Chapter 29
“I agree that Emma’s theory also sounds plausible.” Before Emma could mentioned that I said ‘also’ I pointed at her with one finger. “Did you have a chance to look at Eliza’s friends on that social media site?”
“Not yet.” This had her refocused, and I hoped she would let both of our theories go. I took a deep breath as Emma began to concentrate on her laptop again.
Lucy wrapped her arm around me. “I’m sorry all of this is happening, Cass.”
Part of me wanted to bury my face in her shoulder and have a good cry, but I felt selfish crying over mere possibilities when, somewhere across town, my sister was watching them lower her good friend into the cold, dark earth. What did I have to cry about in comparison? My sister was alive, even if she was acting odd. There had to be a logical explanation for what was happening, one that didn’t involve the undead or drugs. I just hadn’t figured it out yet.
“Hmmm,” Emma said, jarring me back to reality.
“What is it?” Lucy asked, scooting closer to her on the bed.
“I went down a rabbit hole for a minute,” Emma said, and I exchanged glances with Lucy, wondering where that passage might have led our friend. “I checked the names you said and didn’t find anything, so I checked for anyone whose name was related to medicine.”
“Did you find something?” I was at the other end of the bed, and as much as I wanted to scoot over where I could see the laptop, I felt paralyzed.
“Maybe,” Emma said with a shrug.
Impatient, Lucy grabbed Emma’s laptop out of her hands and stared at it for a moment. “That’s… unexpected.”
“What?” I asked.
“Well, Eliza has a friend on this site who appears to be a doctor, but it isn’t Elliott.”
“Who is it?”
Lucy swiveled the laptop around and handed it to me.
I didn’t recognize the guy at all. He wasn’t necessarily attractive like Aaron but wasn’t goofy looking like Elliott either. He had spiky hair that was frosted on the tips and the kind of smile I can see winning a lot of people over. His profile picture showed him standing in front of a building and it was narrowed in close enough so it was impossible to tell how tall he was. And he wasn’t wearing black leather like Eliza. At first, I thought he was just a random friend, like all the rest of her followers on the page happened to be. He didn’t even have a lot of friends or seem to follow anyone. At first glance, there were less than a half-dozen posts over the last three years.
Then I realized what had caught Emma’s attention. His user name was @DocJop, and his name was Jamie Joplin. “Jamie?” I said, confused. “Jamie’s a doctor, too?”
“Apparently.” Emma’s voice was dry, not unusual.
“Doesn’t that make sense, though?” Lucy asked, taking Emma’s laptop from me and handing it back to her before I dropped it. “Didn’t someone mention that Jamie was doing the procedure?”
“Yeah, I think so,” I admitted. “I guess… I don’t know. I just wasn’t expecting that. It’s like pulling on a loose thread until your sweater is a ball of yarn”
“And an army of alley cats is all up in it,” Lucy agreed.
“Yep.”
“Hey, but on the bright side, we’ve established a few things.” Emma scooted forward a little bit, like she was actually trying to connect with us. “We know what Eliza and Jamie look like. We know that they exist now.”
“Didn’t we know that before?” I asked.
“I didn’t.” She was being blunt again, and I realized that meant she hadn’t been sure she could believe me. “I can assume that since you’ve actually met Aaron and Elliott they are also real.”
At this point, I wasn’t sure of anything, so I just nodded. “They seemed pretty real.”
“So… we just keep working on trying to figure it out. Now that we have last names for everyone, we can see if we can find anything else online for any of them. I might be able to access public records. Their profiles might lead us to birthdates, hometowns, etc. and then we can try to find out more information from there.”
Emma’s plan seemed to make sense, and at least we’d be moving in the right direction. Anything but staying stagnant at this point worked for me.
“While Emma is going down her path of logic, I will start to research the alternative,” Lucy said, her eyes squinting as she was clearly thinking about the paranormal. “I’ve never done a serious search for information about the existence of vampires. Maybe there are more people out there who think that they have a family member who has turned into… the undead.”
“There are. And you can find them in institutions across the country.” Emma wasn’t letting up.
“Thank you both for your help,” I said, and they smiled at me. Even if Emma didn’t always believe everything I said, at least she supported me. “What do I do?”
“Keep listening in, taking notes,” Lucy shrugged.
“But don’t let them know what you know,” Emma warned. “If this is some sort of a drug cartel, you need to not be caught up in it.”
I nodded, but I was confused. “You guys don’t think I should just ask some questions of my sister, like ‘Who are these people?’”
“She won’t tell you the truth,” Lucy reminded me. I knew she was right. “Even your parents seem to be wanting to shelter you from whatever this is for some reason.”
It was true. My parents knew a lot more than I did. “What about my grandma?” I asked.
They exchanged glances. “Do you think she really knows Aaron?” Lucy asked me.
“It seems sort of risky that my parents would mention that if it isn’t true.”
“That’s a loose end I don’t know how to tie back into either story,” Emma admitted. “In the parallel universe where vampires exist, is your grandma one? I can’t imagine she’s a drug dealer.”
“I can’t imagine she’s a vampire either.” None of this made any sense.
“How did your sister just happen to meet Aaron, a guy who knows your grandma, on the same night that Drew died?” Lucy asked, thinking aloud.
“I don’t know, but I do know for sure that it was Eliza who drove Cadence to my grandma’s house. So, she had to have met them before she left for Grandma’s.”
“You heard Aaron in your sister’s room before she left with Eliza, right?” Emma clarified.
“Yes.” It didn’t help any of us figure out the connection. “Maybe I could call my grandma just to see how she’s doing and see if she will tell me anything.”
“Maybe,” Lucy said, stopping for a second to chew on her bottom lip. “But be careful. Your grandma could tell your parents you’re nosing around, and they could shut this whole investigation down.”
I raised an eyebrow at her. “How’s that exactly?”
“I don’t know,” Lucy admitted, “but parents seem to have a way of doing that.”
“If my sister really is a vampire, or a drug addict, I’m going to have to find out eventually, aren’t I?”
“What if she tries to turn you?” Lucy asked, her eyes wide.
I almost laughed. If she hadn’t looked so frightened, I might have. “Don’t worry, Lucy. Cadence isn’t going to turn me into a vampire. She would never hurt me.”
Lucy nodded, but she didn’t say more, which made me wonder, if Cadence really was a vampire, was it possible she could infect me? Suddenly, I felt unsettled, like maybe I needed to stay away from my own sister. Could the rest of my family be at risk? The thought of turning into a vampire was revolting to me. I couldn’t even imagine—sneaking around at night, finding people in dark alleys, drinking blood. No thank you.
The doorbell rang, and I assumed that was one of my parents there to pick me up. It seemed like the funeral would be over by then. A few seconds later, Daniel yelled up the stairs, “Cassidy! It’s your mom!”
“I’ve gotta go,” I said as I gathered my stuff up. “I’ll see you both at school tomorrow.” I didn’t even want to think about what the atmosphere would be like at SHS the next day. I shoved my notebook and laptop into my backpack.
Lucy stood up and hugged me before I headed toward the door. “Be careful, Cass.”
I hugged her back. “I will.”
I knew things were serious when Emma hugged us, too. Emma is not a fan of hugs. “I really hope your sister doesn’t kill you.”
