“Yeah, where I can. Obviously, it will never stand up in court but I can point people in the right direction. My card.” He handed me a business card which read – Noah Taylor along with his number.
“What makes you think I need your help?”
He smiled again and I could feel my body respond. He really was cute.
“You never know. See you around.”
I watched him walk away, wondering if I should rethink my no dating policy.
***
Harry
My contacts came up short so I needed to try something else. Detective Bell made it clear she didn’t want any trouble, but maybe it would be better for us to work together rather than to avoid each other. I at least had to try.
I headed down to the police station, hoping she was working today. The contacts I had were from my Crestwood days and before. I’ve worked with packs but also with other supernatural communities when I could. It didn’t hurt to have a few people who owed you a favor, especially in this line of work. Humans fell very far down the list, but Detective Bell could be a real asset. She could never know about our cases or the people involved but I could offer to share information if it helped on any human cases.
The police station seemed busy and I wondered if I should come back another time. Then I spotted her across the room, a cup of coffee in one hand and a folder in the other.
“Excuse me, Detective Bell?” I called.
She glanced up from the file she was reading. “Hello again. What are you doing here?”
“Well I was hoping I could speak to you privately.”
“Okay. Follow me.”
She led me into an interrogation room. “Should I be worried?” I joked.
“Oh, no. It’s the only place to get any privacy around here. What can I do for you?”
“I was thinking about our earlier conversation and I know that you’ve had issues with other PI’s but I thought we could have a more beneficial relationship.”
She raised an eyebrow.
“What I mean is, I’m more than happy to send any leads your way if you could help with information from time to time.”
“Oh. Well, I suppose I could do that. From time to time.”
“Wonderful.”
“So what is it you want?”
“Ah, well, I was hoping to find out who this gentleman is,” I said, showing her the still from the CCTV.
Detective Bell took the photo. Her lip curled up in disgust. “He ain’t no gentleman. That’s Frank Bender. He’s a small time hustler and drug dealer. I’ve pulled him in a few times, never been able to pin anything on him. Why are you looking for him?”
“We need to ask him a few questions about something.”
“He’s trouble. It could be dangerous.”
“I know how to handle myself.”
“I bet you do. Watch your back.”
“Thank you, Detective Bell.”
“Call me Kate.”
“Thank you, Kate.”
10
Kol
“Come on, man, I just need a few more grams of the stuff,” I said, hating that I had to beg. It became apparent that I wouldn’t have enough for my order early on and I had been trying to get a hold of this guy ever since.
The guy in the hoodie scowled at me. “We gave you what we had. You don’t get any more until you start showing results.”
By results he meant money. Which I couldn’t get unless I filled the order. Why couldn’t he cut me a break?
We stood in an alley across town, he picked the location. I couldn’t believe that I travelled all this way to be told no. He could have said so on the phone.
“I know, but I have a buyer lined up who wants more. If I don’t provide it, I don’t get paid.” The sale could get me out of the red for good if I came through. Why did he have to be so difficult?
The guy shrugged. “Not my problem.”
He walked away, leaving me alone in the alley. What the hell was I going to do now? I could cut the batch, but that would offer a weaker product. I doubt my buyer would be impressed or come back for more.
“Shit,” I muttered. Everywhere I went I kept hitting a brick wall.
Maybe this was karma for everything I’ve done. I had no doubt that I deserved it, but it didn’t mean I would stop trying. I had to admit things were a lot easier when I lived in the palace. All I had to do to source ingredients was ask the servants or steal them from the gardens.
Pulling my hood up, I headed back to the street where I parked my car. The last thing I needed was anyone seeing me and reporting me to the cops. Although I’d be more worried about the SPA. I couldn’t believe Jade wanted to join them. They kept a close eye on guys like me, for exactly the reason I was out here. A few of them paid me a visit a week after I opened to let me know that they would be watching.
Two plain clothes agents came in, checking out the shop. I knew they weren’t tourists the moment I saw them.
The list of questions they asked me next proved my point. Did I plan on selling any banned substances? Who were my clients? Where did I come from?
I obviously didn’t answer that last one truthfully. The SPA had no jurisdiction over my world, but that didn’t mean they wouldn’t share that information with someone from my world. They had a treaty in place which meant doing each other favors and keeping each other up to date about any problems that might affect either world. Problems like a runaway prince who sucked at retail.
As I approached my car, I found three guys hanging around it. One sat on the hood while the other two tried to get the doors open. They were all dressed in a similar way, jeans and hoodies. One of them wore a bandana across his mouth.
“Hey!” I yelled, breaking into a jog. The car was crappy, but I needed it.
The one on the hood hopped off and brandished a tire iron at me. “Walk away, man,” he said.
“That’s my car,” I said.
He laughed. “It’s ours now.”
“Like hell it is,” I said. I’m not normally a fighter, but I had reached my limit. These assholes were going to pay for messing with me.
The tire iron headed for my head, but I ducked it, throwing a fist at the guy’s gut. He doubled over, but his two friends took the opportunity to knock me to the ground and start kicking me.
I covered my head with my hands, trying to protect my face. On impulse, I threw out my hands and the three of them were blasted back as magic escaped me.
“What the hell?” one of them cried.
They got to their feet and took off down the street.
Shit, I can’t believe I lost control like that.
I got to my feet, wincing as pain shot through my ribs. I didn’t mean to use magic, it was just instinct. I hope no one from my world was nearby, if they sensed that, they would be able to trace it back to me. I’ve been in this world so long that I’ve started to let my guard down, but I can’t forget that I’m a runaway. I’m sure my father is still looking for me and he would love to drag me back home. That was always a risk when I left Crestwood, but I hoped that he would have forgotten about me by then.
As for those guys, they may be human, but I wasn’t too worried about them telling anyone. No one would believe them.
Hopping into my car, I headed back to the shop. Could this day get any worse?
***
Jade
It was my turn to visit Regine with an update. I brought the photo with me to see if she recognized this Bender guy. The girl at the front just waved me through. I was practically a regular now anyway. Bobby let me know that Regine was in the back, in her office.
“What do you want?” she asked when I entered her office. She sat at her desk, several ledgers in front of her.
Charming as always.
“We have an update and a possible suspect. This guy,” I said, showing her the photo.
“Urgh, him.”
“So you know him?�
�
“Yes, he dated Kandy for a while and he does odd jobs for me from time to time.”
I didn’t ask what they were, I doubted she would tell me. “Do you think he could have killed her?”
She shrugged. “It’s possible, but I doubt it. Maybe I should send someone round to beat the truth out of him.”
“Maybe we should see if he’s the right guy first,” I suggested. Was she so willing to get to the truth that she would just beat a guy for information?
“Fine. But I have no idea where the cretin lives. If you track him down, tell him he still owes me for that issue I helped him with last month. He’ll know what you mean.”
Great, now I’m her messenger girl too.
“Fine, we’ll check it out and get back to you.”
Regine sat back in her chair and stared at me for a moment. “Have you ever thought of stripping? I have clients who would love you,” she said.
“I’m good, thanks,” I said. The day I got desperate enough to work for her was the day I left town.
“Oh right, I forgot. You’ve already got your sugar daddy. Why turn down the easy option, right?”
“For the last time, Harry and I are business partners.”
“Call it what you like. I’m sure you two have enjoyed a few late nights working the case.” She raised an eyebrow.
“Why don’t you shut your mouth,” I snarled, my cheeks flaming.
Regine’s eyes glowed yellow as her wolf came to the surface. My own wolf took that as a threat and I started to lose control. The muscles in my back shifted. I fought hard against it, but part of me felt tempted to let go.
“Guards!” Regine called.
Her two heavies came in and ushered me out the door. I caught sight of her smiling face before I was pushed out. Closing my hands into fists, I reined it in.
One of these days…
11
Jade
I returned to the office still seething over what Regine said about me and Harry. Implying that we were doing more than working together. As much as I would like that to be true, it would never happen. It’s not like I haven’t thought about it though. Fantasized even, but I’d never admit that out loud. What if Harry had been there? He would have taken one look at me and known something was up.
Harry looked up from his notes as I stormed in.
“What’s wrong?” he asked.
“I think I might have made things worse with Regine.”
“What happened?”
“She said some stuff and I threatened her. Kind of. She had me escorted out.”
“Jade, we don’t need to piss her off. We need to solve this case as quickly as possible. Speaking of which, I have an address on the man from the alley.”
“You do? That’s great.”
“Well, not so great, he lives in a dangerous neigborhood.”
“What else is new? Let’s go.”
With what we were facing, the last thing we could be worried about was a bad neighborhood.
We left the office and I placed a sign on the door to say we would be back soon. I doubt anyone would care or even come close enough to see it.
The apartment lay across the city and Harry wasn’t kidding when he said it was a bad neighborhood. Broken windows, graffiti and a burned out car sat outside the building.
Harry parked his rental car nearby. I hoped he got insurance because there was a good chance it wouldn’t be here when we got back. Or at least not all of it. I needed a car myself, but again, that took money. For now, we shared the rental.
As I got out, I took a look around. The street seemed mostly empty, but I did spot three guys in a yard a few houses down. They were talking excitedly about something. I wondered what got them all riled up.
We headed into the building. A man sat on the floor under the mailboxes, high as a kite. He watched us as we passed him, swaying around.
“Which apartment is it?” I asked.
“8D.”
We took the stairs since the elevator was broken. I tried my best not to touch anything.
We reached 8D, the D hung sideways and the paint on the door was badly chipped. Harry knocked on it and it popped open.
“Should we go in?” I asked.
“That would be trespassing.”
I shrugged. “So? I doubt this guy will call the cops.”
Harry hesitated, but I pushed past him and stepped into the apartment. My foot came down on something soft. Groaning, I lifted my foot to find a moldy pizza slice on the floor. “Gross.”
The whole place was a mess, the guy was disgusting. I groaned again as another smell reached me. A smell that wasn’t rotten food. Picking our way across the floor, we entered the bedroom, where we found Frank – dead. He lay across the bed, fully dressed, a knife planted in the middle of his chest. It looked like he had been here a while. There was no sign of struggle as far as I could see, though in this mess, who could tell?
“Oh God,” I whispered. “Do you think Regine did this?”
“Why would she?” Harry asked, moving further into the room to take a look at the body.
“Because he owed her for some job. She was going to send someone, maybe she got here first.”
“I imagine this man had a lot of enemies.”
I looked around myself. The knife seemed to be a regular kitchen knife and a quick check in the kitchen showed me that one was missing from the block.
Harry emerged from the bedroom. “We should get out of here before anyone sees us.”
I didn’t argue, if the police found us it would look suspect and it wasn’t like we could help Frank now. Someone would find him eventually.
We returned to the car, passing the guy again. I tried not to look at him. We didn’t need him telling the cops that two people went to visit the dead guy.
Harry however, stopped to talk to him. “Excuse me, did you see anyone else head upstairs recently? Anyone suspicious?”
The man could barely focus on him. “What? Why are you hassling me, man?”
I grabbed Harry’s arm and pulled him away. “Leave it, he doesn’t know what day it is.”
“He might have seen something,” Harry argued.
“Oh you mean like us? What’s going to happen when the cops come and they ask him that same question? How many English guys are walking around the city?”
He sighed. “You’re right, but it doesn’t look like he’ll remember anything from this day.”
I hoped he was right.
“I think we need to talk to Regine.”
As Harry pulled away from the building, I wondered who would murder Frank. He was at the club the day Kandy died, but that didn’t mean he was inside. What if he saw her get killed or the person who killed her and they killed him to keep him quiet? This case was getting more and more complicated.
Back at the club, Regine was out back taking a delivery when we arrived. She looked up from the clipboard she was checking. “You better have something useful this time.” She had a different outfit on again, this one a business suit. She seemed to have a look for every occasion.
“Frank’s dead,” I said.
“Oh. Aw well.” I could tell she was all broken up about it.
“Did you do it?” I blurted.
Regine looked up. “Do you assume I am responsible for everything bad in this city? As much as I would like to take credit, I had nothing to do with Frank’s death. He owed me, remember? Hard to collect if he’s dead.”
“He was our best suspect,” Harry said.
“Who would kill him? Someone getting revenge for Kandy?” I asked.
“No one cared enough to do that,” Regine drawled. She headed back inside and we followed. “I think its perfectly obvious. Frank was hired to do the job and then taken out so he couldn’t tell anyone.” She seemed very sure about that.
“Sounds like you have someone in mind.”
Regine entered her office and
took a seat on the leather couch against the far wall, crossing her legs. “Maybe I do. But as this person is a client, I couldn’t possibly give you their name.”
She nudged a magazine on the table with her foot, which lay open on a spread about a local businessman. I leaned forward to read the headline. “Local entrepreneur John Reynolds plans to revitalize New Orleans. This is the guy.”
Regine shrugged. “I don’t know what you’re talking about. I said nothing.”
She really took the confidentiality thing seriously, but we had what we needed. A new suspect. I lifted the magazine and rolled it up. It might have useful information in it.
“We’ll look into it,” Harry said.
Regine just nodded, her eyes on me. It creeped me out the way she sized me up.
We left the club, ready to do more digging. I wondered who this John Reynolds was and why he would go so far as to kill a woman in cold blood.
One thing was for sure, he must have really hated her to kill her like that.
12
Harry
While Jade researched Reynolds online, I headed back to the station to talk to Kate. If this guy was up to something, she would know about it. I knew that I was pushing my luck, considering I hadn’t offered her anything in return yet, but the only information I had was on a dead body in an apartment and if I told her about Frank, she might think I had something to do with it. I made a mental note to try and find something for her soon. Crime was rife in the city, with both humans and supernaturals. I knew eventually there would be something for her.
I caught her as she was leaving the building, along with a tall man with a suit. I assumed he was her partner. “Back again? We have to stop meeting like this,” she joked. She waved the partner to go on without her.
“Yes, I’m sorry. I realize that I am pushing it, but I wondered if you knew anything about a man called John Reynolds? He works in real estate.”
“I’ve heard of him. Why are you looking into him?” she asked.
The Werewolf Queen of Bourbon Street: City For Lost Souls Series Book 1 Page 6
