Chapter 7

Chasing the Clues

Our time off was over. No one was overly excited about getting back to tracking our latest clue. I didn"t blame them. I wasn"t excited about it either. It wasn"t clear how this person was connected except for a stack of clothing. Maybe they had just been a reseller and hadn"t even been involved in any of this. It was all we had, so we had no choice but to follow the clue and hope it would lead us to someone important or something else that would lead us to the next point in our investigation.

"Gather round," Will said, taking control of the situation. It was a talent she had.

Everyone did as they were told. We held hands or touched. Seconds later, the flash was on, and we were headed to the Goddess only knew where.

The place wasn"t nearly as dreary. We were in the middle of some kind of town. Hopefully, we were still in paranormal territory and had yet to alert the nearby humans that there were supernaturals. Since no one noticed us, I assumed paranormals were common here.

"Where should we go?" I asked.

"We should try the closest house first," Lou responded.

That made sense, so everyone started walking to the house behind us. When we got there, we knocked on the door, and I could hear somebody coming to answer. It was a young girl who was too young to answer the door when there were strangers about.

"What you want?" She asked.

"Are one of your parents at home?"

"Mom says we"re not buying." She started to close the door in our faces, but Will put out her foot.

"That"s okay because we aren"t selling. We need to talk to one of your parents." Will's stern attitude had the girl hurrying away and hopefully fetching someone.

No one entered the house but Will left her foot in the door so they couldn"t close it on us. Heavier footsteps headed toward us. Hopefully, it was someone we could question. The guy was as big as a mountain.

"Who are you, and what do you want here?" He asked.

Will held up the picture. "Do you know this man?"

He was shocked. "That looks like my dad, but he died years ago."

"May we come in and discuss this?" I asked.

The male stepped back and motioned for us to enter. It was the living room with couches and chairs for us to sit on.

"Tell me what all of this is about," he asked.

"This man is a person of interest in an ongoing investigation. We are unsure if he is involved. If he is not, he has information we need," I informed.

"But he"s dead. There was a funeral. He is buried in the local cemetery."

"What was his name?" Will asked.

"Jed Raskins. I am named after him," He admitted.

"A witness gave us a description of a man she met a couple weeks ago," I explained.

"If he is not dead, who"s buried in his grave?" Jed asked.

"Can"t answer that yet, but there are ways to identify who is in a grave."

"Even if he is still alive, I have no way to find him or know where he might be."

"Is there no family member he might trust?" I inquired.

"Many of those in his generation have passed. My uncle, who was very close to him, no longer lives here. My grandpa, who still lives, wouldn"t be much help to him. He doesn"t get around well and is a bit crazy."

"Crazy can often get the job done," Harry pointed out.

"Can you give me contact information for those two?"

"I can, but I don"t know if it will help."

"We"ll handle that part," Will observed.

There would be another chase to track down people and clues. We left the house and walked to the cemetery to search for the grave.

"It"s over here," Harry yelled.

Gathering around, we all looked at the grave. Nothing stood out except the suspect"s name.

"Any way you can identify who is in the grave?" I asked.

"I can do that," Belle assured.

She circled the grave as she chanted, and the ground shook. This was powerful magic. Possibly magic we should not have been using. It was too late now, and the deed was on its way. A ghostly apparition appeared on top of the grave.

"Who disturbs my rest?" It spoke.

"I do. I wish to know if you are in the grave where you belong. What is your name?"

"My name is Mark Schmidt. I wasn"t even aware I"d been killed until you woke me. If I am in the wrong grave, what does my family think happened to me?"

"You were an investigator for the council. How did you know Jed Raskins?"

"He"s a criminal I was investigating. I finally got the needed evidence and searched but could not find him. Instead, he found me."

"Go back and rest. We will move you and alert your family, so they know what happened to you," I explained.

"I remember many years ago when the council investigator went missing. It was finally decided he left because he was paid off. They were wrong. At least his family will get some small comfort from the fact that he died doing his job properly," Damon observed.

"I remember that as well," I offered. Jagger nodded, agreeing.

"We will report this to the proper authorities, so they move the grave. This injustice has gone on for too long," Damon concluded.

That would be dealt with, but we needed to move on. Jed Raskins was the name of young Jed's grandpa as well. The third Jed was a nice, well-settled family man. I wondered if his grandpa was. Maybe the one in the middle was the only rotten apple.

We formed our circle and headed to the address we were given. I wasn"t sure what to hope for, but when we got there, someone was trying to abduct Grandpa. The old man gave them quite a fight, but those trying to abduct him had no hope of winning against us. Since Will hadn"t exercised much, she jumped into the battle and started putting guys down. Nicky was right behind her. Belle picked a couple guys and started playing with them magically. They started hitting each other, and that freaked them out.

Harry picked one, pulled him over to us, and interrogated him. I didn"t see any reason to get involved in the fighting since it was going well.

"Who are you?" Harry asked.

"The old guy is my grandpa," the words were unwillingly drawn out of him.

"And what are you doing to your grandpa?" Harry asked.

"He"s old, and he"s going to a nursing home. I"m going to move in and take over."

"Your grandpa seems to be in better shape than you. I don"t think this big move is going to work for you. We"ll be talking to you later." Harry wrapped him up in gold rope and set him aside.

She pulled another guy over who was fighting with Will, leaving only one. She quickly took him out and looked around, hoping someone else would show up that she could deal with. Everyone knew she enjoyed a good fight.

"Who are you, and what are you doing here?" Harry asked.

"We"re here to take out the old guy and his grandson. The dumb kid is helping us because he thinks he hired us."

"What"s your name?"

"I"m Cadro. You"re going to turn me in?"

"I see here that there is a large bounty on you. We"re going to turn you in, and then we"re going to have a really lovely meal somewhere special., Harry taunted.

She probably intended to do just that. I wouldn"t mind her nice meal. She wrapped that one up and set him aside to deal with later.

After Harry questioned all the guys present, he discovered that the grandson was the only one wanted by the law, and he probably should be. We would deal with him in a way that would ensure he never returned.

There would be a nice bounty. We would celebrate and have money left over to divide.

Harry was finally talking to Grandpa. She dealt with him in a very nice way.

"I want to thank you for handling my greedy grandson. Sometimes, your family will disappoint you. He was the only one involved in this. I am sure the rest of my family has no idea what"s happening. He told the others I was having a mental breakdown so that after he dealt with me, none of them would feel like they should interfere. My mind is clearer than his."

He certainly sounded clear enough. Issues like that were rare among paranormals. I could tell he was a wolf. The grandson who had come to try to take him away seemed to be human. I would not say all humans were greedy and tainted or all wolves were perfect and wonderful, but some people tried to say that. Every race had its good and its bad, and this young man had been bad all the way through. I had no understanding for someone who could do this to their family.

"We were hoping you might help us out," Harry admitted.

"I will if I can. What do you need?"

"I don"t know how to tell you this, but your son, Jed, is alive and up to no good," Harry admitted.

"I don"t know how I had a son like him. That grandson is his youngest. The other kids are good as gold. Honestly, I was relieved when I heard he died. I felt guilty as hell, but I never could do anything to turn him down the right road. How can I help you?"

"We need to find him, and we"ve run out of clues," she explained.

"Up to his old business, is he?" Jed asked.

"From what we"ve been told, he never stopped."

"The only thing I can tell you that might help was he used to have an old girlfriend. I say old girlfriend, but he saw her the entire time he was married. I thought he died. That was the only reason he would have stopped seeing her. She was as bad as he was and had another man to care for her. They saw each other whenever they could. They were both pretty evil. Watch out for her. She"s a witch who doesn"t mind using her powers to hurt people. If anything, she gets a thrill out of it."

He got out a notepad and wrote down a large amount of information, hoping it would help us.

"Be careful, and I hope you find them both."

He"d been as helpful as possible, but the information was old. Would it help?

It was time to travel, so we made our circle. Hopefully, this time, we would find what we needed.

The flash was fast. I would say we were getting used to it if I didn"t feel sick. Looking around, no one else showed signs they were bothered by the flash. Witches did this from the time they were young. This was not a method of transportation used by wolves.

We were by a house that was starting to look rundown. Maybe the witch's man had finally figured her out and left her to deal with things. She could also have taken him out so that her boyfriend could move in.

It was getting to be a complicated case, but maybe things were coming to a head. Harry wasn"t with us because she had to turn our prisoners in for their bounties. It was only fair that the others got something since they were volunteering and not getting paid. Even those of us getting paid weren"t getting paid much. Even considering all of that, the council was cheap and complained constantly about any costs associated with a case. With everyone staying with Lou and eating half our meals there, the cost of this case was extremely low considering the work we were doing.

It made me think of human law enforcement, that old saying about being overworked and underpaid. There was not much more to be said, and now we were at our destination without our most powerful witch. Or was she our most powerful witch? Every witch with us had their own power and abilities. I wouldn"t want to have to take on any of them, but I wasn"t a magic user, and the person who opened the door might be.

Belle was up this time and pounded on the door like she meant it. That girl had no patience of any kind nor any caution.

A pissed-off female swung the door open much harder than needed. It banged into the wall.

"What do you want?" She yelled.

The saying about running through the forest and getting hit by every ugly stick was true in her case. Not only was she physically unappealing, but I normally couldn"t see auras. However, I could see hers, and it was black.

"We"re selling Girl Scout cookies," Belle giggled. "Not really, but we"re looking for Jed."

"Never heard of him." She started to close the door, but Belle stuck her foot in it so it wouldn"t close.

"You"ve never heard of your boyfriend?"

"I think you have the wrong house."

"His father gave us this address," Belle explained.

"He did, did he? I thought he was in a nursing home," the witch observed.

"Looks like your information is outdated. His grandson is in custody for attempting to steal his grandfather"s money. Now we"re here after your boyfriend and possibly you."

"Me? I"ve never done anything wrong," the witch stated.

"You are an unusual person if that"s true."

"I"ve not done anything wrong as far as breaking the law. Is that better?"

"It would be if I believed you. I know your boyfriend"s here because I can smell him," Belle admitted.

"I"ve never heard of anyone except an ogre that could smell someone."

"You have now. Bring him out, or we will come in and get him."

"Are you challenging me?" The witch asked.

"I am telling you that you send him to us, or we go through you."

The witch immediately sent a blazing ball toward us, but it fizzled out immediately. The witch looked worried. She sent a vicious wind toward us that died the second it hit Belle.

"What are you?" She asked.

"I am more powerful than you. If you don"t move out of the way, I will crush you."

This wasn"t the same Belle we had seen before. This one was frightening. The witch stepped out of the way. Belle headed into the house, and we followed her.

When we got back out, I was sure the witch would be gone if she had any shred of survival instinct. The back door was open, which told us that Jed had been listening to us the whole time and had already abandoned his witch.

We spread out in various directions, trying to find the elusive prey, knowing we might have to take him down and not feeling bad about it. The witches used their flashing skills, which made me assume they would catch him. Those of us without those skills just hurried as much as we could. He was fast, but not fast enough. I saw him ahead and let out a yell but didn"t expect assistance. I just wanted the others to know so they wouldn"t waste their time going in the wrong direction.

When I got close, he turned to attack. He morphed into his wolf, and I almost laughed. The poor pitiful thing thought it could take down my wolf?

My wolf was solid black and glossy. It showed perfect health and strength like an alpha should. The wolf I was fighting couldn"t possibly be an alpha, but he had desperation and fear going for him. When a distressed animal was cornered, it would do anything to escape. I was all that was between him and freedom until the others arrived.

Jed was vicious as his fangs sought my neck, but I avoided them. My claws raked his belly, drawing blood. It was not a serious injury.

Our jaws collided, and pain filled my mouth. I was sure he was as well. Blood filled my mouth. It was running down my maw. That only made me angrier. I was ready to take this criminal out.

Clearly, he was tiring, but I didn"t want to wait that long. I backed up, and he slid on his haunches, trying to rest before the fight came back to him.

That was a big mistake. I launched into the air, flying right at him, and got my jaws around his neck. The struggle only ended up coating us both in his blood.

I felt when he realized there was no way he would win and that he would have to take whatever punishment was dished out and hope that he could survive it. He tapped out, but I had seen wolves do that and use the distraction to try to escape, so I was cautious as I stepped back. I morphed back to human so I could communicate.

"Someone please restrain him."

In a second, it was done. The magical restraints were on him, so he could not morph and had no hope of escaping.

"We should take him back to Lou's to interrogate."

Damon said nothing. I had feared he would since he was a Councilman. He had learned a lot about dealing with the council and knew that everything would be a big secret once they were brought in, and we would learn nothing. That was my thought as well.

We all formed a circle and flashed in seconds. Lou led Harry and Belle to the kitchen, where I was sure she would give them a snack. It was always good if they were appropriately fed because Harry lost power if she wasn"t, and Belle got cranky, and no one liked cranky Belle.

I pushed Jed into a seat and took the chair opposite him.

Everyone else in the room spread out and grabbed a seat. They wanted to hear what he had to say personally.

"Let"s start with what we know for sure. A council investigator was after you. He ended up dead and in a grave with your name on it. We also know that you have been involved in a scheme to kidnap and auction off various paranormals. What have you to add?" I asked.

"I didn"t kill him. I only took advantage of his death," Jed admitted.

"Who killed him?" Will asked.

"I"m not sure who actually did the job, but a guy named Smith ordered it. He told me where the body was and said if I wanted to be free, I could have him buried in my place so no one would look for me. He was right. No one double-checked the body. My family had been expecting me to turn up dead for some time."

That was believable enough, especially since the body had been mutilated. Who wanted to look at something like that? It was a surprise that a warden didn"t come in and send off the sample. I wasn"t even sure who would have overseen dealing with that. They may not even have been told until after the body was in its grave. With no reason to suspect that it wasn"t him, digging up a grave was a serious action.

"Sounds like that worked out for Smith as well. He set you up, so if the body was ever found, there would be no doubt that you were the one that killed him," I observed. "Why did you decide to go into business on your own?"

"Smith was making a killing. He lives like a god. I wanted a little bit of that for myself. Who wouldn"t?" Jed asked.

"How did that work out for you?" Will asked.

"Not well at all. It looked so easy when Smith did it."

"Do you have any information you can give us about what Smith was doing or other people who worked for him?" I interrogated.

"Smith thrives on secrecy. We aren"t supposed to share names or backgrounds with anyone else in his organization. He just goes by Smith, but I bet that"s not his real name. He"s a mean mother. Everyone is scared to death of him," Jed admitted.

"I"m not sure you were scared enough. We"ll have to protect you because if he finds out you"re in our custody, he will come after you," Will observed.

I wasn"t sure she should have told him that, but I knew she hoped he would realize that his former boss would be after him if he escaped. We were his only hope of survival, and he needed to realize that. He must have done just that because he began to sweat profusely.

"What do we do now?" Harry asked. She was finished with her snack and ready for action.

"We must protect our witness. Smith will be coming after him. Someone also needs to sit down with him and get every name and every location he ever heard. We will divide up the list and go through it one by one until they are all done."

"I"ll do it!" Belle volunteered.

No one else wanted to, but I was worried about what Belle would do. The last prisoners had turned out pretty well, except they had really wanted away from her badly. When I looked around, I saw everyone was looking down or away. It was obvious that she was our only volunteer.

"Sure. Why don"t you give it a go?"

Belle and her prisoner disappeared. I was sure she flashed him upstairs with her. It would take her a while to get all the information.

It was hard to imagine what Belle was doing, and I didn"t want to think about it. Instead, I sent a brief report to the council who had requested it, leaving out most of the information about what we actually did.

There were a lot of words that said almost nothing. I was actually becoming quite good at that. There was little they needed to know of those things that had happened recently. If they knew they would interfere.

All of us were surprised when Belle came skipping down the stairs. "I have the list. When are we going to start on it?"

"I have a suggestion," Harry said. "It"s too late to get anything done, so why don"t we go out for that really great meal I promised everyone?"

I was pleased with the suggestion, and everyone else was too. We"d gotten a lot done and tomorrow would be another rough day. Everyone nodded their heads.

"Where do you wanna go?" Lou asked.

"Maybe a really nice restaurant with steak, seafood, and gourmet food too. Mixed drinks and a delicious dessert would just be a cherry on top," Harry admitted.

"There is a place like that, but it"s really high-priced. Most people only go for the most special occasions," Lou observed.

"What"s the name?" Harry asked.

"The Witch's Poison. It was named after a witch poisoned by her lover because she planned to leave him. He didn"t know she was carrying his baby until after he killed her, and the baby died, too. His child called out to him as it was dying, and it drove him crazy. He jumped off the cliff near the restaurant, and his body was never found. People say they can see him roaming around on a dark night," Lou admitted.

"That makes people want to go to that restaurant?" Harry asked.

"No, that"s just a little background, but the food is unbelievable, and most people try to figure out a reason to go at least once a year," Lou offered.

"Everyone get ready, and we"ll leave in thirty minutes," I said. Sometimes, the ladies liked to get fixed up, and I was giving them the chance.

In thirty minutes, we all gathered in a circle, and the magic users sent us there using the directions in Lou's head.

Looking closely, I could tell the building was new but looked like an old castle. We crossed the drawbridge, which had something that looked like a moat underneath. Everything inside also looked like an old castle. There were tapestries on the wall and statues in little alcos built to fit them. Out of giant windows, I could see we were on the top of a cliff with a forest and a river below.

A waitress dressed like what I would imagine a 1700s barmaid would wear took us to our seats and gave us our menus. The lighting was romantic, with candles everywhere and flowers all around, including in the middle of the tables. Their menu was extensive, starting with appetizers, going through various entrees, moving to multiple sides, and ending with some exotic and delicious-looking desserts. It would cost a fortune, but Harry didn"t seem worried, so I wondered exactly how much she got out of all of those criminals. I didn"t care. Her help had been invaluable, and I liked Harry. If we found any more criminals, maybe Belle could take them. Although, she didn"t seem too interested in anything like that and didn"t worry about money as much as Harry. I picked up that fact by listening to them talk.

It didn"t go unnoticed that Harry was extremely generous because most people would not offer to share the joy of getting several big bounties. She must be a very good person. After all, all the white wolves loved her to death and considered her family. Belle also seemed to be a good person, but she had a mean streak about a mile wide. So far, she"d not taken out her anger on anyone except the bad guys.

Belle ordered duck, while Harry ordered a double serving of roast. Jagger, Damon, Tyne, Moe, and I ordered a porterhouse with appropriate sides. Belle ordered something gourmet, and Marissa ordered lobster and shrimp. Someone had ordered an appetizer or two, and the waitress returned quickly and put that on the table along with the drinks, including some mixed drinks. It looked like this was going to be a real party. Everyone ate, and those who hadn"t gotten mixed drinks ordered some beer.

Wow, alcohol did not get most paranormals drunk; it did have a calming effect, and everyone enjoyed their meal. Once the dessert came, I could see that we were nearly at the end and would be going back home soon. There was something special about having a meal with old friends and new people you could enjoy their company with whom you had mentioned common. I realized it was not something I had done in a long time. I promised myself that I would make an effort to do more things like this.

Once we left the restaurant and Harry paid the hefty bill, everyone thanked her, and we made our circle and headed back to Lou's. It was bedtime, and I tried to decide the best way to deal with my mate. Maybe I should let her realize that we belonged together on her own without pushing for more. That might be the safest way to handle things, especially since I did not want to become a toad. During our many discussions as a group, I had been assured that any of the magic users present could quickly turn someone into a toad and even make it permanent.