Story 05 – Part 3 – Water Makes Ice

“I did have my heart set on a real tree,” Wilanna told Vire, “but this one you made looks and smells so real I forget it isn’t.”

“That tree was one of the easier ones I’ve ever put up,” Owens said.

“It’s like living in a dorm,” Boomer observed. “Everyone is rounded up to help with decorating.”

Tasha smacked him on the back of the head and made him help pull out Wilanna’s Christmas boxes. She had about twenty of them. Boomer nearly died laughing when Tasha started getting excited about all the decorations. Tasha loved Christmas and their apartment had more decorations than wall space. Boomer was kind of disappointed that Jordan was not in the apartment building. No one else was helping him with the boxes. Tech had somehow gotten stuck untangling lights and so Boomer really did have no one helping him since Owens was still admiring the tree.

“I found some carolers,” Jordan called from the front door, after Boomer had brought in the last box.

Agents Driver and Michaels followed Jordan in, and they looked really excited about something. Of course, their excitement was forced to wait as tangled lights were shoved in their hands. It did not take long for them to get back to their main point, though. Well, it did not take too long for Agent Michaels to get back on topic.

“Is Carmine in?” Michaels asked Vire.

“He should be coming anytime,” she answered.

“Well, we checked out his advice and it got some strange results,” Michaels explained. “The frozen victims aren’t connected completely as a group like we thought. It’s like a chain. The first two victims went to the same club, the second and third went to the same school, and so on. It will take us awhile to find all the hang out spots of the last victim, but we would like to ask Carmine if he has anymore ideas.”

“Well, I’ll see where he is,” Vire said.

Vire pulled out her phone and put it on speaker as Tech tried to get out of untangling lights by getting on the nearest computer to help the agents. Vire’s phone rang a couple times and went straight to Carmine’s answering machine. She sighed and tried dialing again when Tech pointed at the screen, with a look of concern. Boomer tilted his head and saw that Tech was pointing at a rock climbing gym.

“Hello?” Carmine’s voice sounded slightly disoriented.

“Hey Car,” Vire said. “Where are? And you don’t sound too good.

“Vi!” Carmine sounded relieved. “Hey, question. Can you get pneumonia if you’re soaking wet and handcuffed inside a giant freezer?”

There was silence for a little bit. “Explain.” Vire finally said.

“Well, you can tell the gov agents that I’ve got some good news. I can positively identify their freezing serial killer. Bad news is that I’m his next victim. Do you think you could tell them to come save me now?”

“Tech,” Vire snapped her fingers. “Trace his cell.”

Tech was almost done with the trace when his mother suggested it. Both government agents were checking their weapons while Jordan was getting one from Owens. Boomer only glanced at Tasha once to get a slight nod from her. If the situation was reversed, Boomer had no doubt that Carmine would help. Of course, Boomer probably would not be as calm as Carmine.

“I stuck my phone in my shoe,” Carmine answered Vire’s question. “I figured I was in trouble when I saw the guy. I’m not a kung fu expert.”

“Are you hurt?” Vire asked after Carmine sneezed.

“Aside from turning into an ice cube?” came the wry reply. “I….well, I don’t think so.”

“Well just sit tight. Help is coming.”

“And so is trouble,” Carmine whispered as Boomer followed the other men out the door. “I’ll use my charm and keep crazy from dumping another bucket of water on me.”