by R K Dreaming
Now that I was glad of his arrival, I patted him on the shoulder, and said, “You all stay right here and I’ll be back with some fresh drinks and those truffles. And that fairy-kale juice for you, Petra?”
She smiled, and nodded.
I hurried off to get everything, and was surprised when I felt a tap on my shoulder again.
Jasper had followed me.
“I’ll give you a hand,” he said.
“That’s really not necessary,” I said, glancing behind him at the table, worried that Oberon might walk off.
“Yes it is,” he whispered in a quiet voice. “Don’t think I haven’t noticed you’re trying to get something out of them. Tell me what it is and maybe I can help.”
I stared at him in surprise. “Why do you want to help me?”
“Why do you think?” he retorted.
There was that smile crooking up the corners of his lips again. He was so attractive and effortlessly flirty. It had never been me who had been the object of his affections before.
I stared at him suspiciously. He reached out and with the tip of his finger, pulled one corner of my lips up into a smile.
“There,” he said. “That’s better.”
“Don’t even think about it,” I said. “I’m not interested.”
He didn’t even look disappointed. “Then I’ll just have to try harder,” he said.
I couldn’t help but laugh. Flirty banter with Jasper Echo had been the stuff of dreams in my teenage years. It was so strange to be over it now.
He came with me into the kitchen and helped me load up a tray with the drinks that I had promised and a little bowlful of truffles.
“You’ll like the black forest gateau,” I told him.
“Is that what you like?” he asked.
“Sometimes. But mostly I’m all about the double chocolate fudge cake.”
“Then that’s what I’ll have.”
“No,” I insisted. “I think you’ll much prefer the black forest gateau.”
He shrugged. “Your wish is my command.”
I looked at him. That had sounded suspiciously like he knew about our family’s fairy-tale curse, and I didn’t like the idea. We kept it firmly under wraps. It was not the sort of thing that you wanted everyone to know about. I didn’t much enjoy being the object of people’s pitiable speculation.
But his sea-green eyes were sparkling and innocent. It didn’t look like he had been teasing me. Not about the curse at least.
I scooped up a spoonful of the black forest gateau slice that I had put onto a plate for him.
“Incoming,” I said, and stuffed it into his mouth.
His eyes went wide, and he said, “Yum!”
I grinned. “I knew you would like this. You always did like pretty, decadent things.”
“Oh yeah? How come you were noticing what I always liked?”
“Stop it, Jasper.” I said it with a grin. I couldn’t help it.
“I’ll stop it if you tell me what you want me to weasel out of Oberon Maltei and his friends.”
I considered him. Was this a trick? Or did he really want to help me?
The thing is that he was just so very likeable. My instincts were telling me to trust him. I decided to go with it.
I filled him in on the discrepancy between what they had told Agent Constantine about their whereabouts on the night that Lily had died, and what Beachbum had said.
“They didn’t tell Agent Constantine that they went to Club Nocturne,” I said. “So I was wondering why they would have hidden that fact?”
“Let’s find out,” said Jasper with a grin.
Picking up the loaded tray, he marched towards the café door with it.
I was about to follow him when movement behind me caught my eye. The kitchen had two doors, and the one that led back towards the family quarters was open. I furrowed my brow. I was sure that I had just seen a movement back there.
“You go ahead,” I said to Jasper. “I’ll catch up.”
“Don’t be long,” he said, and marched off.
I hurried through the other doorway into the family quarters. I don’t know what I expected to find, but it wasn’t Paolo Ambers skulking around in the corridor.
“Can I help you?” I said a little bit angrily.
I glanced back towards the kitchen door. Had he been eavesdropping on us? I hoped not. It seemed too far away.
Paolo flushed red. “Sorry,” he said. “The toilets were busy so I thought I’d use one of the family ones. And then I got lost.”
I looked behind him suspiciously. Nothing seemed out of place. No up-ended trash cans or anything.
I cocked my head. “Did you find one of the family ones?” I asked, unable to keep the sharpness out of my tone.
He nodded. “I’m really sorry,” he said again. “We used to be allowed to come back here with Lorcan since we were kids. I didn’t think. I should have realised that it’s an intrusion of your privacy now.”
“It is,” I said stiffly. “So don’t do it again please.”
He nodded. “You’ve got it.”
I let him walk ahead of me back into the café. I didn’t feel entirely comfortable at the idea of having an incubus follow me, even Paolo Ambers. The break in had made me jumpy.
Jasper was back at the table with the others, engaging them in cheerful conversation. They looked far happier talking to him than they had with me. Clearly he knew them fairly well.
“Pull up a chair,” he said merrily when he saw me, and then got up to get me a chair himself from a nearby table.
It turned out that I wasn’t the only one who found Jasper trustworthy. He was so charming that he didn’t even have to use a hint of his Allure to make people like him.
The busy background buzz of the café, with the tinkling plates and cutlery and voices raised in mellow conversation, seemed to have soothed Oberon and his friends into a sense of security. Within five minutes of easy-going conversation, Jasper had persuaded Oberon and the others to open up.
When Oberon admitted that they had been at Club Nocturne on that night but had just forgotten to mention it, Jasper said, sympathetically, “It’s not your fault. I would have been confused too. It must been such a shock with what happened.”
Petra nodded. She looked embarrassed. Her eyes kept darting towards Oberon almost pleadingly. He glared at her.
I was beginning to feel a bit uneasy. I liked Oberon. And he had liked Lily so much. It couldn’t have been him. And yet Petra clearly thought that Oberon was hiding something.
“So what happened?” said Jasper affably. “I mean, the club must have been pretty busy. There would have been loads of people who saw you guys there all night long.”
Oberon nodded.
Petra said, “It was really stuffy in there. Lots of smoke. We decided to go out and hang outdoors around the back. There’s this rooftop. It’s a bit of a construction site at the moment because Oberon’s dad is having an infinity pool and hot tubs and stuff built out there. So no one else was allowed out there. Just us.”
I gave Jasper a significant look. He must’ve read my mind, because he asked, “Was Beachbum with you?”
Petra shook her head. “He’d gone by then. It was just the four of us and Lily.”
“Lily talked Lorcan into making us a fire,” said Oberon abruptly, “using some of the construction timber. To keep us warm. I didn’t mind. It would have made my dad mad if he’d seen it, and these days making my dad mad is alright by me.”
Petra looked at Oberon sympathetically.
“Is that why you didn’t tell Agent Constantine?” said Jasper. “He’s not gonna care if you vandalised your own dad’s club, is he?”
Oberon shrugged. “Yeah, but my dad will.”
Oberon’s dad was a full-blown vampire patriarch, hundreds of years old, a creature of the night, and not a very nice guy by all accounts. A charming but deadly rake, I had heard.
Jasper grimaced. “Yeah, I can see why you didn’
t want him finding out.”
Petra looked relieved now that Oberon had admitted to this.
“We were only there for a couple of hours,” she said. “And then we left afterwards.”
“Together?” asked Jasper.
Petra shook her head. “Paolo and I left together.”
She looked at her brother and he nodded. They didn’t say anything else.
Jasper looked at Oberon and Lorcan. He raised his eyebrow. “What about you guys?”
Oberon looked sulky.
Lorcan gave an awkward laugh. “Oberon wished he didn’t have to leave alone,” he said in a half joking tone.
“Shut up,” said Oberon a little resentfully.
“Let’s face it, man,” said Lorcan. “If Lily had gone home with any of us we would have been happy, but she always chose you.”
“She didn’t that night,” said Paolo, glancing a little nervously at Oberon.
Oberon scowled. “I wish she had. She would have still been alive.”
“So you went home alone?” I asked tentatively. I had stayed quiet this whole time, afraid that me speaking up would make the others shut up.
But this time Oberon nodded. “I asked her to come back with me, but she said she wanted to stay a while and enjoy the fresh air or some crap.” He looked very sour at having to admit this.
Lorcan clapped his friend on the shoulder sympathetically. Oberon shrugged Lorcan’s hand off angrily.
“Oberon and I left together,” said Lorcan. “Lily was still there when we left. Alone.”
Oberon rubbed his face. “I wish it had been different.”
“Oh come on, Oberon,” said Petra with a scowl. “She blew you off. You know that she stayed because she was waiting for someone else.”
My eyebrows shot up.
“Fresh air!” Petra snorted. “As if!”
Oberon glared at Petra.
Petra looked at him defiantly. “Oberon won’t admit it, but we all knew Lily was seeing someone else. Why do you think that she wanted to stay there alone? She just didn’t want to have to tell Oberon that she was hooking up with another guy.”
12. The Fourth Wheel
“We should go and check it out,” said Jasper.
Oberon and his friends had left the café, and Jasper had followed me back into the kitchen.
I dumped the tray of dirty plates that I had brought with me into the sink. I caught that random whiff of blood again and shook my head in the hopes of clearing it. It stayed. Was it Lily, I wondered, reminding me she was still lingering here?
A huge pile of dishes had already formed in the sink. Aunt Adele was going to need some better help than me. Any other witch could have set the dishes to washing while she had a chat with Jasper, but not me.
Aunt Adele was out in the café chatting to her friends. I started washing some of the dishes by hand. Jasper stood next to me and started drying them.
I was surprised. I hadn’t taken him for someone who was hands-on with household chores.
“I should go and check it out,” I said. “There’s no need for you to come with me.”
“Other than that I like to have fun,” he said, “and Club Nocturne is a lot of fun. Especially with you.”
He reached out to tuck a lock of my dark hair behind my ear, taking me by surprise. I froze.
The door opened behind us, and I was so startled that I dropped the slippery dish in my hand. It smashed loudly on the ground.
To my dismay I saw it was Chris Constantine who had come in. I flushed bright red. He had clearly seen us through the glass in the kitchen door.
The expression on his face was blank. He didn’t comment, but I felt very awkward.
“Your aunt told me I would find you in here,” he said to me. “She said that you were serving Oberon Maltei Junior and his friends. I need to question them. Can you tell me where they’ve gone?”
I took a step away from Jasper quickly.
He on the other hand casually crossed his arms over his chest and leaned a hip against the sink. His gaze flicked from me to Chris Constantine, and his lips slightly tilted up with amusement.
I wanted to swat him with a tea towel to wipe that smirk off.
He knew it too, and damn the man if he didn’t wiggle his ear at me. On purpose.
I couldn’t help but snigger and had to quickly look away.
“No idea,” I said to Agent Constantine. “They don’t mention where they were going next.”
Agent Constantine did not turn to leave. He continued to stand there in the doorway. I found it difficult to meet his gaze for some reason.
“You could try asking Petra Ambers’s mum,” I said. “Petra said her mum was feeling really paranoid after what happened to Lily, and was messaging her every hour to keep a close eye on her. So her mum should know where she is.”
Jasper had raised an eyebrow at me. I knew he was wondering why I had not mentioned to Agent Constantine that Jasper and I had already questioned Oberon and his friends. And that we had information that Agent Constantine might be interested in.
I shot Jasper a quick glance to tell him to shut up. I didn’t know why I wanted to keep the information to myself. I trusted Agent Constantine, didn’t I?
It was his boss I did not trust.
There was also my sense of competition. My little wager of last night had become real in my head. I had a burning desire to prove to Agent Constantine that I could find the murderer before him. Was it just that I liked needling him so much?
And finally it was that I simply didn’t trust anyone when it came to society’s aversion to vampires. Deep down I was worried that Chief Hardwick would want to pin this on Oberon, and I wasn’t sure that it was Oberon who had done it. My instincts told me it wasn’t.
Ooh instincts, said a voice. You can’t go wrong following your instincts. We cats should know.
Captain Villain had just strolled into the kitchen between Agent Constantine’s legs. He came over to twine himself around my ankles, his tail in the air, his nose twitching hopefully.
Where are those prawns you promised me? he said.
I shot him an apologetic look. I hadn’t had a chance to buy any yet. I went over to the icebox to see if Aunt Adele had any in there.
“What are you doing?” said Agent Constantine.
“Captain Villain wants a snack,” I said.
Agent Constantine muttered something under his breath that sounded suspiciously like, “That dratted cat.”
Captain Villain glared at him. It’s a good job you aren’t telling him all your clues, he said. That bumbling buffoon will only get in your way.
I glared at Captain Villain. I wanted to tell him that Chris was most certainly not a bumbling buffoon.
Captain Villain made a noise in my mind that sounded somewhat like a snort of derisive laughter.
Ooh. Chris, is it? On first name terms now, are we? he said.
“You can’t be in here,” I said to him irritably. “It’s hardly hygienic having a cat in the kitchen.”
I’m very clean, he said snootily. So clean I’m practically hypoallergenic.
“I think you mean anti-microbial,” I muttered.
“What?” said Chris and Jasper together.
“Nothing,” I said. I looked at Captain Villain. “There are no prawns in here. You’ll just have to come back later.”
I don’t think so, he said. This little scene is far too interesting.
He jumped lightly up on to the counter and settled himself there, watching the three of us with great interest.
His gaze paused on Agent Constantine.
Why is the great lump of man flesh just standing there?
“Captain Villain wants to know why you are still here,” I said to him.
He glared at me. “Because I want to know what you spoke to Oberon and his friends about.”
Nothing got past him, it seemed.
I shrugged. “This and that. Oberon is an alright guy, you know, if you’re lookin
g to pin this on him...”
Agent Constantine looked offended. “I’m not looking to pin this on anyone. Except the person who did it.”
This one won’t last in horrid Hawke Hardwick’s team for long, said Captain Villain.
I wasn’t sure how I felt about this. We needed as many honest officers as we could get now Hawke Hardwick was chief. I wasn’t going to let Oberon become Chief Hardwick’s first victim.
How interesting, said Captain Villain.
I scowled at him. What exactly was so damn interesting? If he was going to sit here then the least he could do was stop being so enigmatic.
Enigmatic? Who me? I was just thinking that you’re so busy worrying about people being prejudiced against Oberon, that you don’t seem to have stopped to think that maybe you’re being too prejudiced in favour of Oberon.
“Well?” said Agent Constantine impatiently.
I looked at him, startled. “Well what?”
“Clearly you’re having some sort of unspoken conversation with your cat,” he said sarcastically. “Is he telling you who the murderer is?”
“Yes,” I retorted. “But since you don’t believe anything my cat says, I have no intention of telling you.”
“Steamy,” muttered Jasper under his breath so that only I could hear.
“Shut up,” I said to him.
“Fine,” said Agent Constantine interrupting us. “If you think of anything relevant, you’ve got my card and you can call me.”
“I’ll do that,” I said.
He took a step back, intending to leave the kitchen. But just then Aunt Adele arrived behind him, and pushed him back in forcefully. He flinched a little at the cold of her touch.
“You can’t leave just yet,” she said cheerfully. “I want to hear all about your murder case. And you can’t leave before I give you a slice of this Belgian chocolate tart I’ve made especially for you.”
She went over to the counter to find the tart, and cut out a large slice.
“I really can’t stay long,” said Agent Constantine. “And I can’t discuss the case at the moment.”
