by Alex Duval
“At least one of those had better be an action …” Jason began, but he let his voice tail off because Adam wasn’t talking, he wasn’t already munching on whatever food was in the bag, and he wasn’t smiling.
“What’s going on?” Jason demanded.
“My dad just called on my cell,” Adam answered. “Dominic’s dead.”
SIX
“You could have been killed,” Mr. Freeman said to Jason, shaking his head anxiously. “A boy was shot through the heart with a crossbow bolt only about two hours after the attack on you. Clearly that monster wasn’t going to be satisfied until somebody was dead. It could have been you.”
“Stop saying that,” Jason’s mother begged. “It’s not … it’s not dinner-table conversation.”
Like that’s what’s really bothering her, Jason thought. Like she looks ready to cry for the second time in two days because our table manners are bad.
Dani didn’t look close to tears. She did look close to puking, but she hadn’t really eaten enough to vomit. Jason hadn’t been able to eat much either. Dominic was dead. Just the other day the guy had been playing Volleyball—and now he was dead.
“Sorry,” Adam told Mrs. Freeman. “My dad talks about stuff like this constantly whatever he’s doing: eating, mowing the lawn, probably in his sleep. It’s a side effect of being chief of police.”
“Don’t apologize. We need to know this,” Mr. Freeman said. “Did your father give you any feeling about how close they are to catching the guy? What kind of evidence they’ve got? Anything like that?”
“He mostly keeps that stuff to himself,” Adam answered. “But I know they found the body at that car detailing place over on Center. Right now, Dad’s got all his people going over every inch of the place. Plus, they’re searching the trunk of the El Camino where they found the body.”
Jason noticed a little shudder go through Dani at the word “body.” His little sister was having a really hard time with this.
“Are the same detectives working on Dominic’s case?” Jason asked Adam, hoping to feed Dani some sort of comforting info. “Those guys seemed pretty sharp.”
“Yep. And they are sharp,” Adam confirmed, taking a big bite of chicken. “Carson’s been a detective for more than twenty years. And Tamburo’s a real hotshot. He just transferred in from Vegas. They called him Tamburo the Terminator down there. That’s how good he is at putting people away.”
“That’s something,” Mr. Freeman said.
“You should be expecting another conversation with Carson or Tamburo soon, by the way,” Adam informed Jason.
“I already told them everything I remember,” Jason protested.
“But now what you remember could help them find Dominic’s murderer,” Adam pointed out, serving himself some more green beans—at least someone was up for eating. “Unless there were two maniacs with crossbows running around Malibu on Sunday. But that would be movie reality. Not reality reality. Right, Dani?”
Adam must have noticed how freaked Dani was. He probably thought that including her in the conversation would make her feel better.
Dani managed a small smile. “Yeah, and one maniac is definitely enough,” she answered.
“I hope the police are planning to put some safety measures in place until they do find the person who did this,” Jason’s mother added. “It wasn’t long ago that that other girl from your school died. Karen Smith.”
“Carrie,” Adam corrected. He would know. He and Carrie had been kind of on the way to getting something going before she was killed by the rogue vampire.
“At least we know for sure that that had nothing to do with this,” Jason’s dad said. “That was just a horrible accident.”
Carries death wasn’t an accident, it was murder! Jason thought, but he kept his mouth shut. He was more than happy that his parents didn’t know about that.
“I think I’m done,” Dani said suddenly. “Can I be excused? I think I want to go watch Mean Girls or something.”
Jason knew that Mean Girls was Dani’s comfort movie. And so did his mom and dad. Jason saw them exchange a worried look.
Then Mrs. Freeman stood up. “I’ll go with you. I wouldn’t mind seeing it again,” she said brightly.
“Me too,” Mr. Freeman said. “I don’t think I’ve ever managed to stay awake for the ending.” He followed Dani and Mrs. Freeman out of the room.
“You’ve really heard this Tamburo guy is good?” Jason asked Adam when they were alone.
“Yeah. I mean, he’s got a wild streak, as my father would put it,” Adam replied. “I’d say he’s fifty percent Colin Farrell in The Recruit. Forty percent Denzel Washington in Training Day—dunk’King Kong ain’t got nothing on me.’ And ten percent Brad Pitt in Thelma & Louise.”
“I thought Brad Pitt was a thief in Thelma & Louise,” Jason complained.
“Well, yeah, if you want to be all literal about it. Anyway, the point is, Tamburo’s thorough and tenacious. He follows his own rules and he’s got attitude but he also has a sense of humor and, I guess you’d call it an honor code,” Adam explained.
“I guess we can trust him to get this thing solved, then,” Jason said, standing up and stretching gingerly. His whole body still ached from the crossbow wound. “My mom got some Bubbles Mochi to celebrate me being alive and everything,” he went on. “I couldn’t tell her that I’d rather have regular mint chip or something like that. I mean, rice paste around ice-cream balls? What’s with that? I’ll tell you what: a way to damage some perfectly good ice cream, that’s what.” He shook his head. “Anyway, you want some?”
“Lead me to it, brother,” Adam said. “I don’t know how they even let you live in the Heights,” he added as he followed Jason into the kitchen. “Don’t you know Bubbles Mochi is the ice cream served at Nobu? You used to only be able to get it in Hawaii.”
“How do you even know that?” Jason countered. “You’re the son of the poor-but-honest chief of police, as you’re always reminding me. So, what flavor you want? Papaya? Lychee? Green Tea?”
“Surprise me,” Adam answered. “This may be the only time I get my mouth around anything Bubbies. As I am the son of the et cetera et cetera.”
Jason laughed as he opened the freezer. “Mom does know me. There’s a carton of mint chip in here too.” He suddenly felt a little hungry. “You’ll have to scoop it for me, because I’m wounded and all. The Mochi’s already in balls.”
“So I have a question for you,” Adam said.
“The ice-cream scooper’s in the drawer next to the sink,” Jason answered.
“Funny.” Adam grabbed the scooper while Jason got down a couple of bowls from the cupboard, trying not to wince. The motion still made the hole in his chest angry “My question is, what’s the connection between you and Dominic? You go to the same school, you both live in the Heights. What else?”
“We hang out with the same people sometimes. We’ve been seen at some of the same parties,” Jason answered automatically as Adam started dishing out the ice cream. Then he got it. “Wait. You think Dominic and I were specifically targeted? You don’t think the crossbow killer just shot us because we happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time?”
Adam shrugged. “Maybe it was random. Probably was.”
Jason grabbed spoons. “Want to take the ice cream out by the pool?” he asked. He knew it would be chilly out there. The temperature always dropped dramatically at night, no matter how warm it was during the day. But Jason had a little cabin fever.
“It’s your party.”
Jason flicked on the backyard lights, and the pool light on the way outside. Then he stretched out on one of the lounge chairs. Adam took the one next to him.
“So we’ve established you and Dominic do have some things in common,” Adam persisted, digging into his first Mochi ball. “I mean, you’re not as possessive and paranoid as Dominic, so people like you a little bit more …” He frowned. “I guess I shouldn’t talk about Dominic l
ike that. I forgot he was dead for a second.”
“Yeah. It’s hard to believe,” Jason agreed grimly. “And even though the guy’s dead, it’s still true he was a bit of a jackass. But he was a small-time jackass. You have to be big-time to have somebody want to come after you with a crossbow, don’t you?”
“Or you have to be a vampire,” Adam answered.
“Did I go unconscious for a minute?” Jason asked. “Because I definitely missed something. What are you talking about?”
“When I was first doing all my vampire research, I read this article on the web about how in medieval Europe vampire hunters used crossbows,” Adam explained.
Jason closed his eyes for a moment, then opened them and looked at Adam. “Right away, I see three problems with this new theory of yours.”
“Hit me,” Adam said, slapping his chest with one hand while eating his ice cream with the other.
“Okay. One, we’re thousands of miles from Europe. Two, we’re hundreds of years on from medieval times. And three—and pay attention because this is a big one—Dominic was a vampire, but, in case you haven’t noticed, I’m not!”
Adam laughed. “Good points. All of them.” The grin slid off his face. “But I want you to keep thinking about possible connections between you and Dominic. If you’re a target, we need to know about it, because we need to be prepared in case that maniac makes another run at you.”
“Fine. But I still say it’s random,” Jason answered. “Dominic and I don’t have anything in common that someone would be willing to kill for.”
A breeze from the ocean raided the palm fronds of the huge trees at the far end of the backyard, and gooseflesh rose on Jason’s arms. He had the sudden urge to look over his shoulder to see if someone was watching him, but he refused to give in to his burst of paranoia.
Because it was just paranoia. Right?
When Jason walked across the high school parking lot on Wednesday morning with Dani, he was still fighting off the creepy sensation that he was being watched. It didn’t help that the whole school felt … eerie, somehow. People were standing around in the parking lot as if they didn’t want to leave the relative safety of their cars. The usual before-school buzz of conversation was subdued, and most of the students looked tense and anxious. Obviously everybody was freaked out by Dominic’s death.
But it was more than that, Jason realized. The reason he felt he was being watched was that he was being watched. He was getting a lot of curious looks from pretty much everyone else heading into the school.
“Yo, Freeman,” Harberts called as Jason and Dani entered the main courtyard. “You’re back. Are you supposed to be back?”
“I missed you too much to stay away,” Jason joked. Technically, he was supposed to be home taking it easy for a few more days, but he’d managed to convince his parents that he’d be okay sitting around at school.
“I always knew you loved me,” Harberts responded. “You going to come to practice? We’ve having a team meeting.”
“Yeah, I’ll be there. I can t swim, but I’m still on the team, right?” Jason answered.
Harberts nodded and disappeared through one of the arches leading into the walkway around the main building.
“There’s Billy,” Dani said. “I need to ask him something. See you after.” She gave him a little wave and veered off toward her friend.
Erin fell into step beside him, taking Dani’s place. “I was just reading this article that said undereye circles are the look of choice for die spring runway. You’re now completely fashion forward, just so you know.”
Jason rolled his eyes. “That’s what I’ve been striving for.”
“Seriously, are you okay?”
“I’m fine.” Jason figured he’d be saying that a lot today. “The bolt didn’t hit anything vital. The wound’ll take a little while to heal, but that’s it.”
“Good. That’s good. We were all worried about you.” They walked through the arch and into the dim walkway beyond. “I have to go by my locker. You know we’re all supposed to go to the auditorium instead of homeroom, right?”
“Dani told me.” He took about three steps by himself before Adam caught up to him. Jason definitely wasn’t going to have to worry about being lonely today.
“Your dad have any more info about Dominic’s killer?” Jason asked.
“Nope. Dominic’s body was clean. The car and trunk, too,” Adam answered. “Whoever stuffed him in there was very careful. They didn’t leave anything behind. And it’s not like Malibu doesn’t have the money for all the best forensic toys. Believe me, anything that could be tested, scanned, or run through a centrifuge has been. It’s like all three CSI shows rolled into one.”
“My father’s not an idiot or anything, but I think he actually believes the world should work like it does on CSI,” Jason replied. “He’s going to expect, I don’t know, your dad to uncover a grasshopper egg and a piece of thread and have the shooter locked away—”
“By the end of the hour?” Adam interrupted as they walked into the auditorium.
“He knows we aren’t actually living in a TV show,” Jason responded. “I figure your dad’s probably got a few days, maybe a week.”
“Before what?” Adam asked.
Jason shrugged. “Before he starts organizing parents’ meetings or civilian task forces or something. He’s a results-oriented kind of guy.” He dropped into a seat near the back of the room. The topic of the special assembly hadn’t been announced, but he was sure it would be about Dominic. And Jason just didn’t want an up-close-and-personal view of it all.
“Hey, you didn’t by any chance think of anything else that you and Dominic might have had in common, did you?” Adam asked.
Jason was about to tell Adam that he really didn’t want to talk about that now—and maybe not ever—when Principal Ito stepped out onto the stage.
“Welcome, everyone,” he said. “We are here together on a sad day. As I think most of you know, one of our students, Dominic Ames, is no longer with us. Dominic was killed. Murdered. It’s hard to understand. And even harder to accept. We’re going to have grief counselors talk to you in smaller groups later in the day. We want you to have a time and place to express your feelings about Dominic and his death.”
Principal Ito lowered his head briefly. “But first, we need to take a few moments to consider your safety. The person who murdered Dominic has not been apprehended. It is very likely he—or she—has attacked another student.” Heads all over the large room turned toward Jason, then back toward the principal. “That’s why we have two detectives with us today,” he continued. “Detective Carson and Detective Tamburo. They will be outlining the safety procedures I expect every one of you to follow until further notice. Some of these apply while you’re at school, others are town-wide regulations put into place by Sheriff Turnball.” A few heads swiveled toward Adam, who pretended not to notice. “So now I’m going to turn things over to the detectives,” Principal Ito said. “I expect you all to give them your full attention.”
There was an expectant hush as Carson took Principal Ito’s place in front of the microphone. Tamburo climbed up onstage too, but he stayed off to one side, leaning one shoulder against the wall. His eyes roved over the crowd, his face expressionless.
“I wouldn’t mind Motorcycle Boots arresting me,” a girl—Jason thought she was a freshman—murmured nearby.
“God, Ariel,” someone else whispered. “Inappropriate much? Somebody died!”
“Okay, this is going to be simple,” Carson announced. “Until further notice, we need you all to stay on campus during school hours unless you have a pass from the office. Yes, that includes lunch,” he added as several hands went up. “And I’ve been in your cafeteria, so you’re not going to get me feeling sorry for you.
“We’re also going to post a guard at the entrance to the parking lot. You all have a school ID, and you’re all going to have to show it—students, teachers, support staff, everybod
y. That means you’ll have to get here early tomorrow morning because there’s going to be a line to get in,” Carson continued. There were mutters from his listeners.
This is going to make a lot of parents happy at least, Jason thought. Including mine. He wasn’t exactly bummed to hear about it himself.
“Lastly, we’re going to have a curfew for everyone under eighteen,” Carson told the group. “You’ll need to be home by nine p.m. I don’t want to see any of you out on the streets after that time.” That one got a lot more mutters and some groans. “Any questions?”
A few hands went up. Carson pointed to Kristy. Jason could only imagine what was going to come out of her mouth.
“What about the Christmas Charity Masked Ball? The one the Devereuxs give?” Kristy asked. “Everyone’s already bought their tickets and everything. And it goes on past nine.”
Carson shot a glance at Tamburo.
“It’s a tough question for him,” Adam muttered. “It’s hard for even the PD to go up against charity and the Devereuxs. They give a lot to the Policemen’s Ball, too.”
“We have some time on that one,” Carson said at last. “Hopefully, it won’t even be an issue. If it is, we’ll make an announcement later. Anything else?”
No hands went up.
“All right. That’s it,” Carson said. “Detective Tamburo and I will be pulling students out of class throughout the day. Some of you could have information you don’t even realize is important that could help us find Dominic’s killer. We want to thank you in advance for cooperating.” He gave a quick nod and stepped away from the mic.
Principal Ito moved back to the front of the stage. “I’d like to end with a minute’s silence for Dominic Ames.” He bowed his head.
Jason lowered his head too. He was ultraconscious of the heat in his chest wound as he thought about Dominic. The silence in the room was so perfect that he could hear his own heart beating.
Then a small sound broke it. A small sniffling sound. Someone was crying.
The soft sounds turned into sobs, the choking kind, where you can hear that the person can hardly breathe. A moment later, Jason heard footsteps rushing up the center aisle. He looked up, and saw Principal Ito hurrying Belle out of the auditorium. Her face was twisted with grief. She looked nothing like the playful, happy girl Jason knew.