James Moore - Blood Red

Kelli watched him go, attracted to the man for no reason she could easily place a finger on. He was handsome, yes, but not overwhelmingly so.

Still, for most of the day before it was time for her to go pick up Teddy from the Sacred Hearts private school, she kept thinking about his little smile and wishing she could remember the color of his eyes.

Avery Tripp leaned back in his chair, at ease with his place in the world. The school day was over halfway done and that was a good thing. He hated school work, but he loved the people around him. Avery tended, through no fault of his own, to like people. He also had a strong fondness for anything that could get him into trouble. That was what his mother said, anyway.

Mr. Stark, his Sociology teacher, would have agreed completely. William Stark didn’t seem to mind too much, however. He still gave Avery good marks for conduct, even after that embarrassing incident with the smoke bombs Avery had slipped under his car’s hood. Man, the smoke had been everywhere.

Just thinking about it made Avery smile.

Teddy Lister was sitting next to him, just as he did every day. He and Teddy were best buds, and Avery couldn’t imagine a cooler person in the whole world, except maybe for Teddy’s nanny. Kelli had won big bonus points in his eyes when she hadn’t narced them out about the magazine. That, and she was about the coolest grown-up he had ever met. And pretty. Very pretty. He’d have paid good money to see her in one of his father’s dirty magazines.

Avery frowned and shook his head. No. On second thought, he didn’t want to see her that way. She was too cool to be exposed and naked like that. Maybe in the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue instead. He was only ten, but Avery could already appreciate the idea of letting his imagination paint in some of the finer details.

Teddy yawned next to him and shook his head in an effort to stay awake. Mr. Stark looked over in their direction, doubtless trying to see if Avery was up to no good. It was like a game between them: Avery would try to get away with something, anything, and Stark would try to catch him before he could do anything too drastic, like blow up the school.

Neither of them would have admitted it, but he bet Stark enjoyed the game just as much as he did. Good, clean fun; and it was free, too.

Teddy started to snore, very lightly, and Avery tapped him in the ribs with an elbow. Teddy’d been acting weird all day. He was pale and so tired he looked like he could just nod off. Of course he had just nodded off, thus, the snoring.

His best friend grunted and woke up, but he didn’t look at all happy about it, “Watch the elbow.”

“Then wake up, monkey.”

“I’m not a monkey.” What was the word Kelli was always using? Petulant. Teddy was being petulant.

“You’re being petulant. Wake up.”

“Did you boys need to share a few secrets with the rest of us?” Stark stood up from his desk and looked in their direction. He was in a good mood today, which was a blessing. Avery could tell he was in a good mood, because he was actually smiling as he asked the question. All around the room several of the girls were looking at the teacher with moo-cow eyes. All of the students had to wear their little uniforms, blazers and slacks for the boys, blazers and skirts for the girls, but Mr. Stark was the only teacher who was always dressed up for teaching; charcoal gray suit and a lighter gray shirt with a dark red tie. He sort of looked like he belonged in an ad from one of the GQ magazines his father set in front of his stack of Penthouses .

“No, sir.” Avery spoke and Teddy did, too. They weren’t stupid enough to ignore a question they knew good and well was directed at them.

“Good. Just making sure, because if you’re feeling the need to talk, we could always just finish this quiz tomorrow and let you come on up here and read your reports now, instead.” Stark was still smiling. That was a big, big plus.

“Well, I finished my test, sir.” Avery held up the page to make sure the man could see that he had, in fact, finished all of the questions. Next to him, Teddy started actually filling in answers, his hand moving with the desperate speed of someone who had just realized he’d forgotten there was a test to take.

Stark grinned. It was a wide, friendly smile that was obviously amused.

“Of course you did, Avery. Well, open your book and start reading at page 72. And read quietly this time.”

Avery nodded and followed orders. All around him, the other kids were still working on their papers: everyone except Jayce Thornton, who had also finished and was now making goo-goo eyes at the teacher. She was his only competition for the top of the class. She’d probably win, too, because she was smart enough not to do things like super-gluing the teacher’s desk drawers shut. That little escapade had actually managed to make Stark’s smile go away. He’d been sent to the offices on that day, and had spent two hours explaining the reasons for his actions to Sister Celeste. Two hours of his life with one of the scariest women God had ever put on the face of the earth had convinced Avery to behave himself. He’d vowed never to do anything that stupid again, and while he hadn’t managed to keep the vow, he had certainly meant to.

He shot one last look at Jayce, and saw her staring at Mr. Stark. He wanted to be Mr. Stark when he grew up, or at least to look good enough to make girls like Jayce think he was something special.

When Jayce’s head turned in his direction, he looked down hastily. Girls were his Kryptonite. He couldn’t talk to them. They made his face all hot and his tongue as confused as Teddy looked working on question number seven.

Avery lifted the edge of his test and let Teddy copy. His friend smiled gratefully and wrote down the answer.

Avery hoped his bud wasn’t coming down with something. He didn’t want to get sick and he didn’t want Teddy getting sick, either. Halloween was coming around soon enough and it wouldn’t be any fun hitting houses with toilet paper if they were too ill to enjoy themselves.

Avery thought of Mr. Stark’s house and wondered if he should set some eggs aside. How long did it take for an egg to get really, really stinky? He didn’t know, but he was willing to find out.

Danni Hopkins spent the entire class looking like her family had just been murdered. It seemed like everything had the girl on the edge of tears. Maggie didn’t know the girl all that well, but she hoped everything was all right. Danni seemed like a decent enough girl, even if she was a little too bubbly for Maggie’s tastes.

As soon as the class was dismissed, Danni Hopkins ran from the room, her face collapsing. Several of the girls in the room went after her, either to help or to see if there was going to be anything good to gossip about.

Maggie wasn’t among them. She had other things she needed to take care of. Ten minutes after Danni had a nervous breakdown she was on her way to the Sacred Hearts Cathedral, a small church with a grandiose name. She slipped her short skirt on over her jeans and then removed the latter with practiced ease.

She had no idea why Jason Soulis wanted her to do what he’d hired her for, but with what he was paying she’d already decided she could worry about her conscience later.

Know Thy Enemy. Someone had said that once, but she couldn’t remember who. Patrick Flannery was not her enemy, but he was her target for the afternoon. He would, she suspected, be the easiest of her prey to capture.

The notion brought a smile to her face. Stalking priests: her father would have an absolute coronary if he knew about this. Even more than he would if he knew what she did to pay her bills and keep herself at Winslow Harper.