Bumble

by Connie Suttle

  "Aedan, we may be reading this wrong and the perpetrator may be caught or come forward tomorrow, but it certainly doesn't look good. Did anyone else besides Sali's parents know you were going to the city?"

  "No." Ashe drew in a breath at his father's answer. Was someone trying to frame his father for this? At least Ashe knew his parents couldn't have been involved and were above suspicion. Not only did Marcus and Denise DeLuca know about the trip to Oklahoma City, but Sali had gone with them. Ashe wanted to talk the whole thing over with Sali, but Sali was walking out of the garage with his father, likely headed home to wait for news about Marco.

  "Where did they take the boy?" Aedan asked.

  "They took him to the O'Neill's barn. Obviously the Johnsons are distraught."

  "Did you see the body?"

  "No. The wounds were only described to me by Marcus. By the time I was called, they'd already moved James."

  "You think Cori can tell you anything?"

  "I had to place compulsion for her to sleep, Aedan. She was screaming and crying until I did."

  "Do you think they'll let us examine the body? If they're going to accuse a vampire, we should have the right to defend ourselves. Old Harold didn't do this; I'd bet my life on it."

  "As would I, but nobody was there to verify his whereabouts."

  "And there's no motive," Aedan sighed. "Harold has very little contact with any of the children. He cleans the school long after they're gone for the day. Ours know him because he's vampire." Ashe recognized the truth in his father's words; Old Harold came by the house often to speak with Aedan. Nearly everyone called the vampire Old Harold, although he appeared as young as his father did. Old Harold acted old, if that was something you could gauge. He always smiled at Ashe, though, and asked about lessons during his visits.

  "Aedan, I think we should contact the Council." Nathan's words interrupted Ashe's thoughts, frightening him. The Council. The Vampire Council. Ashe knew little about the Council, except to fear it. His father seldom mentioned it, but Ashe knew the Council was in charge of vampire Enforcers and Assassins; those elite among the vampire race that tracked down rogues or investigated other crimes.

  "The werewolves may contact the Grand Master as well."

  "Better that than allowing things to get out of hand. We're an experiment, Aedan. Don't forget that. There are only twenty communities like ours in the country, and both the Council and the Grand Master are watching." Ashe blinked. An experiment? He'd never heard that before. He wanted to ask questions. Itched to ask questions. But his father would know he'd been eavesdropping if he did. Who would have the answers—that he could ask, anyway?

  Ashe heard Aedan walk toward the back door. Quickly, Ashe slipped away to stand beside the SUV. Adele was still talking to a few others inside the garage and Micah Rocklin and Principal Billings had come in after examining the crime scene. In nearly thirteen years, Ashe had never seen anything like this. He'd known that one werewolf died when he was six after an unsuccessful challenge against Marcus DeLuca, but that was werewolf tradition. None of the Pack had spoken that werewolf's name afterward, although his family had grieved privately for him. Ashe hunched his shoulders.

  "Son, we'll get to the bottom of this." Ashe didn't know whether his father realized he'd been listening or if Aedan felt Ashe needed comfort as he slipped an arm around Ashe's shoulders.

  * * *

  "Mom, can we take Sali's books to him?" Ashe tapped the bag of books that lay forgotten on the kitchen table. Sali had left them in the back seat of the SUV the night before. Now, Sunday morning had arrived, accompanied by an aura of aching sadness. Ashe found his mother in the kitchen, putting a casserole together to take to the Johnson family. It was the way things were done in Oklahoma; if somebody died, you brought food to the family. Adele knew many of her human customers and did the same for them.

  "If you'll hang on until I get this out of the oven, I'll put a batch of cookies together for Sali and his family."

  "Yeah. Oatmeal raisin," Ashe nodded, naming Sali's favorite cookies.

  Later, when they dropped by the DeLuca home after delivering the casserole to the Johnsons, Ashe learned from Sali's mother that Marco had shown up just before dawn, naked, filthy and exhausted. Denise expressed relief that he'd come home on his own and explained that Marco was now in bed, sleeping. Sali gripped Ashe's elbow, pulling him down the hall and into his bedroom while Adele talked with Denise.

  "Dude, what's going on?" Ashe whispered the moment Sali's door was closed. Sali's room looked normal for Sali—the bed made but rumpled, with a few items of clothing flung carelessly across the furniture. Schoolbooks were piled in a stack on the floor, mostly forgotten. Sali was a sports fan and posters of athletes littered his walls.

  "Dad called the Grand Master last night," Sali whispered his answer to Ashe's question, flopping onto his not-so-neatly made bed. Ashe sighed at Sali's words. To him, the Grand Master was the Werewolf King.

  "Is somebody coming to investigate?"

  "Yeah. Dad thinks it's for the best."

  "Yeah." Ashe wondered if Sali's mom was telling his mother the same thing. "Sali, what do you think happened to James?"

  "Don't know. Dad and Micah couldn't get any other scents around the body except Cori's, and she's the one who found him. They'll question her, too."

  "Cori wouldn't kill James."

  "I know that. You know that. Do the adults know that?" Sali flipped over on his back. "This is so messed up."

  "Did Marco say anything? When he came home?" Ashe realized he was still holding tightly to Sali's bag of books. He half-rose to pile them on the bedside table.

  "Mom and Dad pulled him into the den and shut the door. I didn't hear anything."

  "Dang."

  "Yeah. And now he's asleep," Sali added glumly.

  "Why would somebody want to kill James?" Ashe was back to the question that was circling his brain so often it threatened to develop racecar sound effects any moment.

  "No idea. Did you sleep last night?"

  "Not much."

  "Me either. Not after we got to your house, anyway."

  "Yeah."

  "Want to get a cookie?" Sali blinked hopefully at Ashe.

  "Yeah. Let's get a cookie." Ashe wasn't hungry, but he wanted to humor Sali.

  "Sali, only two, lunch is just half an hour away," Denise DeLuca warned as Sali carefully lifted aluminum foil off the plate of oatmeal raisin cookies. The pile of cookies was meticulously inspected as Sali searched for the two largest. Ashe waited patiently for his friend to make a choice.

  "We were gonna go to Six Flags," Sali munched on a cookie. "On Thursday. Mom said I could invite you. That's not gonna happen now."

  "We'll go another time." Ashe spared a glance at Sali—no doubt, his mother already knew and had kept it a surprise. Ashe thought he'd be working at Cordell Feed and Seed the entire week of spring break. And it wasn't often that Marcus offered to take Ashe along on a family outing. Ashe also wondered how this would affect the whole Randy Smith thing. Full moon was Tuesday, during spring break.

  "I'll come over early tomorrow and go to Cordell with you and your mom," Sali stuffed half a cookie into his mouth.

  "You still want to?" Ashe was surprised.

  "Yeah. Bein' around the house gives me the shivers."

  "As long as it's okay with your parents." Ashe remembered the conversation his dad had with Nathan the night before.

  "Mom says it's okay."

  "Good. Maybe we can go to the Burger Hut for lunch."

  "Yeah. That would be great." Sali pulled Ashe toward him. "Dude, I want to talk to you," he said so quietly that Ashe barely heard.

  "Tomorrow morning? Mom leaves early," Ashe covered Sali's whisper as his mother walked into the kitchen.

  "Sali, are you sure you want to come?" Adele brushed Sali's thick black hair away from his forehead. Sali blinked nearly black eyes at her before smiling slightly.

  "Yeah, Mrs. Evans. I want to come."
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  "He'll just mope around the house if he doesn't get to spend the day with Ashe," Denise observed.

  "Then be at the house at seven-thirty," Adele said. "I'm expecting azaleas, onions and more petunias. Plus a load of feed."

  "I get to water the plants," Sali put his bid in right away.

  * * *

  "Mom, what do you think happened to James?" Ashe asked as his mother drove home.

  "I don't know," Adele reached out to pat Ashe's arm. Ashe nodded. He didn't either, and it bothered him. He had so little information, outside the conversation his father had with Nathan Anderson the night before. Now, the Grand Master of the werewolves was sending someone and the Vampire Council could send someone, too. Ashe itched to ask his mother about Nathan's comment the night before—the one regarding Cloud Chief being an experiment. He couldn't. He'd be in trouble for listening to a private conversation and getting information he wasn't supposed to have.

  * * *

  "Dad," Ashe sat next to his father on the sofa after helping his mother clear away dinner dishes. Aedan had wakened only a few minutes earlier.

  "What, son?" Aedan settled an arm over the back of the sofa.

  "Dad, Sali told me that the Grand Master is sending someone to investigate."

  "Your mother told me."

  "What will they do? This sounds scary."

  "Son, it's already scary. A boy died who shouldn't have. Now we have to solve this, somehow. You'll find out soon enough, so I'm telling you now that the Vampire Council is sending an Enforcer."

  "An Enforcer?" Ashe stopped breathing for a moment.

  "They know it's only an investigation," Aedan replied. Ashe realized his father clearly heard when his breath caught. "I hope the Grand Master's man and the Council's Enforcer can work together on this. It will make it easier on everybody," Aedan added.

  "When will they get here?" Ashe asked.

  "The Grand Master's investigator will arrive on Thursday. That's what Mrs. DeLuca told your mother. The Enforcer will get here on Friday or Saturday, according to my source."

  "Where did they put James?"

  "That's a morbid question, but if you must know, he's in the O'Neill's barn, locked inside their walk-in refrigerator. Marcus has the keys so nobody else can get in and disturb the body."

  Ashe knew the investigator and the Enforcer would examine James's body to see if they could determine how he'd died. Both would have good scenting ability, so they'd look into that as well. Ashe hadn't done it in a long time, but he leaned his head against Aedan's shoulder.

  "Son, it'll be all right," Aedan said softly. "Why don't you go read one of your new books?"

  "Okay." Ashe slid off the sofa and walked toward the stairs. His bedroom, like the others, was below ground. Once the door was shut at the top of the stairway that led downward, Ashe leaned against the door and listened.

  "They're sending someone named Radomir," Ashe heard his father say. "The Council has to find someone older than Harold, and Radomir couldn't get here before Friday at the earliest."

  "So the Grand Master's investigator will have a full day ahead of the Enforcer," his mother replied.

  "Adele, don't read more into this than necessary." Ashe didn't hear anything else, so he slipped down the steps as softly as he could.

  * * *

  "Sali, I don't know why they needed to send a vampire older than Old Harold," Ashe said for the third time. Adele had driven them to the Burger Hut for lunch Monday, warning them not to mention anything about James. It was understood—you didn't talk about James's murder unless you wanted human authorities involved and Cloud Chief didn't. Adele hadn't stayed; she normally didn't close the store during lunch so she went back, promising to pick up both boys around one-fifteen.

  "Well, there has to be a reason, don't you think?" Sali was still curious about the vampire.

  "Yeah, but I don't know what it is." Ashe was beginning to feel grumpy. There were too many questions and he didn't have any answers. He hated that. Ashe wanted problems that he could solve. He wasn't sure he could solve any of this, beginning with James's death. "What did you want to talk to me about?" Ashe asked to steer Sali away from incessant questions.

  "Dude, I really wanted to listen in on the Pack meeting tomorrow night," Sali said, biting into his double meat, double cheese with bacon burger. A pile of fries occupied the remaining space on his plate. Ashe knew Sali would eat every bite. "And I would listen in, but Mom has a sitter coming," Sali continued.

  "A sitter?" Ashe didn't understand. Cloud Chief would empty on the night of the full moon. Any adult would go through the shift or the turn and hunt or run or fly. Who would be babysitting Sali?

  "Nathan, Cori and Dori are coming to stay with me," Sali muttered. "And Staci, Brad and Timothy are coming over, too." Sali named three werewolf children younger than he was. Six other young werewolves were old enough to hunt with the Pack, although they hadn't finished school yet. Fifteen was considered old enough and Marco was one of six remaining teens that met the requirements. James Johnson had been the seventh.

  "Wait, did you say you would listen in if you didn't have a sitter?" Ashe's eyes narrowed at his best friend. He'd never heard this before from Sali.

  "I've done it twice before. Almost got caught, too, but I didn't." Sali grinned, preening over his apparent prowess. Somehow, he'd spied on the Pack when he should have been at home.

  "Sali, how did you do that? And why haven't I heard this before?"

  "You think I want to be grounded for the rest of my life? Dad will shout the house down if he ever finds out. I know where to go and that's where you'll be tomorrow night while your dad is out with your mom on the full moon." Sali's smugness washed over Ashe. Sali had not only fooled the Pack twice but had kept the secret from Ashe for who knew how long. Ashe blinked at Sali in surprise, listening while Sali explained how and where.

  "That's where they meet? In that clearing?" Ashe recognized the spot Sali meant as he described it. A small stand of trees stood a quarter mile behind the DeLuca home. There weren't many patches of trees in that portion of Oklahoma; most of it was farmland or prairie. Marcus had chosen the property with trees and the Pack hunted on his land during the full moon.

  "Yeah. But you have to get in that old oak tree on the eastern edge. You won't be able to see much but you'll be able to hear. Probably better than I can. I want to know what they're saying, Ashe. About James and Randy Smith."

  "Dude, if you get caught doing something like that, you'll get grounded. There's no telling what they'd do to me if I got nabbed." Just the idea of being caught by angry werewolves frightened Ashe.

  "Dude, it's the only way we'll know," Sali shot back. "I think Cori still wants to know, too."

  "And what if I say no?"

  "Then we may never know what's going on."

  "Dang."

  "Yeah."

  "What time do I need to be there? I'll have to wait until Mom and Dad are out of the house," Ashe pointed out.

  "The wolves won't be there until nearly ten. You should have plenty of time to sneak away and get back."

  "This sounds like imminent disaster," Ashe grumped, gathering paper wrappers and napkins to dump on his way out of the restaurant.

  * * *

  Ashe and Sali spent the afternoon cleaning up the back room of the store before unloading onion sets and the rest of the plant deliveries, and then unloading a shipment of seeds, gardening supplies and bags of chicken feed. Ashe was tired and ready to go when six o'clock rolled around.

  "Sali, do you want to be dropped off first?" Adele smiled at him as he climbed into the old Ford.

  "Yeah. I think I can grow plants from the dirt on my jeans."

  "And you smell like onions, dude." Ashe grinned and poked Sali in the ribs.

  "And I smell like onions," Sali admitted. "But I'll be at your house again tomorrow morning."

  "Glutton for punishment, Sali?" Adele laughed.

  "I guess." Sali ducked his head to hide t
he grin.

  "We'll clean the store and put those new seed packet displays together tomorrow," Adele started the truck and put it in gear. Ashe sat quietly next to Sali on the way home. The work had taken his mind off James's death, and James's death had taken his mind off his own problems. Those problems now seemed insignificant next to the other things.

  * * *

  Sali studied the diagram for the cardboard display the following morning while Ashe helped a customer at the register. Adele had gone to the back to inspect another shipment of plants and gardening tools before signing off on it. "These good gloves?" the old man placed a pair of leather gloves on the counter. Ashe knew he was one of his mother's regular customers. Stooped slightly, the man had thinning gray hair, plenty of wrinkles and twinkling blue eyes.

  "Yeah. Mom wears this brand all the time," Ashe said.

  "I'll take 'em, then." The man drew his wallet out of a back pocket slowly and deliberately. Ashe wondered if the older ones pondered things before expending the effort. At the moment, it made sense to him, somehow. And then James came to mind. James, whose life was over after seventeen years. Most werewolves lived two hundred years or more. That life might be cut short if you were a Packmaster and didn't survive a challenge.

  Ashe stole a glance at Sali, whose face was set in concentration as he folded the cardboard seed packet display and slipped tabs into slots. Shapeshifters lived the same number of years a werewolf might, but vampires lived forever unless they were killed somehow, or walked into the sun. Ashe took the old man's twenty, rang up the sale and gave change back, then handed him the bag containing the gloves.

  "Thank you," Ashe said. The old man grinned and nodded before shuffling toward the door.

  "Hey, I actually got it together." Sali set the assembled display in the floor.

  "There's hope for you yet, you've mastered cardboard," Ashe smacked Sali on the arm.

  "Yep. Cardboard today, string theory tomorrow," Sali laughed.

  "Dude, you're into string theory?" Ashe teased, grabbing the box of seed packets that came with the display and stuffing the small envelopes into empty slots.

  "Yeah. I think Dori plays with a ball of yarn when she turns to ocelot," Sali grinned.