Page 13 of Shelter for Sharla

“Really jumpy. Nervous. Kind of aggressive. Was that what you thought, Lionel?”

The young man nodded. “Yeah. Kind of aggressive. Very unlike her. Almost like we were the enemy.”

“Uh, yeah. I think that’s understandable,” Carter said and waited for a response. Sure enough, both young people’s brows furrowed in confusion. “What kind of drugs did you guys take?”

“We didn’t take any drugs! I don’t do that shi… stuff!” Chelsea fired back.

“Me either! I’ve gotta keep my GPA up or I lose my scholarship and I’d have to quit school!” Lionel cried out.

“Did you know Tamara had several different kinds of very dangerous drugs in her system?” Chelsea and Lionel’s mouths dropped open and Carter could tell they weren’t faking it?they had no idea Tamara had been under the influence. “Yeah. MDVP for one.”

Lionel’s voice was a breathy gasp. “Bath salts?”

“You know about them?”

“Yeah, everybody does. But Tamara would never do that stuff.”

“There was also cocaine in her system.” The kids turned to each other, their eyebrows disappearing into their hairlines and their mouths open in astonishment. “And Adderall. The ADHD drug?”

“Holy shit! All three?” Chelsea croaked.

“Yeah. All three. She was really out there when she was shot, and she’d been like that for a while, apparently.”

“But those drugs don’t last that long in the bloodstream. I know. I’m pre-med,” Lionel pointed out.

“Well, there’s the rub of it. Do either of you know anything about this?” Carter asked as he took out the picture of the tattoo and showed it to the kids.

Chelsea rolled her eyes. “Yeah. We know. I told her not to do it, but she did.”

“So you know about the tattoo?”

“Oh, yeah. They were pushing people to get them,” Lionel offered.

“They? Who’s they?”

“The organizers of the event. The coordinators of the group that put it on,” the young man said.

“Why?”

“Solidarity, they said,” Lionel answered.

“And the bandage over it?”

Chelsea shrugged. “There were some guys walking through the crowd, asking if anybody had one of their tattoos. He said to put it on over the tattoo in case the cops showed up. It would make it hard for them to identify the members of the group, seeing as how they were telling all of us that the cops were out to get us.”

“And the only people they were giving them to were people who had the tattoos?” Chelsea nodded.Should I tell them about the bandages? Nah, Carter decided. He’d save that piece of info in case he needed it. “And she took one and put it on?”

“Yeah,” Lionel said.

“Did you notice anybody else acting weird?”

Chelsea shrugged. “I dunno. We didn’t know any of those people, so there was no way of knowing how they usually acted. But I do know that as the event went on, people started getting crazier and louder. Don’t you think so, Lionel?”

“Yeah. I noticed that. It was another reason why I wanted to leave. It started getting really loud, and I hate that.”

“So back to the tattoo. Do you know what it means?”

Chelsea nodded. “Well, yeah. It’s their logo.”

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