided my best bet was to trace it from the jack. But the jack was gone, ripped from the wall along with a small chunk of drywall.

  For some reason, that infuriated me. I slipslided my way back to the front door, where I had left my book bag. I refused to consider the very real possibility that my cell phone might be dead, as I had gotten lax about charging it.

  My front door had drifted almost shut. I shoved it open and reached for my bag. My fingers closed over empty air. It was gone.

  “What the hell?” I stomped outside and that’s the last thing I remembered for a long while.

  *

  I was drowning. My chest was tight and I couldn’t breathe. Long fingers of seaweed rasped across my face and I was aware of a soft, rhythmic humming. Gasping, I blinked open my eyes and found all fifteen pounds of Fluffy perched on my chest, licking my face and purring.

  “You’re trying to smother me, aren’t you?” I reached a hand to pet her long, soft fur and she skittered away. So much for cat love. I let my hand fall back to my side and closed my eyes again. My head hurt and I didn’t want to move. As I started to drift off, there on the concrete walkway in front of my door, a faint, musky scent tickled my nose, teasing me awake. I recognized it. Why?