Tales of the Otherworld (49 page)

“So you set him straight,” Paige said, crossing her arms. She gave Savannah a look that said she knew Savannah had done no such thing.

“Hey, if someone’s that ignorant, it’s not my job to straighten him out.”

“You played along.”

“Right, then he started going on about how he’d heard vampire saliva was a really strong aphrodisiac, that vampires used it to seduce their victim. Stupidest thing I’ve ever heard. So I…you know …”

“Played along. And played it up. Playing him for a fool.”

“Yeah. I told him he was right. We got to talking about how you could collect the saliva, waiting until the vampire was asleep and using a swab.” She looked at Paige. “It was a stupid thing to do. I just got carried away.”

“Seeing how far you could take it.”

Her cheeks colored. “Yeah. But I never figured he’d actually do it. He was terrified of Geddes—of all vampires. I guess he must’ve told the other guard.”

“The one who wasn’t nearly as frightened of them,” Paige said. “And who decided to collect some himself.”

We split up again. Aaron was arriving from Atlanta in an hour, so I’d meet him at the airport, then we’d head to Seattle and see whether we could find Geddes or some sign of where he’d gone. His story would answer our remaining questions…if we could persuade him to give it. Sean offered to help, so we’d take him along.

Meanwhile, Paige would escort Savannah to school by taxi, then return to the house where she and Cassandra would review our notes, looking for any missed leads.

They left immediately. Sean had to speak to his grandfather first. While I waited, I wandered the second floor and ended up, not surprisingly, in the office meant for Paige and me.

Last night, Paige had said we were working toward this. I was certain that if I delved into her financial records, I’d find a “Cortez Winterbourne Investigations” fund. And my “Cortez Winterbourne Investigations” fund? It existed solely in my head, at the top of the list of “things I’ll do when I get ahead.”

In law school, I’d seen this—husbands and wives toiling at substandard jobs to put their spouses through school. Then it would be their turn. I was like the floundering D student who’d never passed the bar, but just kept plugging along, blinded and selfish, letting my spouse support my dreams.

How much longer would Paige wait for her turn?

I wanted to give her this office. This building.

Oh, it’s too big
, she’d say.
Too fancy.
But even as she was figuring out what rooms could be rented, she’d be dreaming of the day when we’d need all this space.

I could see her walking through our office, pointing out what would go where, talking about how we’d divide the cases, about what staff and supplies we’d need. Overwhelmed by the work to come, but absolutely in her element.

At a sound behind me, I spun, certain it was Paige coming back. I flushed with guilt at being caught here, daydreaming.

“I was just—” I began, then saw it was my father. “I was looking for Sean. Have you seen him?”

“No, but—”

“I should find him. We have work to do.”

“A moment, Lucas, please.” He laid his hand on my arm. “I know you think I’m trying to trap you with this—” A wave around the office. “But I’m not. I’m honestly trying to help.”

“I’m sorry, Father, but I need to—”

His grip tightened. “Things aren’t working out as you’d hoped with Paige. You’re married to a strong, independent young woman who can take care of herself. Which is fine…except you’re just as independent and don’t want her taking care of
you.
”

“It’s a temporary problem, which I intend to resolve—”

“How? Take a full-time job at a law firm? You’d be miserable…and Paige wouldn’t allow it. Refusing clients who can’t pay? Whatever drives you to do this, I planted the seed. I want to help. This is my solution.”

“Join the Cabal? Become part of the problem?”

“No, become the solution. You’d be an independent division—”

“But still within the Cabal structure.”

“Only financially, and with no obligations placed on your allotted budget. You’d have full power to prosecute offenders—”

“
From within
the Cabal. Almost all my clients come from outside Cabals.”

“And that’s how you will subsidize your operating budget—by taking on paying clients. You’ll have the facilities and the staff to pursue and attract new clients.”

“How many supernaturals in trouble with a Cabal will hire a company with Cortez Cabal on the letterhead?”

“We’ll be more discreet than that, of course.”

“Which will only look like deception when they find out who’s underwriting the firm.”

My father didn’t even blink. “Your reputation will overcome that, Lucas. And you’ll have the option to buy the business from me whenever you wish.”

There it was. The carrot on the stick. The antidote to the pain of delayed
gratification. Have what I wanted—this office—today and make no payments until…whenever.

I didn’t need a crystal ball to foretell the future of this deal. I’d take the office with every intention of buying it in a few years. But then I’d see my paying clientele dwindle, frightened off by the specter of my Cabal association. My outside work would be primarily pro bono, meaning we’d see no profit…and the cost of the business would continue to escalate, flying beyond reach.

“No, Papá,” I said. “I understand that you’re trying to help, but this is a problem that I need to resolve myself.”

I found Sean looking for me. On the drive to the airport, we discussed Cabal life or perhaps more “non-Cabal” life—what it was like to be a Cabal son living outside the organization. I suspected he was trying to get a sense of what it might be like for him, should he be forced into that situation, but I didn’t pry, just answered his questions as honestly as I could.

As we arrived, my cell phone rang. It was Sullivan from the
Middleton Herald.
Terri Arnell’s boyfriend had cut a deal, implicating the others and providing evidence. So the case was officially solved…and it was disheartening to realize how little that mattered now, how far things had escalated beyond the murder of a factory worker in Middleton, Washington.

Aaron’s plane was delayed. As Sean went to buy us coffees, I was left alone with my thoughts and, as hard as I tried to turn them to the questions surrounding Reichs’s death, they kept sliding back into forbidden territory: the Portland satellite office.

Was there any way Paige and I could manage this without becoming employees of the Cortez Cabal? Had Paige put aside enough to make a down payment on the business? Would he sell it, as he’d claimed? Or would he set the price so high we’d never afford a down payment? But even if we
could
make it, Paige would have to cover the monthly payments while the business struggled to its feet.

No, this time the sacrifices had to be mine. Could we rent the
building? Agree to provide internal security investigation work to ensure the steady income needed to pay the rent? This would be a slippery slope but if it was the only solution …

The answer came to me so fast I inhaled sharply. There
was
a solution—one I’d trained myself never to consider. Yet under the circumstances, it was a compromise of ideals I was ready to make, if my father would agree.

As Sean returned with the coffees, I called home. Cassandra answered.

“Cassandra, it’s Lucas. Aaron’s flight has been delayed. Is Paige there?”

“You just missed her. She headed back to the Cabal office to check something about the case.”

I frowned. “Is she hoping to meet Simon there? He isn’t. But she should know that—they were planning to all go to breakfast after we left.”

“Well, she certainly didn’t share her plans with me. Something about discrepancies and coffee cups and taunting. You know how Paige is. She gets going and no one can understand her, let alone stop her.”

“Coffee cups and…?”

“Taunts. Apparently the young guard said Mr. Reichs was taunting Spencer Geddes, and Paige asked me if Spencer complained about it.”

“Did he?”

“No, and he was hardly the type to play silent stoic.”

“Meaning, Kepler lied. And Kepler said he’d gone for coffee, but I’ll wager Paige couldn’t find any mention of coffee cups in Simon’s crime scene report.”

“She tried to call you, but couldn’t get through.”

“And now she’s heading to the office knowing the only person there is Kepler himself.”

“Going to confront him? Surely Paige wouldn’t be so—” Cassandra stopped. “How far are you from that office?”

“I’m on my way.”

I
LEFT SEAN TO AWAIT AARON. I PHONED PAIGE’S
cell, but only got Cassandra again. Paige had been in such a rush to get a cab that she’d left her phone behind.

I would like to believe that Paige would never do anything as foolhardy as confront a potential killer in an empty building, but I wasn’t so sure. She would see Kepler as a handicapped opponent, still weak and injured. Perhaps she hadn’t jumped to the conclusion that he could be the killer, but merely viewed him as an unreliable witness.

I didn’t know what had happened in that cell, but I was reasonably certain now that it hadn’t been Reichs who’d gone in to collect that vampire saliva. I also suspected it hadn’t been Geddes who killed Reichs. He’d simply rendered his captives unconscious with bites. Kepler must have recovered first and killed Reichs. But why? The possibilities were endless—a personal vendetta, paving the way for promotion, starting a Cabal-vampire war….

I reached the Cabal office in record time. My father had promised to leave the rear door open for us, should we need to return to investigate. I slipped inside and eased it shut behind me.

I used a light spell to guide me through the back halls to the stairs. On the second floor, they exited near the main office. A few doors down was the room where Kepler had been recuperating.

That door was open. And the bed was empty. I paused there a moment, heart hammering. Then I heard the faint sound of Paige’s voice, sharp with irritation, coming from down the hall.

I recast my blur spell and slid along the wall to a closed door. It was
the room we’d earlier used for the meeting. Paige’s voice came from within.

I cracked the door open. Then I started a binding spell, ready to kick the door open and cast it—

A second voice sounded…but not the one I expected. It was my father answering, his words indistinct through the heavily soundproofed walls.

Something hard and cold pressed against the back of my neck.

“Don’t move,” Kepler whispered. “Say one more word of that spell, and I swear to God I’ll pull this trigger. Don’t think I won’t.”

Kepler’s voice was pitched high, as if trying to convince himself. The gun barrel trembled against my neck. The only thing more dangerous than a determined gunman is a nervous one. I swallowed the spell and closed my mouth.

“We’re going to turn around and head for the stairs.”

I didn’t question. Better to play along and let him lower his guard.

“Don’t think I won’t kill you,” Kepler said as we reached the stairwell. “In for a penny, in for a pound.”

He gave a high, shaky laugh and pushed open the door with his foot, guiding me through with the gun.

“You mean that having killed Reichs, you’re quite prepared to take another life,” I said as we started down the stairs.

An obvious ploy to get him talking and distract him, but few criminals can resist the urge to explain. It’s as if they’re waiting for the opportunity to unburden themselves, impressing me with their cleverness or winning my sympathy with their excuse.

“It was Reichs’s fault,” he said. “He was supposed to be out getting coffee. The vampire was asleep, and I’d slipped in to get something from him. But then Reichs came back early, and he saw me and started shouting.”

“And woke up Geddes.”

“Right. And then…Goddamn it, Reichs got me all confused. He was yelling at me to get out of the way so he could take a shot, and then the vampire shoved me into the chair and I hurt my leg, and I was there on the floor when he attacked Reichs.”

I could envision it. Kepler, on the ground, armed but doing nothing
to help his comrade. Intent on saving himself. Training forgotten. Survival taking over. An inexcusable mistake for a security officer.

“Then he came after me,” Kepler continued. “He bit me and I passed out.”

“But you woke first.”

Kepler gave me a shove to the bottom landing. “I didn’t mean to kill Reichs.” He pushed open the door and prodded me out. “I was just so mad, thinking it was all his fault, that I was going to lose my job, probably even be charged, all because he had to play cowboy, rescuing me from a vampire.”

“A vampire who hadn’t touched you,” said a voice behind us. “And probably wasn’t planning to.”

Kepler whirled, hand still on my arm, whipping me around with him, gun still to my neck. Cassandra advanced on us.

“S—stay back, lady,” Kepler said. “This is none of your business. I’ve got a gun.”

“So I see,” she said, still walking.

I started to cast, but Kepler swung the gun from me and fired at Cassandra. The bullet hit her in the chest. She staggered, grimaced, shook it off, and continued her advance. Kepler’s finger tightened on the trigger, then stopped, caught in a binding spell. I followed it with an energy bolt that knocked him off his feet. Then I leapt onto his back, grabbing for the gun first, wrenching it from his fingers and sending it skating over the floor. Kepler reared, trying to fight, but I pinned him with his hands behind his back.

The stairwell door opened and my father and Paige flew through.

“The situation, I believe, is under control,” I said.

Ten minutes later, Paige and I were in a closed office, Troy and Griffin having taken custody of Kepler and placed him in the cell he’d once guarded while my father contacted the other Cabals with the news.

Paige had come to the office to see my father and discuss her findings with him, having called and found he was still there.

“You thought I came to confront Kepler?” she said. “By myself? Please. Give me a little credit.”