Tales of Aradia The Last Witch Volume 1

  Chapter Thirteen

  “Freshly brewed, black, half a Splenda, just like you like,” Aradia said as she set the steaming mug of coffee down on her father’s desk. The cup was made to look as if it was composed entirely of duct tape. It was his favorite mug. “I used extra coffee beans, too, to make it stronger.”

  “Hmm,” Ross replied. “Thank you, Aradia. That was very sweet of you. Now what is it you want?”

  “Want?” she replied with over-the-top feigned innocence. “A girl can’t just make her dad a cup of coffee?”

  He chuckled. “Come on, Rai, spill.”

  “I want to see the body,” she replied bluntly.

  “It kind of sounded like you were asking me to gain you illegal clearance to see a murder victim’s corpse,” Ross replied. “But I know I couldn’t have heard you right, because that would be crazy.”

  “Dad,” she said, whispering, “you know I might find something the examiners missed.”

  “I’m not letting you inspect the body,” he replied firmly.

  “But… What do you mean you won’t let me inspect the body?” Aradia demanded.

  Her father was unflinching as he faced her, leaning back in his chair. “Exactly what I said, Aradia. Even if I wanted to, I don’t think I could do that. I’d need a court order just to get in there myself.”

  “Okay, then,” she replied, “what about the crime scene?”

  “That I could get you into,” he replied. Her eyes lit up like a kid who was promised a pony. “But I’m still not doing it.”

  “But Daddy...” she whined.

  “Choose your battles, Aradia. You don’t want to argue with me on this one. It will do you no good.”

  “But it might do the investigation good,” she replied. “I want to be more involved in solving this case. You know I can help. I could help your department, your reputation…”

  “This isn’t about me,” he shook his head. “Yes, it might help solve the case, but there is no guarantee that it will. And I can’t have you tamper with potential evidence.”

  She pouted.

  “Hey, Aradia, you want to know my biggest reason for not letting you get involved?”

  She nodded sullenly.

  “You’re fifteen. You should get to be a fifteen year old. You deserve that, and you deserve not to get sucked into every case that gives me trouble. It’s not about my pride. I remember high school. It was a great time for me. I wouldn’t have gotten to have half as much fun if I’d been out solving murders like the Hardy Boys.”

  “I think the Hardy Boys still had fun. And I think the Scooby Squad would be a more apt comparison.”

  He chuckled. “Look, Rai, I probably shouldn’t encourage you, but I’m proud of you. I’m proud of you for wanting to be involved, for wanting to do everything you can to help people, to protect people. But we’ve had this conversation before. I’m doing everything I can to protect you, and that means keeping you away from dangerous murderers.”

  “Dad, no one would ever know. Not your colleagues, not the Vampire Murderer…”

  Ross sighed and took a big gulp of his coffee. Even I can’t gulp something that hot. He must have desensitized his mouth to heat over the years.

  After he’d swallowed, he said, “There’s also the house fire.”

  “I was twelve then,” Aradia said. “I’m older now. I’m stronger and have better control.”

  “I want you to know how proud we were about the house fire,” Ross said. “Your mother and I, we tried talking to you about it, but you were still acting out. It meant so much that even in the midst of your dark time, you still did the right thing. You risked your own life using your abilities to put out that house fire. You saved families.”

  “And I can help again now,” Aradia said. “If you don’t let me, it’s like you’re stopping me from putting out a house fire.”

  “You slept for three days straight,” Ross replied. “You barely even took water. Your mother sat by your side day and night. Any longer and we’d have had no choice but to take you to the hospital, and from there… That would be the end of your secret, Aradia.”

  “I’m willing to risk it.”

  “We’re not willing to risk you,” he replied.

  “This isn’t fair,” she said. “This is my choice.”

  “And someday you’ll get to make it, and your mother and I will be so proud of you. But not today. Tell you what, you can get out of here if you want. You’re good on your punishment for the day.”

  “Okay,” she replied dejectedly.

  Grumbling and muttering to herself, Aradia left her father’s office and headed for the exit. She couldn’t be mad at him, not after how he’d been so honest with her, and so flattering of her. She never really had considered how hard it must have been for her parents after she put out that fire.

  She’d just been so tired. Whenever she pushed her powers like that, it drained her. She was starting to get better about learning how to proportion her powers to get the result she needed without taking so much out of her.

  She had to admit, though, she hadn’t quite figured it all out yet.

  “Thank you for coming in, Mr. Caradoc,” Aradia heard from inside a nearby office on her way towards the exit.

  Caradoc?

  Aradia quickly made herself busy neatening up the break room. No sooner did she have her cover in place than the man she’d seen on the news, Mr. Stanley’s business partner, emerged from the office with two of her father’s coworkers.

  “Anything to help you serve and protect,” Derek Caradoc replied. He looked suave and sophisticated in his pinstriped suit. By any reasonable standard he was an attractive man. Yet Aradia didn’t like his look.

  The same lawyer who had just thanked him smiled and she said, “That’s next door at the station. Here we make sure the bad guys they catch get put away.”

  Derek smiled. “If there is anything I can do to help, you have my number.” They all shook hands, and Derek saw himself out. He turned to smirk at Aradia as he walked past. The room’s temperature seemed to drop and she felt ice in her spine.

  The lawyers came into the break room to fill up their own cups of coffee. Aradia did her best to look like she was ignoring them while she rearranged supplies in the cabinets. She hoped her father’s coworkers were so used to seeing her by now that they wouldn’t even notice her.

  “Alright, Tony, what's your problem?” the same speaker as before demanded. Aradia couldn’t quite remember her name, but she knew she was another ADA, like her dad.

  The younger one, Tony, was a lawyer for the DA’s office, but not an ADA himself.

  The man shrugged casually before saying, “I just don’t like that guy. I don’t trust him.”

  The ADA nodded solemnly. “Neither do I.”

  “Stanley was this close to bankruptcy,” Tony held up two fingers very close together, “when Derek partners up with him.”

  “Not all investors need a business to succeed to make a profit,” she replied. “It’s deceptive, but not illegal.”

  “Then he’s either a criminal or a vulture,” Tony replied. “Either way I don’t like him.”

  “Not enough to get a warrant,” she replied.

  Tony stirred some more creamer into his coffee. “What about the insurance fraud?”

  She shook her head. “Three counts of misdemeanor insurance fraud, the most recent of which was two years ago. He paid his court ordered fines. Nothing in this case points to insurance fraud as a motive.”

  “We need somebody to start talking,” Tony said.

  She nodded. “Until somebody does, you can forget about them testifying. Without solid forensic evidence or reliable testimony, nothing major is going to stick.”

  “It’s like everyone we talk to is afraid of something more frightening than seeing a murderer walk.”

  At this point the two walked back out on their business, oblivious to Aradia sitting with wide eyes.