Chapter 9

Clues

I reviewed the notebook and looked at Logan to see how he was doing. I"d found little because I wasn"t fighting those kinds of crimes. Will and Harry seemed to be excited about what they were seeing. Logan was finding something occasionally, as was Belle. My life was isolated in my area, so most of these names meant nothing to me. This wasn"t making me feel very helpful, but if we went after someone on the list, I could be of more use.

Belle started jumping up and down and making funny noises. Was she constipated? Maybe not, since she wasn"t running to the bathroom.

"Is something the matter, Belle?" Logan asked.

"I know this guy. My people want him. There is a huge bounty on him. We could go back to the restaurant that Harry took us to and have a very nice time," she explained.

"Aren"t you like a warden?" Logan wondered.

"Not exactly. I do have duties, but this is really not one of them. My dad asked, so I came. Any chance to make money would be acceptable, especially if it brings a wanted criminal to justice," she admitted.

"Is it possible to find him?" Harry asked, looking excited.

"We have possible associates, which would give us several opportunities to get close to him. It might also give us others from whom we could get a bounty," Belle offered.

That sounded good to me because I was tired of looking through journals. It would give me a chance to get out and actually do something. For me, that was always a good thing. I might be older, but I was still active. I had to admit that I felt better and more capable than usual. Perhaps just being around all these younger people made me feel young again. It was hard to say, but I was so happy to feel so good that I wouldn"t question it. Everyone gathered in the circle, and we decided to go even though the others were not with us. A bad decision? We would see soon.

When we arrived, it was like another world. Everything was so beautiful that it was like a dream.

"Will we have issues with the law here?" Logan asked.

"No, my people live here, and I have some authority. We can proceed, and if anyone comes along, I will take care of it." Belle explained.

That explained the almost dreamlike nature of the area and the beautiful plants. Butterflies of a type I had never seen anywhere else before flew around, and even the bees looked pretty. Flowers were huge, and some of them seemed to be intelligent. Even the animals were larger and prettier than they were in our world. The pathways I saw seemed lined with gold except those with gems. I had never been there before, and it was a little overwhelming. A butterfly the size of a car flew by, and I admired its beautiful blue and purple colors. It looked at me and then moved on.

We were in an isolated area with only one house nearby. I assumed that it would be the house we would be checking out. Belle knocked. I heard footsteps coming toward the door. It was a guy, and I wondered if this was one of the guys we were looking for. Since we only had pictures of a few of them, how would we know? Belle seemed to know, and she grabbed him and flipped him to the floor. I hoped she was right, and he was not an innocent person who had just been abused. She landed on top of him with her elbow in his back. The guy screamed. If she intended to soften him up for questioning, mission accomplished.

"Tell us your name?" Belle asked.

He rattled off a name. It didn"t make Belle happy. She slammed her elbow into his back again. "I already know who you are, so lying is useless."

He gave his proper name. He was on the list but not at the top because the list started with the worst. The guy was about halfway, so he was not good but not as violent as others. Now, Belle began to question him in earnest.

"Where are your friends? We are looking for Sylvester and John Smith." Belle asked.

We knew the names were not the legal names they were born with, but they were all we had, and they used the names in this group of friends they gathered with.

"They are not here but will return in a few hours. Are you sure you want to attempt to take them? They are very violent and will kill you without a thought," he admitted.

"We"ll take that chance. We will take you somewhere. You will all be safe and unable to escape," Belle offered.

I had thought Harry was crazy. I now understood that Belle was just a little bit crazy. She took the prize. Harry had some restraint, while Belle had none. We left and headed back to my house, where we would formulate a plan and see that our guest was restrained and could not escape. There had never been much reason for me to think about what wardens did. I could never have imagined what was required. I knew this was not an everyday case, but the things involved in pursuing these criminals made me give the wardens more respect than I ever had.

Even though it was a bit early for most of us, we ordered subs for lunch. Harry and Belle didn"t seem to mind. The subs were delivered magically in about thirty minutes. I had to admit I could eat them daily. I wasn"t sure how long Logan intended to wait before we returned to check at the house. What I did know was that we all needed to be careful. We were after some dangerous people. We were almost through with lunch when Damon and Marissa arrived.

"We are so sorry, but something came up. We were unable to arrive earlier. What are you guys up to?" Damon asked.

"We made another stop, got some information, and decided to skip sleep to continue the investigation," I responded.

"Is that wise?" Marissa asked.

"I"m not sure because I am exhausted," Harry admitted.

"What did you get?" Damon asked.

"We found someone in a notebook that has victims and criminals listed. This guy is a criminal, but not the worst of them. He said some of the others would return to the house where we found him in two hours. It is almost time to go back and see what we can find. That"s why we had lunch early," Logan admitted.

"Some of you should take a turn catching some sleep. We will fill in," Damon suggested.

Tyne and Moe appeared. "We had a client who was having a panic attack. Surprisingly, it didn"t happen before," Moe admitted. "What are you guys up to?"

Logan explained again, and they had the same idea as Damon. "Who wants to get some rest?" He asked.

I was sure it wouldn"t be Belle, and I was right. Will and Nicky opted for a break, as did Jagger and Linda. I"ll admit that I could have used a break, but with my newfound energy, I was sure I would make it through. At some point, I was sure we would get an opportunity to rest. The four taking a break left, and we decided it was time to head out. Would we find those we were after? I just didn"t know.

Even without Linda, the flash was as quick as ever. I didn"t believe it was so much that she wasn"t adding much magic as there were fewer people, and things leveled out. There was the house, and it was impossible to tell if people were in it. Belle walked up and knocked and then waited for an answer. I could hear the pounding feet coming towards the door. Hopefully, she would be careful because these were not nice people.

"Hello, sweetheart. Did someone order entertainment?" The guy asked. Yes, this was the guy we were here for.

"I"m not sure. Is your name Sylvester?" She asked.

"That"s me. Is a friend looking out for me?" He asked.

"You might say that." She reached out and took him down in a second. It was precisely the same way she had taken out the guy before.

" What the hell is this? That hurts, and I"m not into that kind of thing," he explained.

"This is you being arrested. We will be questioning you, and you won"t like the results if you don"t answer these questions completely." Belle replied.

"What do you want to know?" He asked.

"What is your involvement with the slave ring?" She asked.

"What"s a slave ring?" He acted stupid.

"Just because we"re asking questions doesn"t mean we don"t know the answers." Belle hit him with electricity in his ass.

"Okay, okay, I work for the guy who runs it. Sometimes, his name is Smith. I don"t know much about him, and I only work for him when he calls me," Sylvester admitted.

"Has he called you lately?" Belle wondered.

"Maybe a couple weeks ago. The job didn"t last very long. Smith got very upset, but I don"t know why. He told all of us the job was finished." Sylvester explained.

"Can you think of any other names?" Belle questioned.

"Thompson directed a lot of us. He was the one with the list of people we needed to acquire. He"s an evil son of a bitch. I am scared of him. These people are lucky. Smith told him not to mess with them because they wouldn"t have been in excellent shape when the auction rolled around. Of course, the auction never rolled around. Was that because of you?" Sylvester wondered.

"Don"t you worry your little head about that," Belle told him. "Any of the rest of you have any questions for him?"

She"d been thorough, and no one could think of any questions, and everyone shook their head. In a flash, she was gone, and I knew she would turn him in for the money she would get. I was okay with that because she was a big help and wasn"t getting anything else from this. Belle was interesting and her magic was through the roof. She was a character, but I liked her. Between her and Harry, things were exciting. They were also doing well bounty hunting. Belle Didn"t seem to care about money, but she wasn"t going to pass up the opportunity to make some. On the other hand, Harry always seemed to want a little more money for the things she needed and wanted. Lou thought that maybe Belle had family money and Harry did not.

She thought she might know most of these people well by the time it was done. With Belle dealing with Sylvester, they looked at the next person on the list. The question was whether they wanted to go after them or wait for Belle. They could bring the person back and let Belle question them. She had a rather interesting interrogation style. Surprisingly, they always answered her questions, and once she pointed out that she already knew the answers, they answered them truthfully. Maybe it was magic, or perhaps they saw something in her eyes that scared them.

"Is it our turn?" Logan asked when some of those who had left reappeared.

"Go," Jagger agreed.

He held her hand, she cast her spell, and they went back home. "I need some sleep," I admitted.

"I just need to be by your side," Logan said.

We both cleaned up and dressed for bed. When I returned to the room, I pulled back the blankets, lay down, and slept. Even asleep, I felt Logan against me and his arm around me. I knew deep inside what he was to me, even if I refused to admit it.

When we woke, we knew we needed to get back to the group and relieve someone who hadn"t slept. At least things were moving along with the investigation, and it wouldn"t be long before it went somewhere.

I grabbed my clothes and went to the bathroom, where I quickly dressed. When I entered the room, Logan was already dressed.

"Any idea where they may be?" Logan asked.

"I believe it"s supper time. They are probably downstairs eating," I admitted.

We headed down the stairs, and we could hear the sounds of a large group talking and joking. My stomach rumbled, and suddenly, I felt starved to death. We headed into the dining room, and food was on the table.

"There you are," Harry commented. "We got tacos and several other foods that go with them. Fill up your plate before it"s all gone."

We immediately filled our plates. I loved enchiladas and tamales even more than tacos. There were no beans and rice, but I would have liked that, too. It was okay because plenty of other food filled me up. Chips with salsa and cheese dip were also on the table. It was clear they had ordered a lot of extra food because even after we filled our plates, there was still a little bit of everything left. That was okay because Harry and Belle would need a snack before long.

"So, tell us how everything went after we left," Logan demanded.

"We managed to find two males on the list. Unfortunately, they really didn"t know anything. Neither was on the fae list, so Harry took them in for their bounty. It wasn"t much," Damon admitted.

Harry still looked pretty happy. I like that about her. She was pleased with small things and didn"t require something huge.

"What will we do next?" Logan asked.

"The list is long. It will take quite a while to run everything down," Damon admitted.

"With such a long list, maybe we should divide it into half and go after more of them," Logan suggested.

"If we do that, we need to be careful. If someone is truly dangerous, retreat," Damon suggested.

Everyone agreed. We wanted to get this done, but we also wanted to be successful.

The team is divided into halves, with Damon and Marissa taking one team and Tyne and Moe taking the other. We divided the list of those left in half. Belle was with the other team, and Harry was with us. Will and Nicky went with Damon and Jagger, and Linda came with us. It was as fair a division as we could have.

Two circles were formed, and immediately, everyone flashed. We ended up in the middle of nowhere and couldn"t even find a house or a building. Only remains. This didn"t look good. Harry began to walk around, looking at the ground. I had an idea of what she was looking for, but I didn"t like it. We all did the same, and someone yelled. It was Jagger, and he had found an entrance into the underground. The smell that rose from it was horrible. Harry entered first in case there were any magical spells to overcome. There weren"t. However, there was row after row of cages filled with people. At least, most of them were alive. We immediately let them out. Harry, Linda, and I took them somewhere else.

They had little water and not much food, and if you had succumbed to the lack of both. Their clothing was ragged. It was like they had forgotten, but they had left people there. Jagger and Logan began to hand out water to those who remained. How could anyone treat another person like this? Even little children in the cages were gaunt from lack of food. I wasn"t sure if this was in our territory, and I didn"t care. All I knew was that everyone had to be removed and taken somewhere to get the proper treatment, food, clothing, and water. Harry seemed to know what to do, and eventually, everyone was out and somewhere else.

"I"ve never seen such a thing, and I hope I never do again. "I commented."

"I"ve seen that far too many times. That"s the result of the slavering gone bad." Harry admitted.

"Where did you take them?" I asked.

"Most of them went to Ariel, and a few went to Mac." She replied.

"Can they handle all of them?" I asked. There were a hundred people, at least. A few were dead that we had to remove and take somewhere to be identified.

"They are used to it," Harry said, a sad look in her eyes.

"Now we look for clues," Jagger said.

"The smell is terrible," Linda observed.

Lou waved her wand, and everything was better. A clean wind blew through, removing the horrible smell. "That"s better," I said.

"I don"t see much," Logan observed. "There"s really not much here."

"Here"s a piece of paper." I picked it up. "It had a name on it but not one in the notebook."

"I don"t think we"re going to find anything else. We"ve used a lot of magic; we should go home and rest." Everyone agreed, and we flashed back home only to find the other team there.

"Did you find anything?" Damon asked.

"A nasty mess full of people in terrible shape," Tyne admitted.

"A place they were holding slaves?" Damon asked.

"It looked recently abandoned, and at least most of them were alive," Tyne admitted.

"We caught someone on the fae list and a couple on the wolf"s council list. Belle called Harry and had her take the two in while she took the other one." Damon explained.

"I didn"t realize he was doing that, but I did notice she was gone for a while. At least we"re cleaning up some criminals." Tyne admitted.

"Believe we"re getting the right ones," Damon observed.

"At the least, we"re getting some of them," Tyne said.

I noticed that it was hit-and-miss, and it felt frustrating. At least we had freed some people who would have died had we not come after them. That should have made me feel better, but I was still concerned about those in my family who would be targeted by those looking for red wolves. That was normal, I knew, but that didn"t stop me from feeling bad. It would still take me a while to come to terms with being a mate and possibly a red wolf.

Logan was special. I knew we would have a good relationship if I could deal with it. He would be mine. Once I got over the feeling that I should have waited or not mated him at all. He was waiting for me to say something or acknowledge our meeting in some way or another. I needed to do that but didn"t know what to say. Maybe tonight, I could finally deal with things between us. I glanced over at him only to see him looking at me. Putting things off wouldn"t help our relationship, and I couldn"t continue.

"Is it lunchtime?" Belle asked.

"It"s as good a time as any. What do you want?" I asked.

"I love those fish and chips we ordered the other day. I"m even willing to go pick them up." Belle admitted.

"We"ll get a list of what everyone wants, and Harry can go with you." I directed.

Everyone seemed happy ordering the fish and chips. Some ordered a double. That was okay because we were working hard and needed energy. Belle and Harry went to get the food. They were back in ten minutes. Everyone seemed happy. I felt they deserved to be pleased after all we had gone through. Those poor people, but at least I was sure they were getting treated right at Ariel"s place. Everything I had ever heard about her Told me that she would take good care of them. I had not heard much about Mac, but I was sure if he was willing to take refugees of that kind, he would take care of them, too.

I could ask to get more information about him. We were isolated in our area, and knowing a little about our neighbors would be good. Now that I was mated to a warden, I would learn a whole lot more than I ever had about the people around me, victims and criminals. Some things I didn"t want to know, like what I had learned today.

We were eating our Subs and talking when Harry mentioned that the pit that we had found fellow slaves in was not far from here. Several inside were people from this area and around Ariel's place. That not only surprised me. It upset me. Had I not been working with the wardens; I might have never known such evil and so close. Was I hiding my head in the sand? They continued to talk. I recognized the name they discussed. It had been found in a similar faraway place, and the girl lived here. She was returned to her family. I remembered that but didn"t realize she was the victim of a slave ring.

I needed to take a more active role in what was happening in my area. Harry mentioned they were often shorthanded when they found large groups of people needing to be taken home and cared for. That was something I could help with and should help with, but I hadn"t known. Harry had a list. I told her to put me on it. I might not always be available, but I would be glad to help if I were. There was so much pain and sorrow, and they needed help that I could give. Linda also said she could be added to the list. I was sure many witches in our town would be more than glad to help. They just needed to be told and understand what was going on.

Harry seemed happy to know that people were willing to help. She said they were often shorthanded, and those who assisted ran out of energy. With so many witches in this area alone, no way should have happened. If we came together, we could make a difference. How could we not have known what was happening so close to us? It was surprising and shocking. I had to admit that the people I saw were in such bad shape that all I wanted to do was help them. Next time, I would be able to.

The food was so good. I enjoyed every bite. "How long has this been going on?"

"It"s been years now," Harry answered.

"Have you not been able to get the information out to other witches?" I wondered.

"Witch communities tend to be insulated," Harry admitted.

I had to admit she was right. Maybe there was a way because it was so heinous that the word needed to get out. Not just the witches but many shifters were also captured. There was a paranormal newspaper, but that mainly served shifters. Someone needed to start something that would inform everyone when things like this occurred. This was not my area. I had to take some time and think of someone to handle this.

We finished our food and then took some time to talk about what was happening. "I suppose it is time to go back and get some work done," I said.

"We did well, but people are waiting for us to save them, and others waiting to be captured," Damon observed.

He was right, and there was much for us to do. I"ll admit I didn"t feel like it. I wanted to spend the day away with my mate, but a lazy day was not in our future. "I"m curious who is running this scheme," I asked.

"I don"t know. We captured several of those running it before. One quit, and he is impossible to capture," Damon explained. "There is too much money in this. Someone always picks up the torch and carries on."

"I"d say that is sad, but it is obvious. Why is it that there"s no one when we arrive?" I asked.

"I can"t say. I can say that this latest one we found has clearly been abandoned for several days." Tyne admitted.

Not much more to say. At least we had found it and saved some lives. What would have happened had we not found it? Everyone there would have died, and no one would have been recovered. Even those dead would not have been returned to their families.

"You should head out now and discover what we can." Damon directed.

"It is time to get done what we can until we finish for the day." Tyne agreed.

I was glad half the day was done, and we only had half a day left. Hoping that there were no more slave pits left, I hope that we found the criminals that we could take into custody. If there were slave pits left, I hope that we find them to save the lives of those that were inside them. It was time to get out there and see if we could find any more. It would not be fun, but the work we did was vital. Those we freed would live, and those that weren"t found might never be seen again. The criminals we captured could not cause any more trouble.

We separated into two circles as before and flashed away quickly. Our group ended up in a dark, dismal place. I suspected we were not in the area where we had authority. Everyone looked about, but there was a house that looked like a shack. Harry hurried forward and knocked on the door. There was no one there, so we kicked in the door and went in to look around. No one had been here for a very long time. We searched the house and found nothing. We went into the backyard and found a grave. That was probably where the person we had been searching for was. Harry did a spell and confirmed that the person in the grave was the person we were searching for. We marked them off the list. We looked around to make sure that there was no slave pit anywhere nearby before we took off and looked for the next person on the list.

There was only so much we could do, and I believe we had done everything we could in the last place. In honesty, I had never considered going into law enforcement. The work that we were doing now didn"t make me change my mind. The next person we found was in a bar. That was more like what I would have expected. We grabbed them and quickly left. Harry checked them out, and they were on the council's list. The interrogation got little information from them, so she took them and turned them in to the council for a small bounty. The council was cheap because the fae paid much better bounties. Poor Harry, so much work with so little benefit. She seemed happy, so I didn"t worry about it.

The next one was fishing. It surprised me that such an evil creature would be fishing. It didn"t look like he"d caught a thing, so I wondered if he was fishing or stalking someone. There was someone on the other side of the lake that he kept glancing at, and that answered my question. Jagger grabbed him and pulled him into our group. He told him he was arrested, and he would not be getting free. Then, the questioning began. He seemed to know little, at least not any more than what we already knew. These criminals were poorly informed, and I wondered if they knew little because they didn"t want to know anything.