Chapter 37
Tess stood there waiting for Max's excuse. She was one step away from tapping her foot. For the last three months she has been trying to get everyone of their four square together to talk about translating the Destiny Book, to train, and practice for what might come. The only one trying and making progress is Michael and rarely did anyone come to a meeting when she called one.
"It wasn't intentional." Max began. At least he didn't play dumb, like he had no idea what she was talking about.
"Then please, explain to me how it is, because from my stand point I've been excluded from alien business. That can't be true though considering I'm one too." Tess sarcastically said, while casting her gaze fervently around continually mindful of the possibly of being overheard.
"We just…" Max stopped and looked at his feet.
Ah, that was it. She didn't need him to finish, she'd already figured it out with those two words. The twisted part was though, she wanted to hear him say it. Make it real. "Just what?" Tess wasn't letting him off so easily.
"We forgot. By the time we got to Michael's apartment we realized no one told you. Complete accident." Max weakly explained.
Tess nodded and crossed her arms, annoyed at the boy king. He was no Zan, although she reluctantly admitted, Zan was an adult, nearly thirty five when he died, Max was still only seventeen. Despite that knowledge, however, she wouldn't let him just go without getting on his case a bit. "Ok, I can accept forgetting to call me." Max's eyes lit up for a second with hope. "However when you saw that you were missing a quarter of the four-square why didn't you call me then?"
Max shrugged. "Honestly, I didn't think about you." Tess must have flinched because Max stepped forward with an apologetic expression. "I'm sorry. It's always been Michael, Isabel, and me, all our lives. We always talked things out first, before the others came into our lives we kept it between us three. Then once Alex, Maria, and Liz came into the picture we still kept them a little in the dark. Now, suddenly we have a fourth who's like us and we're not use to it yet." He could see he wasn't getting anywhere with her and asked. "What else do you want me to say?"
"Nothing." There was nothing to say. Not now. Maybe not ever. She knew what she wanted him to say, that it'd never happen again, that he trusted her, and many other things that would never cross his lips and be true. Tess sighed and shook her head. "You can't continue to keep me in the dark. If you had come to me early on I could have mind warped the couple people who found Michael's Swiss Army knife but now…"
Max lifted his gaze, "Wait you're right, you can manipulate some of the deputies minds. Make it go away, remove the Swiss Army knife from their mind."
"No." She simply stated.
Meanwhile up on her balcony Liz heard Max's raised voice. "Why not?" It wasn't a shout but a few more ratchets up on the volume meter and it would be. Curious Liz put down her journal, stood from her lawn chair, and peered down. Max was nowhere in her eyesight but his voice came up from the street next to the Crashdown. Opening her senses she zeroed in on the conversation.
"Are you refusing because you're pissed at me and this is some kind of revenge?"
Liz cocked an eyebrow. Lovers quarrel? With her hearing heightened she heard Maria approach from the stairs leading up from the restaurant to her parent's apartment.
"Don't be an idiot Max, I wouldn't do that to any of you. If you got your head out of your ass and off of one Liz Parker for twenty seconds you'd realize that if Michael, or any of you, get caught it's my green blooded ass on the line too. So don't go there. Now as for why I can't mind warp Hanson, Hanson's not the only person who knows about this case or the bones or the Swiss Army knife or Michael's possible involvement. Technically I could meddle with his mind and a couple others who work closely on the case but what about the people he talked too or the people those people talked too or the multitude of cops and scientists working on this case? Suddenly instead of one or two I'm having to warp fifty and I can't and won't do that."
Liz let out a deep breath, wow, she can't believe Tess got through that in two breaths. Holding your breath under water for five minutes, simple, getting out a long tirade with only a couple gulps of air, difficult as hell.
"Hey." Maria climbed through her window and Liz shushed her. "Geez. Rude." Maria wasn't angry. She would have stormed off if she had been.
"Tess and Max are down there arguing." Liz kept her voice low, so she could hear what else one or the other said.
"Hmm. Yea. Blondie tore out of the bathroom like her ass was on fire. Too bad it wasn't." Maria huffed and sat down on Liz's lawn chair picking up the thin afghan hanging on the edge of the chair and draped it over her bare legs.
"Why?" Liz asked. Didn't sound like Max was doing anything but sputtering out an apology. She stopped listening and focused on Maria.
"Who knows, it's Tess. Maybe she got a hang nail or something." Maria shrugged, uncaring about what Tess's issue happened to be. "Anyway got some info for you. Max would have told you himself but you've been avoiding him and banging Mr. Studly." Liz didn't respond but Maria had no problem filling up the silence with what had been going on with the bones, Michael getting questioned and the Brody/Milton mystery. "So here I am, being the go between." Maria ended.
"Not asking you to be the go between. I do appreciate it though. So Michael told Max he's in the clear?" She stared down at the alley way, a little lost in thought. It sounded good, Michael free and clear but sounded good and were good, were two different animals.
From off in the distance she heard Tess turn, some of the gravel under her shoes crunched, she saw the blonde enter the mouth of the alley then she turned around and told Max. "You know what Max, don't bother calling me, it shouldn't be too hard to do that, because you're already so good at it." She whipped around again and this time didn't stop to give Max another biting comment.
"Max and Michael say yes." Maria could see the gears moving in Liz's head.
"The police still have the knife?" Liz asked.
"I'd assume so. What are you thinking?"
Liz glanced at Maria before pushing away from the wall. "They brought him in, questioned him. Valenti had a report made up ready to go but if they test those bones, and you know they will sooner rather than later, they might conclude foul play."
"How? Would Michael's blast do anything permanent to the bones?"
"Don't know, can't imagine they wouldn't though. That blast was strong enough to kill it'll leave some kind of mark."
"And Michael's back in the interrogation chair or worse arrested for murder." Maria finished.
Liz nodded. She quickly went through her options. First things first, she had to know what the police did, then she could go from there.
"But even if a mark of some kind was left on the bones, they can't prove Michael did it. Wouldn't the bones show…odd marks…like more alien than human caused them? Unless they know what he is then they can't prove he did anything to the body." Maria almost desperately pointed out.
Liz shrugged, "We don't know what kind of mark if any Michael's blast put on the bones. It could look like someone crushed the bones with a sledge hammer, or the bones might show some small cracks that could be any number of human killer signatures. Until we knew more we can't assume they won't go after Michael. Right now he's their only lead, no matter how slim."
"What are you going to do?" Maria knew that look. It was the look Liz got before she left with Alex over the summer, it was the look she got what she confronted Max, Michael, and Isabel for the first time after finding out they were aliens, and it was the look Liz had when she and Alex agreed to let her in on their transgenic secret.
"First the sheriff's station. Got to play it by ear after that." Liz put her boots on and grabbed a light jacket.
"But you have an idea?"
Liz halted her progress and stared at Maria. "Yes. If they have enough evidence to charge Michael for murder I have a way that will at least slow the arrest train down."
"Can you, to use your train metaphor, derail it, not just slow it down?" She was concerned for her former boyfriend and friend.
"Don't know. My rough idea might but nothing's a guarantee." Liz pulled her hair back into a high ponytail and slipped on her watch. "I'll let you know how everything goes." She was about to leave when Maria called her back once more.
"Where's your homework that's due tomorrow?" She desperately needed to copy the Math assignment. She understood most of it, Math wasn't one of the subjects that plagued her but finishing assignments on time, or at all, that's what dragged her down.
Liz smiled and pointed inside. "On my desk. Help yourself. See you later." With a wave she jumped from the balcony. Two seconds later Maria heard Liz land on her feet and speed off toward the Sheriff's station. Michael would be ok, Liz would help him. She had complete confidence in her friend, but she did wonder how Liz would help Michael get out of this.
Sheriff's Station; 9:00 p.m.
Hanging onto the drainpipe outside of Sheriff Valenti's window at the police station proved beneficial. It brought some bad, which the bones were those of a murder victim, and a recent murder victim at that, but now she knew what they knew. She hadn't heard how they knew that but at that moment it didn't matter much. The dirt surrounding the bones gave them a time frame of when the bones were placed there, which was at least two months ago, it wasn't direct evidence that Michael had anything to do with the bones being out there but they could start looking at him closer.
What made her most interested however was Vanessa Whitaker's involvement. Liz was able to watch the happenings through the window, the darkness from outside kept her well hidden. There she was sitting at a chair directly across from the Valenti's desk. She was listening silently but with clear and calculating interest behind her eyes. What could her new boss's angle be with this murder investigation?
Hanson, the surprisingly right this time, deputy brought up Michael. "Maybe we should take a closer look at that Michael kid again Sheriff."
There it was, the words she was hoping no one would say. Bringing Michael up into the conversation peeked Whitaker's interest and she asked about who he was. Valenti explained that he was a local kid that he shooed away from the area where the bones were found around the time frame they were at least placed there.
Whitaker was quick to fire back with, "Well then we need to bring him in for questioning."
"There's no need for that." Valenti argued back.
Vanessa leaned in and cocked her head to the right, searching the Sheriff's features, trying to figure him out. "Why's that? Is this some sort of cover up Sheriff?" Mildly reminding him of the tape recording she played him earlier of a conversation she had with Agent Pierce.
"No. It's not a cover up. But it's unlikely Michael Guerin had anything to do with it or saw anything related to it. Although he's not big on authority he'd mention if he saw someone burying a body out in the desert."
"There's no harm in bringing him in to question him. Maybe he saw something." Whitaker put forth.
Liz zeroed in on her boss's eyes. She had something up her sleeve. Dammit. She'd hoped this job would be a break from all things transgenic or alien but no such luck.
The conversation inside went on for a few more minutes before Valenti agreed that they'd bring Michael in for questioning. He emphasized questioning, nothing else until they had more proof. He didn't want something this big to end up on Michael's record if he hadn't done anything wrong besides drinking and joy riding with friends.
Whitaker agreed then excused herself to make a phone call. Quickly and quietly Liz monkey jumped toward a ventilation duct, the sound of Whitaker's heels on linoleum carried through it. Straining her ears she heard what sounded like those same footsteps headed down stairs. Sure enough a moment later Whitaker came outside, to the left of Liz but three stories below her.
Listening closely Liz picked up Whitaker's and the other person's conversation. "The bones were fused in the rib area."
"Fascinating. Similar to…" The male voice on the other end was cut off.
"Exactly like the other bodies." Vanessa quickly said. "It could be the same alien or a new one."
"Any leads?" The man asked.
"Only one so far. Michael Guerin. Wasn't he on Topolsky's list?"
"Yes, so were many others unfortunately. It's not enough proof." Liz remembered the files of various students that fell from Topolsky's hands. More than just Michael's file was in there. She could only imagine how many other people were on that list of possible aliens.
Liz kept her breathing low, she felt her hand slip slightly from the iron rod she gripped. Feeling her weight shift she quickly swung her body a hundred and eighty degrees so she faced the street instead of the building. She missed the next couple of sentences between Whitaker and the man she spoke with over the phone. The next statement from her employer's conversation partner sent a cold spike of worry shooting through her.
"Go with the Sheriff's department picking up the Guerin kid." Silence then, "Agent's will be dispatched to displace Guerin. Stall the police for twenty minutes. That'll be enough time for our people to get him and get out."
"How will I explain that to Valenti? Pierce was already investigating him for possible involvement with aliens, if Guerin suddenly disappears after I left to make a phone call he'll have questions for me." Whitaker pointed out.
"That's not our problem. Stall for twenty minutes."
With that the phone call was disconnected. Whitaker stood there for a few moments, seemingly to pump herself up and figure out what she'd do when she went back inside.
Staying silent and still took everything Liz had. She couldn't risk having her boss see or hear her, not if she wanted to help Michael. Mentally she willed Whitaker to hurry inside, she didn't have time to wait around. Finally she turned and went back into the precinct.
Once Whitaker went into the building Liz hurried down the side using drain pipes and window's sills till she touched the ground. Less than twenty minutes to keep Michael out of the Special Unit's hands. Despite the news and Nasedo-Pierce being a part of the public dissolution of the Special Unit it was clear with that phone call that it was still operational. She had to get to Michael. Without a second thought she took off toward Michael's apartment, hopefully she'd get there in time.
TBC