Tales of Aradia The Last Witch Volume 1 (30 page)

“My dad’s a lawyer,
too,” she volunteered. “ADA.”

“Good for your
dad.”

“What were you fighting
about, the last time you saw your father?” Aradia asked.

“The gang,” said
Kaiser.

“Hmm. He didn’t
approve?”

“My dad and I lost our
pack with the divorce. They sided with my mom. He thought we’d be
better off finding our own way.”

“You think one of them
might have…”

He shook his head. “No.
My guys are loyal, mostly. There’s a couple guys who are bruisers,
Bane, Dope, Munchie, but if anybody wanted my spot, they’d come
after me.”

“Another gang,
then?”

He shook his head.
“Look, we’re not like LA or New York wolf packs. There’s some petty
crimes, but nothing hard. Mostly we just bully other hiddens, like
you and your boyfriend that night.”

Aradia sighed and
asked, “Was your father having any business problems?”

Kaiser shook his head.
She wished he would shift his thinking to help her generate leads
instead of merely shooting down anything she came up with. For all
her bravado, establishing a motive would be nearly impossible
without help.

“What about
Stanley?”

“What about
him?”

“Two murders in a town
that normally has none, and all they have in common is the vampire
MO and that the first vic was your dad’s client. It’s an obvious
link.”

“Police thought so
too,” Kaiser replied. “They didn’t find anything.”

“Because they didn’t
know what to look for. They don’t know about werewolves.”
Well, Scruffy does. I guess he just wasn’t too
helpful in the investigation. Not surprising, he was such a
jerk.

Kaiser sighed. “I’d met
Stanley a couple times. The guy was a tool.”

Aradia couldn’t help
but laugh.

“What?” he
asked.

“The guy owned a
hardware store,” she replied. At his blank expression, she spelled
it out, saying, “You called him a tool.”

“Oh!” he said,
realizing the irony.

He laughed, hard.
“Yeah, I didn’t mean it like that.”

“I know,” she said,
smiling sincerely.
Finally he’s warming
up to me!

“Well, it’s still true.
He was probably a good guy, you know. But he sweated a lot. He had
no confidence. I can tell when I meet someone whether they’re a
fighter or not. He wasn’t.”

“From what I’ve
learned, he fought pretty hard to keep his store
afloat.”

“Yeah, afloat,” Kaiser
replied. “Surviving. Struggling just to stay alive isn’t living.
That’s what I mean.”

Beats the
alternative.
She kept that sentiment to
herself, given the circumstances.

“What about Mr.
Stanley’s business partner, a guy named Dereck?”

“Caradoc?” Kaiser
replied. “What about him?”

“What do you know about
him?”

“Stanley was my dad’s
client for a while. I first heard the name maybe four or five years
ago. A business owner always needs a lawyer, I guess. My dad talked
about him a lot. He mismanaged a few finances last year. My dad
thought his only choice was to sell the place. The land was worth
good money, and there were interested buyers. If he didn’t sell,
the bank would foreclose.”

“But what has that got
to do with Mr. Caradoc?” asked Aradia.

“Well, lots of
businesses have been going under lately. Banks don’t want to
foreclose. They don’t make money like that. They want businesses to
keep paying interest. In order to make a long term profit, some
banks are willing to forgive a certain amount of debt if the owner
can show a real plan to pay the rest of it over time.”

“Isn’t that kind of
shady?” Aradia asked.

Kaiser shook his head.
“Shady how? On the contrary, it helps square off the business
owners’ debts while helping the bank still get the money it needs.
When banks do well, they can lend more money, which entrepreneurs
can use to spur on the economy. Healthy banks are crucial for a
healthy economy.”

Not as dumb as he
acts
, Aradia noted.
I’ll remember that.

“Where does Dereck come
in?” Aradia repeated.

“Well, I don’t know the
details, but this Caradoc guy, he offered Stanley enough money to
make the shop look better on paper. It was enough to convince the
bank not to foreclose, right away at least. In exchange he became a
partner.”

“I met him once,”
Kaiser continued. “Dereck. Didn’t like him.”

“Why not?”

He shrugged. “Nothing
in particular. Just my overall impression. If there is one thing
being a criminal taught me, it’s how to spot another.”

Aradia felt a tingle
down her spine. That was exactly how she’d felt just glimpsing him
in the hallway. “You think the guy’s a crook?” Aradia
asked.

“I don’t know. That
would be my guess.”

Aradia nodded with
satisfaction. She knew her father disagreed, but her money was on
Dereck as the culprit, or at least an involved party.

"Do you think Dereck
was stealing money from Mr. Stanley?”

He smiled. “How the
hell would I know?”

Aradia grew thoughtful.
“I know this is kind of touchy, but you probably could get access
to your dad’s computer and books.”

They agreed on a
meeting time and place. Kaiser would do the research Aradia
requested and meet with her again on Tuesday. That would give him
time to find what it was for which he was looking. She was
disappointed, but agreed to wait, figuring it would be two of the
longest days of her life.

He still didn’t want
her to know where he lived, so they agreed to meet at the public
library on Essex Street. The library was a renovated Civil War era
brick mansion originally owned by a wealthy sea merchant. Aradia
was pretty excited when Kaiser proposed it as a meeting place.
She’d been meaning to check it out anyway, but hadn’t found the
time.

“I won’t tell the other
guys you have a library card,” she quipped when he hurried up to
join her on Tuesday afternoon.

“I checked my dad’s
home computer,” he replied, ignoring her comment. “There wasn’t
anything on it. The police took his office one and his laptop. They
didn’t know about these, though.”

He emptied his backpack
and a half dozen or so ledgers tumbled out, earning him a stern
look from a nearby librarian.

“My dad was old school.
He probably kept computer records, but everything you want to know
is in these.”

“Let’s look at
Stanley’s finances,” she said.

He was a step ahead of
her and had already bookmarked the appropriate page in one of the
books. “I’m thinking your hunch is wrong. Every penny of Stanley’s
is accounted for.”

Aradia’s jaw dropped in
surprise. “You mean Dereck didn't steal any money?”

“Not that my dad knew
of, at least," said Kaiser. He guided her through the figures as
proof.

Aradia stomped her foot
in frustration.

“It makes so much
sense. Dereck kills Mr. Stanley. Your dad, Stanley’s lawyer,
catches on because money’s missing. So Dereck kills your dad to
cover his tracks.”

“Yeah, sure, it makes
perfect sense,” Kaiser replied frustratedly. “But it’s not what
happened.”

“Now you sound just
like my dad,” she grumbled. “So you don't think that this guy had a
motive for killing your dad?”

“Nothing in the books,
at least,” he said, making Aradia feel like whacking herself in the
head with a brick.

They went through the
rest of the ledgers meticulously, hoping to find some kind of clue,
whether related to Dereck or not. Nothing jumped out at either of
them.

“Ugh, this is not
working,” she said finally.

“No,” he agreed. “No
it’s not.”

“Alright,” she said, “I
need to do some thinking. How should I contact you?”

He seemed
hesitant.

“Oh come on! Even after
all this you don’t trust me?”

“Especially after all
this, I don’t trust anybody.” Reluctantly, though, he had to agree
that if they were going to solve this together, they needed a means
of getting in touch.

“Give me your cell
number,” he commanded.

She complied. His
fingers flew over the keypad as he typed it in.

“You called me a bunch
recently, didn’t you?” he asked.

“Guilty as
charged.”

“I won’t bother asking
how you got my number. You’re in my phone now. I’ll answer when you
call, or at least return your messages.”

She nodded as she stood
to leave. “Fair enough.”

Chapter
Twenty-Four

“What are you so happy
about?” Roy asked Aradia.

She looked up to see
Roy hovering over her. She was reading
Jane Eyre
and crouching in her
favorite booth at the SilverMoon. The booth was in a nook toward
the back of the main room, adjacent to the window. She had her
knees propped against the table. A half-eaten burger lay on her
plate accompanied by a half-empty glass of cola. Roy stood looking
at Aradia, wearing his usual type of outfit: jeans, sneakers, and a
Beatles t-shirt.

At first, Aradia had
debated whether she should tell Roy about what she had seen and
learned over the last few days, but ultimately decided against it.
Her parents had been right that revealing what she knew, at this
point at least, would not fix the problem, and she worried she’d
only make things worse.

However, what she did
say next still did not improve the situation. “Oh, I was just
thinking about my date with Dax this weekend.”

Automatically, Aradia
blushed. Roy looked like she’d just kicked him. Before Aradia had a
chance to apologize, Roy plopped into the seat across from her and
asked, “Are you his girlfriend now?”

“No Roy, I am not,”
said Aradia.

Far from comforted, Roy
went on to ask, “Do you want to be?”

Aradia
shrugged.

Roy heaved a huge sigh
and said, “Rai Rai, I know you like him, but the truth is you can't
get serious about him. You can’t trust him.”

“Why, because he is a
vampire?” Aradia demanded angrily.

In fact, she had to
agree with his assessment. Dax was definitely keeping secrets from
her. Still, when she reached that conclusion, it was based on facts
and reasonable interpretation of events. When Roy said so, she
suspected it was mostly just his irrational hatred.

“No,” Roy replied
firmly, surprising her. “No, you can’t trust him because his father
has been secretly investigating you. He has samples of your blood
at the hospital. Aradia, they’re trying to determine what you
are.”

Aradia's mouth dropped
open. “What?”

“I went to the hospital
today,” Roy explained, “to pick up some medication for my aunt when
a nurse walked by carrying a tray of blood samples. I recognized
the smell of your blood instantly. When we were discussing our
abilities, though, you told me that you don’t really get sick, and
you’ve never had blood drawn for fear it might expose you. So of
course, when I smelled it, I wondered what the hell was a sample of
your blood doing at the hospital?”

“Okay,” she followed
along. “How do you know it’s mine?”

“I told you, I’d
recognize the smell anywhere.”

“No, I mean, aren’t
blood vials sealed shut? I know about your special senses, but
isn’t that extreme?”

“I have a very good
sense of smell,” Roy replied confidently, “even for a werewolf.
Listen, I followed the nurse and watched as she brought it to Mr.
Dayton. I don’t think anyone saw me. I hid behind the door as he
had a friend, the head hematologist, Dr. Kreukspiel or Kryzpaniel
or something, run tests on it. He was comparing it to other hidden
DNA trying to find a match.”

Aradia said nothing for
a few seconds. She didn’t know what to say or believe.
Roy would not make this
up
. And yet, even with her suspicions
about Dax’s secrets, she’d mostly just figured it was some weird
vampire thing, like he’d been married to her great-grandmother.
This?

She wanted to deny it
furiously, but as she thought it over further, it tied up a lot of
loose ends.

“All the strange
accidents at school!” she exclaimed. Roy’s eyes widened and he
nodded. “I’ve gotten so many bloody cuts the last few
weeks.”

“How would they get the
blood, though?”

“I went to the school
nurse every time.”

Roy raised an
eyebrow.

“For appearances. I
didn’t want it to look like I just expected to heal
magically.”

“Ah,” Roy replied.
“Clever.”