“Wolf shifter?”
“Yes. He’s about 6″2. Brown hair. It would’ve been about six months ago.”
“Six months! Lass I ain’t been here six weeks. If yer looking that far back you’ll have to come tomorrow.”
“Is there anyone else that I could talk to today that might know.”
“Not at the moment. Just me here and we don’t open til it’s lights out. Even if you waited til then you’re still out of luck. Only person who been here longer then a month is the owner and she’s off for the day.”
“Why did all the staff get replaced?”
“Not replaced. They were thrown out. Something about a drug cartel. The whole staff were in on it. Turns out the owner’s husband was running it right under the misses nose. Gail kicked him out right along with em. Good riddens of you ask me. We got enough to deal with in the slums without that riff raff making it worse.”
A drug cartel.
What are the odds this had something to do with Seth’s date night.
“You don’t say. When did all this happen?”
Throughout the whole coversation she’d been busy stocking shelves until she finally turned to face me with a slow pivot only to answer with a realisation of, “About six months ago come to think of it.”
What the hell was going on.
It’s no coincidence that around the same time Seth has his date the owner finds out her husbands running an entire drug cartel from her front yard.
“Thank you very much. I’ll be back tomorrow to talk to Gail.”
“Any time lass. Boss likes to gab so she’ll definatly have answers about the man yer looking for.”
I was bummed that I didn’t find out about the date.
Though it was a fruitful first time.
I realised just how easy it was to get information from people.
Except of course when your dealing with Seth.
~
“Any luck?”
Mister PI himself was waiting for me when I got back.
His arse in my chair leaning back with his hands behind his head like he already knew how it went.
“Drug cartel?”
“You what now?”
He almost had me fooled until I saw the hint of a twitch near his right eye.
“Don’t play dumb with me. Did you even go on a date or were you just working a case?”
Standing up he smirked his most charming I know something you don’t smirk.
“There was a date.”
“Just not yours right?”
“Didn’t say that.”
“Oh come on Seth .”
“The first rule of being a PI. The person who hires you is the last person you talk to.”
I growled at his retreating back as he practically skipped his popmous, annoyingly, superior wolfpelted shifters PI neck to his office.
I spent the rest of my day catching up on emails and paying off a months worth of invoices for a variety of things like office supplies and the buildings rent.
We were suspiously out of staples and paperclips.
I mean why do we need both.
Just use one or the other people.
By the time I’d finished, it was almost home time.
Stretching my much needed back I remembered what Seth had suggested on Friday.
Leaning over I unlocked my desk draw pulling out the book in question that landed with a resounding thump on my desk after it of course slipped out of my hands from the sheer wieght of the monolith. This chapter is updated first at novelping dot com.
It really was a bulky discoloured monstrosity of a thing.
The pages themselves just barely holding together.
The parchment made from the skins of shifters.
If the blood stains weren’t enough to scare you away the illustrations certianly would.
Flipping through it’s pages each image dipicting an increasingly more grusome scene of carnage that only excalated in intencity as you progressed through it’s contents.
If this book held the secrets to what I was then did I really want to unlock it?
Just look at it.
The last page held what looked like a shadowy beast unlike any animal I’ve ever seen holding a head in one hand and it’s eyes in the other.
Was I some murdering monster?
How could I possibly aim to be a PI who helps others find murderers when I was one myself?
What a hypocrite.
“What are you thinking?”
I hadn’t even noticed him approach my desk until he was in his usual position parked against it’s edge.
“I wasn’t thinking anything.”
Seth reached down taking the book from me.
Turning each page slowly he examined it.
Why bother it’s not like he hadn’t already picked it apart a thousand times over and found nothing.
“It’s not you Rexy.”
“What’s not me?”
Turning the book around the last page open Seth’s index finger pointing at the dispicable creature.
“It’s not you.”
“How do you know?”
I watched in silence as he placed the book with care back into it’s resting place.
My desk draw.
Safe under lock and key once more he pushed away from the desk.
Raising his arms over his head he moaned out a stretch.
Every crack and sinew went popping and snapping like this mornings rice bubbles.
Finally done his eyes met mine with a small smile.
“I know you.”
That’s it.
“I know you.” That’s all he said.
What does that even mean.
How does that prove that the thing in those pictures isn’t what I’ll become.
What I already am.
I know you.
Argh man and thier cryptic communication.
“Stop overthinking. You don’t have to tackle everything at once.”
Picking up his backpack he paused before opening the door.
“Coming?”
Exhaling my frustration with the man before me I swiped up my stuff and followed him out.
“How long are you going to continue to do this?”
“Until I know it’s safe.” Read this novel at g.com for the best experience.
“It’s been a week Seth. I’m pretty sure it’s safe again.”
“Hmmm. Give it another week. If nothing else happens you’ll have your independance back.”
“Thank god.”
His silence after my words created an awkward feeling that permeated the air around us.
After a few blocks he finally spoke.
“Is it really that bad?”
My mind was too busy contemplating my next moves against finding out about his date to realise what the hell he was going on about.
“Is what that bad?”
The skin above his eyes creased in a surprised confusion that I wasn’t able to read his mind like he apparently could.
“Me walking you home.”
Choosing my words with care, the last thing I wanted to do was hurt him when all he was trying to do was keep me safe.
“I wouldn’t say it’s bad. I understand why you feel the need to do it. It’s just,” no matter how hard I tried I just couldn’t get the rest out.
“Overprotective?”
My shoulders rose in answer.
“Maybe a little.”
Taking a deep breath while my opinion of the situation settled in his mind he walked in silence again.
Always so calculating was Seth in his demeanour.
He was so hard to read it was like trying to deciphier a triple encrypted computer program.
Just when you thought you had it open another thousand layers would stack themselves together while they laughed at you for being too ignorant to have not seen it coming.
“It’s just because I care.”
“I know that. Why do you think I’m letting you do it.”
Again with the silence.
His borrowing into himself was really starting to piss me off.
Stopping completely I waited for him to look me in the eyes before I started with my best “Now you listen here.” Voice.
“Look.
I’m really not that complicated.
Not much gets to me as far as what people do.
I can easily adjust my actions or rather reactions based on other peoples personalities and I’m ok with that.
Be over protective, show that you care.
Be you.
If you’re thinking of changing who you are to suit what you think I want then fucking stop it.
I stay with you.
With Shifters Investigations because I like working with you.
I like you for you not because of what you can do for me.
If there’s ever a day I sense you pretending to be someone other then yourself then that’ll be the day I walk out of your life and never look back.
Do you hear me?”
“Rexy,”
“Say you hear me.”
“Alright, alright I hear you.”
“Good. Now hurry up I’m starving.”
From the corner of my eye I could see the smile that had started to spread on his lips.
By the time we’d said good bye he was positively beaming.