Tales of Aradia The Last Witch Volume 1 (29 page)

She was
disheartened.
Dig deeper,
Rai
, she reminded herself. That was how
she wound up at the Salem Police Department on a Saturday afternoon
holding an Edible Arrangement.

For all its fame, or
infamy as it were, Salem was a small town, and its courthouse and
police department were adjoined into a single structure. As such,
Aradia had had ample exposure to the station in her punishment of
tidying her father’s office and brewing his coffee. She hadn’t
actually been into the police side of the building, though, since
her experience with Roy and Scruffy.

“Knock, knock,” she
said as she strolled through the front door.

“Who’s there?” Officer
Ortega replied. He was visibly surprised when he saw who it was.
“Ms. Preston. What brings you to our humble half of the
building?”

“Well, Officer Ortega,
I have been feeling a little guilty. You and your partner did me a
favor driving me home that night, and not arresting me.” She
lowered her voice for the last bit. Ortega winced, but other than
that let the point pass. She held out the bouquet of fruit. “I just
wanted to thank you guys.”

“Well, that’s really
sweet of you. Honestly I’m not sure how appropriate it is for me to
accept a gift from you, though, especially given who your father
is.”

She’d anticipated that.
From everything she’d seen, he was pretty by-the-book. “That’s
okay,” she said. “I won’t give it to you.”

“Oh?”

“No. I would, however,
like to make a charitable donation to the Salem Police Department
in the amount of one Edible Arrangement.” She set the bundle down
on his desk. “You and Goat Chin can eat as much or as little as you
like.”

Ortega did his best to
stifle his surprised guffaw, but all he ended up doing was snorting
while he laughed.

“Well, thank you. On
behalf of the station.”

“No problem,” she
replied while she plopped herself down in the chair opposite
him.

“What’s going on?” he
asked, seeing concern on her face.

“Well, I have a friend.
More of an acquaintance, really. I don’t know him that well, but
he’s going through a tough time.”

“I’m sorry to hear
that,” Ortega replied.

“I wouldn’t be, if I
were you.”

“What do you
mean?”

“Well, I’d be sorry
he’s going through some stuff. But I wouldn’t be sorry to hear it.
You’re only hearing it because he has somebody who cares about
him.”

He nodded. “Well said.
I’m sorry he’s having a hard time, but I’m glad he has a friend
looking out for him.”

“Acquaintance,” she
corrected.

“Acquaintance, then. Is
there, ah, anything I can do to help?”

“Well, since you ask,”
she replied, “I could use some assistance. I need to get in touch
with him. I need to talk to him. I just don’t really know where to
find him. I found out he goes to SCCS, but he hasn’t been going to
class. I don’t know where he lives. Basically, I can’t help him if
I can’t find him.”

“I sympathize with your
situation, Ms. Preston, but if you’re asking me to use my position
to divulge personal information about another citizen, that would
be highly inappropriate.”

“Not at all,” she
replied.

“Oh,” Ortega replied,
surprised. “What can I do for you, then?”

“I would like to know
where drug deals go down. Hypothetically.”

“Pardon?”

“I’m leveling with you.
I know you can’t give me his personal information. But you can give
me generalities that apply to everyone. He’s wrapped up in some
stuff. Gangs and drugs. That was easy to find out. The hard part is
where I can find him.”

“I’m not sure I feel
comfortable assisting in this,” he replied.

“Look, if I came here
and lied to you and said I was doing a school project or writing an
article for the Broomstick, you’d have told me what I’m looking
for, right?”

He didn’t reply, but
she suspected she knew the answer.

“Well, I was honest.
Are you really going to punish me for honesty? Because that seems
very un-policey.”

He sighed. “Look, I’m
not going to direct you to a drug deal or anything like that. But
during the day try the Willows.”

“The park?”

“The arcade is closed
for the winter. Some of the more unsavory sorts frequent it during
the winter months. It’s a convenient location, I suppose, out of
the way. Just don’t go after dark.”

After seeing Roy’s
dark side, I might follow that advice
.

She nodded. “Thanks,
Officer.”

“Don’t mention it. Oh,
and let your folks know they can claim the donation as a deductible
on their taxes.”

Aradia sat on an
iridescent unicorn hobby horse at the Willows historic 1866
carousel, waiting. She’d been there well over an hour already, and
hadn’t seen a soul. In between wondering whether Ortega had led her
completely astray and what she would say if Kaiser did turn up, she
considered the bizarre string of fate which had led her
there.

Before turning to
Ortega in her Hail Mary attempt at information, Aradia had
approached her father. He’d been distinctly unhelpful. “Aradia, I
appreciate your gusto for solving this murder,” he’d said, “but
even if I wanted to urge you on this path, I couldn’t. I don’t have
anything on the Hitzigs beyond what you already know.”

He’d been a little
deceptive when he’d said that. He had a phone number, which
eventually she weaseled out of him. Neither Kaiser nor anyone else
answered when she called it repeatedly, though.

Next she’d tried the
second murder scene, also against her father’s wishes. He’d
discouraged the idea, especially after her forty-eight hour cat
nap. She made it clear she would go there and try her memory power
with or without his accompaniment, though. He reasoned it was safer
if he were there.

She hadn’t sensed a
thing, though. She wasn’t surprised. It was a place of business,
not a home. There was less familiar essence.

So she tried the next
most reasonable option of which she could think, and ended up alone
at a public park on a Sunday afternoon eating salt water taffy on a
unicorn.

“Maybe I need to go
back to the drawing board,” she muttered as she got off her steed
to take a walk.

She had patrolled the
area several times already. “One more look around, then I’m outta
here.”

She was almost shocked
when she found the werewolf in question. He was sitting on a bench
on the pier smoking a cigarette, looking just as gloomy and angry
and miserable as he had been the night he confronted Dax and
Aradia. He had smelled her long before she noticed him, but didn’t
particularly care. As she approached, she noticed his nose
twitching like that of a hound on the scent of a rabbit.
I swear, I will just never get used to the
whole sniffing thing. I’m so glad I don’t do that.

He didn’t turn, but he
scowled something fierce, and she hung back, afraid to approach
him. After a while of this silent standoff, he just shrugged and
asked, “What do you want?”

Aradia breathed deeply
and summoned all the courage she could muster. Twisting his arm had
been one thing. Getting him to open up emotionally would be quite
another. She walked straight up to the werewolf.

“To find your father's
murderer,” Aradia answered him bluntly.

“It's none of your
business.”

“The police aren’t
going to find him,” she said. “They’re thinking like… well, like
humans. I might be able to, though.”

He didn’t
respond.

“So by not helping me,
you’re saying you’re okay with your father’s murderer walking
around freely?”

She snatched the
cigarette from his lips and threw it over the handrail to the waves
below. “Look, Kaiser, I know you didn’t ask me to do this, but that
doesn’t matter now. I’m going to find your father’s killer sooner
or later whether you help me or not.”

“Then I guess you don’t
need me so much.”

“I do need you,” she
said. “I need you so we can find the murderer sooner rather than
later. Sooner, before they kill again, before they put somebody
else through what you’re going through now.”

He gave no
response.

New angle,
Rai.

“When this is all
over,” she said, “and you’re looking back, how do you want the
story to have played out? Do you want to remember how you helped
avenge your dad, or how you sat by and did nothing while a stranger
did what you should have been doing?”

“I…” he began. She saw
tears forming at the corners of his eyes.

She lowered her voice
and removed the confrontation from her tone. “You are going to help
me, Kaiser. Do you understand?"

The werewolf was again
struck dumb. But this time he nodded.

“Besides, I could
always just beat the information I need out of you,” she said.
“Wouldn’t be the first time I beat you up.”

He chuckled dryly.
“Yeah. That didn’t look so good for me in front of the other guys.
It gives them ideas, you know. About my leadership
abilities.”

“I’m sure you’re a fine
leader.”

“You took me by
surprise. You wouldn’t get away with that again.”

“Sure I
wouldn’t.”

He stood up and used
his greater size to tower over her. He said, "You think you can
take me?"

"How’s your shoulder
feel?" Aradia snapped.

She fixed him with the
most vicious and intimidating look she had, folding her arms across
her chest, and looking at him straight in the eyes. At first he
just looked amused. After a few seconds, though, he remembered
where he was and why he knew this girl, and felt his knees buckle.
He sat again on the bench and hunched.

“Okay. What do you want
to know?” he asked Aradia, who replied with just a single
word.

“Everything.”

Chapter
Twenty-Three

Kaiser told her about
his troubles with his dad. He also told her about his mother, his
dad’s friends, his dad’s enemies, his dad’s problems, and his own
problems.

“None of us ever really
had much of a stable relationship. I didn't get along with either
of my folks, even when they were together. I got into trouble
almost every day.”

“What kind of
trouble?”

He shrugged. “You know.
Fighting, stealing, drugs. Stuff.”

“You deal, don’t
you?”

“Yeah. What’s it to
you?”

“I went through a hard
time myself. Rebelled against my parents, started smoking weed. I
hurt some people.”

“Yeah, well, you got
through it fine and your parents were still alive on the other
side.”

Back to the topic,
Rai. Control the conversation.

“Do you think one of
the people from your drug dealing was involved?” asked
Aradia.

Kaiser shook his head
and said, “I never sold anything serious or worth serious money.
Mostly weed and shrooms to college kids. There wasn’t anybody
serious enough to come after my ’rents.”

“Not that I am
complaining or anything, in fact I applaud you for making the
decision, but why didn't you deal serious drugs?” asked
Aradia.

Kaiser shrugged,
grumbling. “You need to know people. I was a retailer, so I’d have
needed wholesalers. Besides, I didn’t want to go that
route.”

“You’re using the past
tense. You stopped dealing?” He nodded meekly. “Why?”

“I’d have probably
stopped anyway, eventually. But my dad caught me.”

“Oh,” said Aradia,
sounding out the word long and hard to emphasize her understanding.
“And as a lawyer he was concerned how it would look?”

“No!” Kaiser replied
emphatically, surprising Aradia with his emotion. “No, he never
said anything like that. Damn it, I hated him sometimes, but he
never once said anything like that. The last time I saw him we were
yelling. I really let him down.”

She let him
talk.

“One of the reasons I
got booted from my mom's house and into staying with my dad was the
drugs,” Kaiser explained. “The only reason. She had custody. She
gave me up when she found out, though. She said I was just like my
father.”

“Maybe she was
right.”

“He cheated on her for
years. Said he was working late. That’s how she got custody. I
don’t want to be just like him.”

“Then maybe she was
right in ways she didn’t mean.” At his raised eyebrow she went on,
“You describe him as a guy with some troubles, but who always
treated you well. I can’t defend him doing that to your mother, but
maybe if you learn from both your mistakes, something can come of
it.”

“Yeah,” he replied,
pulling another cigarette. “Maybe.”