Death Whispers (Death Series, Book 1) (26 page)

Next
stop, the Js. I pressed my thumb back on the pad
disconnect
and thought the command:
three-way:
Jonesy and John Terran.

Hey
dill weed.-
MJ

Hi.-
John
Terran

Hey-
CH

Thinkin'
about tomorrow Caleb?
MJ

Yeah,
ya know I am. But, something happened today that is freaking me out,
big time.-
CH

What
happened?
John
Terran

Some
losers came through the house and tore it up, broke mom's plants,
tried to hack my dad's pulse-top. It was bad. Then the cops showed.-
CH

Garcia?
MJ

No.-
CH

You think they're looking for the 'goods'?
John Terran

smiles slyly...
good
one John. Maybe. That's what Dad and I think.-
CH

laughs i
t's
not funny, but you have the dumbest luck.-
John
Terran

They
couldn't find anything anyway.-
MJ

Probably
not...but.-
CH

The
papers I gave you
distress!
John
Terran

nodding...
right.-
CH

Profanity block!
That's
right, John gave you the corpse papers...
MJ

Yeah
sighs
.
-
CH

Are
those at school... maybe?
John
Terran

Well,
I hope they are but I'm not much for organizing my locker. The only
thing I hope is, they looked at my room and figured it'd be too much
time to search
laughs
.-
CH

guffaws
you
got that goin' on Caleb!
MJ

So,
are you guys staying at the house? I mean, is it safe?
John
Terran

Yeah,
the cops said they'd do random surveillance.-
CH

Okay,
we'll talk about this more tomorrow. Let me think about it more.
Maybe we can figure out who did it, or
w
hy?
What about Jade? Can she do anything with her mojo?
John
Terran

Mojo,
John?
Laughs,
I
don't know but let
me
ask her, alright?
CH

Get
over yourself, Caleb, we won't frisk the girlfriend.-
MJ

Yeah,
you chumps just follow my lead.-
CH

Pushy
bastard!
MJ

Just
for you
laughs.-
CH

You
guys come over about three o'clock.-
CH

Okay,
what are you telling your parents?
MJ

That
we're gonna hang out.-
CH

That's
so
not going to work if you have another corpse day.-
John
Terran

Well...
actually...
CH

You...
what, did it again?
MJ

Yeah.
Today Dad thought it would be a good idea to visit the cemetery and
experiment with my 'growing abilities'.-
CH

Well,
profanity block!
How'd that go?
John
Terran

Not
real well. But I got granny back in the ground.-
CH

WTF?!
MJ

You
raised your dead grandmother?
John
Terran

Yeah,
I meant to, but she sorta got out of control, and then Tiff Weller
and I...
CH

WHAT?!
John
Terran

You
don't even know Tiff Weller. Wait a sec...what was she even doing in
the cemetery?
MJ

Hang
on to your shorts guys, I will tell you the whole thing tomorrow. I
don't want this on our pulses, you feel me?
CH

silence

Okay-
John Terran

Yeah,
I got ya, but you're killin' me dude.
MJ

Three
o'clock, right?
John
Terran

Okay,
see ya.-
CH

I powered down my pulse to sleep mode and was
immediately lost in my thoughts. The Js were gonna have to know about
the lovely graveyard mess, then the house break in. Was it getting
dangerous for my friends to know some of this stuff? For Jade? I just
didn't have any answers anymore. Like I had all the answers anyway,
duh. Things felt like they were spinning out of control.

It was all in motion now, too late to turn back.

CHAPTER 16

I didn't sleep well. Every noise, every scrape of
a branch against a windowpane was cause for wakefulness. At one
point, I sorta gave up and sat up on my knees, turning to the window
and looking out, confident that I could not be seen.

The street stood quietly, a breeze lifting a tree
branch now and then. The moon cast shadows under the streetlights,
pools of light bordered by inky blackness.

As
I watched, a police cruiser slowly pulled up. Idling for a few
seconds, an officer got out, then a second from the other side,
Garcia and McGraw! What were they
doing
here? I sure didn't feel safer with them guarding the house. No
siree. My hands gripped the windowsill, leaning forward, I pressed my
nose pressed to the glass, careful not to fog up the window with my
breath.

Garcia turned suddenly as if McGraw had said
something, bending to hear him. Surreptitious whispering ensued,
their heads pressed together, one blond, the other so dark it blended
with the night.

They looked up at my room at that precise moment.
It took a whole lot for me not to jump down underneath the window.

But I wasn't noticed.

A sigh of relief escaped me into the hushed
silence of my room.

Just as they were finishing their covert
conversation, another cruiser pulled up. Officers Gale and Ward got
out.

Now this was interesting.

I was certain we didn't need four cops. I rested
my butt cheeks against my heels, perching for the duration.

Even in the gloom it was easy to tell which cop
was Gale. She was clearly the smallest, a whole head and then-some
shorter than Garcia, he being the tallest and Ward a little shorter.
As obsessed with growing as I was, I noticed people's heights. Bobbi
Gale was around Jade's height, but built bigger, solid, like she
worked out.

There was some arm flailing going on with Gale
gesturing to our house and then throwing her hands up in the air.
Ward had his arms crossed across his chest, not pleased. McGraw was
mirroring Ward's stance and Garcia was nose to nose with Gale. Their
height difference didn't really allow for that but she was right in
his face, her's craning up to make eye contact.

Finally, McGraw touched Garcia's shoulder and he
stepped back... away from Gale. I could see his shoulders hike up in
an exaggerated shrug, with a wave of his hand he dismissed our house
and walked over to his cruiser. McGraw followed, turning once to give
a considering look at Gale. Even from my vantage point I could see
her glower at him.

She
was pissed. It was in the set of her shoulders, the way tension sang
along them. I would've loved to heard what they said.

The two cops got into their car, pulling away into
the night. Gale and Ward looked after them, then they got in their
cruiser, backing up into the space that McGraw and Garcia had
vacated.

That was odd as hell, what were they arguing
about? I knew it wasn't a shift change thing because Gale and Ward
said random. Could it be that McGraw and Garcia were not supposed to
be here and showed up? Showed up for what, my mind asked the obvious.
I just didn't know.

I stared for a couple more minutes, barely making
them out in the gloom. Gale in the driver's seat and Ward beside her,
gesturing and talking, a badge twinkling in the dim light cast by the
streetlight. I laid back down, crossing my arms behind my head and
thinking. I tossed and turned, but sleep evaded. Finally, I fell into
a fitful sleep, unconsciousness pulling me under like a pebble in a
river.

CHAPTER 17

I was swimming, the sun shining through the water,
me at the bottom looking through layers of grayish-green, a great
pale orb shining dimly above me. It was important that I reach it.

Moving a hand in front of my face, it floated
there like a dead, pale fish. I moved my body, feeling the resistance
and rose determinedly toward the surface, my hands knifing through
the water. As I gained speed, the heat grew, the light intensifying.
The coolness of the water retreating as I surfaced. Breaking through
I opened my eyes.

I was in my room.

I became aware of things in stages, as if still
dreaming and unable to wake up. I pinched myself, yup, that hurt,
definitely awake. A red crescent appeared where I'd self-damaged.

The Js and Jade would be here in three hours.
Sitting up,I moved my neck in a loose circle, definitely stiff from
the shitty night's sleep.

Last night! I sat up on my knees, pulling the
curtain aside. The cops were gone and any evidence of their presence
wiped away. I looked at the sky, noticing storm clouds brewing, a
brisk breeze hammering them through. Perfect cemetery weather. I was
trying for optimistic. The ass-twins would get good and distracted,
I'd get some space before the AP Test tomorrow and we'd pick up black
dog.

Leaning across the bed I cracked the window. The
May heat would buzz up here, making it eighty degrees by nighttime.
Getting off the bed, I kicked a pile of junk out of the way of the
door and headed downstairs.

Dad was downstairs in his fave chair working with
his pulse-top. Reading the news, the most boring use of time. Mom
wore her apron finishing pancakes. Music swam around the room on low
volume, while she put the fixings on the table, butter, the cow, the
milk, and syrup. Dad was gonna succumb. He tried to limit pancakes
because he was O.L.D and didn't want to get F.A.T.

I plopped down in my seat and Mom gave me the eye.

“Kinda late getting up this morning, pal.”

“Did you hear the cops?” I asked.

Mom rolled her eyes and Dad looked up from his
pulse-top, closing it.

“I thought you said that was shut down Dad?”

“It is, I was just putting it through some
security paces.”

I looked at him.

“Security protocol,” he said in way of
explanation. “Rudimentary procedure before I have one of our tech
people go through it.”

“Oh. I thought maybe you got it fixed and were
reading the boring news or something,” I said.

Dad smiled. “That 'boring news', keeps me
up-to-date on world events, Caleb.”