House of Korba: The Ghost Bird Series: #7 (The Academy) (22 page)

“He won’t hang out with us,” Gabriel said. “We used to try. He wouldn’t come.”

“Can’t we at least ask?”

“Pumpkin,” Dr. Green squeezed me a little tighter with his arm wrapped around me. “We can try, but every time we’ve asked him, he says he’s tired and retreats to his room again. We can’t force him to come out.”

“He went for a walk the other day,” I said. “He calls friends from Greece when he has a phone. Does he really want to be isolated?”

Everyone went quiet for a long moment. The sun was already starting to set now. I hadn’t realized how long we had been at the shops for. Eventually, Luke turned the car into the parking lot of the apartment complex. “Theo doesn’t really trust us, I guess. Or he doesn’t like that we’re Silas’s friends. To him, we’re all just a bunch of kids. He thinks he shouldn’t have to listen to us. ”

“Let’s at least get inside Silas’s room,” Dr. Green said. “We’ll camp out here tonight. Maybe a couple of us will head home, and two will wait here, but for now, let’s stay together. There should be some leftovers in the fridge if we get hungry.”

“Yay,” Luke said, sounding more enthusiastic now. “I love Greek food.”

“What don’t you like?” Gabriel asked with a chuckle.

“Brussels sprouts,” Luke said. “And collard greens. And carrots. I hate carrots.”

Gabriel and I started giggling at the same time. Dr. Green reached around my head, clamping a palm against my mouth and he glared at Gabriel. “Don’t start!” he cried out. “She’ll go all night and we’re supposed to keep things on the down low.”

Luke parked, and we all piled out. It felt odd to be going to Silas’s house without Silas being there. I walked as close as possible next to Dr. Green, behind Luke and Gabriel.

They led the way up to the second floor, the farthest apartment on the right. Instead of knocking, Luke used his keys to open the door. He returned to me, hand-signaling to everyone to be quiet.

Luke tiptoed in, with Gabriel behind him. I followed, and Dr. Green closed the door.

The odd part was having Dr. Green with us. When I looked back at him, I saw someone only a couple of years older than us, being a part of us, rather than a teacher at school. It was almost like he was new to me in some way. It wasn’t bad, just different and unexpected.

We lined up, single file down the hallway. Luke and Gabriel walked into Silas’s room. I lingered a minute, looking down the hallway and listening. The stereo was playing from Theo’s room. It was a low rumble, slow. The tone was depressing.

Dr. Green put a warm hand on my back and leaned forward to whisper close to my ear. “I know the feeling,” he said quietly. “The best thing we can do right now is protect Silas.”

I wasn’t sure how staying out of Theo’s way was the same thing as helping Silas. Couldn’t we help Silas by making Theo happier somehow?

I stepped into Silas’s bedroom. Luke flopped down and sprawled out on the bed, kicking off his shoes. Gabriel sat at the desk and opened up the laptop. He entered in a password and started clicking the mouse.

Dr. Green moved around me and sat on the bed near Luke. He snagged his fingers into the collar of his shirt, and tugged at it, lifting it over his head. The move captured my attention. My heart raced at seeing Dr. Green removing the shirt to reveal the snug black undershirt. The lean muscles in his arms and along his chest were in full view and my heart was pitter-pattering at the sight.

“Do we work in shifts tonight?” Dr. Green asked.

“Luke and I are going to scout the area a bit,” Gabriel said.

“We could just set up the alarm system,” Luke said. He had his eyes open, staring at the ceiling. He turned his head to remove the hair clip and set it aside. His blond hair spread out around his head. He turned over on his side, grabbing one of the pillows and stuffing it under his head. “Then we can just hang out.”

“I vote alarm system,” Gabriel said. “I vote that. That’s a plan.”

“What alarm system?” I asked.

“If anyone opens the door,” Luke said, lifting his hand up and pointing out toward where the front hallway was, “there’s an alarm that goes off on one of our phones. It lets us know if anyone leaves or comes in.”

Dr. Green patted the spot next to him. “Come on, Pookie. Relax a bit.”

I moved to sit down, and Gabriel started laughing, still focused on the computer screen. “
Pookie
? What the fuck?”

Luke’s shoulders shook as he giggled. “Is it worse than Trouble?”

“She
is
Trouble,” Gabriel said. He reached up and raked his hand through his hair, messing up the blond and the brown that had been combed back. “Pookie doesn’t make any sense.”

“It’s cute,” Dr. Green said. He bumped his arm into mine, looking down at me and grinning. “Like her.”

“Yeah, yeah,” Gabriel said. He tapped at the keyboard and turned around, stretching. “Okay. I’ve got it set up to make it ring Luke’s phone if anyone comes through the door.”

“Let’s get something to eat,” Luke said. He sat up quickly and then scurried to the edge of the bed. He pressed his hand on my shoulder for support as he lifted himself up, putting a lot of weight on me until I was falling over on the bed as he moved to the door.

Dr. Green laughed, grabbed my arm and tugged me.

Gabriel and Luke and Dr. Green tiptoed down the hall, and headed toward the kitchen.

I lingered back this time, tempted to hide in Silas’s room in case someone like Charlie came home.

I was standing there, listening to music from Theo’s room, when I noticed it was a little louder now. Curious, I stepped closer to his end of the hallway.

There was a beam of light coming from Theo’s room; the door was partly open.

I listened quietly for movement, calculating where Luke, Gabriel and Dr. Green were. Old habits. I was trying to figure out how much time I had to check things out without getting caught.

I tiptoed over to the doorway and peeked into the room. I didn’t mean to pry. I think I wanted to make sure Theo was okay.

The smell of cigarette smoke increased. I lifted my hand over my nose. I leaned in, surveying without opening the door any further. I recognized the room from what I had seen through the camera, but a little disorienting with the change in perspective. I spotted the wall and TV first. I leaned in further, trying to scan.

The bed was empty.

I paused, afraid. Maybe he left his bedroom and was in the bathroom. I checked once more, making sure he hadn’t gotten up and moved to another part of the room.

But Theo was gone. I swayed back and forth, looking around; unless he was standing right behind the door, he wasn’t in there.

I tiptoed back down the hall to check the bathroom. The door was open and the light was off.

I paused. Maybe he went into Charlie’s room?

I followed the sound of movement in the main living area. I stopped outside of the kitchen, where the guys were heating up leftovers from Silas’s fridge. The living room was empty, too, and the guest bathroom had the door open and the light off.

“Where’s Theo?” I asked.

“What are you talking about?” Luke said, staring down the timer on the microwave. “He’s in his room.”

“No, he isn’t,” I said.

There was a pause in everyone’s movements, and eyes shifted to me. Dr. Green turned to the boys for a moment, and then put down the plastic cups he’d been holding. He came to the kitchen entrance, and then gently eased me to the side. “Stay here with them,” he said quietly.

I wrapped my arms around my stomach, leaning against the counter, looking in at Luke and Gabriel, who seemed curious and watched Dr. Green as he slipped down the hall. The microwaved beeped, and Luke opened it quickly to stop it from making any more noise. Gabriel moved over, put an arm around my waist, but was standing where he could look over my shoulder and keep his focus behind me.

“He’s not here!” Dr. Green shouted suddenly.

Gabriel released me. I turned and followed him and met up with Dr. Green down the hall. Luke smacked into me when I stopped.

Gabriel shook his hands in the air. “How the fuck did he get outside? We’ve been here the whole time.”

“Maybe a window?” Luke asked. “Did we secure those?”

“It’s the second story,” Gabriel said.

“So?” Luke grinned. “Doesn’t stop me.” Maybe he sneaks out.”

Dr. Green sliced his hand through the air. “However he does it, we need to find him. He couldn’t have gone too far.”

We followed Dr. Green to the front door. We all spilled out onto the walkway. There didn’t appear to be anyone outside right now. The parking lot was quiet. We scanned the area, but there wasn’t any movement.

“Now what?” Luke asked.

Dr. Green sighed. “Someone’s going to have to stay here in case he comes back. “And someone goes out and tried to find him.”

“We’ll go,” Gabriel said. “Luke and Sang can come along. You stay.”

“What?” Dr. Green asked. “Leave Sang here.”

“No,” Luke said. “We should split up. We’ve got the alarm set for the front door. Two of us should go on foot and circle the block. Two of us should drive around. I’ll take Sang with me.”

“No,” Gabriel said. “We three should go and Dr. Green should circle the complex and come back. See if he tries sneaking in the window or check out his room and see if there’s anything in there to tell us what he’s been up to lately.”

Dr. Green rifled through his hair, grabbing at it, and making the smoothed out hair puff up a little. “I hate it when you guys are right,” he said. He pointed at Luke. “Don’t you lose her.” He pointed at Gabriel. “Don’t get her arrested or hurt.” He swung his finger and pointed at my nose and then beeped it. “And you. If you see any trouble at all, leave these idiots and run away. Got it?”

I nodded.

“Owen’s going to kill me,” he said. “Theo had better be out buying cigarettes.”

––––––––

I
curled up in the passenger seat. The sun was gone, with just a sliver of light left, darkness trying to take over. It’d already been a long day. My head was back against the headrest, and I reached back, taking out the hair clip and twisting my hair on top of my head to re-clip so I could lean my head back without it being in the way.

Luke was driving. He glanced over while I was arranging myself. “I’ve got a lot of your hair clips,” he said. “You need some back? I didn’t realize how many I had at home until yesterday.”

I thought about it. “I don’t know where another one is, actually. This might be my last one.”

“Good,” Gabriel said. He was messing with his phone. “You don’t need any clips. Wear your hair down for once. And I don’t know how Victor does this shit. How are we supposed to track Theo if he doesn’t have a cell phone?”

“Let’s check out the churches,” Luke said. “That’s where we suspect he’s going. If he isn’t at any of them, why bother?”

“There’s the one that burned down near here,” I said. “Is there another one nearby?”

“Hang on,” Gabriel said. He sat up, and put a hand on my shoulder, but he focused on Luke. “Wait, wait, wait. We should go check out the old church that burned down.”

“Why?” Luke asked, but he pulled down a side street and then turned again to almost take us the way we’d come from.

“That happened last night, didn’t it?” Gabriel asked. “There might be someone still around to tell us what happened. We need to find the fire print.”

“What’s a fire print?” I asked.

“It’s how a fire started,” Gabriel said. He held his hand up, counting off by touching a finger each time he made a point. “There’s when the fire started, the accelerants used, wind conditions, locations, point of entry...”

“It’s how you ID an arsonist,” Luke said. “It’s really hard to do. Mostly it works with serial arsonists. Sometimes fires are started by accident, or for insurance purposes, so it only happens once. Serial arsonists are really hard to catch, though. Evidence gets burned up, which makes it difficult to trace. Basically you have to get lucky or catch them in the act.”

I pressed my fingers to my eyebrow and rubbed. “So how will knowing the fire print help us find Theo?” I asked.

“We’re more concerned if he’s been setting anything on fire. Or if these fires aren’t him, if it will trigger him to start,” Gabriel said. He sat back, crossing his arms over his chest. His lips pursed. “If that motherfucker screws up Silas somehow with this...”

“We don’t know what he’s doing,” Luke said.

“But we can’t keep chasing him around when there’s people out there stealing Kota’s car, or the bomb threats we’re supposed to be dealing with. We’re already wasting time trying to babysit him when he’s not doing what he’s supposed to be doing. And now he’s climbing out the window? That’s not what a normal person does.”

I wanted to suggest something, a way to fix it. I didn’t want Silas in trouble, but I also felt Theo needed someone to understand him. How many times had I escaped out the back door when I felt too confined? I was suspected of doing wrong constantly within my own home without any proof. Maybe Theo did something bad back in Greece, but being locked away like a dirty secret would make anyone want to escape, at least for a while.

Luke turned down another road, and before he finished straightening the car, I could see the ruins of the old church. Three of the walls were still intact, with scorch marks rising over the broken-out windows. The roof was gone, and it looked like a back wall might have crumbled. There was a heavy smell of burned wood seeping in through the car. I swallowed, tasting it at the back of my throat.

Lines of yellow police tape crossed over a wide area. The street was quiet, and the place appeared to be mostly abandoned.

Luke pulled up to the old parking lot, and parked close to a set of trees by the road. We sat in the car, looking out the windows. I was nearly leaning over Luke. Mostly, I was scanning the area for Theo, in case he was lurking around somewhere.

I really hoped he wasn’t. I hoped we were wrong. Maybe we could find him and he could tell us he’s got a girlfriend he sneaks off to see. Or maybe he really did go out for cigarettes, and we just missed him somehow.