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Jennifer rushed out, “I’m so glad you’re here…”
“Not here on the street,” Ace cut in quietly. “Get in the SUV. Peb, take point. Jack, bring up the rear. We head for the clubhouse.”
Ace stopped to dash off a text to Darkness. Peb reluctantly let Jennifer get into the car and headed for his bike. Jack followed suit. This time Ace drove. Barbara turned around from the front seat to look at the two students. “Tell me everything.”
Dylan spoke first. “Ethan was really rattled after what happened. He called me last night, insisted that it felt like someone was following him to his dorm. Once he got to his room, he locked himself in but swore someone rattled his doorknob in the middle of the night trying to get in. I told him that he was probably imagining things and that he should get a shower and make himself some coffee.”
Jennifer chimed in, “We were meeting up at the student union to grab some breakfast and come up with a plan for staying safe and checking on each other. Dylan and I arrived first, and since it was so early, the place was practically empty.”
Dylan’s voice sounded haunted as he picked up the story again. “We heard gunshots, only we thought it was firecrackers and ran to see who was getting suspended. That’s when we saw that it was Ethan. I called 9-1-1 while Jennifer did what she could for him. They got him in the gut.”
Ace interjected, “He might make it, if EMS got to him quick. Did anyone see who did it?”
“There wasn’t anyone around but one or two people. They said it was a guy on a motorcycle. They couldn’t say what he looked like because he was wearing a black helmet with a face piece.”
Ace’s phone rang. “Has the entire fucking world just gone crazy?” he answered.
“I don’t know. In addition to Ethan getting shot, Barbara’s ex-husband was found dead this morning.”
Listening to the person on the other end for a minute, Ace responded grimly, “I threatened to kill the stupid bastard, ‘cause he showed up at her place and was screaming at her and jerking her around. Before you ask, I wasn’t quite ignorant enough to tell the cops I threatened him. We told him David was at her place and they got into an argument.”
Again there was some mumbling on the other end, and Ace responded harshly, “How the hell am I supposed to know? It could be that we’re getting picked off one at a time and they nailed David ‘cause they couldn’t get to me and my old lady, since she has a high-class security system at her place. It’s just as probable that David was furious that she was fucking a stupid biker and sat in his car watching her place while getting shit-faced all night, and then wrapped his nice sports car around a tree. . And get this, the cops say we can’t leave the county.”
After listening to the other person, he grumbled, “Yeah, I know. Who the hell gave Jack permission to make a run to the college? Now we got him riding out in the open, and it’s pissing me off.”
Closing up his phone, Ace shoved it into his pocket. Without taking his eyes from the road, he reached over and took Barbara’s hand. “We’re gonna get through this.”
Barbara felt the most awful feeling snaking through her stomach. “This is something to do with me. Think about it, Ace. I got the call from the farmer. I took it upon myself to go out to that farm. My ex-husband is dead. My student got shot in a drive-by. This is all somehow related to me.”
Without looking at her, he confirmed quietly, “You’re right at the epicenter of this whole mess.”
Dylan spoke, “You’re the one variable that intersects every event. Have you spoken to anyone about this, besides us?”
“I told the supervisor of my department, but he didn’t seem to believe me.”
“Law enforcement is going the extra mile to keep the discovery of the bodies out of the news. They don’t need a public panic in that small town,” Ace said, giving her a small amount of reassurance.
“I honestly haven’t spoken to anyone else, I promise. This isn’t the kind of thing I wanted to drag my family into.”
Ace glanced at the kids in the rearview mirror. “How about you two? Have you talked to anyone.”
Dylan shot Ace an angry look. “I’m not at the epicenter of this clusterfuck. I’m just the stupid ass who thought he could get extra credit and cool aquatic fossils. I wish the hell I’d stayed in bed that day.”
“Calm the fuck down, little dude.”
The young man’s voice escalated. “Sure thing, asshole. I’ll just sit here real quiet like and wait for my own drive-by shooter to arrive. Meanwhile, you big, badass bikers can keep right on trying to use the Pythagorean Theorem to calculate the probability of us being picked off one at a fucking time and see how far that gets you.”
Ace deadpanned right back, “Or I could kick you out on the fuckin’ street right now and save myself from listening to you whine.”
Barbara turned again to talk to Dylan. “We are not kicking you out of the car, but you have got to calm down. We can’t turn on each other right now.”
“Sure thing, teach,” he said snarkily. “Just so you know, though, I wish that I had never met you.”
Jennifer started babbling. “Peb says I can just live with him. This is some seriously crazy shit. We might never find out who’s doing this.”
“I thought you liked chicks?” Ace asked, confused.
“Not that it’s any of your business, old man, but I like everyone equally. You got a problem with that?”
