Undercover Justice (8 page)

Pulling up to the high school, we drove around the side looking for the door into the science club.

“Oh, look there’s Jed and... Ollie?” As we pulled up, we watched Ollie get off the back of Jed’s motorcycle.

I wonder why Jed gave Ollie a ride. It seemed strange that Ollie’s parents would let him ride on the back of a motorcycle with…Jed. Remembering the incident with the cop last night, I suddenly felt nervous about seeing Jed again. I was pretty sure I had seen him look up just as we were passing. He had to have seen us, watching him get frisked. If that’s what you call it.

Charlotte pulled up next to us as we were getting out of the car. I momentarily forgot my nervousness, I was glad to see her. Getting out, before she could open her door, I stood there waiting for her. With a huge smile on her face, she opened the door and got out.

Looking right past me she said, “Hi! Kent, how are you?” Noticing I was in her way, she said quickly, “Oh, hi Nora.” Grabbing the two liters of pop from her back seat, she quickly walked over to where Kent was standing on the sidewalk. I could hear her talking up a storm as she opened the door and walked inside. I just stood there with my mouth hanging open. So it was like that was it? Apparently, Charlotte likes my brother and I’m just an afterthought.

I will admit that watching my brother’s face light up when he saw her made me feel good. Charlotte seems like a really nice girl. Kent has dated some very stuck-up and mean spirited girls. Of course, he doesn’t see it until they break up with him.

Closing my mouth, I turned toward the door, only to find Jed a couple feet away grinning at me quite wolfishly. I gasped. He must have snuck up on me when I was still standing there with my mouth open. My heart felt like it was going into shock. Frantically, I looked around for Ollie, Kent, anybody. Backing up against the car, I warily watched him as he sauntered closer.

“I can tell by the way you look, that you saw my run in with the cops,” he said huskily.

“No... I mean um...yeah,” I said.

“Are you scared of me now?” he asked looking away and swallowing hard. Jed hated the thought of Nora being scared of him, but he figured scaring her away, was the best way to fight the attraction between the two of them. He was nervous that she would see right through his tough guy act, but on the other hand, desperately wanted her to accept him for who he was. Most people, his whole life had been wary of him. It had made for a lonely life at times. If not for his grandfather and Skip and Betty, he would have been alone his teenage years.

It was almost as if he was nervous or something, I thought. As if my answer meant a lot to him.

My heart was beating so fast, I thought it was going to jump out of my chest. Fighting my attraction for him was going to be harder than resisting my favorite double chocolate molten lava cake. He turned to look at me, his dark eyes looking straight into mine. I felt like he was looking at every thought that was streaming through my head. I knew in that moment I was lost. It felt like my brain and my heart were at war with each other. I had a sneaking suspicion that my heart was winning the battle.

Taking my silence as my consent, he started backing away. I could tell he was hurt, but trying not to show it.

“No,” I blurted out.

“What?” he said his eyes searching mine again.

Finding my voice, I heard myself say boldly, “No, I’m not afraid of you.”

“Oh really?” he said with complete male confidence, seeing right through me, “You should be.”

Backing me up further against the car, he towered over me. Our bodies were a hairs width apart. I could feel the heat radiating off of him. Looking down at me with his dark eyes, he said smugly “This doesn’t make you nervous?”

My heart started racing. He was way to close. I am honest to admit that a small part of me was curious about the feelings I was experiencing being so close to him. The other part recognized the danger.

Putting both my hands up to push him away, I felt his solid chest and quickly dropped them to my side. Glancing back up at him, I said shakily, “Please move back.”

Holding my gaze, he whispered, “I don’t think I can.”

I was out of my league here. I was fast forgetting everything, where I was, what I was supposed to be doing, and that I wasn’t supposed to be getting involved with him.

Our eyes locked.

“What do you think you’re doing!”? Kent yelled, angrily from the door.

Backing away from me, Jed spread his hands wide and turned to Kent saying, “Just saying hi to your sister. Calm down.”

“I will NOT calm down. You stay away from her you hear me!” he said striding over to Jed.

Seeing a fight coming, I stepped in between them putting a hand on each of their chests. Kent may be tall, but Jed was just as big and more muscular.

“You!” I said, pointing to Kent, “I can live my own life, I don’t need you always stepping in for me. I am
fine,”
I stressed to Kent giving him the eye. To Jed I said, “You! Stop looking so smug.”

Turning away from them both, I marched into the room and slammed the door behind me. Men!

Looking up at me, Charlotte and Ollie stared, surprised.

Rushing over, Charlotte said, “What’s the matter? Where are Kent and Jed?”

“Probably killing each other,” I said crossly, stomping over to the drinking fountain, my mouth suddenly dry.

Gasping, Charlotte yanked open the door and quickly ran out with Ollie close on her heels.

To my surprise, everyone walked calmly back in the door not a minute later.

“What was going on?” Charlotte mouthed when no one was looking.

I shrugged, “I’ll tell you later,” I mouthed back.

Apparently, whatever happened after I left didn’t result in anything physical. Neither one of them looked like they had been in a fight. My curiosity aroused, I looked from one to the other, hoping for some clue as to what they had said to each other. Nothing.

Jed calmly took a seat next to me and Kent sat across from me sending me a quick wink. A wink? What the heck? I thought having a twin brother gave me unique insight into the way guys thought and operated, but I guess not.

Ollie looked around the table at each of us and then shrugged. “Okay…let’s get started. I don’t think Jed was with us when we filled Nora in on what we found out about room 35.”

As Charlotte and I set out the pizza and the drinks, Ollie filled Jed in on room 35 being one of the Mayor’s private rooms. Jed didn’t seem surprised to hear that the Mayor had lied. Instead he was nodding.

“So we know he’s hiding something. Did anyone else find out anything more?”

Shaking our heads, I looked up to find Kent giving me the eye. “What?” I asked silently with a shrug of my shoulder, taking a bite out of my pizza.

To everyone, he said, “Last night at the country club someone gave Nora a note warning us not to ask any more questions.”

To me, he said, “Nora, give Jed the note, we might as well tell everyone.” I gave him a questioning look. The last I had heard, he didn’t want to trust Jed with anything. Something had happened out there, and I was more determined than ever to find out what. Since when did Kent just decide to be buddy-buddy with Jed?

Pulling the letter out of my bag, I handed it to Jed who looked at me strangely. He was angry I realized. At me? I don’t think it’s at me, but then why…?

“Someone sent you a threatening letter?” he asked, opening it up. Reading it, he jumped up and began to pace. I could tell he was upset. Looking at Kent to help, I said, “Do something.”

“Jed,” Kent said.

That didn’t work so Ollie shouted forcefully, “Jed!”

“What?” he said stopping in the middle of the room.

“We’re all still here. Come sit back down, we need to figure out what to do now.”

Grinning sheepishly, he walked back to the table, “You’re right, I guess I got a little carried away. Ok, here’s what we're going to do...”

Pulling out his chair, he flipped it around and sat down with his arms over the backrest.

“Have any of you heard about the two teenagers who have disappeared in the last couple of months?” At our nods, he continued. “Do any of you know Mark Mason? He’s currently missing, as of two days ago. That makes three missing boys in the last six months.”

“Mark!” Charlotte gasped, “He’s in our science club, I can’t believe he’s missing. Poor Mark!”

“What does that have to do with the Mayor’s office, and why do you know about Mark before anyone else?” I asked.

“I just do, ok. Don’t ask so many questions because I can’t answer them. Let’s just say I have inside information.”

“Just trust him ok,” Kent told me. Looking from me to Jed, he then added. “Just don’t trust him
too
much.”

Winking at me, much to my mortification, Jed looked at the rest of the group. “Does anyone else want to question me?”

“Nope,” Ollie said with a grin.

“I’m sure you know what you’re doing. You look like that kind of guy,” Charlotte said graciously.

Nodding his thanks, he said, “I am pretty sure that what we saw in the Mayor’s room was Mark struggling with his captors. They wanted something that he didn’t have and so they took him. So far there is no evidence as to why or how these kids disappeared. We have the first real link and clue with the symbol Nora found.”

“Did you give it to the police? Does anyone remember what it looked like and what it said?” Kent asked.

Taking out her notebook, Charlotte opened it up. “I copied it down before Jed left.”

“Great Job!” Jed said smiling at her. “I want you all to look at it and study it. Then keep your eyes open at school. It must mean something and until we figure out what that is, we aren’t going to know what they are trying to hide, or why they don’t want us asking anymore questions.”

Because the main reason we had all gotten together was to discuss our project, we spent some time going over it.

“I know everyone has other things to do today, so if you want to give me your notes on the interviews you did at the Mayor’s office I will start typing them up,” Ollie offered.

Typical Ollie, I thought, remembering that he likes to do things his way. Smiling, I gladly handed over my notes. At this moment, the last thing I wanted to worry about was my project.

Reaching over to grab the empty pizza boxes, I stood up and carried them over to the garbage can in the corner of the room. Looking at my watch I realized that I only had ten minutes before Gabby was going to pick me up to go shopping for our prom dresses.

“Charlotte have you gotten a dress for prom yet?” I asked, her after I walked back to the table. “My friend Gabby Smith and I are going to the mall to look at dresses. She is picking me up in a few minutes. Would you like to come with us?”

“Oh, no thanks, I already have a dress. My mom is altering her old dress for me, if I get a date that is. Do you have a date? Who are you going with?”

Four pair of eyes looked over at me. Mortified I mumbled, “Um…no I don’t have a date yet. Things didn’t work out like I thought.”

“Oh! I am so sorry for asking you that in front of the guys,” Charlotte said quietly to me. “I take it, you and Tyler are not together then?”

Surprised, I wasn’t aware other people in school outside our circle of friends thought we were going to get together. After all, Tyler had just recently broken up with someone else. We HAD been spending more time together in school. I thought we were becoming an item, but apparently not. “Actually, he never intended for us to get together,” I admitted.

“I’m sorry, I just thought…”

“That’s ok,” I interrupted. No need to dwell on it. “The invitation still stands if you would like to go with us anyway.”

“Oh, thanks, maybe I will.”

Gathering up our stuff, I was careful not to look at Jed as we said goodbye to the guys and wandered outside to wait for Gabby. I didn’t want to see his reaction to the news that I didn’t have a date for prom. A part of me, hoped he would be glad to hear it, but I didn’t want to be disappointed if he looked like he didn’t care.

“I am truly sorry that things with Tyler didn’t work out,” Charlotte said after we were out of earshot.

“You know, surprisingly I am not that upset about it,” I told her and realized that I meant it.

“Could that be because of a certain good looking guy in there?” she teased.

Blushing, I allowed myself to picture going to the prom with Jed. I didn’t even really know him, and yet for some reason I was drawn to him. It wasn’t just his looks, or even the mystery surrounding him, it was the way he looked at me. The way I felt being near him.

“Ok, I admit it, I may have a small crush on Jed, but don’t tell ANYONE. My family wants me to stay away from him.”

“Why,” Charlotte asked puzzled.

I told her about the incident with the police we saw last night. She understood that I would be hesitant to get involved with someone in trouble with the law.

“Did you ask Jed about it?”

“I started to, and then he distracted me.”

“Does that have anything to do with why you thought Kent and Jed were fighting outside?”