Arabella

Chapter 10

The door opened and Arabella stepped inside. She was tired and needed a shower. She glanced into the living room and saw Jake sprawled across her couch sleeping with a book in his hand. Arabella walked over and pulled the blanket she kept on the recliner over Jake and headed into the bathroom.

Done in the bathroom, she followed her nose to the kitchen. God she loved a man who could cook! Jake was proving to be useful in this and with the nights she was going to have to clear his name, she was going to need a lot of food.

She stepped silently into the kitchen and piled her plate with roasted chicken, mashed potatoes, and some snap peas. Not bothering with the microwave, she put her plate on the table and started the coffee pot.

She replayed the last hours in her head. She had went to Mr Blue's house to see what she could find from the crime scene. Unfortunately, the place was still crawling with cops and techs. Not to mention the reporters. She considered stealing one of their coats, but she knew the scene would be closely monitored. A supernatural and a human would be assigned to the case.

Supernaturals had their own police and laws that were upheld to the best of their capability. It's not easy to monitor supernaturals, considering all the different powers. Not to mention that humans sometimes get caught up in their world. Hence, a human and super worked cases where the humans were involved in the supernatural world. The humans who worked with supers had specials charms that would resist spells such as glamouring and mind reading. She wouldn't know which humans were in the know until she tried a glamour on them. If it failed... well, one worst case she would be thrown in a supernatural jail for tampering with an ongoing case.

Instead, she had Lily go in to see if she could learn anything. It was a long shot, and Lily didn't come up with much. Lily was able to confirm part of what Jake told her. Blue's throat was slit and his home ransacked. There were cameras, but they had somehow been disabled. The alarm company confirmed that the alarms were on line until eleven PM, but the victim's time of death was approximately one-fifteen in the morning. Who would wait from eleven pm to one in the morning if they were going to murder someone? Too much could happen in that time frame. Unless the time frame is wrong. Arabella finished her food and a strong coffee and got to work. Her next step would be the security firm protecting Mr. Blue's house.

***

Jake woke up to incessant tapping. He wasn't too sure where he was either. He had a soft blanket covering him and he was on a couch. He took a calming breath and everything over the last forty-eight hours came back. "Damn", he muttered as he sat up. He looked around the room and noticed the tapping was typing. He glanced at his phone for the time: three-thirty two am. He glanced at Ara's back and saw she was very absorbed in whatever she was doing on the computer. He stretched and stood, debating on whether or not to interrupt and decided based on her mood earlier, it probably wasn't the best idea. Bathroom break instead.

Jake cleaned himself up and decided coffee was in order. He started brewing coffee, extra strong. There was no way he was going back to sleep. He needed to know what Arabella learned. He hoped she hadn't figured out where he really was doing during Blue's murder. Sometimes the truth is worse.