by Jessie Lane
Once they reached the end of the tunnel, it opened to a steep hill, where Councilman Holden’s house sat.
“Why would anyone have a tunnel like this in their backyard, anyway?” Chloe quietly asked him.
Kent looked over at her. “It’s supposed to be a storm drain, but it’s the biggest fucking storm drain I’ve ever seen.”
“Makes you wonder if he put it back here as a means to escape or something.”
“Yeah, but who would he be trying to get away from?”
“Good question,” Chloe murmured.
“No more stalling, sweetheart. Let’s get up there and look around.”
Kent led Chloe forward in a walking crouch, up the hill and toward Councilman Holden’s house. It was a large two-story brick monstrosity that Kent had heard from his mother had been in their family for generations. It looked just as pretentious as the councilman, and it reminded Kent of his mom’s own house. Everything he hated about the upper crust demon society.
Pushing down his distaste for both his fellow councilman and the man’s home, they made their way up the hill until they were hugging one of the brick walls between two windows.
Leaning over to Chloe, Kent whispered, “We’ll go right. I’ll check one window, while you move on to check the next. That way, we get around the house as fast as possible. When we get toward the front of the house, stop and turn around; we’ll go the other way. I don’t want us to cross the front and take the chance that one of the Holdens might come out of the front doo—”
He didn’t even get to finish his sentence when they heard it.
Barking.
And not the happy, “hello, human” barking from a greeting dog. No, it was more like the “I’ll rip you to shreds” barking of a guard dog.
Chloe’s eyes went wide in surprise, while Kent cursed underneath his breath.
Holding his finger over his lips for her to be quiet, Kent backed up a few steps then peeked through one of the windows. Coming down the stairs were two Dobermans, the councilman following them down. Kent could hear Holden saying something to the dogs along the lines of “going potty.”
Kent’s fight or flight instincts kicked in. He knew there was only one logical thing to do—run. Grabbing Chloe’s hand again, he hissed in a low voice, “We have to go!”
They ran down the hill, back toward the tunnel, and were halfway there and almost out of sight of the house, when Chloe stumbled and fell. Kent lost touch of her hand and skidded to a stop on the grass to see what happened.
She was on her hands and knees, and when he looked behind her, one of her high heels were stuck in the ground.
“Fuck!” he exploded. Helping her up, he tried to drag her forward toward the tunnel, but Chloe lunged back for her shoe as the sound of angry barking burst through the air, heading in their direction.
“No,” Chloe growled angrily.
Tugging her forward again, Kent snapped, “Leave the goddamn shoe, Chloe, if you don’t want to become dog food.”
“You never leave a good shoe behind!” she cried out in determination, pushing Kent off her so she could once again lunge for her shoe. This time, she managed to reach it, grabbing the heel just as Kent grabbed her hand to drag her along behind him.
The barking was getting closer, with Holden yelling at the dogs in the distance to come back. Kent knew the dogs would find them any minute.
“We gotta haul ass, sweetheart, or Holden’s dogs will find us.”
Holding her shoe to her chest as if it were a precious commodity, Chloe ran in one heel, her gait awkward.
They ran down the hill and out of the oversized storm drain tunnel. Somehow, they managed to make it to his car without the two dogs catching up to them, but it was a close call.
Hopping into his car, Kent peeled out and got them the hell out of there.
So much for finding their evidence.
~~~
Chloe
Kent drove like a madman for several streets until he could blend in with Wilmington’s busy traffic. She spent that time thinking, What will we do now?
It wasn’t until Kent said, “I don’t know, sweetheart,” that Chloe realized she had asked that question out loud.
They needed a way into the house, but Holden had guard dogs. Her mind scrambled in circles.
How were they going to get past two guard dogs to find any evidence?
“Son of a bitch!” Kent suddenly yelled.
Chloe snapped her head in his direction and saw his hand raised up to swat at something. Her eyes darted over in the direction his hand was heading just in time to see a little spider walking across his dashboard before Kent crashed his hand down to crush it.
That was when it hit her.
They totally had a way into the house!
“Pull the car over!” she yelled excitedly to Kent.
Startled by her outburst, Kent swerved the car a bit, then calmly navigated until they pulled into a grocery stores parking lot and parked his car. Then he turned to look at her curiously. “What?”
Chloe turned in her seat to face him a little more. “I know how we can get into Holden’s house.”
Kent was shaking his head. “Short of drugging the dogs while Councilman Holden is gone, I don’t see how we’re getting in there.”
She gave Kent her wicked smile, the devious one she liked to use when she knew something no one else did. “That’s because you don’t have connections to a spider.”
“What the fuck, Chloe?” Kent asked in confusion.
Whipping out her cell phone, Chloe dialed her aunt Thea’s number. When her aunt picked up, she jumped straight to what she needed.
“Will you give me the number Manus left so we can contact him?”
“Who the hell is Manus?” Kent asked.
Chloe held a finger up to silently tell him to wait.
On the other end of the line, her aunt Thea asked, “Why do you need to get ahold of Manus?”
“To get ahold of Deo,” she answered simply.
“Who the hell is Deo?” Kent snapped impatiently from beside her.
Chloe leaned over and put her finger on his lips while giving him a wink.
Her aunt then said, “No conning family, Chloe.”
She sighed in impatience. “I’m not conning them, Aunt Thea. I need their help. Now, will you give me the damn number already?”
Thea rattled off a number, and Chloe disconnected their call without saying goodbye, immediately dialing in Manus’s number, but Kent snatched her phone before she could push the call button.
“Who the fuck are Manus and Deo, woman?”
It was now that she was looking at him that she realized what Kent’s problem was.
“Jealous, demon?”
His lip curled a little before he snapped, “Are you trying to make me jealous?”
Chloe usually didn’t like possessive men, but there was something about the look in his eyes that gave her butterflies in her stomach.
Reaching over, she grabbed his free hand and squeezed it warmly. “No, I’m not trying to make you jealous. Manus is the stepfather I mentioned, and Deo is my half-brother. I think they can help us. Now, can I please have my phone back?”
It wasn’t like Chloe to be this open, honest, and non-sarcastic with a man, but she was trying to let down some of her walls when it came to Kent. He wanted a chance between them, and for whatever reason, deep down inside, she wanted to give it to him. She just hoped she didn’t regret it later.
Kent sheepishly handed her phone back, blushing a little as he mumbled an apology.
Chloe let his caveman act slide. This time. Next time, she might have to whip her bitch out and remind him that she wouldn’t always give in to his Neanderthal ways.
She pushed the call button, and then listened to the phone ring. Finally, a male voice answered.
“Hello?”
“Manus?”
“Yes. Who is this?”
“It’s Chloe Demos. I have a question to
ask. Is Deo dead?”
“What!” Manus’s shrill cry came over the line.
“Well, it’s just that someone killed a spider in front of me a second ago, and I remember Deo telling us that if he was attached to his familiar when it died, then he would die, too. I don’t think the spider was Deo, but I thought I would check first before I asked for his help. So, is he, like, dead?”
She could hear Manus running from the other end of the phone, his breath coming out in pants, and then he was abruptly banging on what sounded like a door, yelling loudly, “Deo! Deo, son, are you in there?”
A few seconds later, an agitated younger male voice snapped, “What the hell, Dad?”
Chloe heard Manus’s sigh of relief, and then Deo ask again, “Dad, what?”
She didn’t waste any time. “Oh, good, he’s not dead. Manus, can you please hand the phone to Deo?”
“Why?” Manus growled in irritation.
“Because I have a favor to ask him.”
Chapter
18
Kent
“The itsy-bitsy spider climbed up the water spout …”
Kent tried not to laugh as Deo went cross-eyed at Chloe’s singing. Her half-brother had agreed to help them by using his familiar, a spider named Rufus. Now they were parked down the street from Holden’s house as Deo looked through his familiar’s eyes while the spider made his way up the brick walls to find a way in. That came in the form of a window cracked open on the second floor.
“I’m in,” Deo informed them.
“Good. We’re looking for anything that might look out of place. I know that’s vague, so if you see anything like baby wrapping paper, just let me know.”
Deo’s eyes were vacant now as he looked through his familiar’s. “This might take a while, so be patient. I’m in a bathroom right now. Rufus is making his way toward the doorway, and then I’ll let you know what I see.”
The three of them spent a few minutes in tense silence before Deo finally said, “Now I’m in a bedroom. Do you want me to walk the whole room or just give you my overall impression?”
Kent scratched his chin. “Overall impression is fine. See anything that sticks out? Paperwork? Something like that?”
“Do you have any idea what you’re looking for?” Deo asked in exasperation.
“Yes,” Chloe responded. “But it’s hard to explain to someone who doesn’t know all the facts of the case.”
Deo sighed. “Right now, Rufus is making his way across the back wall of the bedroom, and we don’t see anything that sticks out. No paperwork and no baby wrapping paper. This is going to be next to impossible if you guys can’t tell me what I’m looking for.”
“We’re trying, man,” Kent replied. “Give us a break.”
“Hold on to your panties,” Deo told Kent. “I said next to impossible. I can share my sight with one person. You two decide who’s going to do it. One of you can look through Rufus’s eyes for anything that might stick out to you.”
“Well, why didn’t you say that in the first place!” Chloe questioned.
Deo squinted his unseeing eyes. “Because it’s not something I like people to know. Now hurry up and decide.”
Chloe looked back at him with the question in her eyes. Which one of them would do it?
As much as Kent wanted to see, he knew how much this case meant to Chloe. He also believed that she was intelligent and savvy enough to know a clue when she saw one.
“Chloe will do it.”
She seemed surprised at his answer, but was quick to give him a brilliant smile.
In that moment, Kent realized he had passed some sort of unspoken test. Slowly but surely, he was earning her trust. It gave him hope.
She turned toward Deo. “What do you need me to do?”
He held out one of his hands. “Put your forehead on my palm and stay calm.”
Chloe leaned over, and then slowly pressed her forehead against her half-brother’s palm. Seconds later, she gasped out loud. “How many freakin’ eyes does he have?”
“Six,” Deo answered. “Now be quiet and start looking. Spiders have naturally bad eyesight, so Rufus borrows my sharpness of vision when we merge. I can’t do this for too long, so you need to hurry the hell up.”
“That’s what most men say,” Chloe quipped back.
~~~
Chloe
It was like looking at a panoramic view. She had no idea how much of the “sharpness” the spider was borrowing from her brother, but Chloe could see from one end of the room to the other. In a weird way, it made looking for anything that might stick out a little easier.
“I don’t think anything is in here. Let’s go to the next room.”
Watching Rufus travel on his little legs was both fascinating and frustrating. For a little guy, she knew he was going as fast as he could, but she sort of wanted to strap a spider-sized rocket to his back and vroom him around the house. Nevertheless, Chloe did her best to remain patient as Rufus made his way into a hallway.
The next door led to what looked like an office. There was a large desk in one corner and built-in bookshelves that lined a few of the walls. There might be something in there.
“Ask Rufus to go into the office please.”
She could literally feel Deo directing his familiar into the space. She marveled at the way her little half-brother managed another being. She couldn’t feel their connection entirely, but she could feel a piece of it. It was as if Rufus was Deo, and Deo was Rufus. That was how closely entwined they were. She didn’t have to wonder now if Deo had been lying when he said, if someone killed Rufus when they were connected, then it would kill Deo, as well. She could feel from their connection that was very well true.
“What do you see?” she heard Kent ask.
This brought her attention back to the task at hand.
Rufus was traveling into the office toward the desk. As Rufus’s little legs took them closer toward the wooden monstrosity, Chloe spotted something out of the corner of Rufus’s vision. It was a picture of Marissa and her lover taped to the wall.
Excited at a possible find, she asked Deo to have Rufus look over at the wall more, and the little spider did.
It was the wall next to the desk that Rufus was still making his way toward, and it was filled with eight by ten photos of Marissa and her lover. Further over, she saw another familiar face—Lulu’s—pictured with Andrew Holden in an embrace, kissing him.
Why would Holden have pictures of the two couples up on his wall? Furthermore, why had he kept track of his brother and his brother’s wife, plus each person’s lover?
Rufus finally made it to the councilman’s desk and started to climb up it. While he was climbing, Chloe told Kent what she could see.
“Kent, he has photos of his brother with Lulu and other photos of Anthony Romano and Marissa Holden. He was watching them.”
“Do you see any indications of why?” Kent calmly asked her.
Chloe shook her head a little, making sure not to lose contact with Deo’s palm. “Not yet. I’m still looking.”
Rufus finally made it to the top of the desk where she could now make out paperwork lying scattered around as if someone had just rifled through it. It took Rufus a minute or so to walk over the paperwork so she could make out the words, but her patience paid off.
Off to one side of the desk were a stack of bills that read “Final Notice” or “90 Days Late.” It looked as though Councilman Holden had some money problems. She quickly let Kent know what she saw, and then asked Deo to have Rufus walk to the other side of the desk where there was more paperwork. That was where they hit pay dirt.
There, buried and peeking out beneath Andrew Holden’s death certificate, was the top half of Andrew Holden’s will.
“Hurry up, Chloe. I can’t hold Rufus like this for much longer.”
Hurried, Chloe excitedly cried out to Kent, “There’s a death certificate and a will for Andrew Holden on the desk.”
“Can you r
ead what it says?”
Chloe could feel Deo’s grip on Rufus slipping away, so she quickly scanned the document.
Last Will and Testament of Andrew Holden …
Yada, yada, yada.
Article I, I appoint Jacob Holden as my personal representative to administer this will …
Jacob?
“Hey, Kent, what’s Councilman Holden’s first name?”
“Jacob, I believe. Why?”
“He’s listed as the executor of Andrew’s estate.”
“Okay, what else does it say?”
Article II, I direct my personal representative to pay out …
More yada, yada, yadas.
Chloe scanned the will to see if she could catch something useful, and then her sight fell on ‘Article III,’ the beneficiary section. Of course Marissa’s name was listed, but what truly caught her eye was the section below Marissa’s name. She read it out loud to Kent.
“Should Marissa Holden be deceased, or proven unfaithful during our marriage, I then bequeath the remainings of my estate to my brother Jacob Holden.”
Chloe fell silent as the truth hit her. Councilman Holden had killed his own brother for money. With the pictures on the wall, he could easily prove that Marissa had been unfaithful to Andrew, which left him as the only beneficiary to Andrew’s estate. Unless Marissa’s baby really was Andrew Holden’s child. That was why Councilman Holden had tried to kill Marissa’s baby with the snakes. No baby, no contender for Andrew’s estate. And with the councilman being a demon and not having the extrasensory gifts of a shifter, he couldn’t tell if the baby was his brother’s or the shifter’s. Either way, he wasn’t going to take the chance.
Lifting her head from her brother’s palm, she heard Deo sigh in relief as she turned to Kent.
“We have to find a way to get Holden and this information in front of the council as soon as possible, or I’m afraid he’s going to go after Marissa Holden’s unborn baby again.”
Crossing his arms over his chest, Kent said aloud what she had just figured out in her head. “He killed his brother for the money, tried to set up Lulu for the murder, and now he’s trying to take out Marissa’s baby so there can be no other possible heirs for Andrew’s estate.”