“We can talk in my study,” he told them.
“Thank you,” Connor replied, the two of them following him. Connor noted that the woman stayed behind.
“Just have a seat anywhere,” the man told them as he closed the door and then walked around to sit in an oversize leather chair on the opposite side of a mahogany desk.
“This is a nice place. How long have you owned it?”
“Long enough. That’s not what you came here for. What do you want to know?”
Connor sized him up for a moment, trying to decide what to make of him, finally deciding that there was no point in mincing words. He leaned forward and looked him in the eye as he spoke.
“Why did you give a false description of the man that killed your wife to the police?”
“What makes you think I did?” he asked, his uneasiness now surfacing a bit.
“We don’t think you did. We know it,” Connor replied.
The man studied his hands for a moment and then looked up at the two of them. He once again seemed to be studying their faces, looking for something but not quite seeing it, which appeared to leave him uncertain.
“Did he send you here?” he asked, finally.
“Did who send us here?” Connor asked.
The man appeared afraid to say anything more, and Connor thought he might just shut down on them and clam up. He wasn’t sure how to ask him what he needed to know without revealing too much, and he suspected it might be the same on the other side of that desk, but he wasn’t sure he could risk what he might reveal if he was wrong.
“I’m tired and don’t have any patience for this little dance,” Owen said suddenly. “You know that Aiden killed your wife. You know his name. You know what he is. Why did you cover for him?”
The man looked as if he had been slapped for a moment. The color seemed to drain from his face at the mere mention of Aiden’s name.
“Is this some sort of test? Did he send you here to see if I was keeping my mouth shut? What do you want?” the man said, his voice trembling with fear.
“No. Aiden didn’t send us. Listen, we don’t mean you any harm. We just need the truth.”
“Why?”
“He killed your wife. He killed our father and at least one other we know of. We need to know what happened the night your wife was attacked.”
“It was a long time ago,” Mr. Downs said.
“I’m guessing it isn’t something you forget very easily,” Owen replied dryly.
“You are those things, too, aren’t you?” the man asked awkwardly.
“Those things?” Connor asked.
“Creatures. Dragons,” Mr. Downs replied.
“Yes,” Connor replied simply, seeing no reason to hide the truth. The man apparently knew how to keep a secret.
“Then you know what he is capable of, especially if you are not someone of his ilk.”
“So, he threatened you,” Connor replied. “Why not just kill you too?”
“I don’t know. I guess he needed me as a diversion of some sort.”
“Yeah, that would make sense. Just take us through what happened, from the beginning.”
“Okay. I began to notice that my wife had become distant after a trip out to the Mourne Mountains,” he began, causing Owen and Connor to exchange a look of surprise. “When she came back, she decided that she needed more exercise. She decided to start walking down to the harbor a few nights a week. I offered to go with her, but she said she liked to just enjoy the quiet.”
“So, she went alone.”
“She went alone, but she didn’t stay alone. Come here. I’ll show you something,” he said, but both of them had a feeling they knew what he was about to say next. Still, they walked around his desk and peered out the large glass doors that sat behind him.
“You had been watching him fly in,” Owen said matter-of-factly.
“Yes. The first time, I didn’t know what he was. I just saw a large shadowy thing take off from the island and land in the harbor. I was terrified for her safety, so I jumped in my car and began making my way down to the harbor. When I arrived, there was no one but her there, sitting by the water, watching the sea.”
“Did you tell her why you had come? What you had seen?”
“No. I didn’t want to frighten her any more than she already might be. I kept it to myself and tried to discourage her from walking down there alone, but she blew it off. I continued to see the thing fly into the harbor each time she would go there, and I finally realized that she knew about it, but I was still too stupid to put things together.”
“How long did you watch them?”
“I don’t know. Months – two, maybe three,” he replied.
“And then what happened?”
“I was sitting here one night and saw him take off. I was tired of being made a fool of and decided to confront her about what this thing was and why she was meeting with it, but I never expected what I found. I quietly walked down to the harbor rather than taking the car. I took my gun, in case I needed to shoot the thing. Like I said, I had no idea what it was.”
“Then what?”
“I crept quietly along the road and into the harbor. There was no one there. I made my way over to where the caves are. I could see some light coming from one of them. I could hear her talking, but I couldn’t make out what she was saying. A male voice responded, so I edged my way to the mouth and peered around the entrance. I got there just in time to see him snap her neck, and then he came running out past me. I shot at him just before he changed into what looked like a dragon and took off toward Sheep Island again.”
“The man you saw. What did he look like?” Connor asked.
“I don’t know. It was dark, and even with the hint of light in the cave, he was in the shadows,” he said.
“But you made up a description for the police. Why?”
“Because I couldn’t very well tell them that I couldn’t make out the man who killed my wife, but saw him clearly as he turned into a giant bright green and gold dragon and flew away!”
“Why make up a description though?”
“I didn’t, not at first. I told them I couldn’t see well, but they pressed me, and then that thing came to visit me. It said its name was Aiden.”
“When did this happen?”
“A couple days later. He told me that if I said anything, he would kill me and my daughter. He said he had done me a favor and he tossed a piece of paper on my desk.”
“Paper? What was it?”
“An ultrasound. A doctor confirmed a few days later that my wife had been pregnant.”
“I’m so very sorry,” Connor replied.
“You don’t understand. It wasn’t mine. I had a vasectomy after our daughter was born. Eimear had three miscarriages after our first child was born and then a still birth. She was devastated and suffered a nervous breakdown.”
“Oh, my God!” Connor said, the truth suddenly hitting home. “Do you still have that sonogram photo?”
“Of course, not. Why would I keep it? He took it with him when he left.”
“I’m sorry, Mr. Downs. This must have been very hard for you to go through.”
“It’s okay. Time has made it easier, other than the fear that he might return. I hope what I’ve told you has been of some use to you.
“One last thing,” Owen said. “The night that your wife was murdered. Did you happen to see the dragon after the events in the cave?”
“No. I had to be sedated. I was in quite a state of shock over everything.”
“We are going to need for you to recount the events of that night to our council in our village. You are the only proof we have that Aiden set into motion a series of events that ended in him killing your wife and our father.”
“Oh, no. I can’t do that. I won’t,” he replied, horrified.
“We will protect you and your family until it is done and, after that, you will have nothing to fear from us.”
“I’m sorry.
I just can’t. I need for you to go now,” he said.
“We will, but you are going with us,” Owen said threateningly.
“Please, don’t make me do this,” he replied.
Suddenly, the office doors were pushed open. Obviously, his wife had been eavesdropping the entire time. She charged across the room toward her husband and looked at him angrily.
“End this, Alton. Once and for all, end it. I’m tired of living in fear of that thing, watching it fly around the island as a warning to you to keep your mouth shut, and for what reason? To hide what happened to a cheating wife who let some creature knock her up and tried to hide it from you until she could run away with him? Stop being a coward and face him, once and for all.”
“I’m sorry, Berta. I can’t do that,” he said quietly. “Just know that I love you.”
Before any of them could react, he suddenly turned and ran through the open doors that led to the balcony outside. He was over the rails by the time anyone was even on the other side of the desk, his body sailing downward and crashing onto the jagged rock facings of the cliffs below. Berta screamed and passed out. Connor and Owen revived her and got her to the sofa situated to one side of the large room.
“Go. Get out of here. I will have to call the police, and you can’t be here. Promise me that you will deal with this man, this soulless creature that has done this to Alton,” she breathed.
“We shouldn’t have come. We caused this. I’m so sorry,” Connor told her as Owen paced quietly nearby.
“No, honey. If anything, you just freed him from a torment that has gone on for way too long. This isn’t on you. Just promise me that you’ll get the man that really did this to him.”
“We will,” Owen said, stopping in his tracks and looking at her thoughtfully.
Connor looked at him, knowing that he was just as uncertain about what they could do without the witness they had needed. He stood slowly and told the newly-widowed Mrs. Downs goodbye. She nodded and went to the phone on her husband’s desk to dial the police as Connor and Owen took flight directly from the balcony, resisting the urge to retrieve her husband’s body for her. It would take hours for a rescue team to pull him up from the rocks, but doing so, themselves, would create unexplainable questions for her.
Instead, they returned home and sat around wordlessly for the better part of an hour before going to bed, too emotionally exhausted to discuss what they intended to do come morning.
CHAPTER 6
“What’s wrong?” Emily asked after only a few minutes of talking to Connor on the phone.
Connor sighed. How much should he tell her? He didn’t want to get into all that had happened over the phone, but it felt dishonest to keep things from her. She had become such a huge part of his life now, and he didn’t want to jeopardize their relationship by being dishonest in any way. He found himself telling her most of it anyway.
“My God, Connor. This isn’t good, not at all. Aiden is going to go off the rails if he finds out about it.”
“You mean when he finds out about it. Owen is determined to go to the Council in the morning.”
“Without proof? What does he hope to accomplish with that?”
“I think he just is hoping for the best. Maybe the Council will be fed up with Aiden and side with us, or at least call for a full investigation of our situation, as well as any others.”
“Are there others?”
“Who knows? Aiden is good at covering his tracks. When our father was found dead, he made up a story about how he had gotten involved with the wrong people and one of them had come after him. He never mentioned anything about the situation at Sheep Island or Ballintoy Harbor.”
“Why did he set all that up if he was planning on telling a completely different story about your father’s murder?”
“I don’t think he did set it up. I’ve been putting it together – what Mr. Downs said happened with his wife and what happened after that. It was the same day. I think that he sent Donnelly to our house to kill all of us. He was fairly certain he would be next in line when Tomalin died, and that was going to happen any day, so it was just a matter of getting Dad out of the way.”
“I don’t follow.”
“He had the sonogram photo before she died. I think he went to see her for their usual rendezvous, and she told him she was pregnant. With several miscarriages and a stillborn child under her belt, she would have seen a shifter child as strong and viable, you know?”
“So, she would not have wanted to get rid of it, and he couldn’t let her have it. It would have interfered with his plans to become leader, maybe.”
“Right. He couldn’t risk it. I’m guessing he told her she had to have an abortion, and she refused. So, he killed her, thinking no one would ever know.”
“But he was wrong, because her husband had seen and taken a shot at him.”
“Exactly. He flew home to get his head together and to act surprised when someone came along to tell him our family had died of some sort of food poisoning and instead, he discovered that only our father had been home and consumed the soup.”
“But how did he know he didn’t die?”
“I’m guessing that Mr. Donnelly had kept an eye on him somehow after he left. I didn’t think to really ask until after I learned the whole story, and I have the feeling he is already long gone if he knows what is good for him.”
“So, Donnelly tells him that it only made your father sick, and he comes up with the idea to use what he has just done as bait to get your father out on his own.”
“Yes. Donnelly seemed to think that was the plan all along, but I don’t think it was. Donnelly didn’t know the whole story either, so I’m guessing that it was just an improvisation. He used it to get our sick father out alone without telling anyone, saying he didn’t want to alarm anyone over it. Then, he killed him and returned home. Thinking that no one knew the story he had told my father except Donnelly, who he thought would never cross him, he waited until the body was discovered and then concocted an entirely different story to cover his tracks further.”
“But what about Tomalin? Why kill him when he was already dying?”
“I’m not sure. Impatience, maybe? Or perhaps he just didn’t want to risk the truth of anything coming out before he could be named the new dragon leader. I doubt we will ever really know. I seriously don’t think he will ever be the type to confess to save his soul.”
“Yeah, me either. I wonder what else he is guilty of that we might never know about,” she said.
“I don’t know, but someone who is bold enough to do what he has done doesn’t stop there. There is most likely no end to what he has done to further himself financially and politically. He killed the mother of his unborn child, for God’s sake, and his child along with her!”
“What about that? You said there was an autopsy, that her widower told you the doctor confirmed her pregnancy. Was there DNA testing? Can we at least prove he broke his own laws by mating with a human? Isn’t that enough to get him tossed out as dragon leader?”
“There would have been no DNA testing done back then. It was still a fairly new thing and not standard for an autopsy.”
“I know it’s gruesome, but is there a chance of exhuming the body to do it now?”
“Cremation took care of that. I saw in her funeral notices when we were researching it initially that there was a scattering ceremony for her ashes.”
“Crap. What do we do then?”
“No, Emily. We don’t do anything. I need for you to stay out of this. It’s dangerous, and I won’t risk you.”
“You don’t think Aiden is already aware of our relationship? I seriously doubt that I’m not already involved in his eyes.”
“I don’t know, but just keep a low profile when it comes to him, okay? I still want you to stay as far removed from this as possible. Promise?”
“Fine. I promise, and we can talk about it some more when I get home tomorrow.”
“I’m looking
forward to that. Are you having a good time in the city?”
“Mostly, but I’m exhausted. My aunt is going to stay a few more days, but I’m taking the train back in and coming home. I miss you.”
“I miss you, too, but I don’t want you cutting your trip short because of me.”
“I’m not. I am all shopped out and ready to get some rest, at least from shopping” she said suggestively.
“Yeah? What did you have in mind instead?”
“Well, I’ll have my aunt’s house all to myself. I thought you might be interested in coming over and keeping a girl warm.”
“However would I do that?” he asked, a huge smile on his face.
“I’m sure you will figure something out. I’m very open to suggestions,” she purred.
“That does sound promising. I’ll have to put some thought into it and see just what exactly I can come up with.”
“You do that. Hey, I have to go for now. Aunt Rose says hello, by the way. She’s been telling me some adorable stories about when you were a little boy in her class.”
“Oh, God. Please no,” he groaned.
“Precious,” she giggled. “Goodnight, Connor. I love you.”
“Goodnight, Emily. I love you, too,” he replied, not hanging up until he heard the click on her end.
Connor sat on the edge of his bed and put his head in his hands for a moment. What was he going to do? He couldn’t lose her, but what was going on with Aiden was something he couldn’t turn his back on either. He had no idea how to balance his love for her with his sense for what he needed to do for his family and for the clan as a whole.
At the end of the day, this was bigger than revenge for his father’s death. It was bigger than taking down a bad leader. This meant making a better way of life for everyone in the village, not just those he cared about. So many people would lead improved lives with Aiden out of the picture. This was the downside to their way of life. Living in a secluded area as part of their clan provided many benefits over more urban society, but in the hands of a bad leader, it was nothing more than tyranny.
Weary down to the bone, he finally lay down in bed, drifting off quickly into a heavy sleep. It would have been nice if not for the fact that it was laden with nightmare after nightmare that kept awakening him, only to have him drift back off and begin a new one. He woke up just before dawn in a cold sweat and decided to get up and shower. He suspected that Owen hadn’t slept much better, as he could already hear him tooling around in the kitchen when he came out of the bathroom to get dressed.
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