Immortal (4 page)

Fin glanced at the dead man. “He’s obviously posed,” he observed aloud.

“Posed?”

“Like the body was set there, positioned after he was dead.” The surfer’s eyes were still open. Blue. But they were beginning to cloud. The body was already in the first stages of decomposition, although Fin didn’t know yet how long it had been here. The human body started decomposing the moment the heart ceased to beat.

“Posed,” Sean repeated. “Looks posed to me.”

“No blood here, either,” Fin observed, moving closer to the body, his hand on his uncle’s so the older man couldn’t walk away. “What’s it mean?”

“What’s it mean?” Sean repeated.

Fin hadn’t meant the statement to be rhetorical. “It means the kid was killed somewhere else,” he said, thinking aloud. “He bled out elsewhere and was then brought here and posed against the Dumpster.”

“Right. Right. Maybe he was killed in another town,” Sean offered eagerly. “In someone else’s jurisdiction.”

“Maybe,” Fin said. But he doubted they’d get that lucky. He looked behind him, up the alley and toward the ocean, noting the bits of refuse on the ground; a paper cone from a serving of cotton candy, a crushed soda can, cigarette butts, the foil wrapper from a condom. Typical alley trash, but there could be evidence lying here anywhere. “We shouldn’t be walking around without shoe coverings. We could be destroying evidence. We need disposable gloves and shoe covers and whatever evidence-gathering tools we have. Digital cameras. Paper sacks to store the evidence.”

“We…we’ve got all that stuff we used two years ago,” Sean offered. “In boxes in the basement back at the station. Should I send someone for it?”

“Yeah. And you already called in every officer you have on the force, right?”

Sean nodded. “Dispatcher is on it. She’s calling in everyone but Johnny K. He’s in Myrtle Beach with his family. Vacation.”

“Call him, too.” Fin walked over to the body and crouched, studying the kid carefully. “And get the witness to the station. We’ll question him there. And call Doc Caldwell. We got an ambulance coming?”

Sean didn’t answer.

Fin glanced over his shoulder. “Chief. You have to call the paramedics.”

“I hate to be the one to say, Fin, but he can’t be revived.”
He’s a human
, Sean telepathed.

“There’re procedures. We have to have an ambulance to transport the body to the morgue.” He spoke slowly, not wanting to be disrespectful. “We need to take our photos and get him out of this alley before the sun worshipers start heading for the beach.” He turned back to the young man and began studying him head to toe. Nothing seemed out of place if you didn’t take into account that his body appeared to have been drained of a large percentage of his blood, and he had that gaping neck wound.

But on the hem of his yellow T-shirt, Fin noticed a whitish line. A salt stain left by ocean water. He reached out to check the shirt to see if it was still damp, but caught himself before he touched it, possibly contaminating evidence. “I need gloves, Chief. Can you get me a pair of disposable gloves? There should be a box in the trunk of Pete’s car.”

“Gloves. Can do.” Sean hiked up the back of his sagging pants as he hurried past the Dumpster, toward the police car on the street.

While he waited for the gloves, Fin stepped back from the body and took his cell phone from his pants pocket. He hit auto-dial and waited for the familiar beep. He didn’t expect her to answer this early.

“Fee, it’s Fin,” he said, wishing she hadn’t returned to Philly the night before. “I need you to call me as soon as you get this message.” He hesitated, not sure of how much to say. Then he caught a glimpse of the surfer out of the corner of his eye. He was watching Fin with those sightless blue eyes, silently begging. Fin turned his back on him, afraid he wasn’t up to the task of finding his murderer. “I’ve got a dead guy here and we need your help.”

“H
ey.”

Kaleigh looked up from where she sat squished beside Rob on a bench in front of the NASCAR arcade game. He didn’t seem to notice when she got up; he was too busy gripping the fake steering wheel, trying to navigate his way around the track on the video screen in front of him. It was the fourth time in a row he’d played the stupid game, so she was relieved by the respite. “Hey,” she called to Katy.

The girls had to put their heads together to hear each other above the roar of Rob’s NASCAR engine and the general chaos of the arcade. Pinball machines pinged, air hockey pucks slammed against the tables’ bumpers, and a mechanical voice hollered in Mandarin from the kung fu game beside them.

“You hear anything juicy about the dead HM they found this morning in the alley?” Katy questioned with morbid excitement.

“How would I hear anything? I didn’t even know there
was
a dead guy until you woke me up to tell me.” Kaleigh picked at a piece of peeling skin on her shoulder where she’d gotten sunburned the other day.

“You didn’t talk to your uncle? This is Fin’s beat. He has to know
something
.” She popped her gum.

Kaleigh frowned as she excised a nice piece of dead skin and dropped it on the cement floor. “If he’s investigating a murder, don’t you think he’d be a little too
busy
to talk to me right now?”

Just then, Richie Palmer walked by, jingling his apron of change. “Hey, Richie,” Katy called, flirtatiously.

He turned around and walked backward so he was facing them. “Hey, Katy. Hey, Kaleigh. How’s your summer going?”

Richie had graduated from their high school the year before; he’d been working at the arcade for a couple of summers. This season he’d made manager. He was pretty cute in a geeky way and nice, but Kaleigh had never hung out with him in school. His girlfriend was a total bitch and word was she’d do the nasty with anyone with a warm six-pack and a pickup truck. Richie could be doing so much better.

“You need any change or anything?” He jingled coins in his apron again.

“Nah, thanks.”

“Richie! You coming or not?” some kid hollered from the next row of games. “Ninja Warrior ate my quarters again.”

“Sorry. Gotta go.” Richie flashed a shy grin. “See you around.”

“See you around.” Katy gave a little wave. As she turned back to Kaleigh, her eyes lit up. “Hey, hey, hey. Hottie at three o’clock.”

Kaleigh glanced up.

“Don’t look at him!” Katy grabbed her elbow and steered her across the aisle to a pinball machine featuring wizards in Harry Potter–like pointed hats. She rested her hands on the machine as if she was preparing to play and tried to look back in the guy’s direction, without turning her head. “Is he looking this way?”

Kaleigh stood directly behind Katy. “How would I know if I can’t look at him?” she said in a stage whisper out of the side of her mouth. “And why are you looking at other guys? HMs at that? Don’t tell me you and Pete broke up again?”

“We’re just having a time-out. What about now?” She whipped a tube of lip gloss from her pocket. “Is he looking at me now?”

“He’s not looking at you.” Kaleigh moved to the side of the pinball machine and reached around to drop three quarters into the slot.

“Are you sure?” Katy slicked on sparkly pink lip gloss as the machine lit up with flashing purple lights. “I thought he was looking at me. He definitely seemed interested.” She frowned, looking down. “Why’d you waste money in this thing? I didn’t want to play; I just wanted to look like I was playing.”

“You better start playing for real because here he comes.” Kaleigh leaned casually on the glass top.

Katy stiffened, tucking the lip gloss back into her pocket. “He’s coming? This way?”

“Yup.”

Katy pulled back the plunger and released it. A ball popped out from a door and rolled toward her.

“You have to hit the buttons,” Kaleigh teased, punching one so a flipper shot the ball upward again.

Katy pounded the buttons on both sides.

Kaleigh watched the guy walk toward them. He was cute enough…in an emo kind of way. About their age. Tall. Lanky. Pale skin and shaggy black hair cut jagged around his face. Someone had paid a lot of money for the haircut that was supposed to look like he hadn’t done anything at all to it in weeks. Thick fringe obscured one eye. He was wearing black knee-length shorts and a tight black T-shirt. Black shoes.

Kaleigh wiggled her bare toes in her flip-flops. The guy looked hot to her. Not hot cute. Just hot as in elevated body core temperature. It had to be close to ninety degrees outside.

“What’s goin’ on, ladies?” He walked up to them to stand just behind and to Katy’s left side. He gazed at the game with interest.

“Nothing going on.” Katy continued to hit the pinball buttons. “Never anything going on in this boring town.” She glanced at him and smiled, then looked at the game again, all casual-like. “What’s goin’ on with you?”

He shrugged, sliding his hands into his pockets. “Folks already drivin’ me crazy and we’ve only been here a couple of days. Looking for something to do. Looking for some hot girls to do it with.”

Kaleigh groaned inwardly.

Katy beamed, then looked down. “Ah, no!” She pounded the glass game top with her fist. “Lost another ball. I so suck at this game. You want the last two?” She pointed to the balls still in the chute waiting to be played.

He shrugged, hands still in his pockets.

Already bored with the bizarre mating habits of teens, Kaleigh let her attention drift. To her, it just didn’t make sense to buck the system. Katy and Pete were destined to be married, just like her and Rob. There was no escaping the laws of the sept, so what was the point in all this strutting and stroking with other guys? Especially human guys. When was Katy going to learn? But Katy was Katy…

Kaleigh glanced in Rob’s direction; he was still playing the stupid NASCAR game. She just didn’t get it. He worked here five or six days a week. How was it that on his one day off, he still wanted to be here? On her day off, she wanted to be as far from soft serve ice cream as she could get.

“I’m Katy and this is my BFF, Kaleigh.” Katy stood opposite Kaleigh and rested her elbows on the top of the pinball game, flashing the emo kid some serious cleavage. “What’s your name?”

The machine lit up, pinging and ringing, as he racked up points. He glanced at Katy’s boobs, then concentrated on the game again. “Beppe.”

“Beppe?” Katy looked at Kaleigh, eyebrows raised as if she were impressed. “What kind of name is Beppe?”

“I don’t know. What kind of name is Katy?” He flipped the pinball into a basket and the point counter spun wildly. “And what’s BFF?”

“Where are
you
from?” Katy rolled her eyes. “BFFs. You know. Best friends forever.”

“Yeah. Right. Right.” He punched the game buttons vigorously, rocking side to side as the ball bounced from one slot to the next, the score board spinning.

“So where
are
you from?” Kaleigh studied the guy closer. “You have an accent…sort of.”

“Italy,” he said, not seeming all that eager to share.

“Italy?” Katy cut her eyes theatrically at Kaleigh. “An Italian man. I’ve always wanted to live in Italy.”

“Or Spain, or France, or Greece,” Kaleigh muttered under her breath. She looked past Katy to see a girl she knew from school entering the arcade. Mickey was with a guy, older than they were. And he was
big
. The sept men were for the most part tall, but this guy had to be six-foot-five, maybe even six-six. Kaleigh didn’t know him. Mickey lifted her chin in greeting.

Mickey was okay. A little weird. Kids at school said she was a cutter but Kaleigh didn’t know if it was true. What Kaleigh did know was that she was an amazing photographer. That was where she and Kaleigh had met. In photography class at school. They’d ended up being partners a couple of times on projects.

Mickey walked over, the tall guy in tow. He was dressed like her, all in black. Her in long sleeves, always long sleeves. Him short. She was wearing bright red lipstick. He was not.

“How’s your summer goin’?” Mickey asked. “Start on that project for Kinnerman?”

Kaleigh wrinkled her nose, leaving the pinball game to talk to her. Katy was still busy flirting with
Beppe the Italian guy
. “I probably won’t start it until, like, the day before school starts.”

“Me either.” Mickey grimaced. “Oh, hey. This is my boyfriend Tomboy. He goes to Penn State.”

Tomboy looked even bigger up close, with hairy tree-trunk legs and hands like hams. But maybe that was because he had to be at least a foot taller than Mickey.

“Nice to meet you.” She nodded, feeling awkward. Even though it was important for the sept’s teens to keep up appearances by attending a human school, it was hard to foster friendships with them. Mickey lived in the next small town north, and in an utterly different world than Kaleigh’s. A world with such freedoms…and limitations that Kaleigh would never know.

Kaleigh was coming to grips with her world and her reality on a daily basis as her powers grew. She’d only been reborn three years ago, so she still hadn’t reached her full potential, but wisdom seemed to come to her in waves now. Sometimes the truth of her situation, the whole cursed by God and turned into a V, made her sad. Sometimes for herself, other times for humans. Kaleigh would never have a boyfriend from Penn State. She’d never experience the thrill of meeting a guy she didn’t know, falling in love. But Mickey would never experience eternal life. There was a cost to everything; Kaleigh was learning that, too.

“So…you guys just hanging out?” Kaleigh asked. She glanced in the direction of the NASCAR game. She was getting hungry. Rob had promised one more game and then they would go get fries. She didn’t see him and wondered where he’d gotten to.

“I came to see the dead guy. Tomboy’s living on First Street with a bunch of other guys for the summer. He called to tell me someone was dead in the alley off the boardwalk, but the cops had practically the whole beach roped off by the time I got here. So we’re just hanging out. Tomboy’s day off. He works at Candy Man’s.”

“You like saltwater taffy?” Kaleigh asked, having to tip her head back to look up at him.

“He hates it now that he has to make it all day,” Mickey answered for him.

Kaleigh laughed. “I know what you mean. I work at the DQ. I used to love ice cream, but not so much anymore. I swear, I think milk oozes from my pores.”

Mickey spotted Beppe. “Who’s that?” she asked Kaleigh with obvious interest.

Either Tomboy hadn’t heard her or didn’t care if his girl ogled other guys.

Kaleigh shrugged. “Some guy Katy’s tryin’ to pick up. Here on vacation, I guess.”

Katy must have heard Kaleigh because she blushed and then inconspicuously gave her the finger. Beppe kept playing the pinball machine. He’d won extra balls.

Mickey slowly dragged her gaze from Beppe’s backside. “We’re havin’ a party tonight at Tomboy’s.” She slid her arm through her boyfriend’s. “Him and his roommates. Late. Like midnight. If you wanna come”—it was Mickey’s turn to shrug—“you and Katy and Rob, and your friend”—she nodded in Beppe’s direction—“that’d be cool.”

“I don’t know what we’re doin’ tonight,” Kaleigh said. Teens in the sept had a curfew. It was stupid. Like the adults thought the kids were going to run wild, having sex and sucking people’s blood at night…Actually, that
did
happen once in a while…But the curfew was still stupid. It didn’t keep them off the streets; it just made them use windows at night instead of doors. “Maybe we could make it.” The real question was, would the party be worth the risk of getting caught again. She was kind of already in trouble for being out too late a couple of nights the previous week.

“We’d love to come,” Katy said, apparently overhearing the conversation. “Beppe, too. Right?” She looked at him. “You in?”

Beppe didn’t take his eyes off the game in front of him. “Sure. I’m in. Just have to wait until my folks go to bed.”

Katy was the only one who laughed. “Where?” she asked, turning back to Mickey.

Mickey gave an address on First Street, on the block where all the human college students who worked the boardwalk stayed. “We’ll be there,” Katy said.

“Later.” Mickey and the boyfriend walked away.

“We’re not going to Tomboy’s house for a party. Our parents will kill us,” Kaleigh said, walking away from Katy and her new friend.

“We are, too. Come on. It’ll be fun.” Katy chased after her, grabbing her arm. “Beppe says he’ll go,” she added meaningfully.

Kaleigh pulled away. Katy could be so immature sometimes. “I’m going for fries at Sal’s. You see my lame boyfriend on the NASCAR circuit, tell him where I went.”

“We’re going!” Katy hollered after her, above the sound of the clanging pinball machine.

Kaleigh was almost out of the arcade when she spotted Rob. He was standing in line waiting to play air hockey. She thought about just walking out, but she went over to him. “I’m hungry. Going for fries.”