Forever Together (The Undead Detective Agency Book 4), page 12
Theo nodded. “Yes, I decided to join The Undead Detective Agency.”
He wasn’t sure if joining had been the best decision, but it would certainly be something new and unknown…
Turney stood at the back of the stage watching Octavius dramatically announce another grand performance. The ballroom was black with white and gold diamond tiled floors. It was…another room Turney had never seen before, as both Octavius’ and Scarlett’s homes were ginormous. While the food and drink tables were similar to the other ballroom, along with the orange pumpkin candy bowl, the decorations here were black roses, thorns, spiders, and a shit ton of webs. There was also a bar in this ballroom.
His gaze lifted the moment Octavius instructed them to. In the ceiling, a massive glass and metal chandelier began to lower. Turney frowned when it started to wobble back and forth dangerously, as if it wasn’t secure. Something…was on top of it… Was that a hand?
The chandelier suddenly plummeted. The crowd scrambled back out of the way at an impressive speed as the thing landed in a shatter of glass and crunching metal… Not to mention, an odd thump.
Screams wretched up from the crowd. While he could see the top of their heads, the height of the stage wasn’t so much that he could see the ground past such a thickly packed crowd.
“What…the hell,” he heard Octavius growl. “Please, part!” the vampire yelled out, storming to the edge of the stage.
And the crowd did, instantly, revealing on the ground what looked to be a very dead body…because, of course…why wouldn’t there be an actual dead body at Octavius’ party? Or was this part of the show?
He couldn’t see the face of the person, as long vibrant blue hair obscured their face. He could see that they were male, as the person was wearing skin tight spandex pants that looked like scales in multiple shades of white and blue. His body was fit, thick with muscles…and was covered in scales, or rather, snake skin. The patterned skin was a mixture of white, turquoise, and black, matching the rest of his costume. Turney wasn’t sure if they were just wearing really amazing prosthetics…or if the guy was some sort of creature that could grow scales. It looked like real snake skin. Gaze moving away from his body, Turney eyed the blood puddle forming near the male’s head.
Octavius hopped off the stage and Turney followed. Reaching the body, Octavius stepped closer, kicking glass out of the way with his bare feet, before crouching down and flipping the wig out of the person’s face. Turney’s eyes went to the vampire’s feet making sure they were unharmed before glancing over to see what was revealed.
Scales came up along the edge of the creature’s face before they broke away, giving way to smooth bone white skin. His eyes were closed, lips blue and slightly parted. Turney could see a hint of fangs. He wasn’t sure what the performer was, but he knew he wasn’t human… At least, he didn’t smell human. To Turney, all humans had a certain smell to them, on top of their individual scents. Sadly, to him, that certain smell was also food-like…with their…brains and all.
“Do you know him?” Turney asked.
Scarlett and Min-ji pushed through the crowd then. Curiously, their costumes were swapped. Alexander and…oddly, Theo plus Sprinkle came next. And well… he could hear Cormac, even if he couldn’t see him.
“Stupid fucking tail!” The werewolf growled from somewhere in the startlingly quiet crowd.
Octavius stared at the dead naga, his mind screaming ‘who the fuck is this?’. The audacity of them, dying and interrupting his party! The show had been so cool and spooky, and now no one was going to get to see it!
“I have no clue. He is one of the performers though. I previewed the show, but I wasn’t informed of anyone’s name, or anything like that…” He pursed his lips into a pout. “Henry!” he called out.
His youngest fledgling pushed through the crowd then…followed by Cormac, who was only partly dressed as a siren, his tail now gone. The wolf was walking around in tight purple boxer briefs, looking completely unashamed.
“Where is your tail?” Octavius huffed in added irritation, shaking his head. “Never mind. Henry, could you—” His words cut off in a horror laced gasp as he caught sight of Scarlett and Min-ji. “How could you?!” he cried.
“Umm…Octavius,” Turney chimed in. “Not that costumes aren’t important, but the dead body?” He waved towards the downed paranormal.
Octavius let out a sigh, and then glared at the two women. He’d deal with them later! “Fine! The dead body… As we are a detective agency, it is only right that we solve this mystery. Henry, could you be a dear and fetch the leader of the performers? Well, he’s the owner of the company too… Either way, he should be around here somewhere. Someone in one of the rooms should have a walkie talkie to communicate directly with him. Though, I suppose I could text him…” He shook his head. “No, his phone is likely off. Just go find him.”
Henry nodded and started to push back through the crowd, Cormac following behind him. Though, he supposed the performers that had been waiting to drop down from their spots in the ceiling had already run off to find the owner of the performance company. He no longer sensed any heartbeats hidden up above, so he was going to assume they had.
As Henry disappeared, Octavius turned and faced the crowd, who were all staring at him. “Ah, my dear friends. As you can see, there has been an unfortunate event on this side of the party. Why don’t you all head back through the woods, and have a little fun over there while we, uh…handle this.”
He smiled at them brightly and encouragingly. Catching the eye of his oldest fledgling, he nodded towards the exit with a stern expression when he saw her and the rest of his crew attempting to approach. She visibly sighed in irritation, but nodded and started guiding the other five out with the rest of the crowd. He did not need them to interfere.
As the crowd started to exit, he scooted over to Min-ji and whispered, “I need you to run outside and put up a barrier to prevent anyone from leaving, humans and paranormals alike.”
“I can just tamper with the one I already set up to prevent unregistered guests from entering, so that no one can come in or out,” she whispered back.
“Good, do that.”
She nodded. Min-ji and Scarlett slipped quickly through the remaining crowd and disappeared.
There was a loud throat clearing.
Octavius turned and narrowed his eyes at the reaper who had made the noise. “Yes?”
“Octavius…be nice,” Turney whispered as he slid up beside him.
“I’m always nice,” he hissed.
The zombie gave him a look at that. It screamed disbelief. How rude!
Sighing, he eyed Alexander. The reaper was dressed appropriately, for once—a jester’s costume was very fitting for his existence.
His brow rose a bit as he noticed that the male had a hand on Theo’s back—interesting. Alexander, as he always did, had an annoyingly bright smile on his face. Theo…looked concerningly tired.
The male cleared his throat again. “Perhaps I should take over, considering this is a dead paranormal, and I am a reaper?”
Octavius just barely held back the anger that tried to bubble up at the suggestion. Instead of screaming, he tossed his head back on a dramatic hmph and said haughtily, “My house, my case.”
Turney sighed next to him. The zombie sounded exasperated. He wasn’t sure why. It was Octavius who should be exasperated! It was his party that had been interrupted! Well, at least everyone would be talking about this one for years. Like, how many Halloween parties could tout having an actual dead body show up? Maybe this was a good thing? Perhaps, this would become the greatest party of all time! One for the record books! Yes, this was a good thing. He could spin this.
“Um…Octavius?” Turney prodded.
He blinked and then eyed the zombie. “What?”
“You zoned out.”
“No…I don’t think I did,” he drawled innocently. Even though he so totally had.
His gaze flicked back to the reaper. Alexander’s smile got stupidly brighter.
“Octavius,” the reaper started coaxingly. “Surely, I could be of help?”
Octavius pursed his lips and eyed him narrowly. If Alexander wanted to, the reaper could take over and kick them off the investigation. So, an offer to help was, he supposed, better than letting him take over.
Fine, Octavius would compromise. He could do that. Compromising was the easiest and least annoying option.
“I suppose, if you wish to help, you may. But only help. Let’s be clear, this is my investigation.”
The reaper nodded. “Yes, I understand. I’ll only help. You are in charge.”
“Yes, well…” He drew in a deep breath and let it out. Glancing around, he smiled when he found the room was now clear. Clear meant the candy bowl was now completely unobscured. He eyed it. It would be so easy to just walk over and take a piece. Turney would likely try to stop him. But if he flew away… No! He’d be good. He’d stay away from the candy.
“Uh…Octavius?” Turney nudged him.
He blinked… Right, he’d been in the middle of saying something…what had it been? “Oh! Yes.” Octavius cleared his throat and glanced at Alexander. “If you must help, then feel free to examine the body and tell us what you find.” He waved towards the dead body.
Alexander, with a smile still on his face, pulled away from Theo and walked over to crouch down near the body. The naga’s head was cracked open, probably from the fall… The question was, had he been dead before he fell? And if he hadn’t, how had such a fall killed him? It wasn’t as if he was human. His reflexes should have been enough for him to jump free of the falling chandelier. And if he’d been impaired in some way…well, the current crack in his skull wasn’t really enough to kill a creature such as him. Nagas…were a pain in the ass to kill.
Alexander checked each limb, which was pretty easy to do due to the sparse costume. Then again, the performer’s role had been to use his naga abilities to frighten the crowd. It was hard to do that when restricted by a full body costume.
“No defensive wounds, or noticeable injury, besides the head,” Alexander murmured, before lifting up the male’s eyelids. The smile on his face instantly became tense. “The veins in his eyes have turned violet.”
“Murdered then,” Octavius said with a frustrated huff.
Just his luck that some asshole ended up poisoned at his party…like, the nerve!
A thought occurred to him as Alexander moved to check other parts of the dead naga. Pulling out his phone, Octavius flipped it open and tapped on a writing app. He titled a new document Murder Mystery at the Scarlett Estate. Quickly, he typed up what had happened, and what Alexander had said about the body.
The reaper opened the paranormal’s mouth wider, leaning forward to sniff. “Smells like cardeum.”
“That would certainly do it,” he drawled with a bored sigh, before adding it to his notes.
Alexander stood up. “No other injuries, besides the one which was caused by the fall. I will say, I smelled death when I first entered the ballroom. So, he was dead before the fall. But he is still warm enough for his blood to run, so he didn’t die too long ago.”
“So…someone poisoned him, but it took a moment to work?” Turney asked.
Alexander shrugged. “It’s a slow acting poison until it actually hits.”
“What he means by that is, the man probably felt perfectly fine and normal up until the very moment he died. This particular poison will spread through one’s body without notice until it has fully contaminated every organ. And then it will shut your system down. To note, this was probably not a random target. Cardeum is a rare and strange choice poison-wise. It is perfectly harmless to the undead, humans, and a good number of other paranormals. But, for reptilian type creatures, like the victim, it is fatal.”
Alexander leaned closer to the chandelier. “It looks like it was tampered with.” He pulled at the part that was supposed to keep it attached to the ceiling. “Lines were cut.”
“What is he?” Turney asked.
“He’s—”
“Kristof!!” a male voice cried out in pure devastation.
Octavius eyed the phantom who ran in and skidded to a stop before reaching the body. Henry and Cormac followed in more slowly.
Jagger Grandor was what all those romance books would consider to be tall, dark, and handsome. Black hair, fair skin, symmetrical features. He wasn’t bad on the eyes, but something about him was irritating. Like, he was just a little too perfect.
Octavius’ gaze flicked to the male’s outfit. It was fitting, gray and ragged—very ghost-like. The phantom didn’t have any make-up on, but, then again, he didn’t need it. All he would have to do to pull the look together would be to transform into his phantom state.
Alexander started to approach, but Octavius waved him off with his hand. The reaper’s brow rose, but he stayed back.
Good! Because this was his investigation! Not that Octavius wanted to investigate right now…but how could he let the reaper have this?! The murder happened in his own house! Well…in Scarlett’s. But he was living here now, so that made it his too! He couldn’t let Alexander take over something that happened in his domain, it would be too…annoying.
“Kristof!” Jagger cried out again. “How could this happen?!” The phantom was literally shaking apart where he stood, staring down in horror for a few moments before he began to sob. It was…an odd reaction for a boss to have towards the death of an employee.
Considering he had some experience in this type of thing, having gotten to experience it only recently, Octavius thought the reaction was more fitting for how one would react to losing a lover. But…if he wasn’t mistaken, Jagger was married to a woman…not a man.
Frowning, he scooted over to the sobbing paranormal and awkwardly patted his back. “There, there,” Octavius said.
“Octavius…” Turney whisper yelled.
“What? I’m comforting him.”
“Badly,” his zombie hissed.
He…couldn’t deny that. So, he didn’t try to and decided to simply ignore the comment. Was it really his fault though? The reaction was weird! “So, Jagger. This is obviously a trying time for you, but can you tell me what your relationship with the deceased was like?”
“He w-was my longtime lover.”
“I see,” Octavius said slowly. “You are married, are you not?”
“Ah, my wife and I are poly. She is fully aware, and part of, all my relationships. Including w-with Kristof.” He let out another sob.
“That would explain things.” It definitely explained his reaction. “Your wife isn’t here tonight, is she?”
Jagger sniffled. “No…why do you ask?”
Turney cleared his throat and nudged Octavius out of the way a bit. “Well, I’m sad to say… Perhaps you should sit down for this, uh, Jagger?” he said hesitantly.
Hmm, was this considered tactful? Octavius supposed he had just planned to blurt it out.
Henry, the wonderful fledgling that he was, appeared out of nowhere with a chair and sat it down near Jagger. He beamed at the vampire, who just shook his head before walking over to the bar Cormac was sitting at, and sat down next to him.
Jagger, while still obviously distraught, was looking confused now as he sat down. “What…is it? Was it not an accident? Though…Kristof was a pro. I just can’t believe he would misstep and fall to his death like this. He was so agile, athletic, flexible…smooth…”
Octavius grimaced. That was way more than he wanted to know.
Turney’s mouth twitched as he was obviously trying to control his expression. He succeeded way better than Octavius. Of course, he hadn’t bothered to try…oh well. Maybe next time there was a murder he’d do better. But really, he was in party mode, not work mode. He shouldn’t have to control his face when in party mode… IT WAS AGAINST THE RULES OF PARTYING! His rules, at least.
“So, after examining the body, we unfortunately discovered that Kristof did not die of natural causes,” Turney explained.
Yes, that was very nicely put… Octavius had just been planning to say that someone murdered his ass. Well, not those exact words. Maybe, ‘Oh, Kristof was poisoned to death!’ Something dramatic like that. With some flare, maybe some hand waving.
“W-what do you mean?”
Apparently, being nice was not clear enough.
“He was murdered,” Octavius blurted before the zombie could stop him. Turney sighed.
“MURDERED!? My Kristof was murdered?! By who?! Why?!”
“That is the question, isn’t it? I’m guessing it wasn’t you. Though, if it was, we will find out eventually. And it’s not your wife as she isn’t here. Unless she snuck in somewhere.”
Jagger’s back stiffened. “My wife and I did not murder Kristof.”
“Yes, well…do you have any idea who it could be?” he asked.
Turney smiled gently at the phantom. “Was Kristof your only other partner?”
Jagger sighed. “I suppose anyone I’m involved with will be a suspect now. I just can’t think of who would hurt him. Everyone knows they each have an equal sized place in my heart.” He paused, his bottom lip quivering. “We have always made it clear to everyone that jealousy would not be accepted in our relationships or near it. I…”
Yeah, he was going to guess that plenty were able to hide it then, since they knew of this rule. He never understood people stepping into a relationship they didn’t want in the first place. “I’m sorry that we must ask, but we have no choice. Please, tell us who else you and your wife are involved with.” He waited, phone in hand, ready to type up a list.
“Well, there is Jessica Bell, Jordan Deti—”
Octavius’ right eye began to twitch as Jagger’s list went on. How did they have time to sleep? In full bafflement, he typed every name Jagger listed. The phantom’s list was so long that it took up multiple pages of his document. Turney made an odd choking noise beside him.
“Wow,” he heard Cormac whisper behind them.
