The Pale: Volume One by Jacob Long (portable ebook reader txt) 📕

The worst part is missing all the gym time. I want to move.”

“Uh-huh?” Lamont was intrigued. “Well, at least there’s no permanent damage—I mean, nothing since your birth, anyway.”

“Ugh, you are on fire today,” Gray said. “You got all the jokes.”

Lamont smiled. He was proud to have lifted Gray’s spirits. “Yeah, well, I’m gonna go stay on top of our B & E case. Maybe I can get some info from CSI or ballistics. You take care of yourself. I’ll be back in to visit during the week if they still have you on lockdown.”

Lamont was out the door, but Gray spoke after him, “Don’t let the bastards bring you down, man.”

The sergeant stopped. “Huh?”

Gray watched him soberly. “I don’t know why you’re in civvies right now or why you’re doing your own detective work, but don’t let the bastards bring you down.”

A genuinely warm smile grew slowly on Lamont’s lips. “Thanks, Gray.”

With his partner’s blessing, Lamont strode up the hall. Even in his stupor, Gray had given him valuable information. Jiu-jitsu. Control of your opponent’s limbs. Their perpetrator was a trained fighter. It may be that the man’s haircut wasn’t just a fashion statement. He could be ex-military or even current military. Hopefully by tomorrow, the fingerprints would come back, and he could check them against military records.

16

Téa didn’t recall having dreams, only the lingering scent of clean laundry swirling about her as the ringing of her phone dragged her from that bliss. It wasn’t immediate by any means. She clung to her sleep with a death grip. The phone rang in her pocket but also vibrated pleasantly against her leg. It was working against itself. The phone continued playing its programmed tune, an intense opening theme from an anime, and Téa slowly became aware of what was actually happening. Her eyes creaked open and she muttered unintelligibly.

“Uh, wha—? Ugh, hell.” She discovered first that she was not face-first in laundry. She was, in fact, drooling on Mrs. Rodriguez’s den sofa. Téa had to briefly entertain the idea that Mrs. Rodriguez had somehow carried her inside.

Téa grumbled as she fished in the slim pocket of her tight jeans for her phone. She peered through dreary eyes at the screen. She read “Davy Truong” and bolted upright, stabbing the answer key.

“Hello?”

“I saw your call. You have some balls,” David Truong’s voice blistered over the phone.

Téa stumbled to recover. “Uhphh, why? What’s wrong?”

“Don’t play dumb with me, bitch! I’m in the hospital ’cause that asshole friend of yours busted me in the head!”

“I . . . what frie—”

“My brother is already coming for you! We want that asshole!”

“I don’t even know what you’re talking about!” Téa pleaded. “There’s no one!”

“He asked for you by name!” Davy screamed. “My brother is coming for you! If I were you, I’d have something to give him! Whoever it is, he’s not worth dying for!”

Téa didn’t get one more syllable out of her mouth before Davy hung up on her, and she felt her heart trying to hide in the pit of her stomach. An old familiar feeling crawled up her spine like a shadowy chitinous horror and roosted on her scalp just as her forehead broke out with sweat. Anxiety, and it felt like a waking nightmare. The walls swelled toward her. She could feel every tremor of her rapid heartbeat, and it threatened to drop her. She stood, and her vision blurred. She teetered like a flower in the breeze.

“No!” Téa barked out loud, gritting her teeth. She squeezed her eyes shut and pushed the feeling down. She paused for a few quick, deep breaths. “I have to do something.” Téa opened her eyes. “I have to do something. I have to make a plan.”

She scanned the room and discovered a note next to a glass of water on the table. “Found you in your car,” it read in Mrs. Rodriguez’s pristine penmanship. “Walked you inside. You were so tired. Poor thing. I had to run off. Take it slow, now. XOXO.”

Téa crushed the note in her hand melodramatically, like in so many movies she’d seen. “Too late, Mrs. Rod. Now’s not the time for rest.”

Téa marched to the door but then had a splitting headache, so she pressed a hand against her temple and marched back. She picked up the glass of water and started chugging. She was so thirsty that she finished the whole thing in one try. With an “Ugh,” she put the glass back down and strode out to her car. A plan was already forming in her mind. She just had to make a couple of stops.

Adam had plenty of time to walk all the way back across town to Téa’s house before she returned to him. He was researching murders and animal attacks online, but the details were so scant he couldn’t tell the difference between a monster attack and just some psycho. He couldn’t establish a pattern without knowing the specifics that the police would know.

Téa pushed her way through the front door holding a couple of plastic bags filled with junk Adam couldn’t quite see. “Hey,” she said breathlessly, secretly relieved she wasn’t too late.

“Hey,” Adam replied, stroking his chin while he stared at the screen.

“Facebook stalking anyone?” Téa quipped.

That grabbed Adam’s attention. “Huh?”

Téa chuckled as she placed her burdens on her table.

Adam targeted her with a withering look. “I was actually working.”

“Uh-huh? You get anywhere?”

“Not exactly. The internet isn’t really good for this sort of thing.”

“Okay,” Téa said. She needed to move it along, and that was enough platitudes. “I got some presents for you.”

“Yeah?” Adam stood and walked over.

“Yeah, here’s one.” Téa pulled an inexpensive touchscreen phone sealed in tamper-proof plastic from one of the bags and handed it to Adam. “It’s prepaid. I didn’t want to put you on a plan. There’s a card, too, and take this money.” Téa bit her lip while she dug into her obnoxiously tight hip pocket and proffered a wad of twenty-dollar bills.

Adam took it and gave Téa a look. “Kay . . . Can you afford giving me all these gifts? I mean with your uh . . . extracurricular spending?”

Téa stopped digging around in the bags and looked him dead in the eye. “You don’t want to mess with me right now, Adam.”

Adam recoiled ever so slightly. “I guess I don’t. You seem very take-charge right about now.”

“Huh?”

“You know, just, like, you’re not your usual self.”

Téa turned back to her other items. “Yeah, well, I don’t really have time to be wimpy right now. I am . . . burdened.”

“Meaning?” Adam asked.

Téa sighed heavily and faced Adam. “Your mother and Christina are coming over tonight.”

“Really?” Adam was pleased.

Seeing his reaction, Téa didn’t want to keep lying to Adam’s face, so she busied herself with tying the bags up. “Yeah. Your mother and I really reconnected. She recommended a girls’ night in and wanted Christina to come too. We’re gonna have drinks and do, you know, stuff.”

“Stuff?”

“Yeah. Girl stuff. Mind your business.”

Adam chuckled. “All right, I get it.”

“Your clothes are in my car,” Téa explained. “You can take it to a hotel and spend the night. I just need you out of here.”

Adam stuffed the money in his pocket and started trying to tear open the phone packaging. “Wow, burner phone, spending money, getaway car, and a seedy hotel room? I feel like I’m going on the lam.”

Téa hesitated in her self-conscious fiddling. She briefly considered that she may have seen too many movies. “Think about it however you want.”

Adam reached past Téa to get at the bags. “What’s the rest of this stuff?”

Téa smacked his hand. “Feminine hygiene products! Mind your business!” She took her keys and pushed them into Adam’s hands along with the phone. “Stop hanging around! They could show up any minute! Go! Watch some hotel porn, drink yourself senseless, I don’t care.”

Adam allowed himself to be shoved out. “Okay, geez. Calm down. I’m going.”

Téa stood outside and watched while Adam pulled out of the driveway and even until he turned toward the setting sun, out of view. Only then did she relax, but just a little. She’d shooed Adam away, but it was only the beginning. Her “feminine hygiene products” would have to be prepared ahead of time if things went south.

Téa worked feverishly, but the doorbell rang while she was stripping a wire she’d plugged into a step-up transformer. Her eyes darted to the parts she still had lying on her bed, and the panic finally set in. She was out of time. She could only twist the newly exposed cables around a copper hook she’d bought from the hardware store. As she balanced the assembly precariously on an insulated pad, the person outside punched the doorbell a few more times to highlight their crippling lack of patience.

“Coming!” she called. If her visitor was who she thought it was, she didn’t want them knowing she was stalling for time. She flicked a switch on the transformer and strode quickly out to the front door. She unlocked it and pulled it open.

“Good evening,” Joshua Truong said ironically.

Téa affected her best ignorant expression. “Uhh, hello? Who are you?”

Joshua scoffed. He and the two goons he had standing on either side of him shared knowing glances. “That’s good. It’s cute. Davy said you were kind of cute.”

“Davy? Oh! Then I guess you’re Joshua! Look, I already talked to Davy. He told me what happened, but he wouldn’t listen to me. I wasn’t even awake for the whole thing. He said someone came and attacked him, but I really don’t know what happened.”

Joshua nodded sarcastically and stepped slowly toward her. Téa stumbled in her speech and was made to back away. Joshua casually paced over the threshold and into the house.

“Uhh, I just woke up here alone,” Téa explained. “I’m as clueless as you are.”

“Right. Nameless knight in shining armor.”

“Yeah.”

“Just trying to do a good thing for a stranger.”

“Seems like it.”

“Just asked for you by name at the club.”

“Doesn’t mean I ever saw him.”

“Just happened to be familiar with your car, which I notice isn’t in the driveway just now.”

Téa didn’t have anything for that one. It burned her to not have thought of everything.

Joshua continued without her. “Was just so pissed off by my brother’s actions that he broke his way into a locked office and singlehandedly beat everyone in there, just to take you home.”

Téa sighed. Resignation was apparent on her face.

Joshua said, “I’m not a patient guy, so I’m going to ask nicely only the first time. Tell me who attacked my brother.”

Téa remained silent, eyes averted and body unmoving. She just shut down.

“Fine,” Joshua spoke to his goons. “Take her. Leave the other two to watch the house.”

“All night?” one asked.

“Yes! All night!” Joshua shouted, suddenly erratic. “He has to come back sometime!”

The young boss started walking toward the exit, and one of his thugs reached to take hold of Téa. When he was in range, Téa quickly pulled out the Taser looped onto the back of her belt and stabbed it into the man’s stomach. With a crackle of electricity, the man shuddered and collapsed to the floor.

This all prompted Joshua to turn back. “Rrrgghhh,” he grumbled.

Téa sprang for her room. The other goon grasped for her, but she slipped away, slamming the door behind herself. The tremor caused the copper hook to fall from the dresser, catching on the brass doorknob. Téa knew brass wasn’t very conductive, so she didn’t try to climb out the window. Instead, she pulled her phone out and laid it on the floor.

Josh’s other lackey tried the doorknob and immediately seized with high amperage electricity. He couldn’t even let go of the knob as his knees gave and his spine hyperextended. His mouth refused to scream.

Joshua spit a curse and tried to stomp the poor man’s hand off the knob. The first time wasn’t enough, so he had to kick again, harder, and then harder. The last kick finally freed the goon’s hand, probably saving his life. He collapsed to the floor, his eyes dancing with lights. By then, Joshua’s first goon had recovered, and he shook off the comparably tame Taser shock.

“Kick it in!” Joshua ordered.

One swift strike, and the door was open, yanking the transformer off the dresser and dragging the many of the other items Téa kept there with it, including the picture of Adam. The twisted wires were torn from the hook.

The two intruders discovered that Téa had just pulled off