Death Screams (6 page)

"
So...?" Jade was confused. "You
did
turn in the sample?"

She shook her head. "No, I pulsed them and they were going to drop by," she looked at her pulse, her eyes flashing up to Jade's, "momentarily, to pick it up."

"
Let me get this straight. You pulsed the police about the sample with DI, then they said they'd come pick it up... at any moment. But it's now missing?"

Tulle nodded. "That about covers it. Oh, and one more thing."

Great, Jade thought, feeling the potential for blame swirling around her like foggy fingers looking for holes. "I gave your name as point of origin contact."

Jade nearly slapped her forehead. She totally didn't want to be involved with the police. Look what had happened with Caleb. He'd almost gotten killed.

So had she, her mind touching on John Smith and retreating like a finger burnt on a hot stove.

They heard a noise at the door, a soft rap on the jamb.

Turning, Jade watched Detective Raul Garcia and Bobbi Gale walk through the door as her shoulders slumped in defeat.

Wrecking the peace of the last year with their entrance.

I walked up to Tulle's class, knowing that Jade had to suck hind tit the entire block because of our sexcapade in the hall. I felt kinda bad about that but what could I do? We'd have to hide our PDAs more masterfully.

I slowed my stride when I saw the broad back of Garcia, notebook in hand and Gale at his side.

I'd know them anywhere. Instead of feeling comforted by police presence I was completely trained to respond with the fear and flight response. Which loosely translated meant: get the hell out of Dodge, as Gramps would say. However much I wanted to follow that directive, one look at Jade's face made my stride pick up again and in a few moments I was inside the room.

Garcia turned just as I came in. Pretty aware for a mundane, I thought.

"
Whoa! Caleb..." he clapped me on the back. "Haven't you grown?"

Just the kind of lame adult comment that made me want to judo-chop his throat. Instead, I plastered a fake smile on my face and said the obligatory, "I don't know," with a shrug.

Gale smiled behind her hand, she was catching the lameness clue square between the eyes. "Ah, I think he's taller than you now, Raul."

Garcia huffed and puffed, standing at attention like a rooster about to defend his coop.

Wow, seriously?

Jade interrupted, "I know how important it is for males to acknowledge each other's... manliness..." she began to trail off and Garcia gave her a good-natured glare. Jade spread her hands apart. "But, I thought maybe Caleb could be in on this too."

She was just a little snarky today. I like.

I could feel my brows jack down over my eyes and she gave me a barely there shake of her head, her hair sliding over her shoulders in a distracting way. I swallowed, completely thrown off my train of thought.

Garcia looked from one to the other of us and sighed. "I don't know if I'm up to the tag-teaming I may get from you two." He waggled a finger. "And I'm sure this is nothing, but Ms. Tulle did phone this in and we've responded to the threat... or possible threat."

I walked over to where Jade stood, nervously twisting the charm that was attached to her zipper on the fancy backpack I'd got her. The effort not to touch her wasn't pretty but Tulle's gaze glued to us helped me squelch it.

"
What's going on?" I asked.

"
Well..." Gale began, "Jade was working with a clairvoyance sample yesterday and found DI impregnated in it."

That sounded... wrong. I viciously stuffed the urge to Laugh at Inappropriate Times and got the crooked mouth for my trouble. Tulle gave me an odd look and Jade's stare clearly said,
cool it dumbass
!

That seemed to always make things worse. Gale had a sense of my trouble and after a quick look, rushed on before I would begin to howl.

"
Anyhow," she drew out the word, giving me The Look, "whenever a student at one of the high schools finds a DI, it's an automatic pulse to the police."

Okay, I gave. "What's DI?"

Jade said, "Death Intent."

I shrugged. "So?"

"
It means the person that the garment belongs to will murder or has already done so."

A quiet fell over the room. Not even the pulse-clock could be heard.

Finally I asked, "So, you guys are here to pick up the sample?" I looked at Jade for confirmation because she had been looking for it. She'd promised.

Jade shook her head. "They were here to pick it up but now it's gone."

My brow furrowed. Garcia nodded his head and Tulle said, "I have my samples locked up each night..."

"
Pulse secure?" Gale asked and Tulle nodded.

Garcia whistled. "That's pretty secure." He looked at her dubiously. "Are you sure that you secured the room first then..." his brows rose.

She nodded. "Oh yes, I would always secure. Always have. And," she looked at him like he was retarded, "I had to pulse it open this morning."

So, somebody broke into Tulle's secret stash of creeper samples, taking only the one Jade had gotten the full flesh crawl over and now it wasn't here.

I looked at Garcia. "Sounds like someone doesn't want the sample to be found."

Gale agreed, "Sounds like."

Effing great. Shades of the Graysheets. I didn't say it though. It was too implausible.

I looked again at Jade then back to the cops. She looked nervous. I didn't like this, I had a bad feeling.

I planted my hands on my hips, eyes narrowing. "What does this have to do with Jade?"

Garcia didn't quite meet my eyes. "We'll be needing her to identify the... ah, owner of the garment."

"
No way!" I yelled. "You can't put her in danger like that!" What were they thinking the jag-ups?

Jade put her hand on my arm and Tulle tracked it like an eagle. "It's okay Caleb, I want to help them."

I shook my head. "Jade, no. This puts you on the highway to harm's way. This is some guy that goes to one of our high schools for cripes sake. It could be the AP guy..." Jade's head snapped up and I got then I wasn't supposed to be talking about that. Bullshit! These two needed to know. Jade's eyes were big with the
No
look. Huh. What the hell was going on here?

Gale stepped forward. "What are you saying, Caleb?" Jade's huge green eyes were round with worry in my peripheral vision. I shrugged, saying, "Nothing, I guess I had it mixed up." I caught Jade's shoulders relaxing.

Garcia's gaze narrowed on me, he had caught the
hiding it
scent and like a good blood hound he was going to track it until he found what he was looking for. He didn't press though.

For now.

After a lengthy pause he said, "Listen, if I can get your folks' pulse-consent, I will let you escort Miss LeClerc here..." Jade rolled her eyes like, seriously? He smiled and corrected to, "Jade." He gave me the look that told me it was the best he could do.

"
What about your aunt?" I asked.

"
I'm emancipated, remember?" Jade reminded me.

Right... nice.

Gale's expression was puzzled. "Why?"

Jade hesitated and I knew, just knew how much she liked to bring up dear old dad. "My dad," she answered softly, a slight blush tinting her cheeks. Why she was embarrassed about him was beyond me. He was King of All Dicks. And I knew who the princes were, yes indeedy. Several came springing to mind. Nice visual. Totally.

"
Something funny, Mr. Hart?" Tulle asked.

I was really beginning to take a dislike to her.

"
Nah, just thought of something funny, yet unrelated," I expounded in a moment of cleverness that jacked her face into the pissed off realm.

Perfect.

Gale held up her palm. "Okay, so you are emancipated because..."

Garcia nodded. "I know why," he said quietly. "It gets that restraining order moved into permanent status."

Jade didn't say anything, she just nodded. My hands itched to draw her in next to me.

Ached with it.

I stood there doing nothing instead. It sucked pretty good. Then the distraction of the J's were upon us.

Jonesy bulldozed into the room and said without preamble, "What's with the cop huddle?" His hand was fisting two cookies and chewing with his mouth open.

Jade laughed and the tension slid out of me a little. If the J's were here... my main dudes made the cop pill go down a little better.

Nobody answered and Jonesy bellowed, "Huh?"

Garcia flinched and said, "Give a person a chance to respond, Jones."

"
Right, like you were doing any of that."

Garcia's brow shot up and John interjected, "Answering, Detective Garcia."

Tulle huffed saying, "I do not think I need Misters Jones and Terran here as well." She looked at them, daggers flying out of her eyes. John paled a little, making his freckles stick out like golden measles on his face but Jonesy said, "Why not?" and shrugged. He was gonna make her answer.

Cripes.

Jade looked down at her feet while Tulle sputtered, "I do not have to explain myself to an uncouth young man such as you," she stabbed her finger toward the threshold of the door and continued, "you may find your way out on your own accord."

Jonesy gave Tulle a speculative look. Finally he said, "Okay, chillax... but, you still didn't tell me why."

Oh. My. God.

"
Jonester, can you just..." I made the motion for him to get out again.

"
Listen, let's take this somewhere more private," Garcia said. He approached Tulle and said, "We'll be in touch. Thank you for alerting us. We'll have a tech team here to evaluate the lock." She nodded, thanking him and giving us kids a stern look. "Maybe a little distance from the company you keep may be a thing to consider, Mr. Hart."

That pissed me off. Nobody dissed Jonesy. Who hadn't noticed he was being disrespected yet.

"
I like the company," I said. She glared at me and I glared right back.

Jade pulled me into the hall before one of the three of us said something really bad.

The cops made their whispered goodbyes with Tulle and she shut the door of her Domain, the pissed off crescent of her face showing until the last second.

Jade sighed and looked at Jonesy. "That didn't go well!" she hissed at him.

He shrugged. "Just showing support, Jade. Can't help it if you got an uptight Empath teacher."

Jade rolled her eyes and the rest of the gang showed up.

Wonderful.

Garcia and Gale took in the loose group of teens. "We are going to say the bare minimum here but as of now, there is no crime."

"
Yeah there is," Jonesy interrupted and I about died. This was getting uber-complicated.

Garcia said, "Enlighten us, Mark," he said with a ghost of a smile.

Jonesy frowned, nobody called him his real name. "That was random, Garcia. Yeah, back on topic: we already know that someone sucked up the sample incognito-like."

John stumbled back at the use of Jonesy having vocabulary, the rest of the group was similarly stunned.

Gale recovered first. "Who blew the whistle? We just got here. No one should have known about the stolen sample."

Jade made a small sound and gave Sophie a guilty look. "It was just a really small pulse," Jade said, holding her index and thumb very close together.

Gale sighed. "Okay kids, let's go outside so we don't have any more spillage."

We trooped out there together to where the Dreaded Cruiser sat. The same one that we sat in a lot last year. I used my hand to shade my eyes and peered in the back. Yup, still gross.

"
Caleb?" Garcia asked, bringing me back to the present. I backed away and turned to them.

Gale looked at the kids assembled. Now that it was after school, Bry was here, Mia, Alex, Sophie and...Tiff came walking up.

"
Huh, what's goin' on?" she snapped her gum. Then a manic light came into her eyes. "I know," she snapped her fingers in delight, "Carson Hamilton got hit by a semi-truck and even now invites us to his death bed to make amends." She searched our faces and Garcia groaned.

"
I will pretend I didn't hear a comment that sounded like you were gleeful about someone else coming to harm," Gale said.

"
But..." she began and Bry said, "Can it, Tiff," not unkindly.

Her mouth snapped shut and she began to work over the mound of gum buried in its depths.

Alex said, "Why not? I mean, I just read that having a vivid fantasy life keeps people from committing various atrocities in real life," he said, pushing up his glasses.