I sighed as I realized what I was going to have to do. I hated having to talk to Jack.
Willow answered that she was working but she would come by after her shift ended in a couple of hours. I replied that was fine and asked her to pick up the pizza on the way then dialed Jack Stone’s phone number. He picked up on the second ring.
“Ali,” he answered. “What a surprise.”
“Don’t worry, I’m not calling out of the goodness of my heart.”
“I wish you would sometime.”
“Yeah, well, I wish I was still with the love of my life, but I guess neither one of us is getting what we want.”
I had been dating Sean for a few years, and I had been convinced we would get married and have little witches and wizards, when I walked in on him doing the dirty with Jack, who had up until that moment been my best friend. In a split second I lost both the love of my life and my bestie, and I hadn’t forgiven either one of them for it.
“What can I do for you then, if this is a business call?”
“Do you know Rudoldir? An elf? Super tall? Thinks someone is trying to kill him?”
“Sure, he came in the other day. He told me all about it. Has he hired you?”
“That’s right. Since you told him you’re in the business of solving crimes, not preventing them.”
“Well, I didn’t put it quite so harshly as that. I told him I was going to look into it, and I have, but I also can’t have someone following him around all day. That would be unrealistic.”
“Sure. So what did you find out? You looked into Andrei, the vampire?”
“I did,” Jack replied. “I really should get Rudoldir’s permission before telling you any of this…”
“Obviously he hired me since I know the story. And if someone is trying to kill him, don’t you think you should tell me what you know as quickly as possible? He thinks someone was going to try and do the deed already; they might not wait a while before giving it another shot.”
There was silence on the end of the line for a moment before Jack finally made up his mind. “Fine, you’re right. First though, you tell me what you know.”
I repeated the conversations with Rudoldir and with Ilona.
“Alright, that matches up pretty well with what I found out. I spoke with Andrei; he swears he bears no ill will towards Rudoldir, but I’m not sure. I looked into him a little bit. It sounds like the vampire is the kind of guy who thinks of himself as one of those big, strong businessmen with a reputation for being tough and mean but doesn’t actually understand the first thing about business. He seems to think this Trattoria business of his is going to grow like wildfire here in Mt. Rheanier and the rest of the Pacific Northwest and that it’s going to make him millions. So I did some digging as to why he left England, and it turns out his last business over there went under. He then got really lucky and inherited a huge life insurance settlement from an uncle who was murdered and decided to start anew again over here in the ‘New World.’” I could practically feel Jack doing air quotes through the phone at that last word.
“Did you look into the uncle’s death? That sounds pretty convenient.”
“I did,” Jack replied. “I had the same thought. It was legitimate. The uncle lived in a different part of England and had gotten into a fight at a bar one morning. They took it out to the parking lot, and he ended up stabbed by the other vampire. There were a dozen witnesses; the other vampire admitted to it; it’s open and shut. Andrei really did just get super lucky.”
“Ok,” I replied. “Do you get the idea that he’s a killer?”
“Anyone can be a killer, Ali. You should know that by now.”
“Yeah, but some people have those crazy eyes that just scream, ‘I’d be willing to stab someone if I got something out of it.’”
“I don’t think Andrei is that guy, but I think if he felt he could get something out of it, he would be willing to kill. It would be more premeditated, though.”
“If someone is going to make a second attempt – a full attempt this time - on Rudoldir’s life, it’s going to be premeditated.”
“Right. Anyway, I have no proof he was going to do anything. In fact, Andrei said that Rudoldir had actually helped him by telling him he needed to bring on someone who wasn’t a vampire as a partner.”
“And did he?”
“Andrei told me he’s in the final negotiation stages with someone.”
“So that would get rid of any reason he’d have to kill Rudoldir,” I muttered. “What about Jundordir? Did you speak to him?”
“Yeah, and I don’t think it’s him,” Jack replied. “He’s a young elf who doesn’t seem to care about anything in the world or have any ambition. Frankly, I think he’d actually be relieved if Rudoldir fired him.”
“Great,” I said. “So I’m back to Andrei being essentially the only suspect. Plus it sounds like Rudoldir leads the world’s most boring personal life.”
“Sounds like it,” Jack said with a chuckle. “Anyway, that’s all I’ve got. Let me know if you figure out who wants him dead, and I’ll arrest them.”
“I’ll tell Andy if I find out who wants him dead so that he gets the credit and not you,” I answered. Was I petty? Absolutely. But I figured I’d earned that right.
“Either way, I hope you succeed. I don’t want Rudoldir to die, and if he felt that sort of rage, I think
