Sealed With a Hiss

by E A Price

  “Five hours?” gasped Jessie. “What in the heck took so long?”

  Juliet gave her a sharp look, and she blushed and looked away.

  “They didn’t realize they were shifters at first, but when they did, they called us and we re-arrested him. They couldn’t wait to get rid of him,” she muttered.

  Gerry’s face remained blank. His snake flicked his tail. It was only a matter of time before something like this happened thought the beast, who had always been leery of the younger python. “What does Lance have to say for himself?”

  “Not a lot – he keeps murmuring something about only going for a jog.”

  “Maybe he’s in shock,” suggested Jessie, trying to be fair.

  “Killing someone can be a shock to the system,” said Juliet, dryly and meaningfully.

  Gerry’s snake tensed. He really didn’t want to think about how many people Juliet might have killed over the years. Essentially when shifter and other supernatural creatures ‘came out of the closet’ and the Council was born, all creatures were given a clean slate for anything that might have happened before. After that, they were fair game. Technically Juliet was a reformed vampire, but as to what happened in the hundreds of years previously… god only knows.

  Juliet tossed her black hair over her shoulder and refocused on Gerry. “We’ve had a witch in there to check he isn’t charmed, and if he is, she can’t tell. Doctor Rick has also checked him out; he can’t see any physical problems, but given that Lance is acting a little spacy, he’s doing a drug test. And also given that Lance has previous arrests for trying to buy fae dust, it’s not looking good.”

  “Fae dust,” hissed Gerry in disgust. It was a drug manufactured by particularly disreputable witches. Among some other noxious ingredients, it contained black magic and was known to cause side effects such as violent hallucinations, bleeding from all orifices and memory loss. That was if you were lucky. The unlucky ones just died an agonizing death on the spot. Lance had problems with fae dust since he was a college student. Five years on, Gerry had thought he was over that addiction. Maybe he was wrong.

  “Grant Collier has had a lot to say,” grumbled Juliet. She ran a tongue over her teeth. “He stormed into my office and told me to release his son immediately. He started making threats towards to all of us. So I had him escorted from the premises.”

  “I imagine he didn’t like that.” Flew into a murderous rage was more like it.

  “No, and if the victim wasn’t a member of the council, I doubt I would have managed it, but I have four Council members upstairs in my office who are all pretty furious about what happened.”

  Gerry imagined that Grant’s behavior didn’t exactly make them well disposed towards his son. Plus Council members were always up in arms whenever something bad happened to one of them. There was always a general consensus that the SEA was doing a great job at handling crime, right up until the point when it affected them personally. At that point, the SEA was more useless than a pair of chocolate knitting needles.

  “I think some of them are hoping Lance is guilty so they can use it to get rid of Grant.”

  “What a fucking mess,” growled Gerry.

  They entered the viewing room. Juliet pursed her lips as Jessie followed, but she didn’t say anything. Jessie had tried to go to her own office, but Gerry squeezed her arm. He wanted her near him. Her presence soothed him.

  They watched as Gunner and Avery tried to ask Lance questions. He stared at them blankly, and his lawyer tried to make noises about harassment.

  “Maybe we should wait until tomorrow to speak to you,” said Gunner to Lance.

  “So you can keep him here?” piped up the aggravated lawyer.

  “He’s already here, he’s already arrested – but we would like some answers from him. If he has a good explanation for everything, we want to hear it.”

  “Perhaps he was set up,” suggested the lawyer. Lance looked up in interest, but no further explanation was offered for this, so he slumped back onto the table.

  Juliet muted the screen. “Can you guess who the Council member is?” she asked dryly.

  He didn’t have to guess. He already knew it. His snake groaned. Yes, this was the day when Lance’s actions finally blew up right in his damn face. “Maxwell Crescent.”

  The vampire eyed him. And the direct line of an eyeballing vampire wasn’t exactly a good place to be. “Yes, I thought you might be able to guess. I expect you know the reason, too.”

  He looked at her and judging by the tight look on her face, she already did, too. “I know he was having an affair with Maxwell’s wife.”

  Juliet smiled grimly. “Precisely. Oh, don’t look so ashamed – it’s not illegal to cheat, or to know about it.”

  Jessie looked at her hands. He wasn’t sure he wanted to catch her eye.

  “Millie Crescent told us everything after we notified her of Maxwell’s death.”

  “Where was she while the murder was happening?”

  “Out shopping, she says. Your wolf shifter is trying to verify that.”

  Gerry nodded. “Jessica, can you check on her credit card transactions?”

  “I will.”

  “Thank you.”

  She smiled weakly, as she left. Juliet caught him staring after her and arched an eyebrow. Nobody could arch an eyebrow like Juliet. Just a flick said all she needed to say.

  Juliet turned on another monitor. “Here’s our grieving widow.” Millie Crescent was weeping on Wayne’s shoulder while Isis made a gagging face at the camera.

  “Through a lot of snot and tears she told us that Lance seduced her,” said Juliet. “Wayne’s shoulder may never be dry again. Apparently, she left her husband for Lance, and then decided she wanted to go back to Maxwell and Lance got really angry.”

  His snake growled. “Lance really is a dickhead.”

  “No love lost in your family.”

  “But it doesn’t fit his usual pattern. Usually, he likes to seduce women away from their husbands, and when he gets them, he loses interest. He can be violent when he wants to be – usually getting into fights with the husband - but I have a hard time believing he’d kill someone.”

  “Well, the prosecution won’t – I asked Hester for her opinion.”

  “Oh god.” Was it to be forty lashes or perhaps the rack?

  “She says slam dunk murder – the DA won’t hesitate to prosecute. Lance has priors for violence and drugs and given that Maxwell was a Council member…”

  “Maxwell was also violent,” said Gerry feeling somewhat protective over Lance. Lord knows why he did. Perhaps he just felt a bit sorry for the boy. He wasn’t close to Edith – which was a strange thing to think about your wife – but what he knew of her childhood wasn’t exactly Mary Poppins magical. And from what she had told him, Lance had the worst of it because he was male.

  “But Maxwell’s dead, and juries don’t look fondly on men who take drugs, seduce married women and beat up their husbands.”

  “No, I don’t suppose they do. Can I talk to him?” Juliet pursed her lips. “C’mon, if you didn’t want me to talk to him you would have kept me out the loop altogether.”

  “I wasn’t sure how long that would be possible anyway. Why do you think I asked Gunner to hold off on calling Jessie in?”

  Gerry stared at her, and his beast rumbled lowly, daring the vampire to say anything about his squirrel. Thankfully, she didn’t pursue the matter.

  “Look, as long as you make it clear who you are to the lawyer it should be fine.”

  Gerry nodded and soon found himself sitting in front of a very distraught Lance and his irritated lawyer. He passed the young python a bottle of water.

  “Lance, have you taken any drugs tonight?” he asked, careful not to sound too stern.

  Lance shook his shaggy head. “I haven’t taken anything in over a month.”

  Gerry considered the bloodshot eyes and trembling hands. “Lance, we’re doing a drugs test, so if you have…”
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  “No, I swear,” bleated Lance as panic darted over his face. “I haven’t taken anything. My new girlfriend, Sierra hates drugs. She makes me attend AA and everything. I don’t do drugs anymore.”

  “New girlfriend? What happened to Millie?”

  Lance barely even reacted. He just shrugged. “We broke up a month ago.” Clearly he had no idea that Millie was in the next room telling Wayne and a very bored Isis that Lance was obsessed with her.

  “Why did you go to Maxwell’s house?”

  He screwed up his face. “I didn’t… I mean, the last thing I remember, I was taking a run in the park, and the next thing I know the cops were screaming at me to drop a knife. I didn’t even realize I was holding it in my hand!”

  Gerry was hardly familiar with his brother-in-law’s routine, but Juliet mentioned that his sweats had been covered in blood.

  The lawyer glared at Gerry who glared right on back, managing to glare the other python into submission.

  “Had you met Maxwell before?”

  “A few times at those stupid Council fundraisers I went to with dad, and once at his house.”

  “So you knew where he lived?”

  Lance had the grace to look sheepish. “I visited Millie there a few times before she left him.”

  “She left him to be with you,” stated Gerry.

  “I didn’t ask her to!” cried Lance, although he couldn’t look Gerry in the eye. “She just turned up on my doorstep with her kids expecting me to look after them. She wanted me to move into a bigger house and give her a credit card – she was nuts. I mean, we had fun, but I sure as hell didn’t want to play daddy to someone else’s kids.”

  Gerry gave him a hard look, and his python hissed. Yes, this was the Lance he knew. Selfish to the destruction he caused. The young python shrank under the look.

  “So you broke up with her.”

  “Yes, it was just a fling. I didn’t think she’d want me to replace Maxwell. I thought I made it clear to her that it was just a bit of fun.”

  Gerry found that doubtful. “How do you explain what you were doing at Maxwell’s house?”

  “I already told you I don’t know.”

  “Really, Director,” interjected the lawyer. “We’re not getting anywhere, and as you can see, he’s in no fit state to answer questions. I plan on having him psychologically assessed before you ask him more questions. Hasn’t he been through enough for one night?”

  Not nearly as much as Maxwell Crescent, thought Gerry. Who, despite being a total ass, really didn’t deserve to be murdered and did leave behind three young children.

  But instead, Gerry nodded. “You’re right.”

  Lance grasped his hand as he was about to leave, training watery eyes on him. “Please Gerry I didn’t do it, I would never kill someone. This is all a horrible mistake.”

  Yes, Gerry had a feeling that was true.

  “Try and get some rest, I’ll come back and talk to you tomorrow.”

  *

  “Why the hell is my son in prison?” roared Grant Collier.

  Gerry’s python snarled, but he managed to maintain an even temper. “He isn’t, he’s in a holding cell at the SEA. It’s actually better accommodation than half the motels in the city.” At least, it was cleaner than half the motels in the city.

  Grant paced up and down while Edith sipped on a glass of gin, warily watching him. “He shouldn’t be held anywhere.”

  “The evidence…” started Gerry.

  “He’s my son!” Grant leaned so heavily on the word ‘my’ he almost fell over.

  Edith tried to reason. “Daddy, I’m sure…”

  Grant hushed her with a look. “He’s my son.”

  Gerry poured himself a drink. “He was found with a weapon after killing the man whose wife he seduced – it doesn’t look good. The SEA will investigate, but you need to keep out of it.”

  “I’m a member of the Council.” Grant puffed out his chest self-importantly.

  “And you need to stay out of it. You have right to get involved.” Council members really didn’t. They had input about who got the top jobs in the SEA, but they couldn’t dictate to them to release people they’d arrested because they happened to be related to them.

  “Listen to him, Daddy.”

  Grant strode over to Gerry, standing an inch from him. His red face shook as he spoke. “This is fucking ridiculous. Of course, he didn’t do it. Why won’t you listen?”

  Gerry resisted the urge to either step back or push Grant away from him – his snake preferred the latter option. “And if someone framed him – we will find out. In the meantime, his lawyer is going to get a psychiatrist to do an evaluation.”

  “A psychiatrist?” repeated Grant in disgust. “He’s fine.”

  “Daddy, he woke up covered in blood next to a dead body – he’s far from fine. You didn’t see him; he was really upset. Maybe you should go see him.” This was said with a touch of reproach, although Grant failed to detect it. Either that or he just didn’t care.

  Grant started pacing the room again, flapping his arms around for emphasis. “Huh, I won’t be seen going to jail. How would it look if I went to visit him in jail?”

  “He’s at the SEA,” ground out Edith, with unusual venom - unusual when speaking to her father at any rate.

  “Well, he doesn’t need a psychiatrist, I’m firing his lawyer.”

  “You have no right to do that,” said Gerry. “He’s an adult.”

  “Then I’ll have him declared an imbecile, and I’ll have power of attorney.”

  Edith sighed. “But Daddy you just said…”

  “Shut up!”

  Gerry eyed him as his snake slithered impatiently. “Grant, don’t talk to her that way and don’t interfere in this case.”

  “Then fix it!” exploded Grant.

  “I will do what I have to according to the law.”

  “Fucking lot of good that is!” With that, Grant stomped out of the house, slamming the door as he went. He gave it a good slam, too. Lance could probably hear it all the way over at the SEA.

  Edith poured herself another drink. “Thank you, Gerry.”

  “I’m just doing my job,” he said, awkwardly.

  “You didn’t have to run down and talk to him. Technically, I know that isn’t your job. I hope your night with Jamie wasn’t ruined.”

  He gave her a slanted look, and his beast hissed.

  “Okay, I know it’s Jessica,” she amended.

  “She understands – her team is working the case anyway. She’s very understanding of our difficult situation.”

  Edith leaned her head back and closed her eyes. “I wish Bruno was – he gets angry all the time about it.”

  “Your newest meathead has lasted quite a while.” His snake sneered at the thought of the empty headed moron she would go for.

  She opened her eyes and squinted at him. “He’s actually a businessman; he just opened his own gym. I’m working on the reception, to save him money.”

  Gerry almost choked on his drink, and even his snake was dumbfounded. Edith working?! Had they wandered into the fucking Twilight Zone? He said as much to her. “You working? Didn’t you just offer to give him money so he could hire a receptionist?”

  Edith pouted at him before smiling slightly as she presumably pictured Bruno. Bruno – good lord.

  “No, he went to the bank to get a loan. He’s not interested in my money. He says he wants to do it on his own. He wants me to divorce you so we can get married. He says he’ll support me,” she told him with an expected mixture of pride and bashfulness.

  “He does understand that supporting you involves thousands of dollars in shoes?” Her closet alone was probably worth the yearly budget for some small countries, or perhaps some larger ones.

  “I can cut back if I need to,” she said defensively. “Besides, I don’t care how much he has. He’s my mate.”

  Gerry looked at her askance. “You’re serious? You’d actually forg
o your seven credit cards to marry someone?”

  “Don’t look so surprised. Remember, you married me for my money – you’re not exactly a paragon of morality in this respect.”

  She was actually serious. All this time, he thought they were staying married so she could get her hands on her trust fund, instead of living on the allowance her father deigned to give her.

  “Why don’t you just divorce me if the money doesn’t matter?”

  Edith shrugged. “I made you a deal – I’ll wait until I can make sure your hotel is okay, and then we’ll divorce.”

  Gerry turned that over in his mind for a few moments. It almost sounded like she was doing selfless, but that couldn’t be right, could it? “You don’t have to do that. If you don’t care about the rest of your trust fund, you could divorce me tomorrow. You wouldn’t lose anything.”

  “No, but your family and your den would. How would they manage without the money?”

  “So you’re actually thinking of someone other than yourself?” he asked slowly. Because he really was having a hard time with this one - it needed to be spelled out.

  “Don’t sound so surprised. Besides, I am still thinking about me so you can wipe that dumbfounded look off your face. Once we’re married, Bruno may actually want to set up a second gym – and he’ll cave once it’s our money.” She threw her drink back. “Would you mind if I go see Bruno? I could do with his presence right now.”

  “Of course not,” he said immediately. “Just take a cab.”

  She smiled a slightly drunken smile. Yes, that was how she usually managed to deal with her father – by being hammered.

  “I wish I could say more about Lance. All we can do is look into it but…”

  “If he’s innocent I’m sure you’ll work it out. And if he’s guilty…” She left the sentence hanging as she left.

  Gerry realized she wasn’t sure about her brother was guilty. He knew Edith cared about her brother, but it wasn’t the unconditional caring that you saw with a lot of other shifters. Pythons really didn’t make good family units. They were too cold, too unfeeling, too ready to believe the worst of people. His python groaned. Yes, he was lucky to have found Jessie.