Blood: The Third Course

Chapter Three

The selection pop-up flashed onto the screen and vanished again as Carson tapped the right and left buttons on his mouse in quick succession. The report form remained annoyingly blank, the stack of paperwork on his desk sitting at the same height as it had twenty minutes earlier, when he'd first walked back into the station after his patrol.

He could try to blame his lack of productivity on restlessness, the nearing full moon making him more agitated than usual, but it was a lie. He'd been preoccupied for three months, and when each passing day brought no news from Vince, it only got worse.

Carson let go of the mouse and dug his phone from his pocket. He wasn't supposed to be using it on duty, but nobody was watching. Leaning back in his chair, he kept his hand down by his thigh, turning the phone over and lighting up the screen. He had no notifications, no new messages or calls. Most months around this time, he'd be in three or four conversations with pack members, organising to pick up those who didn't drive at the train station, or making early bets with Darren and Jack. Even Jemima would send him a couple of messages reminding him to bring something or other. Now, nothing but a blank screen over a generic landscape background.

Carson tucked the phone back into his pocket and rested his hand back on the mouse, returning to his absent clicking.

Nobody had told him that he wouldn't be welcome at the farm. In fact, Jemima hadn't been talking to him at all. She'd not even given him an end date to their silence, telling him that she'd speak to him again when Vince came back. All communication had just been stopped, and in a move that infuriated him, Kaleb was his only line to his family.

He'd not been cast out, that much was a relief. However, he couldn't be sure that it wasn't coming. Maybe that was why he was so anxious, checking his phone when he shouldn't, because he knew the chances were that, when that message finally did come through, it would be to tell him he shouldn't come back. That he should start running.

He couldn't blame Kaleb if he did get that message, not really. He'd been angry about it at first, the lack of information he was given after he told Kaleb that Vince had made his deal with Spencer. He was the closest to it all, they should have used him more. However, after that projector had turned up, everything had changed. Soon, it wasn't just Jemima who wasn't talking to him, it was everyone who'd been friends with Jack, and Jack had been a popular guy around the pack members. Always cheerful and charming, Jack had changed faster than any of them could think about what was happening. And by then, it had been too late.

Rubbing his hand over his face, Carson growled under his breath and moved the first report closer to him. It hadn't been a busy patrol, and he shouldn't let himself get behind. All this procrastination was only going to make things worse.

He'd barely typed in the arrestee's name, moving the mouse to go back and correct a spelling mistake, when they came in. Tweedle Dumb and Tweedle Arrogant, talking loud as they could, all with the air of people attempting to have a private conversation. Carson rolled his eyes and didn't look up from his screen. He hunched his body lower, sliding down in his chair and smashing down the backspace button.

"Alright, alright, I'll call the mother," Tweedle Arrogant, otherwise known as Jared, said with a woe-is-me groan. "You call the wife."

"We should get one of the grunts to call," Paul (Tweedle Dumb as a Box of Rocks) replied. "We have better things to do."

"And let them find out if they were meeting anyone that night? A clue that might lead us to our killer?"

The smack of Jared hitting Paul over the head cracked through the office. Paul rubbed his head through a thinning patch of pale hair.

"Surely they weren't both meeting the killer," Paul said. "We can't find anything that connects the victims to each other. She was a student, he was a jewellery store clerk."

"Yeah, well they both had the same wounds on their necks, didn't they? So they're connected by that."

Carson froze in his typing. He fixed his gaze on the paperwork between his arms, the top half tucked under his keyboard, and listened.

"Knife wound with repeat attacks," Paul said. "Real rage to cut like that instead of a clean slash, especially so close to the carotid. Would have bled out in minutes anyway."

Paul and Jared took seats at their desks. Immediately, Jared spun in his chair and pulled it closer to Paul's desk.

"Look, we have our clerk's work and home address," he said, leaning onto the desk. "We know that the park was on his route home. Alice Grange, on the other hand, lived across town, and she had that stamp on her hand, right? I'll bet you twenty that the killer went for her, and Mike Davent was caught in the crossfire."

"But why her? This wasn't robbery..."

"No, still had everything. Let's get the notifications out of the way, then we'll go see Grange's coursemates and stuff, see if anyone can tell us who she was out with last night."

Jared spun his chair back to his own desk.

Scraping his teeth over his bottom lip, Carson edged his chair back, plucking his phone from his pocket again. He opened up the screen, still blank, and scrolled through to Kaleb's number. Slotting his phone up his sleeve, he got to his feet and strode out across the office and out into the lobby. The receptionist looked at him in surprise. Carson rolled his eyes and shook his head, giving a shy grin.

"Only went and left my handheld in my car, didn't I?" he said.

She smiled in return as he strode past her towards the back exit to the parking lot.

He hurried across the lot, opening up the driver's seat and sliding to sit. Shutting the door with a sharp snap, he drew out the phone and hit dial.

It rang. And it rang. And it rang.

Carson hung up, immediately scrolling through the contacts and hit Kaleb's number again. He brought it up to his ear.

"Pick up," he murmured. "Pick up, pick up, pick up."

It rang. And it rang.

"Pick up, you arrogant, self-serving, oh hello, Kaleb!"

"What is it, Carson?"

He wasn't out of breath, he wasn't groggy from sleep. Carson stared out of the windscreen and frowned.

"Carson, I said what is it?"

"We've got another one," Carson said, leaningback in his seat. "You might want to check with Caine to see if it was one ofhis guys, but... but I think they're back." 

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Author Note: Eeee! I dunno what else to say really, except, please vote and comment if you liked it. Just comment if you didn't. 
Happy Weekend, all.
Chele