Free Undead Much by Stacey Jay Page B

something big. The suits were in an uproar, scenting lawsuit in the wind.”
      “Wow, sounds serious.” Ethan scribbled something on his notepad and then tore off the piece of paper. “Would you be willing to call us if you hear anything more?”
      “Sure, but weren’t you here to learn about the morgue?” Caleb looked suspiciously from me to Ethan.
      “My mom is a reporter for the Arkansas Sentinel Gazette ,” Ethan said, the lie falling from his lips without a moment’s hesitation. “I try to keep an ear out for stories I think she might be interested in, and this sounds like it has scandal potential. She’d want to interview you if she gets the scoop. As a secret informant, of course.”
      Caleb nodded and glanced down at the number, clearly intrigued by the idea of being a secret informant. “Cool. I’ll give you a call if I hear anything else. And I’ll ask Dr. Blackmon if he has time to answer a few questions. Maybe you could even interview him on the phone, save you a trip down to the crypt.”
      Well now, wasn’t he helpful? We should have told him we were reporters from the beginning. “That would be great. Thanks so much-we really appreciate it,” I said, beaming down at him.
      Caleb returned my smile, his grin transforming his pale, scrawny face into something a lot more approachable-if he’d quit the skin-picking thing, of course.
      Ethan and I thanked him and headed back upstairs. This time, however, we went ahead and used the elevator. No need to skulk. It didn’t seem like anyone cared that we were here. Ethan had been right-I’d obviously been smelling danger where there was none. Speaking of danger…
      “Hey, I have to get back to school. My parents didn’t go to work this morning, so I’m not sure whether they’ll be in the parking lot after pom practice or not. Sometimes Mom shows up unexpectedly.”
      “Yeah, about your mom…”
      “Yeah?” I asked, a funny feeling in my stomach. “What about her?”
      “Elder Thomas gave Kitty a file last night and it had your mom’s name on it,” he said. “You have any idea what that’s about? Why she would be digging up stuff on your mom when you’re the one they suspect of raising these zombies?”
      “I don’t know. Elder Thomas said something about a ‘mistake’ Mom made last night, but I haven’t been able to get the four-one-one,” I said, unable to believe I’d forgotten to share that with Ethan. Some investigator I was. “Do you think it might have something to do with when Mom and Dad got relocated to Arkansas?”
      “Could be.” He nodded, but I could tell he wasn’t totally convinced. “I’ll see what I can dig up over at SA headquarters.”
      “I could go with you.” I suddenly didn’t want to be separated from Ethan, and the suspicion that my mom was hiding something made me a lot less worried about not being there for her to pick me up.
      “No, you’re right, you should get back to class. I’ll drop you behind the gym just in case your parents are parked out front,” he said as we exited the elevator and headed toward the parking garage. “Then I’ll probably come back here and do a little more poking around before heading to headquarters. Definitely sounds like something big went down.”
      “True, but we can’t be sure it was Undead-related.” I hated to be the voice of doom, but I was doing my best not to get too excited. This could still be nothing and we could be back where we started-square one and clueless.
      “My gut is telling me to check it out.”
      “Oh, my gut also told me something,” I said, excited to share my clue. “While we were talking to Caleb, I remembered something about the zombies last night. They weren’t wearing shoes!”
      “Really? Monica didn’t mention that in her report.”
      “Yep, no shoes. And they were also all in their pajamas. I mean, I think the big guy Monica fought might have been wearing