by Lily Webb
“Sure thing. Should I have the gargoyles escort the rest of Justices to their rooms at Stubbe’s Palace?”
“Yeah, that would be perfect. I’m sure they’re tired from the journey.”
“Good thinking, and good luck,” Holly said and left to retrieve the Chief Justice. My heart thrummed against my ribcage while I waited, and the twins must’ve picked up on my nervous energy because neither of them seemed able to stay still, no matter how much I rubbed my stomach to calm all three of us.
A moment later, Holly re-entered my office followed by a somewhat short, middle-aged warlock with a wavy head of salt-and-pepper hair. He had a neighborly face and warm, inviting blue eyes, and the pleasant smile plastered on his face as he stepped out from behind her put me at ease. Maybe this wouldn’t be so bad.
Holly disappeared into her attached office as Jorah approached my desk and offered his hand, which barely peeked out from the oversized black robes dangling down both his arms. “Hello, Miss Clarke. I’m Jorah Raven, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the United Supernaturals. I wish we were meeting under better circumstances.”
“Likewise,” I said, and tried to stand to greet him but didn’t make it.
“Oh, please, don’t stand on my behalf. I know you’re carrying extra cargo.”
I chuckled. “Thank you, that means a lot to me. Have a seat, Mr. Raven. Make yourself comfortable.”
His smile widened and he sat. “I’m sure the Court’s arrival must be overwhelming for you, especially now that the management of your town’s government has fallen on your shoulders alone, but I want to assure you we’re here to help, not make things worse.”
“I appreciate that too. I’m still very new to all this.”
Jorah laughed and nodded. “Yes, as I’ve heard, but there’s no need to worry. In cases like these, we’re all in uncharted territory to a certain extent, so we’re all in this together — and we’ll get through it the same way.”
“I’m glad to hear that, and I hope it remains true throughout.”
Jorah raised an eyebrow. “Why wouldn’t it?”
“There have been some new developments in the case. I’m not sure how much you got filled in on the way here.”
“The last we heard was of the attack in Moon Grove’s Town Hall on Monday.”
I sighed. “Then you and I have a lot of catching up to do. I’ll keep things short: There was another fatal attack early yesterday evening, and all the details are the same from Adam Highmore’s death.”
Jorah cleared his throat and straightened up in his chair. “I see. Who was the victim?”
“Morgan Talbot, Adam Highmore’s ex-wife.”
“Dear Lilith,” Jorah gasped, and I noticed his fist clench in his lap. I hoped that meant what I thought it did.
“Look, Mr. Raven, if I’m speaking above my authority here, please stop me, but I feel like I have to say it now: I don’t think Heath Highmore killed either of them. In fact, we know he couldn’t have killed Morgan because we’ve been keeping him in a maximum-security cell since Adam’s death.”
He looked unmoved. “We’ll examine that in the case's course.”
“Even with all the new developments and evidence, you’re going to proceed with the case? Don’t you think that seems, I dunno, irresponsible?”
Jorah shifted in his seat. “That’s not what I said. Part of the reason I wanted to speak with you was to hammer out the timeline for this. Given Miss Talbot’s death, we need to allow more time for the relevant authorities to investigate and present their evidence before we rule.”
I couldn’t believe my ears. Just like that, Jorah had given in to my request for more time before Heath’s trial got underway. It shouldn’t have been that easy. “That’s what I wanted to hear, but I’m curious: What happens if the evidence proves Heath is innocent? Will the case still go to trial?”
“Hypothetically, if the investigation of this latest attack were to clear the Head Warlock of any wrongdoing beyond a reasonable doubt, then yes, we would suspend Mr. Highmore’s trial. The matter of ruling on the culprit, whoever they may be, would then fall back to the Council.”
So, it wasn’t too late for Heath. As much as the things he’d kept from me bothered me, I still couldn’t believe he had it in him to hurt Adam, and there wasn’t any way he could have hurt Morgan — because as far as I knew, not even the most powerful warlocks had the ability to be in two places at once. All I had left to do now was figure out who’d attacked them both and prove it. Easy, right?
“How long do we have before the Court makes that determination?”
“That’s up to the local authorities,” Jorah said, and my heart dropped — I didn’t trust Mueller with the responsibility. “We’ll be in constant contact with them and, of course, with you. I can’t promise you much, other than the fact that nothing in this process will happen unexpectedly. You’ll be the first to know when anything changes.”
If nothing else, at least I knew where I stood. “Good, I’m glad. But it sounds like there isn’t much left for us to talk about then, is there?”
Jorah smirked. “No, I suppose there isn’t. Thank you for your time, I’m sure you must have a lot to attend to.”
He had no idea how right he was. “I do. I’m sure we’ll be in touch.”
“Absolutely,” Jorah said and stood. This time, I forced myself up to meet him, and we shook hands again.
“I already had my secretary arrange an escort for your colleagues, but I’m sure we can get someone to take you to Stubbe’s Palace too.”
“Stubbe’s Palace, eh? Sounds exciting, but I think I’ll be okay to walk there by myself. It’s been a long time since I was last in Moon Grove.”
“It’s a relatively new werewolf-owned casino over in the Werewolves’ Quarter.”
Jorah’s eyes widened. “Oh, then I bet Lincoln is already in heaven.” When I didn’t get the joke, he laughed and shook his head. “Sorry. Lincoln is the only werewolf on the Court.”
“Ah, then I’m sure he’ll enjoy his time there.”
“Without a doubt. Anyway, I’ll be going. Take care of yourself and your little ones, Miss Clarke.”
“I will. You do the same,” I said, and cringed when I realized the mistake. “Take care of yourself, I mean, not the little ones you obviously don’t have growing in your stomach.”
Jorah chuckled. “I knew what you meant. Speak soon,” he said, and showed himself out of the office. As soon as the door clicked shut behind him, Holly charged in from her attached room.
“Finally. Sorry to barge in again, but someone named Leif Meadows is holding the line for you. He said it’s urgent and refused when I told him I’d have you call him back.”
“Oh no,” I groaned as I sank back into my chair and reached for the phone. “Why didn’t you tell me he was waiting?”
Holly looked at me like I’d grown a third head. “You told me to hold all your calls, so I did…”
“You’re right, I’m sorry. Thanks,” I said and lifted the phone to my ear. “This is Zoe.”
“Oh, that was faster than I expected. Hi, Zoe. It’s Leif.”
“Yeah, I heard. Anyway, what’s going on? Is this about our little bug?”
Leif laughed. “Sure is. We’ve been watching the traffic on all the Town Hall’s devices since you asked us to, and we’ve found some, well, oddities.”
My heart rate picked up like a runner at the start of a sprint. “Oddities? Like what? And from whom?”
“Well, for starters, it doesn’t look like Wesley has ORB installed. That doesn’t mean he isn’t using it from work per se — he could have it on his private cell phone.”
“Okay, that’s surprising, but not all that odd. He seems too smart to do something like that on a work device. What other things did you find?”
“We also combed through his work p-mail account. That’s where the real eye raisers are.”
“What do you mean?”
“We found a series of threatening messages f
rom what appears to be a throwaway p-mail account but judging from the contents, we’re reasonably sure that whoever sent them knows Wesley.”
“Threatening how?”
“Here, I’ll read one to you so you can be the judge,” Leif said. He cleared his throat. “This chain started with the mystery person. They sent it on Monday, about an hour before Adam died. It says, ‘Do whatever you can to call the announcement off, or I’ll make sure you pay the price.’ About five minutes later, Wesley replied, ‘I don’t know who you are, and I don’t know why you’re sending me this. Please leave me alone or I’ll have no choice but to call the police.’ Makes you wonder why he didn’t, huh?”
I shivered. Someone was trying to intimidate Wesley into getting Adam’s conference canceled, but who were they and why did they care? “How do you know he didn’t?”
“I asked Mueller. The MGPD has no record of Wesley ever contacting them, and based on his call logs from the Town Hall, it’s clear he didn’t.”
“Was there anything else?”
“Yeah, and this is the most chilling part. The sender responded less than a minute later and said, ‘You’ll know me soon enough.’ I don’t understand what that’s supposed to mean.”
“It’s a coded message; probably something only Wesley would understand.”
“Yeah, probably. That was the last one Wesley received, though.”
“Weird. Do you have any way to figure out who sent all these messages?”
“We’ve already tried, but we’ve got nothing. Whoever it is knows how to cover their tracks online, but the bright spot here is that, on a whim, I ran the text they sent to Wesley through Parrot. You remember that app, don’t you?”
“The one that imitates people, right?”
“Exactly. Well, interestingly enough, the AI matched the vocabulary and sentence structure to that of Erebus’ that I downloaded from Adam’s computer.”
“Whoa. So, you think it’s the same person?”
“It seems likely. Parrot could be wrong, but it’s exceedingly rare for that to happen.”
A realization hit me like a slap across the face. “Wait a second! This is a perfect opportunity. We ruined our chance to talk to Erebus when we crossed paths with them using Adam’s account on The Underworld, but that might not be true if we replied from Wesley’s computer.”
“Hm, maybe, but I have to believe whoever they are knows enough to see through an attempt like that. Don’t forget, they knew instantly when we signed on with Adam’s account that it wasn’t him, and they’re probably scrutinizing everything more closely now that they know someone is trying to track them down.”
“You’re probably right, but I still think it’s worth trying. Worst-case scenario, we might scare some info out of Wesley. Can you get to the Town Hall in the next few minutes?”
“Sure. I’m at the MGPD right now.”
“Good. Come right to my office, we don’t want to tip Wesley off.”
“Be there in a flash,” Leif said and hung up. I set the phone down on the receiver and sat staring at it, unable to believe the rate at which things kept moving. I desperately needed to talk to Heath, but I couldn’t let the opportunity to corner Erebus slip by. Besides, it wasn’t like Heath was going anywhere, and now that Jorah had delayed the start of his trial, I had extra time.
Each new development further convinced me that Erebus, whoever they were, was the key to the truth — and to clearing Heath once and for all.
Chapter Ten
Leif knocked on my office door just a few moments later, and I called to Umrea to let him in. The fairy floated toward my desk wearing his FBI jacket — probably not the best choice for an interrogation, but there wasn’t anything I could do about that now. A large briefcase dangled from one of his hands, which I assumed carried all his hacking and spying materials. He hovered to a stop and flashed me a mischievous grin.
“What?”
He flipped his molten silver hair out of his face. “Oh, nothing. It’s just been a long time since I got out in the field like this. I appreciate that you don’t wait around for things to happen; you make them happen.”
“Yeah, well, when your counterpart stands accused of murdering someone and your whole town is on the brink of chaos as a result, you don’t really have the luxury of waiting around. In that vein, come on, let’s get this over with already.”
“After you,” he said and gestured to the door.
“Hey, Holly!” I called and waited a moment for her to appear.
She peeked around the doorframe of her attached office. “Yeah?”
“We’re going to chat with Mr. Damon for a few minutes. Keep an eye on the place for me while I’m gone, will you?”
“You got it.”
“Thanks,” I said and stood to waddle to the door with Leif fluttering behind me. He seemed much fonder of using his wings than the other fairies I’d met, but it didn’t bother me.
“Stepping out?” Umrea asked as we passed.
“Just to go to Wesley’s office. We’ll be back in a few minutes.”
Though she seemed concerned, Umrea didn’t verbalize her dissent, so we headed down the hall and crossed the Town Hall’s main chamber — which was as empty as I’d ever seen it, no doubt because of the spectacle that’d taken place there just a few days ago — to Wesley’s office in the opposite wing.
His thin and lithe gargoyle guard, Sernux, nodded as we approached. “Councilwoman,” he greeted.
“Hey, Sernux,” I said and knocked on Wesley’s door politely. Normally, I would’ve just walked in without announcing myself, but I had a feeling that if we wanted Wesley to cooperate, we’d have to treat him a little better to put him at ease — and with an FBI agent in tow, I knew getting Wesley to relax would be a tall order, anyway.
“Hi, Wesley! It’s Zoe. Can we talk for a few minutes?”
“Of course. Please, come in,” he called back and I opened the door to find him sitting at his desk, as usual. A warm smile appeared on his face at the sight of me, but it promptly fell off when Leif stepped inside. Sernux closed the door behind us, and the silence that settled in Wesley’s office was so thick that the sound of the door’s click echoed.
Wesley cleared his throat, unable to take his eyes off Leif. He gestured at the fairy with his chin. “What’s this all about?”
“Where are your manners, Wesley? Don’t you think you should introduce yourself first? Here, I’ll start. Wesley, this is Leif Meadows with the FBI. Leif, this is Councilman Wesley Damon.”
Leif floated forward and dangled a wispy, long-fingered hand for Wesley to shake. “Pleased to meet you, Councilman.”
Wesley stared at Leif’s hand hanging in the air for what felt like forever before he shook it quickly and wiped his palm against his robes like he might’ve contracted something — or maybe it was because he’d caught a case of the nervous sweats. I wouldn’t have blamed him.
“Er, likewise,” Wesley mumbled, dumbfounded.
I sat directly across from him and patted the seat next to me. Leif hovered down into it and rested his briefcase on the desk. I turned back to Wesley and smiled. “Now that we’ve gotten the pleasantries out of the way, there are some important things we’d like to talk to you about.”
“Such as?”
“Your recent p-mail interactions with an unidentified sender.”
All the color drained from Wesley’s already pale face. “What? How did you — did you spy on me?!”
I waved away his concern like a pesky fly. “Let’s not get lost in semantics. The point is, we know you’ve had threatening conversations with someone anonymous that stopped on the day of Adam Highmore’s death — conversations that don’t paint you and your motives for opposing Adam’s announcement in the best light.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Oh, come on, Wesley. Is playing dumb really how you want to handle this? We have the receipts. All it would take is a few minutes for Leif to pull them up
.”
Leif raised his eyebrows at Wesley and drummed his spindly fingers on his briefcase to reinforce the point.
Wesley glanced from Leif to me with a look of desperation and sighed. “Fine, I admit it. Someone I don’t recognize has been sending me suspicious messages. But, in my defense, I ordered them to stop and they did.”
“So, because of that you thought it wasn’t worth reporting the messages to anyone?”
“No. For all I knew, they could’ve been from some kid in their mom’s basement just trying to yank my wand. Besides, who would’ve taken me seriously if I had?”
I glared at him. “I would have. So would Heath. I’m willing to bet Mueller would’ve too. We’ve all seen enough around here to know better than to write something like that off.”
Wesley harrumphed. “Well, what’s done is done. It’s all out in the open now, so what do you want from me?”
He was already getting defensive, which wasn’t good. “Look, I know I’m being a little tough, but we’re not here to come down on you, Wesley.”
He scoffed. “Could’ve fooled me.”
On a whim, I fed him some information no one else yet knew to get him to trust me again. “I’m sorry for the bluntness. The thing is, we think whoever sent you these messages is the same person who killed Adam Highmore and his ex-wife. So, it’s really important that you tell us anything you might know — or think you know — about them.”
Wesley stared at me while he weighed his options, and something that looked an awful lot like fear flashed in his eyes. “Such as?”
“I dunno, anything. Have you gotten any other messages from them outside your work p-mail inbox?”
“No, those were the only ones.”
“Okay, that’s a good start. In the last message they sent you, they said you’d get to know them well soon enough. Do you have any idea what that meant?”
Wesley shrugged. “Not a clue. I assumed it meant they would make life difficult for me if I didn’t do what they wanted.”
“What do you think they wanted you to do?”
Wesley shot me an annoyed, sideways glance. “Exactly what they said: Get Adam Highmore’s announcement canceled.”