Tales of Aradia The Last Witch Volume 1 (17 page)

“Want?” she replied
with over-the-top feigned innocence. “A girl can’t just make her
dad a cup of coffee?”

He chuckled. “Come on,
Rai, spill.”

“I want to see the
body,” she replied bluntly.

“It kind of sounded
like you were asking me to gain you illegal clearance to see a
murder victim’s corpse,” Ross replied. “But I know I couldn’t have
heard you right, because that would be crazy.”

“Dad,” she said,
whispering, “you know I might find something the examiners
missed.”

“I’m not letting you
inspect the body,” he replied firmly.

“But… What do you mean
you won’t let me inspect the body?” Aradia demanded.

Her father was
unflinching as he faced her, leaning back in his chair. “Exactly
what I said, Aradia. Even if I wanted to, I don’t think I could do
that. I’d need a court order just to get in there
myself.”

“Okay, then,” she
replied, “what about the crime scene?”

“That I could get you
into,” he replied. Her eyes lit up like a kid who was promised a
pony. “But I’m still not doing it.”

“But Daddy...” she
whined.

“Choose your battles,
Aradia. You don’t want to argue with me on this one. It will do you
no good.”

“But it might do the
investigation good,” she replied. “I want to be more involved in
solving this case. You know I can help. I could help your
department, your reputation…”

“This isn’t about me,”
he shook his head. “Yes, it might help solve the case, but there is
no guarantee that it will. And I can’t have you tamper with
potential evidence.”

She pouted.

“Hey, Aradia, you want
to know my biggest reason for not letting you get
involved?”

She nodded
sullenly.

“You’re fifteen. You
should get to be a fifteen year old. You deserve that, and you
deserve not to get sucked into every case that gives me trouble.
It’s not about my pride. I remember high school. It was a great
time for me. I wouldn’t have gotten to have half as much fun if I’d
been out solving murders like the Hardy Boys.”

“I think the Hardy Boys
still had fun. And I think the Scooby Squad would be a more apt
comparison.”

He chuckled. “Look,
Rai, I probably shouldn’t encourage you, but I’m proud of you. I’m
proud of you for wanting to be involved, for wanting to do
everything you can to help people, to protect people. But we’ve had
this conversation before. I’m doing everything I can to
protect
you
,
and that means keeping you away from dangerous
murderers.”

“Dad, no one would ever
know. Not your colleagues, not the Vampire Murderer…”

Ross sighed and took a
big gulp of his coffee.
Even I can’t
gulp something that hot. He must have desensitized his mouth to
heat over the years.

After he’d swallowed,
he said, “There’s also the house fire.”

“I was twelve then,”
Aradia said. “I’m older now. I’m stronger and have better
control.”

“I want you to know how
proud we were about the house fire,” Ross said. “Your mother and I,
we tried talking to you about it, but you were still acting out. It
meant so much that even in the midst of your dark time, you still
did the right thing. You risked your own life using your abilities
to put out that house fire. You saved families.”

“And I can help again
now,” Aradia said. “If you don’t let me, it’s like you’re stopping
me from putting out a house fire.”

“You slept for three
days straight,” Ross replied. “You barely even took water. Your
mother sat by your side day and night. Any longer and we’d have had
no choice but to take you to the hospital, and from there… That
would be the end of your secret, Aradia.”

“I’m willing to risk
it.”

“We’re not willing to
risk you,” he replied.

“This isn’t fair,” she
said. “This is my choice.”

“And someday you’ll get
to make it, and your mother and I will be so proud of you. But not
today. Tell you what, you can get out of here if you want. You’re
good on your punishment for the day.”

“Okay,” she replied
dejectedly.

Grumbling and muttering
to herself, Aradia left her father’s office and headed for the
exit. She couldn’t be mad at him, not after how he’d been so honest
with her, and so flattering of her. She never really had considered
how hard it must have been for her parents after she put out that
fire.

She’d just been so
tired. Whenever she pushed her powers like that, it drained her.
She was starting to get better about learning how to proportion her
powers to get the result she needed without taking so much out of
her.

She had to admit,
though, she hadn’t quite figured it all out yet.

“Thank you for coming
in, Mr. Caradoc,” Aradia heard from inside a nearby office on her
way towards the exit.

Caradoc?

Aradia quickly made
herself busy neatening up the break room. No sooner did she have
her cover in place than the man she’d seen on the news, Mr.
Stanley’s business partner, emerged from the office with two of her
father’s coworkers.

“Anything to help you
serve and protect,” Derek Caradoc replied. He looked suave and
sophisticated in his pinstriped suit. By any reasonable standard he
was an attractive man. Yet Aradia didn’t like his look.

The same lawyer who had
just thanked him smiled and she said, “That’s next door at the
station. Here we make sure the bad guys they catch get put
away.”

Derek smiled. “If there
is anything I can do to help, you have my number.” They all shook
hands, and Derek saw himself out. He turned to smirk at Aradia as
he walked past. The room’s temperature seemed to drop and she felt
ice in her spine.

The lawyers came into
the break room to fill up their own cups of coffee. Aradia did her
best to look like she was ignoring them while she rearranged
supplies in the cabinets. She hoped her father’s coworkers were so
used to seeing her by now that they wouldn’t even notice
her.

“Alright, Tony, what's
your problem?” the same speaker as before demanded. Aradia couldn’t
quite remember her name, but she knew she was another ADA, like her
dad.

The younger one, Tony,
was a lawyer for the DA’s office, but not an ADA
himself.

The man shrugged
casually before saying, “I just don’t like that guy. I don’t trust
him.”

The ADA nodded
solemnly. “Neither do I.”

“Stanley was this close
to bankruptcy,” Tony held up two fingers very close together, “when
Derek partners up with him.”

“Not all investors need
a business to succeed to make a profit,” she replied. “It’s
deceptive, but not illegal.”

“Then he’s either a
criminal or a vulture,” Tony replied. “Either way I don’t like
him.”

“Not enough to get a
warrant,” she replied.

Tony stirred some more
creamer into his coffee. “What about the insurance
fraud?”

She shook her head.
“Three counts of misdemeanor insurance fraud, the most recent of
which was two years ago. He paid his court ordered fines. Nothing
in this case points to insurance fraud as a motive.”

“We need somebody to
start talking,” Tony said.

She nodded. “Until
somebody does, you can forget about them testifying. Without solid
forensic evidence or reliable testimony, nothing major is going to
stick.”

“It’s like everyone we
talk to is afraid of something more frightening than seeing a
murderer walk.”

At this point the two
walked back out on their business, oblivious to Aradia sitting with
wide eyes.

Chapter
Fourteen

"So how goes the
punishment parade?" Roy asked Aradia.

She sipped her hot
chocolate and stared at him from across the diner table. He had one
arm propped against the window and the other draped atop the
booth’s head cushion. He looked very at home.

The two of them were
sitting in the back corner adjacent to a side window at SilverMoon
Diner. The SilverMoon was one of the most popular hangouts for
Salem High students. It was located on Witch Lane, which of course
made it the butt of many an Abbot-and-Costello-esque corny joke. It
was smack in the middle of the city, three blocks from Salem High.
The diner was close enough to cater to the high school students,
yet far enough not to turn into an animal house.

It was also owned by
Roy’s family.

"It depends,” Aradia
responded before taking a bite out her cheeseburger. Through her
full mouth she asked, “How should it be going?"

The diner had two full
menus. The first was a classic, with burgers, chili cheese fries,
and milkshakes galore. The second was traditional Guatemalan food.
Roy's family was originally from Guatemala, and they were proud of
their heritage and culture. They couldn’t decide when they were
opening shop which type of restaurant to open, so they did both. It
seemed to work pretty well.

Aradia was particularly
thankful for that decision, for she practically lived off their
burgers, no matter how much she was scolded by her mother. The
fusion design also afforded her the opportunity to learn that she
had quite an affinity for chuchitos.

"What do you mean?"
asked Roy.

"I was stupid and I’m
being punished. You don't expect me to be having fun, do you?"
Aradia responded. She was mildly annoyed that he was broaching the
topic, but she almost immediately regretted snapping at him.
Annoying or not, he was being thoughtful.

Roy hung his head
sheepishly but then drew himself up straight.
It’s amazing how readable he
is
, Aradia realized, then regretted
that she was psychoanalyzing her friend rather than listening to
him.

"Excuse me for worrying
about you, Aradia. Maybe next time I’ll know better.”

Yeah, I deserved
that
, she thought.
Though it was really passive
aggressive.

"Sorry, Roy. I guess
I’m just a little upset. It’s like, I’ve learned my lesson, and I
couldn’t possibly regret it more, but the punishment just keeps on
reminding me, you know? So then I start getting mad that they’re
still punishing me, but it’s kind of like, I did it to myself, so
then I get frustrated that I got mad at them."

Roy nodded and said, “I
can understand that."

After swigging down the
last of her hot cocoa, Aradia said, "I’m glad you and your brothers
got out unscathed."

"Thanks to you, you
mean,” he said. Aradia already knew the trio had avoided arrest and
had managed to sneak into their bedrooms. Roy had shared that
during their initial debrief the Monday after the party. Since then
he’d consistently brought up the premonition she’d had. She made it
clear she didn’t want to talk about it, but that hadn’t stopped Roy
from mentioning it every chance he got. So far she’d evaded the
topic successfully.

"Glad I could help,"
said Aradia.

Roy leaned
forward.

After a quick
inspection to see if anyone was in earshot, he looked Aradia in the
eye and asked, "How on earth did you manage to know beforehand that
the cops were going to show?"

Aradia choked on her
mouthful of half-chewed fries. After Roy finished slapping her hard
on the back, he returned to his seat to await her explanation. He
wasn’t letting it go this time. Aradia was torn because she did not
know what to say.

I knew I’d have to
deal with this eventually
.

If she lied, he would
probably know. She ran through her options. She could say she had
heard sirens. Then Roy would say, "
You
couldn’t hear police sirens three feet from the door between the
music and the general clamor of everyone.
" He’d obviously be right, and she’d be a liar. She could say
she’d called in a tip to the police. That would explain how she
knew, but it was really much more trouble than it was
worth.

She could say nothing.
Silence is honest. Of course, he would never let it go, and he’d
probably try to find the answer on his own. Maybe he’d
succeed.

She could tell the
truth. He probably wouldn’t believe her, and then she’d be back to
being a liar. She could prove it, of course. Maybe not the
precognition, but enough consecutive successful guesses at
the
pick a number
game would probably convince him she had something
special going on.

Supposing he did
believe her, though, what if he told someone?
There was probably a pretty good reason why
Superman never told his childhood friends what he could really
do
.

Completely torn by
ethics and a desperate need to survive, Aradia looked nervously at
Roy who was eagerly awaiting her answer.