Chapter 9: Dazed and Confused
Tamsin pulled at the lime green sneakers Bo had lent her, too tight to walk on now. She rounded the corner, her bare feet smacking against the tile until she reached a gray room designated for detentions. A slight man with thick rimmed, brown glasses peered over a magazine at the Valkyrie.
"Sign in," he tapped the clip board sitting on the edge of the desk, then returned to his reading.
Tamsin adjusted her bag on her shoulder as she signed her name then glanced around the room. She found Kenzi and Dyson sitting near the wall furthest from the door, Dyson wrapping his arms around her shoulders, facing the front of the class. The rest of the desks in the room sat empty on the thin blue carpet.
Bo sat on the other side of the room, her back pressed against the wall as she sat on the floor. Tamsin walked down the aisle toward Bo, her bare feet scratching against the carpet. She sat against the leg of a large table sitting in an awkward area of the room, interrupting a line of desks. The table hid Bo and Tamsin from Kenzi and Dyson's sights, the most likely reason the Succubus had chosen the spot.
"Hey," Bo mumbled. Tamsin's eyes were puffy and sluggish, "Are you okay?" Bo slid away from the wall, nearing Tamsin and placing her hand on her knee.
Tamsin eyed the hand momentarily before looking back at Bo. "I'll be fine, just worn out," she spoke, her voice raspy. Tamsin cleared her throat, "I'm sorry about earlier."
Bo shook her head, taking her hand off of Tamsin's skin and leaning against the wall behind her. "It's fine," she pulled her knees to her chest.
Tamsin stretched her legs out in the open space, crossing them at the ankles. "You don't look fine," Tamsin tossed her bag to her side, forgetting it had been in her lap. "Was it what happened in the woods, I just didn't want you to see that type of stuff. I don't want you guys to have to deal with that, it's not.."
"Tamsin," Bo saw the Valkyrie become uneasy. "It wasn't that, really. I mean that was gross but it's Kenzi, she said some stuff and Lauren showed up and I just needed time to think."
Tamsin's face dropped, "Oh." Tamsin grabbed her bag and began moving.
"No, Tamsin stay, I wanted to talk to you about the case."
Tamsin glanced over the table at Kenzi and Dyson, still stuck together. The man with the thick rimmed glasses had left, his magazine face down on the desk. "Well considering Dyson still has the case file and you guys aren't exactly on speaking terms I don't think there's much to discuss," Tamsin turned back to Bo. "Do you want to talk about what happened with Kenzi? Sometimes it helps to get it out in the open," Tamsin returned to her previous position.
Bo smiled weakly, "Thanks." She raised her body up slightly in order to look over the table top, seeing if Dyson and Kenzi were listening to the girls conversation, they weren't. Bo moved over, leaning against the desks across from Tamsin, stretching her legs to mimic the Valkyrie. "It's just something Kenzi said, she thought," Bo motioned between herself and the Valkyrie.
"What does this mean?" Tamsin copied the girl.
"She thought we had left together, you know," Bo continued moving her hands back and forth.
Tamsin, still not understanding, furrowed her brow, questioning the Succubus.
Bo sighed, her arms dropping lifelessly to her side, her head dropping for a second. "She thought I was feeding off of you," Bo stated.
"Oh," Tamsin straightened her back against the leg of the table. "You told her we weren't right? I mean it's not a problem, just, we- we're not."
Bo laughed, her hand covering her smile.
Tamsin smacked the girls leg, "Stop," she fought the awkward laughter. "Bo, you told her right?"
"Yeah, I told her we were just friends," Bo stopped laughing.
"So then what happened with Lauren?" Tamsin leaned forward, waiting for Bo to continue.
Bo sighed, "I was kinda upset with Kenzi after that and left."
Tamsin started giggling uncontrollably.
"What's so funny?" Bo poked the blonde.
Tamsin smiled, "It's just, Bo it's the first week of school and we've missed almost all of our classes. Is this what the rest of the year will be like? Me leaving to collect and you storming out dramatically or all of us just skipping?"
The brunette smirked, "Why Valkyrie? Scared you'll be associated with us," she leaned forward and whispered, "hooligans?"
The Valkyrie chuckled, "No, but I don't think I'll be able to pass Chem finals if I'm barely in the class."
"Don't worry Tams, we'll help you out," Bo patted the girls leg. "Besides," she leaned back against the metal rods holding the desk behind her up, "it's not like we're flunkies, Hale actually does pretty well and Kenzi and I manage to pass."
Tamsin smiled at the contact before snapping back to reality, "So what happened after you left?"
"Well I was going into the woods to blow off steam, maybe hang out by the creek until the end of school and,: Bo began fidgeting with the hem of her shirt and ripping threads, "there was Lauren."
"Your ex Lauren, the one from the hall this morning?" Tamsin asked.
Bo smiled, running her hand through her loose tangles, glancing at the ceiling tiles over the room. "She was coming out of the woods and she saw me when I was walking through the parking lot and I thought I might talk to her, or something because she was always good with that kind of stuff. Anyway Kenzi and Dyson followed us, trying to say they were sorry for what happened before and I, I was just so mad and they tried to make Lauren leave..." Bo let the air she had harbored in her lungs free in a lengthy breath.
Tamsin hadn't realized she had been pressing her elbows into her knees while she rested her head in her hands, her legs now in a tangle. Tamsin raised herself back up, pressing her soar shoulder blades into the metal bar. The blonde noticed the sorrow settle in Bo's eyes, her heart weighing heavy. "Why did they make her leave?" Tamsin let her arms cross without thinking.
Bo focused on one of the hanging tiles above her head. The pale white hung on thin metal slots evenly spaced to form squares. The tile above Bo's head had been chipping away at one edge, part of the corner missing. Bo focused on the hole it had formed, showing the darkness of the space between the surfaces of the school. "Stuff that happened after we broke up, Kenzi and Dyson don't like her."
The Valkyrie's eyes met Bo's, small tears forming at the edge of the girls eyes making them look glossy. "Do you want to talk about it anymore, I mean we can stop if you want," Tamsin tried to defuse the anxiety she had gained as Bo became upset.
Bo smiled, wiping the wetness from her eyes. "There's not much else, now we're here," she laughed lightly.
Tamsin slid forward, her shorts pulling at her leg as they clung to the carpet when she moved. "Bo," Tamsin nearly whispered, "Are you okay?"
"I will be," she sighed. Bo pulled her legs to her chest again, resting her arms against her knees. "Thanks Tamsin," she smiled, "You're pretty awesome."
Tamsin laughed, glancing at her legs which she had pulled toward her, but unlike Bo's they were separated at the knee where she let her arms rest against her ankles. "Well, I have been told once or twice," she smirked cockily.
Bo's lip pulled into a sort of half smile, "So, about the case."
"Oh," Tamsin raised herself onto her knees, turning around to see Kenzi and Dyson looking in another direction. "Hey ass face," Tamsin called. The two turned their heads toward the girl, "Yeah you with the beard. Your father would really like his case file back, it kinda makes it hard to solve murders without a case file," Tamsin glared at Dyson.
Dyson looked confused until he remembered the file he had thrown into his backpack in the chemistry lab. He pulled the manilla folder from his bag and got up from the desk he was in, detaching himself from Kenzi. The Wolf dropped the file on the large table where Tamsin was resting her chin, "Here."
Bo got up and took a seat at the desk, soon followed by Kenzi. Kenzi sat across from Tamsin and Bo, her face drawn.
"I'm sorry Bo," Kenzi nearly mumbled.
Bo looked up at the girl, her features sagging uncharacteristically. "It's fine," Bo sighed.
"No it's not, I shouldn't have assumed that since you two were spending a lot of time together and..." Kenzi continued.
"Getting along? Is that what you mean, that I can't have friends, not like you because of my nature?" Bo snapped.
Tamsin stopped flipping through the file with Dyson, "Bo," she sighed, trying to gain the Succubus's attention.
"No, she's right," Kenzi said to Tamsin. "I'm sorry Bo, I'm just not used..."
Bo's cheeks became pink, her fists clenching against the edge of the table. Tamsin saw her knuckles go white, "Bo, calm down, she's trying to say she's sorry."
Bo took a deep breath, closing her eyes to prevent their color to change. She held her breath for a moment, calming her nerves. "Sorry," she mumbled.
Dyson slid the case file toward the center of the table, laying out photos and descriptions, "Okay, now that everyone is cool, can we please talk about this?"
"I'm still not okay with this," Tamsin glanced over the file.
"What, Valkyrie's don't like playing detective?" Bo nudged Tamsin, back to her happier state.
Tamsin sighed.
Kenzi piped up, "I think what blondie is trying to say is we kinda lack the resources and ability to do a better job than the cops, I mean they're cops, it's sorta their job."
"Yeah well I've seen my fathers work load and this isn't really his top priority right now," Dyson poked a picture of the crime scene.
"Well yeah, there are more crimes than the fae cops are able to handle so they don;t always get around to other cases," Bo leaned over the files contents, glancing at the photos.
"Exactly, which is why we should help, you know get witness interview, canvas the neighborhoods, see what type of fae live around the site," Dyson spoke.
"Sites," Tamsin corrected. "There was another one today, that's where Bo and I went."
Bo glanced at Kenzi, "Acacia and Detective Thornwood, aka Papa Wolf think these are connected," Bo ran her index finger across one of the pages of notes.
Kenzi smirked, "Papa Wolf," she repeated under her breath.
"Hey, we prefer the term shifter," Dyson eyed the girls who had begun giggling lightly.
Kenzi raised her hands up in defense, "Whatever you say, but no matter what from now on we have to refer to your dad as 'Papa Wolf'" Kenzi laughed, "Papa Shifter just doesn't sound right."
Tamsin eyed on of the pictures of the boy with converse. "Hey guys," Tamsin pulled their attention. "Bo, you remember how the bruises on the victims at the crime scene this morning were paralleled?"
Bo looked over at the picture Tamsin pinched between her fingers, she saw what Tamsin had noticed. There were small stripes just above the boys converse, the same on each leg, almost able to connect. "There," she pointed at an area of exposed skin just below the cuff of the boys pants.
"What is it?" Dyson and Kenzi came up behind them, viewing the odd shadow of a mark.
Tamsin dropped the picture, raking her nails through her scalp.
"What is it Tamsin?" Kenzi glanced at the girl curiously.
"Ligature marks?" Bo grabbed the photo. "I mean we can;t be sure until we ask one of the cops but, guys, what else causes this type of bruise," she pointed at the line in the boys skin, "it looks like the bruises you see on crime shows."
Kenzi looked closer, "So whoever the sicko who killed the five tied them up? What does that have to do with the other case?"
Tamsin looked up, the door to the detention room open into the hallway. Tamsin shoved her chair back and marched toward the door. No one was in the hall that she could see and for all they knew the person sent to watch them wouldn't come back, so Tamsin shut the door, locking it before returning to the table.
"What was that for?" Dyson asked the blonde.
Tamsin took her seat, "To make sure no one is listening," she lowered her voice. "Now what we saw today wasn't like these marks really, the bruising on the bodies in the woods was because their bones were broken like a line that just snapped them, but these," she pointed at the photo, "these look like they're ligature marks from being held somewhere."
"So whoever is doing this is trying to make these cases look unrelated but still similar?" Bo asked.
"It's the smell," Tamsin sighed, focusing on the papers scattered across the table.
Dyson perked up, "What smell? I don't smell anything."
"At the crime scene, it's like this sweet, pungent smell, the sickly sweet kind, it was the same at both sites," Tamsin whined as she laid her head in her arms, her bare feet sliding across the floor as she stretched them.
"So lets see what we've got here," Bo began. "There are paralleled marks on both scenes, the same smell, different locations, different kill, different type of people, and way they were found."
"Wait," Kenzi interjected, "How were the bodies today found?"
"We were told they were found in a ball formation, like their limbs were intertwined to make a massive ball," Bo looked up at the girl who was still hovering over the pictures and papers on the desk.
"Nasty," Kenzi cringed.
Tamsin laughed, "Bo almost puked."
Bo smacked the girls arm, "Did not, I was just resting."
"Whatever you say,"Tamsin smirked.
"So if this is what we've got then where does that leave us?" Dyson looked over the other pictures to see if he spotted any other marks to connect the two cases.
"Daze and confused?" Kenzi sighed.
Tamsin slammed her palms to her forehead, "Exactly."
"Wait," Bo paused spoke, looking over the picture of the boy again, "Why weren't there any marks on their wrists? I mean if your going to hold someone for awhile, why would you only strap their ankles?"
Tamsin stood and walked over to the next aisle where she had left her bag. She pulled her cell phone out of a pocket within the fabric.
"Who are you calling?" Kenzi shifted to stand on her knees, making herself taller so she could see over Bo's shoulder.
Tamsin typed the buttons on the screen, "We have to call Acacia or someone."
"Why?" Bo pushed her seat back, ready to stand.
"Well," Tamsin paused, "since they don't have the file to look at and we don't know if they know anything, maybe we should probably tell then?"
"Good point," Dyson sighed.
Bo got up, walking over to Tamsin she stood close to the girl, enough to whisper and be able to hear. "Tamsin, they probably already know," she grabbed the phone from Tamsin hand that rested at her side.
"Yeah, and what if they don't?" Tamsin pulled the phone back into her palm, glaring at Bo.
Bo sighed, "Fine, but can we at least make a copy of the file so we have something too? We can still help while they have the file."
Tamsin glanced over at the table, Kenzi and Dyson looking back toward the papers on the desk, "Fine." Tamsin slid passed Bo, "Any of you know where the dude that was here keeps his keys?"
"Yeah, why?" Kenzi perked up.
Bo smirked, "Looks like we get to go on a field trip."