In Too Deep(52)

I took a seat on the bench, Cam joining me a minute later. "So tell me your thoughts," he said as he took a seat. "I know what I'm thinking, but to be honest, the thoughts are really dark right now. I need to know that I'm not just being vengeful."

"If you're thinking that you want to unleash Albertine on whoever did this, you and I are on similar tracks," I said, opening my bottle.

I didn't know if I was thinking with my heart or with my head, but I knew the answer. "I want to find whoever authorized this and tear them a new *," I said after a few moments. "There's no justification for what happened today. You even warned them off, and they still came."

It was the first time since seeing Cam get out of his truck that he smiled. This wasn't the warm smile he often gave me when he was amused or the lover's smile he would give me in bed. This was predatory, chilling. It was the smile of a wolf that has sighted its prey and was eager for the kill. I couldn't help it, I shivered, but at the same time, I knew I was grinning, too.

"Then let's do some work," he said, taking a deep swig. "We've got a lot to do, and not as much time as I'd like to do it in. There's going to be administrative stuff, dealings with the police, all of that eating into our time as well. But first, let's get home. I need to send Senpai a message."

"What's that?" I asked.

"That hell is coming, and he better pray to whatever gods he believes in that he wasn't actually involved with Pinzetti."





Chapter 31





Melina




The next day, I stayed home with Albertine while Cam went to the police station to talk to the cops. So far, none of the students had talked about his heroics, and he wanted things to stay that way. Therefore, while he knew there were pictures and sworn statements from the cop who had shot him to take into consideration, he wanted it made clear that he wasn't going to become the public face of a major tragedy.

"If they want a public face, how about Tawny Shaw? She died holding one of her students so that she wasn't riddled with bullets. Give it to the cop who shot me, who had the guts to try and do something, and then the smarts to not blow me away. Doctor the f*cking coroner's report so that Pinzetti died from .40 caliber S&W rounds and not a snatched up AK-47."

For my part, I gave Jay Winters a call at the pharmacy on his office line. He picked up on the second ring. "Winters' Drugs."

"Hey Jay, it's Melina," I greeted him. "I just wanted to let you know that Cam and I are okay."

"That's good news,” Jay said. "I heard from someone he got banged up?"

"Just something on his arm, but he'll be fine. In fact, in three or four days the docs said I can take the stitches out myself. I thought that might be cool."

Jay chuckled on his end of the line. "I bet. If you want, stop by and pick up some surgical scissors if you need them." His voice grew somber, and he paused before continuing. "Melina, I hate to go demanding more of you, I'm sure you're trying to be supportive to Cam and all, but is there any way you might be able to come in tonight for a closing shift? The girl I have on, her cousin was Tawny Shaw.”

"I'll be there," I said immediately. “I’m just so thankful Cam made it out of there okay. I can’t imagine what she must be going through."

"Thank you," Jay said. "As for pay, I'll pay you time and a half for it, is that okay?"

“Whatever you think is right. I’m not doing it for the money, Jay.”

"Whatever you need, any time Melina, you just ask," he finally said. "Thank you."

"See you tonight at six," I said, not sure if I could say more without getting emotional. Hanging up the phone, I tried to call Cam, but his phone went to voicemail, so I sent him a text message telling him about the shift.

With nothing other than waiting on Albertine to do its job, I decided to get a workout in. Changing clothes, I went into the spare bedroom, where my old laptop already waited sitting on a small table. I pulled up a television show I'd been hoping to catch up on, and climbed onto my bike, losing myself in the show. It was fun and easy to lose myself in the silly comedy, and provided a needed distraction, both from the depression of the day and the pain of the workout.

By the end of forty minutes, the length of the show minus commercials, my legs were burning and sweat dripped off my chin and nose. Congratulating myself, I took a quick shower and dressed for work.

Cam came home at just after five, which made me glad. I wanted to see him before going into the pharmacy. "Hey babe, how'd it go with the police?"

"So far, they're willing to go along with my ideas," he said. "They have agreed to not let my name out to the press, and to make the reports look like everything was done by the cops themselves. The coroner doesn't really care, as the dead bodies don't have families coming forward to claim them so far. But I know it’ll only take one of the students who saw me at the scene of Pinzetti's death for stories to start going out."

"So what should we do?" I asked. Cam came into the living room and sat down. In the time I had before going in, I decided to make sure his sutures were clean. Taking a pair of bandage scissors, I sliced off the gauze around his left arm, unwinding it carefully. There wasn't a lot of seepage, just a little bit of scabbing, and taking a look at the gauze itself, there was none of the yellowish or whitish discharge that said Cam might have picked up an infection. Still, he hadn't gone into the hospital, and the wound was ugly, with hasty stitching that would leave a scar even nastier than what I'd told Jay about. "Jesus Cam, you really should have this taken care of at the hospital. I'm sure someone will be able to do a better job than this."