Short Fuse (The Charlie Davies Mysteries Book 0)

by Clare Kauter

  I needed to get out of here. I crawled across the room, dragging my gimpy leg behind me, until I reached the doorway. When the coast was clear, I slipped out. No one had seen me.

  Sixteen

  The party didn’t seem so bad now that I was there. That might have had something to do with the fact that I wasn’t actually joining in with the ‘party’ as such. I was sitting in a room with Will and Topher while they giggled and I read my book. Maybe the punch was helping me feel a little more relaxed. (Or, more likely, perhaps it was the secondary smoke.)

  “You don’t think you guys are happy enough?” I asked, frowning at them. I was a little concerned. Could people OD on weed? I wasn’t sure it was possible, but they seemed to be giving it their best shot.

  Topher crawled towards me, joint in hand. “Sorry,” he said with a grin. “Didn’t mean to hog it.”

  “That’s not what I meant,” I snapped.

  “Charles, you need to relax.”

  “Did you just call me ‘Charles’?”

  He started giggling again. That seemed to set off Will and pretty soon they were both in hysterics. Looking between the two of them, I was kind of curious. I had taken a lot of pain meds over the years, but aside from that I didn’t know much about drugs. It seemed like they were enjoying themselves. Plus weed was basically legal, right? I reached out to take the joint from Topher.

  And that’s when the door opened. The pounding bass of the dance music filtered through the open door.

  “Hey, I –”

  In the doorway stood James McKenzie, and he did not look impressed.

  Topher and Will suddenly sobered. “James –”

  “What are you doing?” he yelled (and not just to be heard over the music). “She’s fourteen, for fuck’s sake!”

  “We were just – it’s only…”

  “Only what? The reason I got kicked out of home? Jesus, Topher. No wonder you took his side,” said James, jerking his head towards Will. “Thanks a lot.”

  “You were never meant to get in trouble. We didn’t –”

  “I don’t want to hear it, you bag of dicks. What the hell were you thinking? She’s not even old enough to see M-rated movies by herself.”

  “Actually, I can see the M-rated movies. It’s the MA-15 ones that…” I trailed off as James glared at me. “Never mind.”

  Topher closed his eyes and sighed. Will sat across the room looking as if he might cry. “James…”

  “What?”

  “It isn’t their fault,” I said. “I –”

  “Yes, it is,” James snapped, cutting me off. He made his way over to me, picking up my crutches on the way. He pulled me to my feet (well, foot) and led me out of the room. I limped along behind him as he tugged me along the corridor opening every door along the way, trying to find a vacant room. Nearly every one was occupied by couples writhing on beds – thankfully mostly clothed – in an astoundingly unerotic way. Finally we found a room that wasn’t occupied. Lucky, because I didn’t think I could handle seeing another pair of sweaty teenagers furiously groping and grinding each other on a bed. (Seriously, guys, lock the door.)

  James dragged me into the room and shut the door behind us.

  “Have you been drinking?” he demanded.

  “What? No.”

  “Charlie…”

  I sighed. “A couple of sips.”

  “And how much of that joint did you smoke?”

  “None,” I said. He gave me a look of disbelief. “Seriously! You burst in before I had the chance.”

  “Good!” he said. “It’s against the law for a reason.”

  I groaned. “Why are you always so high and mighty about everything?”

  “I’m not high at all,” he said, “and yet I’m the one who got kicked out of my house for supposed drug possession.”

  “Yeah, but like, no one believed that for a second.”

  “My parents did!” he said. The look on his face made me feel sorry for him again.

  “Will and Toph didn’t mean to get you in trouble,” I said. “You know they love you.”

  “Right, sure,” he said. “They just don’t trust me as much as they trust you, apparently.”

  “You are kind of a narc.”

  He glared at me.

  “Sorry,” I said.

  James sighed and sat down on the bed. He fiddled with the duvet while staring blankly at the floor. “I just… Do I even know them at all? They took you out of school and got you run over, then they tried to get you drunk and make you smoke weed. They don’t exactly sound like a good crowd to be in with.”

  “They didn’t ‘make’ me do anything,” I said. “And it wasn’t their fault that I got hit by that car.”

  “Will’s an adult, Charlie. You’re barely a teenager. He’s meant to be responsible. Instead he’s helping you wag school and providing you with illicit substances. If you heard about someone like that and you’d never met him, you’d think he sounded like a dropkick.”

  “I… I think he might be going through a dark patch.”

  James looked at me. “Oh, so he told you that too?”

  I frowned. “Told me what?”

  “Never mind,” James said. “The point is, I would have expected better from Will. From both of them.”

  “But not from me?”

  James gave me a wry smile. “Charlie, you’re not the most mature fourteen year old I’ve ever met.”

  My jaw dropped. “Well, I’m sorry I wasn’t born aged sixty like you.” Even if I did sometimes talk like it.

  He rolled his eyes, but he was smiling. “I know that I can’t tell you what to do, and I don’t expect you to listen, but maybe…”

  “Maybe what?”

  “Maybe you’d be better off hanging around with your friends – Celia, Jo, Stacey and the others – for a while. Until Topher and Will sort their shit out.”

  I hesitated. “But they’re your best friends.”

  James slowly shook his head. “They’re… they’re not acting like themselves. I don’t know…”

  At that moment, Joe Winton burst into the room.

  “Oooooh,” he cooed. “Am I interrupting something?”

  He began to cackle and fell to the ground, sliding down the wall to the left of the door. Shartya’s voice filtered in through the doorway. James raced across the room and pulled the door shut. He turned to me and whispered, “I don’t want them to find me.”

  I nodded. Good call.

  “What’s up, Joe?” I asked.

  “Not much,” he slurred. “What a party, right?”

  “You realise that the legal drinking age is eighteen, right?” James said, looking like he was done with this shit.

  Joe’s head rolled back. “Jeez, James, loosen up a little.”

  “I thought you wanted to be a cop too?” I said to Joe.

  “Shh,” said Joe. “Don’t tell James.”

  “Don’t worry. I won’t.”

  James rolled his eyes.

  “Lea Walsh is out there,” said James. “Why don’t you go dance with her?”

  Joe shook his head. “Why do you think I’m drinking? She’s here with her creepy boyfriend.”

  “Jeremy’s here?” Great. Just what I wanted – my weirdo boss was at the party.

  “Yeah. I saw them making out,” said Joe. “I can’t get the picture out of my head.”

  I shuddered. That was a pretty disturbing image. Jeremy looked creepy enough when he wasn’t making out with a schoolgirl.

  “Sorry man,” said James.

  “Cheer me up,” said Joe.

  “How?”

  “I don’t know. Do a little dance. Flash me.”

  James laughed. “Only if you pay me. I’m not showing my wares for free.”

  “We could play truth or dare,” said Joe.

  “No,” I said.

  “That’s a terrible idea,” said James.

  “I’ll give you guys twenty bucks to make out.”

  I pa
used. Twenty bucks? Hell yes. Make out with James? Hell no.

  “Don’t think it’s going to happen, buddy,” said James.

  “Come on,” said Joe. “It’s not like I’m going to remember it tomorrow, and even if I did, no one would believe me if I told them.”

  “Why would you want to see that?”

  “Because then you two would be more miserable than I feel right now, and that’s about the only thing I can think of that would cheer me up.”

  “That’s really depressing.”

  “Yeah,” he agreed.

  “No,” I said.

  He paused. “One hundred?”

  Well, damn. I looked at James. He turned to me. In that moment of eye contact, I knew what we were both thinking: for that amount of money, maybe we could compromise everything we believed in.

  “Come on,” said Joe. “Just a little kiss. No tongue required.”

  No tongue? Hell, I’d have done that for the twenty. Lucky James had the good sense to hold out.

  I looked back at James and shrugged. He shrugged back.

  “Fine,” I said. “But show me the hundred now so I know you’re good for it.”

  Joe grinned and removed two fifties from his wallet.

  My heart hammered in my chest. OK, there was money involved. Was this really going to happen? I turned back to James.

  “Do you really want to…?” he asked, trailing off.

  I took a deep breath to steel myself and nodded once. “Yes,” I said. “Quickly. Before I lose my nerve.”

  “Right, OK,” said James. He walked over to me, stopping just in front of me. He took a deep breath and began to lean forwards.

  “Wait!” said Joe. We snapped our heads towards him.

  “What?” I asked.

  “I know I said no tongue, but this better not just be a peck. I’m paying for lingering.”

  “That’s weird,” said James.

  “And a little creepy,” I added.

  Joe shrugged and waved the fifty-dollar notes at us. “The customer is always right.”

  “Customer?”

  “Joe, that’s kinda messed up.”

  “Less wagging your tongues and more” – he wiggled his eyebrows at us – “wagging your tongues.”

  “Urgh. Fine, we’ll linger,” I said. I turned back to James.

  He gave me a small smile, looking kind of nervous. That was comforting, seeing as my heart was beating so fast I felt like I might throw up. I wished I’d had a couple of drags on that joint after all – maybe then this wouldn’t seem so daunting. James leaned down towards me and I tilted my mouth up to meet his.

  Our lips touched. The second they brushed together, my heart picked up even more speed and my stomach got all fluttery. Oh dear. This wasn’t good. I didn’t feel repulsed by this kiss at all. In fact, I was kind of… enjoying it. James placed his hand on the side of my face and kissed me again, and I, well, I kissed him back. At length.

  Eventually, after much lingering – probably more than was strictly required – we broke apart. Joe was watching us, dumbfounded.

  “Well that didn’t make me feel better at all,” he said, handing me the fifties. “Now I just feel even more single and alone. That was way more convincing than I was bargaining on.”

  I turned to James. “How do you want to split this?”

  He shook his head. “You keep it,” he said.

  I could feel myself beginning to blush and I panicked.

  “I just – I might just head to the bathroom,” I said, turning and hightailing out of there as fast as my leg would take me. There were huge lines for both of the bathrooms. Probably taken up by people spewing their guts out. Not that it mattered – I didn’t really need a wee. I’d just wanted to get out of that room for a second. Things had suddenly gotten very… overheated.

  I decided to check up on Topher and Will, though I didn’t know what I’d say if they asked me about James. Uh, yeah, I’m OK. We kissed it out. No thanks. I was spared that issue, though, because when I tried the door to their room it was locked and there was no answer at my knock. I guessed after James had come bursting in they’d decided to be smart and try to keep their little habit a secret.

  What next? I didn’t really want to stay at the party.

  “We’ve just been really connecting lately,” I overheard Shartya, who was huddled together with a couple of other members of her cult, say. “I wouldn’t be surprised if tonight was the night when we… you know…”

  Ten guesses who she was talking about.

  I groaned. OK, going back to the room with James would be awkward, but it couldn’t be as bad as listening to this.

  When I re-entered the bedroom, James had Joe’s arm slung over his shoulder

  “I’d better get him home,” said James.

  “I’ll take him if you want,” I said.

  “No, it’s fine. You won’t be able to hold him up.”

  “Really, I don’t mind. We can stumble to the door together.”

  “No, it’s OK, I –”

  “Honestly, it’s fine.”

  “Don’t worry, I’ve got it.”

  This was a first. James and I were in a stalemate of being too polite to each other. Oh, no. What had we done? We’d upset the balance. Everything was chaos now.

  “It’s OK,” I said. Our conversation had suddenly become very stilted. “I should be getting home anyway. We should call Joe’s parents and I’ll get them to drop me off on the way.”

  James finally agreed. “Yeah, good idea. This party’s not that much fun anyway. Well, I mean…” I could have sworn I saw him blush, but it must have been the lighting – James McKenzie didn’t blush.

  “Um, do you think you should check on Will and Topher? I knocked on the door but they didn’t answer.”

  James clenched his jaw.

  “They’re big boys,” he said. “They can get themselves home. Unless they OD on coke or something.”

  Wow. OK. It looked like he wasn’t going to be speaking to either of them any time soon.

  Joe groaned.

  “Right,” I said. “We’d better get going, then.”

  James nodded and pulled out his mobile. While he was talking to Joe’s parents, I picked up a cup from the bedside table and sniffed it. Water. Good. Joe needed to sober up a little before his parents arrived.

  James finished his call and hung up. He gestured to the cup I was holding. “I got him some water, but he won’t drink it.”

  I handed Joe the cup. “Skol it! Ten, nine, eight…”

  He downed it in a heartbeat. James shook his head at me, smiling a little.

  “You’ve got all the moves,” he said.

  I felt my face growing hot.

  “Right anyway gotta go bye!”

  I hauled Joe down the hall as fast as I could, face on fire. I was so determined to get out of that house that I didn’t even notice who I was pushing past until I heard my name. I looked up and found myself face-to-face with Celia.

  “Celia! What are you doing here?”

  “Partying,” she said. “The real question is what are you doing here? You never leave the house even when you have two functional legs. This is just crazy.”

  “Well, don’t get too excited. I’m just escorting Joe here home.”

  Celia frowned at him disgustedly. “Yeesh. Yeah, good idea. Are his parents on their way?”

  “Yeah. They should be here any time.” I paused. “C, I have the weirdest story to tell you.”

  She was the only one I could trust with the knowledge of The Incident. She wouldn’t tell the others, and she was probably the only one who wouldn’t murder me when she found out that I’d… Oh god.

  “What is it?”

  “I… Well, it’s kind of a long story, but the basic gist is –”

  “Charlie!”

  At the sound of someone calling out my name I stopped talking and turned to see James making his way through the crowd towards me.

  “You left yo
ur bag and your crutches in the…” He paused for a second before shrugging and saying, “You left them in the bedroom.”

  “Wow,” said Celia. “Sounds like you guys have had a good night.”

  James and I both forced slightly too-loud laughs. Celia raised an eyebrow. She knew something was up.

  “Anyway I’ve gotta go bye!”

  With that, I hauled Joe Winton outside. I’d tell Celia in the morning.

  Seventeen

  Finally the interviews were over. I was back home lying on the couch, looking at the TV but not really watching it.

  I groaned and picked up a nearby newspaper. I’d finished ‘When The Moon Hit Your Eye’ and I hadn’t had a chance to visit the library to pick up more reading material since. I was hoping that the newspaper would have a crossword or something to pass the time. I didn’t make it that far, though. It was an old paper, more than a week old. The front page bore a picture of a building on fire. I nearly turned right past it, but the windows caught my eye. Arched, with fancy decoration bits. (Yeah, OK, so I don’t know what they’re called. Clearly I haven’t watched enough episodes of Grand Designs.) They looked familiar. But where…

  Oh god. It was the building I’d seen in Topher’s pictures. The pictures in the file in Harcourt’s office.

  Eighteen

  When I woke up the next morning, I spent a good half hour lying in bed just thinking. James had moved his stuff to his uncle’s house a few days earlier and I couldn’t decide if I was glad about that or not. I kind of wanted to talk to him about what had happened the night before, but I didn’t really know what I’d say. It wasn’t like it meant anything – it had just been for the bet, right? But then why did he let me have the money? He’d been different last night. Not as annoying as normal. Kind of… nice. For once I’d caught a glimpse of the person that everyone else liked so much.

  Topher’s room was empty and I wondered if he’d gone to find James and apologise. There didn’t seem to be any sign of anyone else in the house. I had the place to myself. Good. I had some important business to attend to, and I didn’t want to be interrupted.