But I wasn't noticed.
A sigh of relief escaped me into the hushed silence of my room.
Just as they were finishing their covert conversation, another cruiser pulled up. Officers Gale and Ward got out.
Now this was interesting.
I was certain we didn't need four cops. I rested my butt cheeks against my heels, perching for the duration.
Even in the gloom it was easy to tell which cop was Gale. She was clearly the smallest, a whole head and then-some shorter than Garcia, he being the tallest and Ward a little shorter. As obsessed with growing as I was, I noticed people's heights. Bobbi Gale was around Jade's height, but built bigger, solid, like she worked out.
There was some arm flailing going on with Gale gesturing to our house and then throwing her hands up in the air. Ward had his arms crossed across his chest, not pleased. McGraw was mirroring Ward's stance and Garcia was nose to nose with Gale. Their height difference didn't really allow for that but she was right in his face, her's craning up to make eye contact.
Finally, McGraw touched Garcia's shoulder and he stepped back... away from Gale. I could see his shoulders hike up in an exaggerated shrug, with a wave of his hand he dismissed our house and walked over to his cruiser. McGraw followed, turning once to give a considering look at Gale. Even from my vantage point I could see her glower at him.
She was pissed. It was in the set of her shoulders, the way tension sang along them. I would've loved to heard what they said.
The two cops got into their car, pulling away into the night. Gale and Ward looked after them, then they got in their cruiser, backing up into the space that McGraw and Garcia had vacated.
That was odd as hell, what were they arguing about? I knew it wasn't a shift change thing because Gale and Ward said random. Could it be that McGraw and Garcia were not supposed to be here and showed up? Showed up for what, my mind asked the obvious. I just didn't know.
I stared for a couple more minutes, barely making them out in the gloom. Gale in the driver's seat and Ward beside her, gesturing and talking, a badge twinkling in the dim light cast by the streetlight. I laid back down, crossing my arms behind my head and thinking. I tossed and turned, but sleep evaded. Finally, I fell into a fitful sleep, unconsciousness pulling me under like a pebble in a river.
CHAPTER 17
I was swimming, the sun shining through the water, me at the bottom looking through layers of grayish-green, a great pale orb shining dimly above me. It was important that I reach it.
Moving a hand in front of my face, it floated there like a dead, pale fish. I moved my body, feeling the resistance and rose determinedly toward the surface, my hands knifing through the water. As I gained speed, the heat grew, the light intensifying. The coolness of the water retreating as I surfaced. Breaking through I opened my eyes.
I was in my room.
I became aware of things in stages, as if still dreaming and unable to wake up. I pinched myself, yup, that hurt, definitely awake. A red crescent appeared where I'd self-damaged.
The Js and Jade would be here in three hours. Sitting up,I moved my neck in a loose circle, definitely stiff from the shitty night's sleep.
Last night! I sat up on my knees, pulling the curtain aside. The cops were gone and any evidence of their presence wiped away. I looked at the sky, noticing storm clouds brewing, a brisk breeze hammering them through. Perfect cemetery weather. I was trying for optimistic. The ass-twins would get good and distracted, I'd get some space before the AP Test tomorrow and we'd pick up black dog.
Leaning across the bed I cracked the window. The May heat would buzz up here, making it eighty degrees by nighttime. Getting off the bed, I kicked a pile of junk out of the way of the door and headed downstairs.
Dad was downstairs in his fave chair working with his pulse-top. Reading the news, the most boring use of time. Mom wore her apron finishing pancakes. Music swam around the room on low volume, while she put the fixings on the table, butter, the cow, the milk, and syrup. Dad was gonna succumb. He tried to limit pancakes because he was O.L.D and didn't want to get F.A.T.
I plopped down in my seat and Mom gave me the eye.
“Kinda late getting up this morning, pal.”
“Did you hear the cops?” I asked.
Mom rolled her eyes and Dad looked up from his pulse-top, closing it.
“I thought you said that was shut down Dad?”
“It is, I was just putting it through some security paces.”
I looked at him.
“Security protocol,” he said in way of explanation. “Rudimentary procedure before I have one of our tech people go through it.”
“Oh. I thought maybe you got it fixed and were reading the boring news or something,” I said.
Dad smiled. “That 'boring news', keeps me up-to-date on world events, Caleb.”
Ah-huh.
“I didn't hear a thing,” Mom said.
“I was awake when they came around midnight,” Dad said.
“Oh. I didn't hear that time, just the four a.m. run when Garcia and McGraw came.”
“That makes me all warm and fuzzy,” Mom said.
Yeah.
Dad had chipmunk cheeks, but after a few chews he stated, “I flat-out don't like Garcia and McGraw showing up.”
I nodded. Mom was quiet, a rare thing.
“They looked like they were arguing out there.”
“Who?” Dad asked.
“Ward and Gale were there too.”
“What? That's bizarre. They don't need that much show of force to deter a criminal revisit,” he said.
“I guess it's too much to ask what they were arguing over,” Mom said.
“Yeah, but the girl...”
“Officer Gale?” Mom asked.
“Yeah, she looked pretty pissed.” Mom made a face. “She was using a lot of hand gestures, right up in Garcia's face.”
“Based on how they looked, what do you speculate they were talking about?” Dad asked.
Judging on how different Garcia had been at the cemetery I had a feeling that I had his full attention, and not the good kind. Gale knew I was AFTD like her. She suspected I was something unique, but wasn't ready to out me to anyone. I got a sense of protectiveness from her that I wasn't getting from Garcia. I told the parents that, I also told them I thought she had argued about why they felt they needed to show up. As far as we knew, Garcia and McGraw weren't on this case.
After a moment, Dad said, “I think that Garcia has our house, you...all of us,” his finger having encompassed us, flagged in some way. If anything happens here of any importance, he's alerted.”
“I don't like it,” Mom said.
Dad shrugged. “I am concerned about Garcia's watchfulness. It's not a matter of if, but when he finds out Caleb is a C-M.”
They were solemn. I kept wolfing down my pancakes. Talk of my discovery as a corpse-raiser does not interfere with The Appetite. The parents would allow possible government exploit, espionage, capture and imprisonment to effect theirs. Huh.
“What can we do legally, Kyle, to stop this interference? He's just a kid, a minor for goodness sake.” As she lowered her chin, her hair fell forward.
Dad tucked a strand behind her ear, where it curled around the lobe.“I've been looking into that. We'll go to the press if it comes to that. If he gets noticed, and they try to pull a 'Parker', we'll see how uncomfortable we can make them. They managed to stuff a lot of the press about the Parker boy, but there is heightened awareness now. Awareness of Paranormals and awareness of the AFTDs.”
I didn't like the sound of that. I'd be famous, like Dad, but not because I was a brainiac. Because I was a freak. Nobody wants to be famous for weirdness. Infamous.
“Why does everyone think AFTDs are weirdos?”
Mom said, “You're not a weirdo Caleb.” Her gaze steady on my face.
“I know that I'm not. But the kids at school think other paranormal abilities are cool. Everyone is grossed out about AF
TD and they don't even know. Well, not all of them.” I thought of Bry and Tiff Weller, Mia and the A-hole pair. Some kids knew. The Js and Jade didn't count.
“I know you're not keen on people on a larger scale, knowing of your unique ability. But the alternative is not acceptable. Do you think anyone thought that this would be the outcome? That mapping the genome and its subsequent use to unveil these abilities in the human race was going to be without uncertainty, challenges, danger?” Dad asked.
He was right. The other scientists, who took up where he and his team left off, didn't consider the consequence of their actions. Now we had people my age through mid-twenties that could do some pretty extraordinary things. And there wasn't always a counter to that, except for psychic Nulls and those weren't common. Some paranormals were committing crimes, and our police were chasing their asses trying to keep up with that.
He shrugged. “Hearing the officers concede that they were switching to paired mundanes/paranormals was a good thing. They need it.”
“Why do they break the law?” I asked.
Mom muttered, “Because they can.”
Dad looked at her. “There will always be people making the wrong choice, it's human nature.”
“The world spins,” Mom said.
I admired her sense of justice but I just couldn't, as she would say, embrace it.
I glanced at the clock, straight up one o'clock. “The Js are coming over with Jade at three.”
“You know, Jade is a 'J' too,” Mom said.
“Yeah, I guess, but she's not. Ya know, she's her own thing.”
“Autonomous,” Dad said. “Independent from the Js.”
“Oh! Well that's true.” I blushed, Jade was so not like the Js.
My parents pretended not to notice how awkward the whole Jade conversation was.
“So, what's the plan at three?” Mom asked, neatly changing the subject. My parents were mainly cool.
“We're gonna go hang out.”
“Where?” Dad asked, trying to find butter on his plate with the last bite of pancake.
“We're just gonna walk around.” The parents would have cattle if they knew I was gonna go to Scenic Hill Cemetery. It occurred to me that I might have wanted to get Tiff up there for back up. Huh. Kinda late for that.
“Okay,” Dad said, giving me some space.
I gave a mental sigh of relief, they'd bought it.
I needed to get the twins off my back and the J-Man had the plan... I hoped.
CHAPTER 18
Everyone showed up on time; for Jonesy that was nothing short of a miracle, time management was not a priority. Scheming was (we all had our talents). As in now, scheming five seconds out the door.
Jade walked beside me on my left, absolutely mouth-watering in a pink hoodie, faded jeans with strategic holes, and pink high top All Star basketball shoes. Did she play, I had asked her at one point? No, she just thought they looked tight. And they did... on her. Her hair, which usually flowed around her face like dark water was pulled up in a ponytail, the end making a black sweep in the valley of her shoulders.
I casually held her hand, not fingers entwined but cupped around it fully. I loved feeling its smallness. One of the many things I liked about Jade, other than her utter coolness as a person, was how physically small she was. It didn't diminish her. She didn't have some complex about it. She knew who she was and that was very cool.
Jonesy had been talking the whole time since we left and I started tuning in, even with the distraction of Jade.
The bag full of gear rattled as he walked animatedly beside John, who was between us.
“Anyway, like I was saying, I snagged the can of Aqua Net a couple of weeks ago out of my mom's separator and the lighter...”
“How'd you manage the lighter?” John asked.
“My dad registered it for BBQ-ing,” Jonesy said automatically.
Lighters were like guns now. With the explosion of paranormals, there was also that small group within the paranormals, the fire-starters. Not a fully PC term, it was sorta like corpse-raiser. Any accelerant: lighters, matches, fuel, had to be registered like guns. Now that we had the Pyrokenetics, they could use anything like that as a deadly weapon. Some really talented ones didn't need anything. They were the weapon. And I thought being an AFTD was something. Starting fires would be the coolest! I told the Js that.
“No way,” John said automatically. “Think about the control and all the adults up your ass all the time. Ah... no, that would suck dude, big time.”
“I like it. I could think of about a million things to torch! Starting with the school!” Jonesy fist-pumped.
He had us grinning like fools.
Jonesy was busy outlining the plan but stopped midway with, “You're not gonna like, make something pop out of the ground, Caleb?”
I laughed. I got a picture of a Jack-in-the-Box, or, as it were, Jack-in-the-Coffin, a grin spreading across my face with the visual. “Nah, that's totally not the plan.” Jade squeezed my hand and I squeezed back.
John, all seriousness said, “But you just had that deal with your grandma at the cemetery.”
“Great-grandma.”
John shrugged, whoever.
“You didn't need blood? To like, put her back?” Jonesy asked before I could answer John.
“No. I've been thinking about that. Maybe it was coincidence the blood happened to be part of it last time. Gran rose without any of that.”
But a knot of unease had begun to build in my chest. What if... what if there was something special I needed to do to get a corpse back to rest? I mean, Tiff had been there and saved my ass yesterday, but what if she hadn't?
“Okay, so we don't have to worry about an accident?” John asked, placing stress on that last word.
Like potty-training, nice.
Jonesy hooted, “Accidental corpse-raising!”
“No, I don't having any corpse-raising plans today.”
Jade spoke up for the first time, “Why are we meeting them at the cemetery then? Why here?” Her opposite hand swept in the general direction of the cemetery that wasn't quite in view yet.
Jonesy rolled his eyes and I gave him the look.
“That's our turf. Caleb pulled the creep-out card there and they'll feel all, off-base. Plus,” he pointed to the side of his head and tapped his temple, “The Master,” clearly indicating himself, “needs a proper environment.”
John's eyebrows shot up. Usually, John was the brains of the operation. Jonesy was in his element, scheming.
It must have showed on our faces because Jonesy said, “Hey, I know that I'm not brilliant but I've got rockin' good ideas, and I'm rollin' with that program.” We laughed, there was no denying he had a program.
We crested the hill, the gates of the cemetery loomed, framing the cemetery beyond. I gave a little shudder, the sensory memory playing through my body like a discordant instrument. Jade looked a question at me and I shook my head. Hard thing to explain. Had to be there or in her case, not.
The weather hadn't improved, in fact, it looked like it was working up a head of steam, a late spring storm. The clouds boiled above our heads like giant pewter boulders.
John saw where I was looking and said, “Might rain.”
Jonesy shrugged. “We'll get Carson and Brett all lit up before the sky opens.”
I looked at my beat up watch, it was riding at four o'clock. Getting late but probably wouldn't be dark until almost nine.
“What time is it?” John asked.
“Time for the ass-clowns to show,” Jonesy muttered.
Jade covered her mouth, hiding a smile but Jonesy caught it, joining in.
And just like that, the duo in question rounded the hill behind us as if conjured. Their blond heads glowed in the dim light of an overcast sky. The two of them climbed the hill with determination, dual expressions of purpose... a bad one.
****
Carson and Brett stopped just in front of our group, Brett making a po
int of staring down Jade. I wondered if he had told Carson about the other night with his dad's meltdown and the gopher attack.
Ah-no.
The breeze had come up and it was windy. The great trees inside the cemetery stood sentinel, their sweeping branches moved by invisible puppet strings.
Jonesy came forward with his bag of goodies swinging into his legs as he did. Carson met him.
They stared at each other. “I've got this experiment all planned out for ya. Me and the guys tried it last year and it turned out cool.”
Even to me it sounded suspicious, but Carson looked interested. The only reason he'd be motivated to try something that was connected with the three of us (four, I guess, since Jade was starting to be part of the group), was a way to prove how much of a mondo-stud he was.
Typical.
Carson leaned forward, trying to scope what was in the bag. Jonesy pulled the bag back using a back and forth motion with his finger, no-oh.... not yet.
“Come on Carson, this is some kinda game, let's get outta here,” Brett said.
Jade and I were silent. We knew what had gone down and now I was feeling unsure about making Brett pay, but Carson...that was okay. The Js and I had decided that if Carson was taught a lesson, Brett would lay off too, following his lead. I liked it better because Carson just acted like an anus cause he could. He didn't have worries, the ass-hat.
“Nah, I want to see what Jonesy's got that's so special.”
“Let's take a walk,” Jonesy said.
We followed Jonesy with his bag of mayhem into the cemetery. As soon as I crossed the threshold, the buzzing of their voices rose to a fever-pitch, like the low droning of bees. That was with me trying to tune it out. I should have been able to hear the dead even further away. But there was something about actually being in the cemetery that seemed to make it resonate deeper.
I stalled a little and Jade slowed beside me, her eyes widening and I knew she was getting a little feedback.
She confirmed this when she whispered, “Are those the voices?”
I nodded.
“Is it like this all the time?”
Death Whispers (Death Series, Book 1) Page 18