Painless

Chapter Three

Chapter Three

“What are you talking about?”

Benji walked back over to the examination table and took a seat. He was sporting the slightly baggy jumpsuit and it made him look like some sort of a bizarro janitor. If he planned on sticking around for a few days, I’d have to see about getting Dad to make him a Smart Suit that actually fit. I couldn’t have him following me around looking like this. Little kids would think he was a psycho killer from a horror movie. And hey, I was all for creeping people out, but I didn’t exactly want the angry mobs going after Benji.

“About two months ago, Glenn was riding his bike around the block and never came home. His family searched for him for days, but never found out what happened. There was an Amber Alert, but after getting no leads the case dried up,” Benji said. “Then, three weeks ago, Joanie was home alone while her mom ran to the grocery store. When her mom got back, she was gone, too. The cops assumed she ran away, but none of her stuff was missing. Just her.”

“How come I didn’t hear about any of this?” I asked, feeling a pressure begin to grow in my chest.

“Why would you? They live in different states,” Benji said, shrugging. “I only know because we’re all sort of on a weekly e-mail list together. When Joanie and Glenn stopped checking in, I got in touch with their parents.”

Hearing that everyone from CC was doing something together—and without me—gave me a pang of sadness that I hadn’t felt in a while. I know I’d been the one to leave them behind, but it didn’t make being left out feel any better. I pushed the feelings to the back of my mind and returned my focus to the problem at hand. What did I care if they weren’t including me? It’s not like I had time for group e-mails. Not when I was busy solving my own cases and everything.

“Why are you telling me all of this?” I asked, not meaning for it to come out as harshly as it did.

“Are you kidding? Blister, you’re the smartest person I know. You always win at Clue, and know whodunnit before the actors on TV do,” Benji said, with a smile. “Do you really think we would have solved the mystery of the Ghost of CC if it weren’t for you?”

I managed to hide my smile by turning around and starting to pace the room. Besides his newly ab-tastic body, Benji hadn’t changed at all over the years. He was still that adventurous dreamer who thought that all of the world’s problems could be solved just by trying hard enough. It was what I had loved most about him. The reason I’d agreed to marry him during a fake ceremony when we were kids. And it was ultimately the reason I’d left CC. Being the one to take that away from him—it would’ve haunted me even in death.

“I don’t know why you’d think I could do anything about this. Don’t get me wrong, I’m beyond upset to hear about Joanie and Glenn, but isn’t that what the cops are for?”

The words were coming out of my mouth, but the irony was that even I didn’t believe them. If other towns were like mine, then the local department of justice wouldn’t be good for much other than handing out speeding tickets and jaywalking charges. But an actual crime? You left that up to the professionals.

“I just had a hunch you’d know what to do,” he answered, giving me a look as he swept his arms around the room dramatically. “And given that you seem to have an underground lair, it looks like I was right.”

I chuckled despite myself, before growing serious again. “It’s not a lair. It’s a lab. Well, it’s really my parent’s office,” I said. “And yeah. You came to the right place.”

*       *       *       *

            “So, let me get this straight. Your parents work for a covert division of the CIA. Your mom is a special agent, and your dad is this crazy scientist who can create any kind of thingamabob and doohickey the secret military needs. And you…you’re some sort of vigilante superhero who stalks around fighting crime and saving the students of Regal Eagle one innocent person at a time?”