Dead on Arrival, page 10
“So, wait a second… You’re telling me that Dom gave that plant to Giles as some sort of warning?” Thorn asked as we strolled toward the door, still struggling to understand everything I’d shared with him about my vision.
“Yes, exactly, and probably because he’d sensed that Oliver was souring on the deal Dom had offered him.”
“And you think that happened because of Giles talking him out of it?”
“More or less. Maybe Oliver realized he wasn’t as willing to throw his best friend under the broom for money as he thought he was.”
“I can’t believe he’d ever consider it. That doesn’t sound like the Oliver I knew in school at all,” Thorn said, and I shrugged.
“People change, and money has a way of getting them to show sides of themselves they normally wouldn’t. I mean, put yourself in his robes: If your entire business was crumbling around you and someone like Dom came to you with an offer you couldn’t refuse, what would you do?”
Thorn hesitated for several moments with his face scrunched up in thought. “I don’t know, honestly. I want to say my morals would be strong enough that I’d tell Dom to crawl back in his coffin, but I’m not sure.”
“And that’s exactly the point. No one’s totally immune to the lure of large amounts of money, not even the best among us. And I can tell you from first-hand experience that Dom can be both intimidating and persuasive.”
“Not to mention cutthroat,” Thorn said with a shiver. “I’ve gotta say, you handled talking with him better than I would’ve.”
“Well, if it makes you feel any better, I was a nervous wreck the entire time. I mean, he could’ve split me in half like a pencil without even batting an eye.”
“I try not to think about that… Anyway, shall we?” Thorn asked, gesturing at the front door.
“No time like the present,” I sighed and headed for the stairs. Thorn pulled the door open for me, but the lobby was empty. Given the hour, everyone was probably in the kitchen getting ready for dinner, so I headed straight there. Sure enough, several familiar faces sat around the massive table, and the potent smell of spices drifted from the prep room where Emile must’ve been whipping up his latest culinary masterpiece.
Jadis caught sight of us first and jumped up from her seat next to Blair and Kiki to run and meet us. “Selena! Blair told me about what happened at Petals & Potions. Is everything okay?”
I shrugged and gave her a hug. “It’s about as okay as we can reasonably expect it to be. Most of the building burned down and the bakery next door isn’t in great shape either, but as far as we know, no one got hurt.”
“Except for Giles, maybe,” Thorn chimed in, and my mind flashed back to the bag of ashes that Officer Kane had carried away from the scene.
Jadis’ brows furrowed. “Who’s Giles again?”
“Oliver’s business partner. The police think they trapped him inside the store during the fire because no one’s seen him, but they aren’t sure.”
“Yikes. Poor guy.”
“Yeah, he wasn’t the nicest vampire I’ve ever met, but even he didn’t deserve that.”
“Do the cops have any idea who or what might’ve started the fire?”
“Not yet, though Bella, the owner of the bakery next door, claims she saw someone with pink hair running around outside around the time the fire started. The description matches a student of Oliver’s, but I’m not convinced it was her. She and I have been texting back and forth since I met with her earlier today, and she’s got a solid alibi. She sent me a photo from where she sat in a classroom at the Institute.”
“Then who do you think did it?” Jadis asked, and I leaned sideways to look beyond her at the table for Dom. Unsurprisingly, he wasn’t there.
“I’m not sure, but I have a feeling someone here at the inn might know.”
Jadis’ eyes shot to mine. “You mean that creepy business vampire?”
“Exactly. Do you know where he is?”
Jadis shook her head. “Not a clue. He left not long after you two did, but he told Blair he probably wouldn’t be back in time for dinner.”
“That might not actually be a bad thing,” I said and shot Thorn a devious look as the gears of my mind rolled into action.
Picking up on my mischief, Jadis wiggled her eyebrows. “Oooh, what are you thinking?”
“Dom’s obviously got secrets, and I want to know what they are. Who does he work for? Where did he come from? How did he get all his money? Most importantly, what is he hiding in his room? There’s only one way to find out.”
“I dunno. I’m not sure this is the best idea. What if he comes back while we’re in there?” Thorn asked.
“Well, we could always claim we were cleaning,” Jadis said with a conspiratorial smile. “After all, he hasn’t let anyone in there in days, so it’s not like it would be unwarranted.”
“How would you get in there, though?” Thorn asked.
“We’re staff. We have a skeleton key for all the rooms,” I answered.
“Count me in. I’ll grab the key,” Jadis said and bolted out of the kitchen, presumably heading to the office behind the front desk where we kept all the keys. I made to follow her, but Thorn stopped me with a hand on my shoulder.
“Are you sure about this, Selena? I don’t want you getting hurt.”
“We don’t really have a choice. Dom might have incriminating evidence in his room, or at the very least something that could be a clue. Besides, that’s where you come in.”
“What do you mean?”
“You can keep watch in case Dom comes back while we’re still inside.”
“And what am I supposed to do if he does?”
“I dunno, make a signal or something to alert us.”
Thorn glared at me. “Selena, have you forgotten that he’s a vampire? You know, the kind of creature that can move at the speed of light?”
I hadn’t forgotten, but I also hadn’t really taken it into account. “So? You’ll still be able to see him, especially if you’re watching from above. And maybe I can have Blair or Kiki distract him when he comes in to buy us some extra time?”
“What’s this I hear about me?” Blair asked as she maneuvered around the table to join Thorn and me. “What are you up to now?”
I hesitated, unsure how much to share with my aunt. I knew she wouldn’t approve for a second of Jadis and I entering a guest’s room without their consent, but I couldn’t see another choice. Dom clearly had more to do with what happened at Petals & Potions than I knew and, short of having another vision, the only way for me to find out the extent of the vampire’s knowledge was to snoop around.
“I think Dom might know something about Oliver’s poisoning and the fire at Petals & Potions,” I finally said, and Blair’s eyes widened, so I continued. “Oliver and Giles were working on a vaccine for vampirism, and Dom wanted to buy exclusive rights to it. I don’t know how much, but apparently he was offering Oliver a lot of money — with the caveat he exclude Giles from the deal, even though Giles was the one responsible for figuring out how to make the vaccine work.”
“Why would Dom do that to Oliver?” Blair asked.
“Why pay for two people’s work when you can pay for one? Since Oliver’s technically the one who owns Petals & Potions and everything they’ve produced, Dom must’ve convinced Oliver that Giles had no claim to the profits from the vaccine.”
Blair scoffed. “Typical business person.”
“Right? But apparently, Giles had been somewhat successful in changing Oliver’s mind about the deal, and Dom wasn’t happy about that. I saw in a vision that Dom gave them both an azalea in a black vase, which apparently is a death threat in the language of flowers.”
The color drained from Blair’s face, and she brought one hand to her mouth. “Oh, dear Lilith… So, you think Dom poisoned Oliver and burned Petals & Potions to cover up the evidence? But wait, why would he do that if he could make so much money from them?”
I sighed and shrugged. “I don’t know, but he’s suspicious and fast enough that it could’ve been him. Regardless, I’m positive Dom knows more than he’s letting on about all this. That’s why Jadis and I want to search his room while he’s—”
“Absolutely not!” Blair interrupted, holding her hand out to silence me. “We aren’t in the business of violating our guests’ privacy. If it got out that we’d done so, we’d never see another guest here again.”
“I know, but that’s why we need your help to make sure he doesn’t find out.”
Blair opened her mouth to object, but Jadis came careening through the door — with empty hands. “Selena! Dom’s here!” she hissed, jabbing a thumb over her shoulder in the foyer's direction. “I just saw him in the lobby when I was coming out of the office, but he went straight to his room.”
“And why were you in the office?” Blair asked.
“To get the skeleton key for Dom’s room,” I answered for Jadis with my cheeks on fire.
Blair scowled at me. She stuck her hand out at Jadis and wiggled her fingers. “Hand it over.” Jadis rummaged in her pocket and pulled out the key, which she plopped in Blair’s hand. “Instead of ransacking our guest’s room, have you considered doing the polite thing and knocking on his door to talk instead?” Blair asked.
“Not until now,” I answered, and Blair didn’t look amused.
“Listen, Selena, I understand your desire to help figure out what happened to Oliver and Petals & Potions — trust me, I want to know as much as you do — but to sneak into Dom’s room? What if he’d come back while you were inside?”
“It was stupid, I know. I’m sorry. It’s just that after I saw what he’d done in my vision, I was desperate to find out what Dom knows.”
“About what?” a deep, chilling voice asked from behind and I froze.
Chapter Thirteen
When I finally found the courage, I turned and found Dom standing behind Jadis with his laptop tucked under one arm. Despite the hour, in his crisp tan suit he looked like he’d just stepped out to start his workday. How long had he been outside the door, and how much of our conversation had he heard?
Jadis hurried out of Dom’s way as he moved into the kitchen, heading for the same seat at the table where I’d spoken to him before. He set his computer on the table, pulled out the chair and sat, causing it to squeak under the weight of his tremendous frame. He locked eyes with me. “If you’re interested in talking business, I’m happy to chat — but I’m getting the sense that’s not what you wanted to ask me about, is it?”
Hesitantly, I made my way to the table and sat down across from him; there wasn’t any way out of having this conversation now, but I wouldn’t have dreamed of walking away, even if I could’ve. I felt like I was right on the cusp of putting all the pieces together, and of everyone who had any connection to Oliver, Dom seemed to me to be the one who had all the missing links — I just had to get him to tell me what they were.
“Petals & Potions burned down today,” I started uncertainly, and Dom nodded before steepling his fingers under his chin.
“I know; that’s why I stepped out. Since Oliver’s poisoning, I’ve been speaking with the police about my relationship with him and Giles. Understandably, they’ve had a lot of questions for me,” Dom said, and my head spun because if he’d really poisoned Oliver and burned down Petals & Potions, he wouldn’t have been willing to talk to the police; he seemed way too smart for that. Why hadn’t Officer Aimes mentioned that they’d been speaking with Dom, though? Then again, I guess I hadn’t really given her enough time before Thorn and I got back here.
So could Dom really be innocent? I’d seen nothing that directly tied him to either crime, and though he could’ve used his vampire super speed to set the fire and flee the scene, the more I thought about it, the less likely it seemed. It would’ve been far too risky because if he’d slowed down even for a second, he would’ve been unmistakable. No one would’ve missed a hulking vampire fleeing from a burning building, and besides, turning Oliver into a vampire via poisoning didn’t really seem like Dom’s style.
“Wait a second. You think I did all this, don’t you?” Dom asked bluntly, pulling me out of my head, but for several seconds I couldn’t get my mouth to form words. If Dom hadn’t hurt Oliver, and if he hadn’t torched Petals & Potions, then why had he given Giles the azalea? Dom chuckled. “I suppose it makes some level of sense to suspect me, given my relationship with Giles and Oliver — but why would I want to burn down a company that was about to make me a lot of money?”
“I’m still trying to figure that part out, honestly, but you sent Oliver and Giles a veiled death threat, so...”
Dom raised his eyebrows at me. “I’m sorry?” he asked, and I honestly couldn’t tell if he was playing dumb or if I’d genuinely surprised him.
“During the festival. I know you visited Giles’ table right after I did, and I know you handed him an azalea in a black vase,” I said, being intentionally vague to keep my visions a secret. “As far as I understand it, that’s a death threat in the language of flowers — a threat you made because Giles had talked Oliver out of taking your deal.”
Jadis stared at me blankly from across the table where she’d sat next to Dom. “Wait a second. Dom, can I use your computer for a second?” she asked, puzzling all of us. I expected Dom to say no, but he flipped open his laptop, typed in his password, and pushed it over to Jadis. “If it’ll help us make sense of all this, work your magic.”
Jadis hammered away at the keyboard, though I didn’t have a clue what she was looking for. After several moments where we sat quietly staring at each other and waiting, Jadis shouted, “A-ha,” then flipped Dom’s computer to point at a passage on the screen she’d highlighted. “I don’t think either of you understand the language of flowers very well.”
She’d pulled up an article on the various connotations associated with the azalea and highlighted one of its paragraphs. It read, “The azalea can have many meanings depending on its color, quantity, and presentation. Because the azalea is an all-female flower, it is most often associated with femininity, temperance, and maternal love. The flower has a darker side, however. If someone sends a pink azalea in a black vase, one can interpret it as a threat against their life. Despite that darkness, one of the most common meanings is to wish good luck to someone who’s about to face a decisive test.”
A persistent buzz started somewhere in the back of my mind as I re-read the paragraph several times and tried to fit everything into place. I’d made a critical mistake by believing Bella’s misinterpretation of the azalea at the crime scene and by carrying that misinterpretation into my vision of the confrontation I’d seen between Dom and Giles. When I looked back up at Jadis, she smiled smugly at me.
“You never intended to send a death threat to Oliver and Giles, did you, Dom?” she asked the vampire who shook his head vigorously.
“Not at all. I had no idea the color of the vase meant anything when I bought it. I was just trying to encourage Oliver to make the right choice in a language I knew he’d understand, but I guess I didn’t do enough research on that.”
“It was a test of loyalty, not a threat,” I muttered, more to myself than anyone else. Though the intended meaning of his “gift,” if anyone could call it that, didn’t change my opinion of Dom as a sleazy investor who’d pitted two best friends against each other with devastating consequences — and all for his own profit, no less — the gesture at least made more sense. Dom was right; I couldn’t figure out any believable reason that he’d want to hurt Oliver, physically or financially, given all the money Dom stood to make hinged entirely on Oliver’s decision.
“See what happens when you think you can solve things with me?” Jadis asked, deviling me, and I couldn’t help laughing despite the guilt her words had stirred up. I hadn’t tried to exclude her from all this. Things had just been moving so quickly that I hadn’t had time to slow down.
“Point taken,” I said. But if Dom hadn’t poisoned Oliver and set Petals & Potions ablaze, then who did? More than that, how did the same azalea Dom had given them end up outside Bella’s bakery — and what did it actually mean? Was it a death threat, or was it something else entirely?
Frustrated and confused, I wound both hands in my hair while my brain went into overdrive trying to keep everything straight. Where before I’d felt so close to figuring everything out, now I felt like all the answers were slipping through my fingers like sand.
Dom sighed. “I guess none of that matters now, though, does it? The police told me nothing survived the fire.”
“So that means your deal is …?”
“Dead on arrival, yes,” Dom answered with a sad smile. “Thankfully, though, we lost little in pursuit of it.”
“Who do you mean by ‘we,’ exactly?”
“Revenant Health, the national vampire healthcare company I work for. We’re based in Fort Fang,” Dom answered, as if I had any clue where that was or what any of what he’d said meant. Still, I understood enough to piece together why a company that specialized in vampire health would show such interest in a vaccine for their patients’ condition — no wonder they gave Dom free rein to throw so much money at Oliver.
“I take it that means you’ll be leaving soon then?”
“That depends on how long it takes the police to figure out what’s going on here. If I ran home now, that wouldn’t make me look very good.”
That implied the police must’ve also been considering other suspects, which got me wondering. “Do you know who else the police are talking to about all this?”
“No. Obviously, they can’t and won’t share any information about their investigation with me, but I have my own theories about what happened. Now that the deal’s toast and I can’t go home, I’ve had lots of time to do research,” Dom said and spun his laptop back to face him. He hammered away at the keyboard again, then turned the screen so I could see. He’d pulled up a picture of the ruins of Petals & Potions. “This is from the Starfall Valley Gazette. I’m no forensic expert, but I know enough about chemistry to say that the fire that burned Petals & Potions to the ground was magical, not chemical.”
