Adventures of a Graveyard Girl (18 page)

"Let me get you out of here," Ethan said. "We need to clean you off."

I nodded and walked out of the funeral home with Ethan. I was still in shock. My brain felt numb. I didn't want to touch anything in case I ruined it, so I just carefully followed him, trying not to move too much.

The police showed up fast, followed by an ambulance. Ethan and I were just about at his car when we were flagged down by a policeman.

"Hey, wait. I need a statement from you," The policeman said.

Ethan and I stopped to look at him. He was a young policeman with slightly too long for a cop, brown hair. It made him look almost our age, if he wasn't wearing a police uniform. In fact, he couldn't have been that much older than us. His name tag said Quincy.

"I just want to go home," I said.

"We need a statement," Officer Quincy said again. "And, you should get checked out by the paramedics."

"I'm okay," I said, even though I felt myself shaking. "I mean, I'm not hurt. I don't need to see the paramedics. It's just goo."

"Are you sure?" Officer Quincy peered down at me. He had brown eyes.

I knew I was covered in goo and looked terrible, but I was pretty sure I was not actually injured. I was mortified. I was freaked out, but I was not hurt.

"I'm sure," I said.

"Kait, are you sure?" Ethan asked me, stopping to look at me. "Maybe you should get checked out."

I looked back at Ethan and said more confidently, "I'm sure."

"Can I get your statement then?" Officer Quincy asked, all business, despite the too long brown hair.

"Can I give it to you tomorrow? Down at the station? Or you can call me," I said. I really just wanted to go home.

"I'd prefer to take it now," Officer Quincy said and then continued, shrugging, "It's procedure."

Officer Quincy was just doing his job. He was being nice and all, but I really just wanted to go home. The goo was gross.

I sighed, "Fine. Okay, that kid ran into the funeral viewing room and threw whatever this black stuff is all over me like in a scene from a Stephen King movie or book or whatever. It totally freaked everyone out, including me. Done."

"Well, I have some questions for you, actually..." Officer Quincy said.

"And, I want to answer them," I pleaded. I felt like I was going to start crying if I didn't get out of there. "Tomorrow. I need to get home and get this stuff off of me."

"Okay," Officer Quincy said, "But just a few more minutes, please. Give me your information and let me get a sample of this goo and answer just a few questions for me."

"Fine, briefly," I sighed. He wasn't going to let us leave. I'd better just get it over with.

I answered Officer Quincy's questions as quickly as I could. I mean, I had no idea who'd want to do something like this to me. Although, I did hope the police caught them. It wasn't a pleasant experience at all, getting goo thrown on you and that person deserved to get in trouble. Then I let Officer Quincy take a sample of the goo and some pictures to round out the interview. Even though he said it would only take a few minutes, it still took about forty-five minutes before Officer Quincy let Ethan and I go. It was only after Detective Dixon came over and said that it was okay to let me leave and that he personally knew how to get ahold of me, if the officer needed to. Even after all that, the police still wanted me to come in the next day and elaborate. How many more ways could I tell them that there was no reason anyone should be throwing goo on me at a funeral? I mean, really - was there ever a good reason for that? Especially when I was giving a super awesome speech and for once, wasn't scared to talk to my classmates about how I felt.

I really, really just wanted to go home. This whole thing was only going to add to the gossip about me at school and I was so not thrilled. Finally, Ethan led me away toward the car. It was an awkward ride home. We had to lay down fast food napkins and an old shirt on his car seat, so that I wouldn't get black goo everywhere. At least it seemed like the goo was definitely going to come off. That was a positive.

We drove in silence. My brain was in shock. I felt gross. At least we were at my house before I knew it.

"Is your dad home?" Ethan asked as he put the car in park in my driveway.

The house was dark. My dad was probably over at his friend's house watching a game and hanging out. He did that sometimes after work nowadays.

"I don't think so," I said.

"Do you want me to come in with you?" Ethan asked.

"Yes," I said and started shaking.

Ethan helped me get my keys out of my purse and opened the front door. He led me straight to the bathroom.

"Let me grab a couple of things to try and get this goop off you," Ethan said and disappeared into my house.

I just stood there, wondering how I was going to even turn the shower on. Ethan was back quickly with olive oil, dish soap, liquid soap, goo be gone, rubbing alcohol, and a few other bottles of cleaner.

"One of these will work. Take a shower and try them," Ethan said and shut the bathroom door for me, so I wouldn't get anything on the door handle.

I peeled off the dirty clothes feeling a little sad that I was probably going to have to throw them away. I looked at the bathtub handles to turn on the water. I was going to have to do it. I turned on the water and the shower. I stepped in and watched the goo pour down the drain.

It took me forever to get it all off. I tried a mixture of the bottles Ethan had brought me, sticking to the more natural stuff. I didn't need to pour more toxic chemicals on my skin. At least I hoped I got it all off. When I stepped out of the shower, the bathroom had turned into a steam room. I wrapped myself in a towel and took a look at myself in the mirror. Most importantly, my face and hair looked squeaky clean.

I looked down at the dirty clothes that I had thrown on the ground. I couldn't put them back on. Yet, the clean clothes were in my room. Okay. Ethan and I weren't at the Kait wears only a towel in front of him stage yet. I couldn't go in there dressed like this. I stared at myself in the mirror. I was suddenly exhausted. I could see it etched into my face. Okay, I was going to go into my room dressed only in a towel and try not to freak out at the implications if my dad happened to come home. I knew nothing was going to happen...yet. I just wasn't sure if I'd suddenly want it to. I mean, kissing Ethan was amazing but more than that just scared the hell out of me.

I opened the bathroom door, peered outside, just in case Ethan happened to be standing there and almost tripped over a pile of neatly folded clean clothes. Ethan must not have been ready to see me in only a towel either. I picked up the clothes gratefully and shut the bathroom door.

When I was fully dressed in the pajamas Ethan had left out for me, hair dripping, and with no makeup, I walked back into my bedroom. Ethan was sitting on my bed. He took one look at me and ran up to hug me. I hugged him back. Then suddenly we were making out. Yes, it was definitely good that I hadn't walked out of the bathroom in just a towel.

Ethan pulled away from me and air rushed between us, "You okay?"

"Yeah," I said, "Just a little spooked. It happened so fast."

"Yeah," Ethan said.

"Have you heard anything? Did they arrest him?" I asked.

"I just texted Dave and Mike. They might still be there, so we'll see if they text back," Ethan said.

"I know that he didn't try to shoot me or anything," I said, "But I'm still super freaked out."

"Yeah, it was so not cool," Ethan said.

I tried to calm my brain down. I was fine. My brain immediately went to the fact that I hadn't had a chance to talk to Ray Newton. If only I hadn't had goo thrown on me. I still needed to check him out.

Ethan's phone beeped. He looked down at his phone and read a text. He frowned and then looked up at me.

"What?" I asked.

Ethan stared at me, "They just charged Seth Wilcox in the murders of Madison Brown and Julia Morgan."

I couldn't sleep all night. Ethan left when my eyes started drooping, which was only around ten pm. I couldn't help it. It had been a long week and I was tired. Getting attacked in the middle of a funeral will do that to you. Of course, as soon as Ethan left and I actually tried to go to sleep, I found that I couldn't.

My dad got home around eleven and I heard him banging around the kitchen. Scarlett, my cat, was fast asleep beside me. My dad was asleep before midnight, if the silence that settled over the house was any indication. I still couldn't sleep. I didn't know what was wrong with me. Thank goodness tomorrow was Saturday and I could sleep in if I wanted to sleep until noon.

My brain didn't want to stop working. I kept going over the details of the case in my head. It just didn't add up to me that Seth Wilcox killed Madison and Julia. I couldn't put my finger on a reason. It was a gut feeling that I had despite the fact that the police discovered that Seth was the one that had thrown goo all over me,
Carrie
style. I didn't know what else the police found when they went to arrest him for that, but there must have been some kind of evidence to connect Seth to the murders. Still, it didn't sit well with me.

My brain was telling me that Seth was just as bad as Logan said, but I was having a hard time with it. Guess it didn't matter, popular or unpopular, you could still be high school mean to anyone or each other just because. That fit more to me, that Seth was just being a mean idiot by throwing goo on me, than that he'd also committed murder. I just couldn't put my finger on why.

I got out from under the covers, went over to my desk, and turned on my computer. Maybe if I looked Seth up and did more research on him, my brain would settle down, and I'd be able to get to sleep.

I started with Seth's Facebook page. He was definitely anti-school in all respects, but it's that stupid I hate school stuff. I wouldn't have taken it seriously. On the other hand, I could see why the cops might. Some of those kids were legitimately crazy. With Seth, though, it looked like the I'm too cool for school kind of thing, not like the I want to blow up the school and kill people sort. There was a difference. Basically, he didn't look totally insane. There were normal pictures of him and his family and he volunteered at the hospital and just a bunch of things that didn't fit with the I'm a psycopath persona that people wanted to place on him. Sometimes, of course, all of that didn't matter and you had everyone saying - "Wow, I never would have suspected so and so of this, but here they are with the smoking gun." Maybe Seth would turn out to be another example of that, but I wasn't convinced yet.

I looked through Seth's pictures and saw that he had videos. I clicked on the first one and watched as he and his friends pulled a prank on his little brother in
Punk'd
style, where he hid cigarettes in his little brother's room, snitched, and filmed his mom yelling at his brother. The video was posted a couple of months ago. It looked like they had a bunch of similar videos done over the span of a few months, each one was more and more elaborate. The practical jokes were mean, tacky, and tasteless, but maybe last night's
Carrie
moment had been in the same vein and I had been the lucky victim. Only now Seth was facing a murder charge for it.

I went back to bed feeling disgruntled. It still didn't look like Seth committed the murders to me. The problem with that was, if Seth wasn't the murderer then Ariel was still in danger. That was a big problem since I was pretty sure something was going to happen at the football game Saturday night.

I couldn't remember what time I finally fell asleep. It must have been somewhere between five and six am. I had a dull headache from lack of good sleep, regardless. I looked blearily at the time. It was eleven am. I bolted awake. I wasn't supposed to sleep in!

The football game was in a mere seven hours. The Pep Club was meeting at six pm sharp for the six thirty game. We were all going to sit together. I was going to sit next to Ariel, even though I knew she wouldn't want me there, unless I could convince her not to go to the game. Although, somehow I didn't think Ariel would listen to me about that since everyone assumed the killer had been caught.

I turned on my computer and took a look at the latest news on the killings. It was all there: Seth Wilcox arrested for suspicion of murder in the deaths of Madison Brown and Julia Morgan. On paper or on the internet, the guy looked like he was toast. I read a few articles, but they didn't say much. The story was still breaking. Regardless of what the news and the police said, my feeling that Seth hadn't done it persisted.

I grabbed my phone and called Ethan.

"Hello?" I heard him say, sleep still tingeing his voice.

"Hey," I was wide awake. "We need to meet up and investigate some more before the game."

"What do you mean?" Ethan asked.

"I don't think Seth did it," I said.

"What?" Ethan asked, struggling to focus.

"Just get up and meet me at Wired," I said. "I'll see you there by noon. Okay?"

I hung up the phone before Ethan could reply. I had to go and make myself look cute and an hour was barely going to be enough time. Plus, I had to get to Wired, so there was that time commitment to factor in.