Fiona Frost: Order of the Black Moon (31 page)

“Well, that doesn’t sound like a serious thr
eat, Detective,” Maddie whined.

“A death threat is a death threat when you are talking about a murder case.
The sword was verified as the Sword of Moartea, which means
it is a
sword of death
.”

“Used for human sacrifice
?
”
Wolfe inquired.

“Yes and no.
It’s a
G
othic sword used to kill
—
no real meaning on how or why a person is killed with it
,
but it
supposedly
give
s
the user
power
when used to kill.
Now, to be honest, the rest of the vampire items in the cave around the victim were not
related to
human sacrifice
,
so there is a slant in his favor.”

“Weren’t those kids released from jail?”

“Yes, this morning, Dimitri posted bond.”

“Great.
Well, I hope they a
re innocent for society’s sake,” Maddie added abruptly, slamming her hand on the conference room table.

“Next is Victoria Newsted.
She
’s
linked to
Gerald Smith via pink envelopes
,
”
Detective Chase reported.

“Were the letters from Victoria
?
”
Maddie asked
hastily
.

“No letters were found.
He must have taken them or disposed of them prior to escaping.
Dimitri
came
forth with information that the victim, Jody James, was the
early childhood
babysitter of Victoria
—
before she was taken away and put into a foster home
at the age of five
.”

“Really
?
Wow!
” Willow shrieked.

“Jody James was
supposedly
the one who was abusing
Victoria
and was
ultimately
the reason she was taken away from her mother
, Melanie Newsted
.
Records reflect it was her mother that was accused of beating Victoria with wooden spoons
on her hands
.
We asked
Victoria
about it while she was in jail
,
and she didn’t want to comment.
She claimed she didn’t remember anything.
We
spoke to Melanie Newsted
about it
,
and she said she had no idea who was beating Victoria, but she
had
always told the police it wasn’t her
.
She
claims
nobody would listen to her because she was poor.
She’
s glad to have Victoria
home;
she said she doesn
’t care to open any old wounds,”
he
said
.

Laur
en
sat upright in her chair, lightly tapping her index and middle finger on the table to get everybody’s attention.

“Well, I think Victoria did it.
She’s working with Gerald Smith on something
,
and she killed Jody James out of vengeance for beating her as a young child.
She is lying about not being in the cave
,
even though the blood evidence from her jeans clearly places her there.
We just have to figure out if she is seeing Gerald Smith romantically or maybe just leading him along so she could use him for something
.”

Detective Chase nodded affirmatively as if he agreed with Lauren.
Ms. Spinks crept in the conference room with a box of donuts, placing
them in the middle of the table and
pointed
at
the bar at the end of the room where
the
coffee
was—
as if we drank the stuff.
The detective
nodded,
rushing
over
to the bar
to grab a cup.
We attacked the donuts simultaneously
; I
went for a chocolate glaze with sprinkles.

“Don’t forget about Emily Vance
.
W
e just found out this morning
sh
e doesn’t have any teeth.
And, the full
set of teeth that we found in Love’s Truck Stop
was
found to be a
direct match to the bite marks on the victim.
We are trying to find dental records
on her
,
but it seems as though she has never been to a dentist in town
.
We are
tracking
down where she grew up
,
so we can go see the
local
dentists
—
wherever that may be,
”
he
said,
walking back to his seat as he stirred his coffee.

“
Of
course
,
she doesn’t have any dental records.
Didn’t you see her teeth when she had them?
Definition of yuck mouth,” Lauren scoffed in a raspy voice, before taking a bite of her jelly donut.

Willow nodded and smiled at Lauren.
She was still contemplating the donuts left in the box
.
She
was so
tiny;
I figured she ate as much as a mouse.
I could see why she
pondered
if she should even have a donut
—
she watched her weight.
I, on the other hand, figured life wasn’t living without food.
I
surely
didn’t stress over a donut.

“Why didn’t you guys take a dental impression on everybody when the
bite marks
were discovered at the autopsy?
”
Wolfe asked
warily, not wanting to offend
the detective
.

“We did, Wolfe.
On nearly everybody besides Emily Vance.
She wasn’t a suspect at the time.
We have now taken one
of
everybody else involved
—D
imitri, Melanie, and Alex Drumley from Hartford.”

“Any word on Alex and if they can prove he was there during the time of the murder
?
”
I added.

“I have a couple of folks working on Alex Drumley’s timeline.
We should hear something back very soon.”

“Well, if Dimitri is the leader of the
O
rder
of the Black Moon
, and he has the rule of cutting out tongues if you want to quit being a vampire,
doesn’t
that speak for itself?
I mean, he is prone to violence
, and he
condones and promotes heinous crimes.
Isn’t he an obvious suspect?
Where was he during the murder
?
”
I scoffed, leaning back into my chair
, awaiting
the responses to my comments.

Detective Chase took the lead.
“He stated
he
was running late for the cult meeting,
and
he had been at the Gondola Bar.
He arrived, saw the victim
, and
left the cave seconds
prior to
the police’s arrival
.
Emily Vance stated she saw him leave the cave right before the police arrived.”

“So there was a scheduled cult meeting at that time
?
”
I propounded.

“Yes, it seems so
—
according to him and Sydney
Sergeant
.”

Lauren shook her head vehemently, her bouncy curly locks followed suit.
Willow nodded to Lauren in agreement, taking a bite of a
modest
glazed donut that she had
split in
to
two pieces
, giving the remaining half to Lauren on a napkin
.

“Fishy story
.
It could be him,” Lauren said
boldly
.
“Now, Wolfe, what do you think about Camber Johnson
?
She was a
member;
the evidence places her
there with Damien
.
Do you think, from talking to her, that she knows what happened
?
”
she
stared coldly into
hi
s eyes.

I
didn’t care for
her bringing up Camber to Wolfe.
It was still a sensitive subject with me.

“To be completely honest, I do not believe
she had anything to do with it,”
h
e shrugged flippantly
, grabbing another
chocolate éclair
from the box
.

My adrenaline surged at
his words
;
I became irritated,
and he
had
defended
Camber
.
I got
out of my seat to
get a glass of water over at the bar.

“
S
ydney
Sergeant
told the police she was late
to the meeting
and walked in on Damien holding the bloody knife
with
Camber and Victoria standing by his
side.
K
ind of obvious
Camber
had
something
to do with it
,” Willow sneered in her quirky voice, giving a cold smirk to
Wolfe as
Lauren nodded, giving
her
suppor
t. She continued, “I
f you want to look at it with an unbiased eye, it could have been Sydney’s initiation into the group.
With all of that awakening stuff they talk about, maybe this is an initiation gone wrong
,
and Sydney is trying to blame them to cover herself because she changed her mind about being a vampire
?
”

“Willow, that’s a viable line of thinking.
I hadn’t thought of that scenario.
That is possible.
If she
were
guilty, it would make sense
she’d throw them under the bus to
save herself.
Maybe Sydney was the only one in the cave and set up the others
?
”
he
added bluntly, jotting notes on his notepad.

I pounded a fist on the table, glancing at Wolfe f
or a second before I continued.

“Has everybody forgotten about the one with the huge motive, here
?
Parker Thomas, III—
our
trusty
ole’ math teacher
at
school who
inherited a ton of money
after
his grandfather’s death,” I added
sharply, surveying the expressions around the table
.

Carden raised his hand
,
and I pointed
at
him to speak.

“Well, yea
h
, I mean, he has the biggest
,
most obvious motive
,
but we’d have to place him in the cave during the ti
me of the murder,”
he
said softly.

Wolfe nodded at Carden in agreement.

“Detective, have you guys followed th
e
lead with Parker Thomas, III?
Jody James was the only other heir
,
and within
twenty-four
hours of their
rich
grandfather’s death
—
Jody gets the axe
,
and Parker
doesn’t have to share,” Wolfe said
, shrugging a massive shoulder
.

“I haven’t personally spoken
to
Mr. Thomas, but my team
looked into him
.
I’ll chec
k on where we stand,
”
the detective
countered, jotting notes on his pad
before
taking a swig of coffee
.
“Well, that’s enough for today
.
H
opefully
,
we can uncover some good dirt tomorrow
,”
he
shut
his notepad holder
,
gesturing for us to
exit
the conference room.