Mortal Kiss (17 page)

“Thanks, everyone! Glad you liked it!” he yelled over the still-echoing applause. “That one was for Faye McCarron!”

At the sound of Lucas’s voice, Finn looked once more toward the stage. His anger returned, and he pulled away from Faye.

“Finn,” she called after him as he began to push his way toward the exit.

“Finn, wait!”

He didn’t stop. Faye followed him before he could vanish into the crowd.

#

The crowd was still cheering as Lucas left the stage, pulling his guitar strap over his head as he went. His heart was pounding. If this was what it was like to perform for people, no wonder everyone wanted to be a rock star! It was amazing … the crowd had gone crazy for him. For him. Lucas Morrow! He grinned to himself, rubbing one hand through his hair. He could get used to that, for sure! He just hoped Faye had loved it too. He’d looked for her in the crowd, but hadn’t been able to see her among all the other figures. The room had been packed!

Lucas saw Ballard waiting by the stage door and held out the guitar.

“Time to go,” the servant said as he took the instrument.

“Not yet! I want to see some of my competition.” Lucas was about to head for the auditorium, but Ballard gripped his elbow.

“I said, time to go. Your mother is waiting for you.”

Lucas narrowed his eyes and stared at Ballard but knew better than to argue. Lucas hung back as the next contestant began to sing. Through the curtain, he saw that it was the girl called Rachel whom Liz had told him about. He smiled to himself—definitely no competition for him there. Actually, he kind of felt sorry for her, having to go on right after him!

He headed out the door, following Ballard across the parking lot, wondering what his mother wanted. He really would have liked to stay and hang out a bit. Maybe he could come back later. He was almost at the car when he felt a strong hand on his shoulder. He spun around. It was the dark-haired biker guy about his own age—the one who had butted in earlier, before the show—with a thunderous look on his face. Lucas had seen him around town, with his crew of thugs. Then Lucas saw Faye and Liz run out of the school and down the steps.

“Finn!” Faye shouted, sounding worried. “What are you doing?”

Flash was still hanging out with this guy? A wave of anger tinted with envy washed over Lucas. He pulled away.

“What do you want?” Lucas asked. “I’m busy.”

“Where did you get that jacket?” Finn demanded through a jaw clenched in anger.

Lucas smirked. “Why, you planning on buying one? Not sure you could afford it.”

He turned toward the car, but Finn stopped him, grabbing him by the arm. “It’s a biker jacket. As worn by the Black Dogs, and
only
the Black Dogs.”

Lucas wrenched his arm away. “So?”

Finn stepped forward again, right up in Lucas’s face. “So you’re not a member. You can’t wear it.”

Lucas stepped away again as he looked his attacker up and down. “What’s it to you, biker boy?” he asked. “Afraid I might take your place?”

Lucas saw the flash of anger in Finn’s face as Finn grabbed his collar, dragging Lucas forward until they were nose to nose. More and more students were gathering, excited by the prospect of a fight. Lucas realized that the music inside the
school had stopped, probably because most of the audience had suddenly left and were now standing around them, waiting to see what was going to happen.

Out of the corner of his eye, Lucas saw Ballard waiting outside the schoolyard. With him was the policeman who had come to visit the house, Liz’s dad, Sergeant Wilson. He was just standing there, doing nothing, while Ballard spoke into his ear.

Finn shook Lucas hard. “I want that jacket back,” he said with a snarl. “Take it off.”

Lucas struggled to free himself, pulling backward and then barreling forward, shoving the boy hard in the chest with his shoulder. Finn overcompensated, falling heavily to the ground.

Breathing hard, Lucas struggled out of the jacket. “It isn’t yours. I found this in my house. Why don’t you just back off?”

Finn was on his feet in an instant, so fast Lucas wasn’t even sure he’d seen him move. “You’re lying,” he said, his voice a low, slow growl. “
Take it off
. Before I make you.”

Lucas made a derisive sound in his throat as he shrugged off the jacket. “You really want it that much, huh? Well, it’s kind of rotten, so I guess it’ll suit you. It’s pretty dirty, too. Here, let me give you something to clean it with.”

Lucas spat on the battered leather before tossing the jacket to the ground. He saw the fury on Finn’s face. Before Lucas could step back, the biker was on his feet. The punch came out of nowhere, a fast uppercut that connected hard with Lucas’s jaw and smashed his teeth together, throwing him backward. Stunned, Lucas crashed against the car. He saw Finn raise his arm again and pushed himself off the car, ready to level his own blow.

Finn stepped forward for another shot. Lucas tensed, prepared for it. But then … nothing happened. Lucas blinked. It was as if someone had freeze-framed the scene. Finn stood with his arm raised, his hand clenched into a fist. Next to him stood Sergeant Wilson. In a flash, the policeman had reached out and grabbed Finn’s hand in midair. Finn’s muscles were bunched hard as he tried to free himself, but Sergeant Wilson was obviously stronger. So strong, in fact, that he didn’t even need to try. There was something very strange about the way the policeman was standing. His body looked relaxed, as if he were asleep. His face was calm—blank, even. He stared at Finn with expressionless eyes. And then, without warning, he twisted the boy’s arm back, flinging him against the car with a crunch, as easily as someone would toss a ball to a dog. Finn’s face twisted in pain.

“Dad!” Liz shouted, obviously horrified.

The policeman didn’t seem to hear, leaning heavily on Finn as he pulled out a pair of cuffs and fastened them tightly around the boy’s wrists. Lucas looked at Sergeant Wilson’s face and felt a needle of cold fear thread through his veins. There was no emotion in the man’s eyes. In fact, there was no sign of life at all. It was like looking at a deep, still pool of water—empty and fathomless.

“Sergeant Wilson,” Faye began, “please don’t arrest Finn, he was just—”

Wilson didn’t listen or speak. He marched Finn in front of him through the gathered crowd. Liz followed, touching her father’s arm, trying to get him to stop. The policeman shook her off, sending his daughter crashing into Faye.

They were almost at the police car when Lucas saw Finn twist around, shouting for Faye.

“I know where your friend is!” he shouted. “Faye, I know where Jimmy is!”

Faye helped Liz up. Her friend was shaking. Faye was trembling too. She’d never seen Sergeant Wilson like that before. He was never violent; he never needed to be. He was too good a police officer for that. Around them, the rest of Winter Mill High’s students were heading back into the Battle of the Bands, discussing what had happened. Faye saw the jacket that had caused the fight still lying on the ground and went to pick it up.

“We have to follow them,” Liz said, her voice rough.

“I’m not sure that’s such a great idea,” said Faye.

“Once we’re at the police station, Dad will talk to me,” Liz insisted, though she sounded as if she was trying to convince herself as much as anyone. “And didn’t Finn say he knew something about Jimmy? If he knows where he is, we should find out, shouldn’t we?”

Faye couldn’t argue with that. They headed for Liz’s car. Faye saw Lucas standing alone, nursing his jaw, and she realized that Ballard was gone. Faye didn’t feel as if she could just leave Lucas there.

“Are you all right?” she asked.

Lucas eyed her warily. “I’ll be fine. Nice friends you have, Flash.”

Faye ignored the comment. “Where’s Ballard gone?”

Lucas shrugged. “No idea. You couldn’t give me a lift home, could you? I don’t want to call my mom.”

Faye looked around. Liz was already backing the car out of its space. She shook her head. “Look, Lucas, I’m sorry … but I have to help Finn.”

Lucas looked crestfallen. “Right,” he said.

“He says he knows where Jimmy is,” said Faye, trying to explain. “And …”

“Don’t worry about it,” Lucas told her, obviously hurt.

“Lucas? Are you all right?” The voice came from behind them, where a small group of students was still milling around, chattering about what had just happened. It was Rachel Hogan, looking worried. “Look, let me take you home. I’ve got my car here.”

Faye saw Lucas’s surprised expression. “Oh, that would be really great.

Thanks.”

Liz pulled up beside them and hooted. “Come on, Faye! Let’s go!”

“I’m really sorry, Lucas,” called Faye as she ran around the car, but he was already walking away with Rachel.

Faye slammed her door, and Liz tore out of the parking lot in pursuit of her dad’s squad car. They headed for the police station, which was on the town’s main street. The sidewalks and roads were quiet—there didn’t seem to be anybody around, even though it wasn’t really that late. Winter Mill looked abandoned and creepy, and Faye shivered miserably. Aunt Pam was right. There was something very strange going on in their town.

“Look.” Liz pointed, cutting through Faye’s unhappy thoughts. “Ballard’s following my dad too!” The two cars ahead of them passed through town. “Dad’s not stopping at the police station,” Liz said with a frown. “Where’s he going?”

They followed Sergeant Wilson through the central crossroads and into the old section of town. Faye thought they were going to stop at one of the houses along the road. Instead, they kept going to the town’s limit, making a sharp left and heading up the hill into the dense pine forest that surrounded Winter Mill.

“I think Dad’s going up to the Old Mill!” Liz muttered as they watched the two cars ahead of them pull onto an old, unused road.

“But why?” Faye asked. “There’s nothing up there. It hasn’t been used for decades! Why would he take Finn there instead of to the police station?”

“I don’t know,” said Liz helplessly. “I don’t know why any of this is happening. It’s all crazy. The bikers, the stuff going on in the woods, Jimmy going missing—and now this. Faye, what on earth is happening to us? What’s happening to my dad? Back there … I’ve never seen him like that. He looked so weird. And the way he treated Finn … and now, not taking him to the police station? What’s going on?”

Faye didn’t have an answer. They drove in silence, and as the track became even narrower Liz slowed down even more. She turned the car’s lights off.

“Liz! What are you doing?”

“They’ll see us coming if I don’t!”

“But there’s no light! We’ll crash! Pull over. Let’s walk the rest of the way—that way they won’t hear us, either.”

Liz nodded and stopped the car in a hollow of earth that looked as it if might once have been designed to let two carts pass each other. The snow was deep enough to rise over the car’s hood. The two girls slipped out as quietly as they could, stepping in the tire tracks left by Sergeant Wilson and Ballard.

Ahead of them, the Old Mill loomed out of the darkness, its milling tower making it look like some ancient castle. Faye shivered. She’d never liked this place. Her dad had brought her up here once on one of his local-history tours. When she was little, he’d loved taking her out on pretend archaeological digs around Winter Mill, teaching her about the history of the area. Faye had usually loved it. Learning about how to excavate delicate artifacts had been fun, even if what she found were usually just fragments of dinner plates. Faye had to swallow a sudden lump in her
throat at the thought of her dad. She wished he were here for her now, instead of somewhere so far away he couldn’t even call.

But
this
place—as soon as she’d seen it, Faye had been filled with a horrible sense of foreboding. Her dad had told her it was one of the earliest buildings in the area. It had first been built as a loggers’ rest, and then later, when the town was bigger, it had milled grain into flour for everyone who lived there. But now it was abandoned, decrepit, its tower a half-destroyed wreck. Faye didn’t understand why they didn’t just pull the whole ugly thing down.

She and Liz slipped off the tracks and into the trees once they got closer, using Liz’s little key-ring flashlight and the glow of the moon on the snow to light their way. There was no sign of either car, and Faye figured that both Ballard and Sergeant Wilson must have driven right into the mill. Faye hadn’t wanted to say anything to Liz earlier, but during the fight she could have sworn she saw Ballard telling the policeman what to do. Faye didn’t like to think of Mitch Wilson being on the wrong side of the law—he’d been like a second dad to her since she was a baby. But things didn’t look good.

“What are we going to do now?” Liz whispered. “We can’t just walk in there!”

Faye looked around. In the gloom she could just make out a gap in the mill’s wooden walls, peeping out of the snow. It would mean they’d have be in the drift to see what was going on, but the only other option was to climb up to one of the broken windows, which would make far too much noise. Faye pointed and Liz nodded. Together, they crept toward the opening, kneeling down so they could see what was happening.

Inside, the mill was dry but dark. Faye could just make out the two cars, parked side by side. Suddenly, there was a loud crack, and a light burst into life.
Faye and Liz both jumped, clinging to each other. After a second, Liz realized what it was.

“It’s a flare,” she said into Faye’s ear. “Dad lit a flare.”

The luminous green glow lit the large space inside. It was empty, except for a few stacks of logs and old, broken wooden crates. Ballard was holding a heavy rope. As they watched, he dragged a chair to the center of the floor. Sergeant Wilson opened the back of his squad car and forced Finn to get out. Faye pulled her camera out from beneath her jacket and angled it up, trying to get a clear shot of what was going on.

“What are you doing?” Liz hissed.

“What if we need evidence?” Faye whispered, making sure the flash was off as she grabbed a couple of shots.