Adventures In Murder Chasing (Funeral Crashing #3) (24 page)

"So, the case?" Ethan broke into my blissful state, "I was thinking that maybe we could go and talk to Detective Dixon and see what he says."

I didn't even think about it. I grabbed Ethan and kissed him again. I couldn't help it. I wasn't ready to say anything yet. I was nervous. I wanted to procrastinate and just have one nice lunch before I said anything and Ethan got mad at me. We kissed a little longer this time. I stopped caring if we were going to get into trouble. Ethan's lips were on mine and his hands were cupping my face. I moved my hands down to his waist and leaned into him. It was turning into our best lunch yet.

I pulled away first this time. It was getting hard to breathe. My heart was hammering. I grinned at Ethan. All of this kissing was making me giddy.

Ethan smiled back at me. He took a bite of his sandwich. I reached for mine, remembering it was there.

"You're kissy today," Ethan said.

I finished chewing the bite I had just taken of my sandwich, "That's because you're just kissable today."

Ethan laughed. Wow, we were both totally giddy on kisses. I smiled back at him.

Ethan looked right back at me and tried to stop smiling, although he couldn't seem to stop a small smile from lighting up his face. He obviously liked kissing me too, "Alright, you're distracting you know that?"

"Thanks," I said.

Ethan laughed again, "Okay, the case. I know you..."

I grabbed Ethan midsentence and pulled him to me. There was no hesitation on his part this time. He pulled me closer to him and kissed me back. Whoa. This was getting kind of intense. I totally liked it. His hands were on my back. Mine were around his neck. I wished we weren't in school.

Ethan pulled away this time, but only about an inch from my face and whispered, "We're going to get detention if we keep this up."

Somehow I didn't think he actually cared, the way he was looking at me. Yes, this was definitely our best lunch ever. I was really getting into my strategy. It definitely seemed to be working. I just hoped he didn't catch on. I kissed him again. I couldn't help it.

I couldn't remember the rest of lunch. It was a blur of kissing and giggling. I don't know how we didn't get in trouble. I didn't even make it through my whole sandwich. Neither did Ethan. I was going to be starving for the rest of the day. I didn't care.

I had to go to work after school, which was good. I still wasn't ready to say anything to Ethan, although my mind had totally begun formulating a plan. Ethan was going to be the last to know. I couldn't help it. I was just having a hard time telling him. Besides, the only thing I now wanted to do when I thought of him, was makeout with him. I didn't want to talk at all. My plan had worked on my brain too. Yes, I was still giddy from the kissing hours later. He was a good kisser. I couldn't help it.

Work was slow. Anne had left me in charge by myself because she had errands to run. I was trying to focus on my homework because I knew that my brain was not going to be on school as the week progressed and I got more into the case. I had to keep my grades up, though, or my dad would kill me. Too bad then, that Ethan and our kissing was still on my brain. I wanted to daydream about him instead. Math homework was calling my name, though. I hated math.

I finally finished my math homework except for one ridiculously hard problem and was working on Chemistry homework when I looked up to find Detective Dixon staring at me. I had never seen him at the video store before. Was he renting something?

"I'm getting this," Detective Dixon said, handing me a DVD.

It was The French Connection. I had seen it awhile back because it was a really well known classic. It was a gritty 1970's cop movie. It wasn't quite my thing, but I could see why Detective Dixon would enjoy it. I scanned the DVD into the system and took Detective Dixon's membership card.

"Here you go," I said. "Enjoy."

Detective Dixon took the DVD. "So, I heard you've been down to Landale College."

Uh-oh. Had Ethan gone to see him without me? Maybe my kissing technique hadn't worked. "Uh, what? Did Ethan come see you?"

Detective Dixon's eyebrows rose, "Why? Should he have?"

That's when my brain clicked. Kara had snitched on me after all. He already knew the truth, so I wasn't going to lie, "Yeah, I was at Landale."

"Looking into Nico Moretti's death?" Detective Dixon asked. "And Dana Tulle's?"

I frowned. Detective Dixon had me cornered. He might not know for sure about Dana, but it sounded like Kara had told him an earful about Nico. Maybe Ethan was right and he would be able to help. I was reluctant to give up my plans.

"Um, maybe?" I should have sounded more confident. I needed to work on that.

Detective Dixon was the one frowning now. "Let the police handle it."

"The police don't think there's been a murder. I already talked to them," I said. "In fact, we almost got arrested for bothering them."

"What do you have?" Detective Dixon asked.

I hesitated. Did I tell him? What about our sting operation? I felt sad, but I knew what Ethan would want me to do. I told Detective Dixon what I'd learned.

"That is interesting," he said.

I nodded. "I think there will be another death this weekend."

"I'll call the precinct. See if I can drum something up," Detective Dixon said. "Thanks," I said for lack of anything else to say.

I wasn't actually sure that Detective Dixon's idea would work. If he had been the one investigating, that was one thing, but the police at that station had been so against listening to us. Then again, maybe they would listen to another cop talking to them. My gut was weary, though. I didn't get great vibes from Officer Martinez and he represented all of the other cops in that precinct to me.

"Don't you get any bright ideas and go off chasing any killers," Detective Dixon warned. "It could still be coincidence. Let the police look into it."

I nodded reluctantly and said. "Don't worry. I won't go chasing any killers."

I didn't say anything about not saving anyone from getting killed, of course. I couldn't just trust the police to do something if I didn't know that they were actually doing something. What if someone died in the meantime? We could help save someone without getting near the killer. At least if my plan worked out, that would be the plan. Technically I wasn't lying to Detective Dixon, right?

By the time I closed up at work, I was feeling guilty. I had kind of, sort of, probably lied to Detective Dixon. I mean, not technically, but still, I knew what he meant. Plus I still had to tell Ethan my plans. At least I could also say I'd talked to Detective Dixon, even if it had been by chance. It was time to bite the bullet.

I was at Ethan's house at 10:45 pm. It was a little late, but I knew he'd still be awake. My dad would normally be expecting me at home, but I had just texted him that we had some last minute inventory to finish up and I'd be home closer to eleven thirty. I took a deep breath and called Ethan. The phone rang once, twice, and he picked up.

"Hey," I said, looking up at his window.

"Hey. How was work?" Ethan said. I imagined him sitting on his bed, playing his guitar. My brain kept wanting to imagine him in a towel too, but I stopped myself from going too far.

"Good. Um, I'm actually outside. I need to talk to you," I said.

"You're outside?" I saw him look out his window and down at my car. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing's wrong. I just want to talk to you," I said.

"I'll be right out," Ethan said.

A couple of minutes later the front door opened and Ethan jogged out to my car. His button up shirt was half unbuttoned. My breath caught. He got into the car quickly, on the passenger side.

"It's cold," He said.

I didn't say anything about the shirt. I didn't say anything at all. He turned toward me.

"What's going on?" Ethan asked. "Has there been another murder?"

"What? No." I started and then stopped. I took a deep breath. "I have something to tell you."

Ethan's face turned serious, like he expected bad news. "What?"

I just let it out. "I want to go down to Landale College on Saturday and stakeout the dorms."

Ethan paused, but smiled. "I knew you would."

"Wait," I was surprised. "You're not mad?"

Ethan's smile turned into a frown. "I'm not mad. I just worry about you. I'm fine with it on two conditions."

"Okay?" I said.

"One, that I stick with you and two, that we don't go after the killer," Ethan said. "We can warn the desk assistant, but after that, that's it."

I nodded. "I can handle those conditions."

"And we should try talking to Detective Dixon," Ethan said.

"I already did. He stopped by the video store," I said and then quickly told him the story.

"Okay, then we're cool," Ethan said after I was done.

"Great," I said. My eyes were drawn to the open skin on his chest. I still was not over all of the kissing from lunch.

Ethan saw me looking. "I was in my pajamas when you called."

"It's alright," I said, moving my gaze up to his eyes.

That's when he kissed me, leaning into my seat from his. I could feel his bare chest under my hands and then I stopped noticing anything except the kissing and his bare skin under mine. I moved my hands up to his hair and he pulled me closer. I loved his hair. I loved... I kissed him harder.

Ethan broke away a moment later. "That's for all the kisses at lunch."

I giggled. I still wanted more even though I was breathing hard. "Did you know what I was trying to do?"

"I had an idea," Ethan said. "I'm getting to know you pretty well. I didn't mind so much, though."

I smiled and then I kissed him again. This time his hands were in my hair, pulling me even close to him. I awkwardly climbed over into his seat to try and get closer and we giggled as I sort of collapsed onto him. That only lasted for a moment. His shirt was completely unbuttoned. I ran my hands down his chest. I looked into his eyes and he pulled me down into a kiss, our mouths crushing together. I lost time. I so loved him.

I pulled away, breathing heavy. My cellphone was going off. It was my dad. I didn't even need to look. I glanced at the time. It was almost midnight, "I need to go home."

Ethan nodded, catching his breath, but said. "Are you sure?"

I didn't want to go. "I'm sure."

"Alright," Ethan said and kissed me again.

My cell phone rang again. My dad was going to kill me. Yeah, I didn't care.

I just wanted to kiss Ethan for a couple minutes more. Surely, five minutes wouldn't make a difference, right? I lost time again.

It was all settled. We had people covering all four freshman dorms. Kyle and Suzie were on Mezz Dorm duty. Troy and Ariel were on Keller Dorm duty. Mike and Dave were on Mycroft Dorm duty. Ethan and I were on Radford Dorm duty. So far, so good. I was one hundred percent keeping to Ethan's conditions. Luckily, it also seemed that I was keeping to Detective Dixon's, although I was sure that he wouldn't want me to continue looking into the case at all.

Since the killer had theoretically already struck Mezz and Keller Dorms, I doubted that he or she would strike there again. Still, two murders didn't quite make a pattern, so we couldn't be one hundred percent sure. Everyone was listening for a call that came after eleven am, although we all planned to be at our posts by eight am when the first shift started, just in case. It wasn't going to be a fun Saturday morning by any means, since we all had to get up at five am in order to make it down there in time.

"Is everybody set up?" I asked Ethan as he made his last call. We had brought homework and were camped out in the Radford Dorm common area within hearing distance of the front desk.

There was a bleary eyed looking guy behind the desk, sipping coffee, staring at his laptop computer, and trying wholeheartedly to stay awake. Truthfully, it looked more and more like a cake job if you didn't get murdered for doing it, of course.

An hour passed. Ethan texted everyone, but they all texted back that nothing had happened. It was ten am before I knew it. All was still clear. I was getting a lot of homework done, actually. It would be nice to be free of it for the rest of the weekend since I was almost done.

Around the eleven o'clock hour I put my homework away. Ethan texted everyone again, but there had been no strange calls or anything of interest happening. The bleary eyed looking guy behind the desk was finally looking awake, though. He had already drunk three cups of coffee from what I could tell and was now onto a soda. He was getting kind of hyper, actually. Well, he was constantly tapping his pen on the desk to the beat of some song he was listening to on his laptop. He had one earphone in his ear and I guessed with the other that he was listening for calls. I was kind of mesmerized by the tap, tap, tap of his pencil, actually. I felt my foot start tapping along in rhythm and that's when the phone rang. I froze. Ethan looked at me. Our eyes met. We listened.