When the Shadows Fall by Elise Noble
CHAPTER 30 - ALARIC
“IS THIS WHAT it’s like to be a parent?” Beth asked Alaric. “Feeling sick while you wait to get called into the principal’s office?”
An admin assistant had left them waiting on two hard wooden chairs in an anteroom. Neither of them had seen Sky yet, but she’d explained what happened over the phone. Give the kid points for quick thinking.
“Guess I’ve been lucky so far. Rune never gets into trouble. The one time I got called into the headmistress’s office, she spent half an hour talking to me about the benefits of their advanced math program over coffee and then ran her foot up my leg.”
Beth spluttered out a laugh. “And what did you do?”
“Pretended I didn’t notice and moved my chair back.”
“Do you think it was an accident?”
Absolutely not. The woman had kicked her shoe off, and her toes had practically been in his crotch.
“Rune said Mrs. Penlington never normally wears perfume, lipstick, and mascara all on the same day.”
“Gosh. I bet that made the next parents’ evening awkward.”
“For Mrs. Penlington, not me. I took Ravi along and introduced him as my fiancé. She was speechless for a good twenty seconds. Of course, at that point I didn’t think I was actually going to get married, so explaining your presence in my life might be interesting.”
“Perhaps she’ll be speechless for thirty seconds this time?”
Alaric loved that about Beth. The way she took all the little difficulties in her stride. The big ones too. For the first few weeks after the Devane episode, she’d insisted on sleeping with a light on, but she could cope with the dark now. Her ankle was fully healed, and last week, she’d got behind the wheel of a car again. They’d only driven around the Riverley estate, but it was progress. Plus she’d been surprisingly understanding when she found out Alaric really did have a fling with Ravi.
He hadn’t asked Beth to marry him yet, but he would. Soon.
In one week, four days, and ten hours.
He was tempted to lean over and kiss her, but he heard voices outside the door, and one of them belonged to Ezra Rosenberg. The man had a way of sounding both authoritative and whiny at the same time.
Maybe Alaric should have gone for an inappropriate smooch. Like father, like daughter.
“Mr. and Mrs. Milburn.” Rosenberg shook both of their hands. “Perhaps you’d like to take a seat in my office? Thank you for coming at such short notice.”
“What else would we do? You said there was a problem with our daughter?”
“Coffee? Tea?”
“I don’t need a drink; I need an explanation.”
“Yes, yes, I understand. There was a small incident involving Sky last night, and while it was relatively minor, I believe in nipping these things in the bud before they escalate. Tell me, has Sky shown much interest in boys before?”
Beth did a great job of looking shocked. “Boys? No, never. What happened?”
“I came across your daughter with a boy in the staff area. They were…” Rosenberg cleared his throat. “They were kissing.”
“I see,” Alaric said, taking the opportunity to slip a bug under the desk while Rosenberg fidgeted with his handkerchief. The guy was so uncomfortable, it was amusing.
“I spoke to Sky this morning, and she told me it was she who’d instigated the kiss. It can’t be allowed to happen again.”
“We’ll talk to her.”
Tell her not to get caught next time.
“I’m afraid it’s not quite as simple as that. The boy involved also claimed he was the instigator, and I’m inclined to believe him. I’m afraid…” Rosenberg inhaled, held the breath for a beat, then slowly let it out. “I’m afraid the boy is my nephew. We’ve had a few problems with him, and I can only apologise for him corrupting your daughter. Here at Shadow Falls, we take discipline very seriously, and honesty is one of our core values.”
Alaric almost laughed out loud. Honour among thieves, right?
“I appreciate your candour.”
“Last night, I sent them to their respective rooms, but we need to take steps to avoid a repeat of the issue.”
“They’re teenagers, Mr. Rosenberg. Telling them not to do something usually has the opposite effect.”
A lesson Alaric had learned first-hand. When his parents banned him from bringing girls home, he’d lost his virginity in the back of a diplomatic limousine.
“We’ll put measures in place. Additional monitoring to keep them apart out of hours, that sort of thing.”
Additional monitoring? This might be a problem.
“Is that really necessary?”
“Where my nephew is involved? I’m afraid so.”
“I’ll have a talk with Sky,” Beth said. “She never normally behaves like this. I think the move’s unsettled her. Having to leave her previous school and her friends with so little notice wasn’t easy, but the promotion was an opportunity Alan couldn’t afford to pass up.”
“We’ve had many students in the same situation. I’m sure you’re right and this is just a temporary blip. Her teachers report she’s getting excellent grades, plus she excels in sports. And her mixed media portrait of a young President Clinton was something to behold.”
Bill Clinton? The jelly bean thing? Sky said that was Tom Cruise.
“Good to hear.”
“We don’t want to disrupt her schooling, but I wanted you to be aware that she shares some classes with my nephew. Scheduling difficulties mean it won’t be easy for her to change groups, but if you want us to look at alternate solutions…”
“They’ll be fine. How much trouble can they get up to with a teacher in the room?”
“I hoped you’d say that. Thank you for your understanding.”
“We’ve all got Sky’s best interests at heart.”
And speaking of Sky, Alaric needed to find her and give her the latest piece of news.
“How’d it go?” Sky asked.
Alaric embraced her in a slightly awkward one-armed hug and slipped a new comms system into her pocket. Nate had made this one to look like a pair of silver earrings and a matching watch. And Beth had brought a new batch of bugs in her purse, each one individually wrapped in gold foil and nestled in what looked like a box of expensive chocolates. Nate had even included a bunch of real candies for effect.
“New boyfriend?”
“New cover story.”
Was that a hint of defensiveness in Sky’s tone? Cute.
“Sure,” Alaric said agreeably. “Whatever you say.”
“It’s true!” Then she looked away. “Sorry I fucked up again.”
“Oh, but you didn’t. The bug you planted last night picked up another clue. At least, we hope so. This morning, somebody in that office mentioned The Count of San Trior.”
“It’s a painting,” Beth filled in. “Quite a famous one, and it’s been missing for three decades. It was stolen from the Malermo Gallery in Turin.”
“Was it Dr. Merritt speaking? What did he say?”
“Dr. Merritt’s your chemistry teacher, right? Because we don’t have a transmission of your classes with him. Can you do a basic recording on your phone and email it afterwards? Then we can compare voiceprints.”
“Not until tomorrow. I don’t have chemistry today. But Asher records all the classes—I could ask him for one of the files. I’ll tell him I need to fill in some gaps in my notes.”
“That’s not a good idea at the moment.”
“What? Why?” Sky sagged, and her too-short tie swung forward. “Rosenberg?”
“He’s putting extra monitoring in place to keep you two apart.”
“Extra monitoring? What the hell is that supposed to mean?”
“He didn’t elaborate, and I didn’t feel it was the right moment to ask. He considered moving you to different classes, but we all agreed things can stay as they are. Apparently you both took the blame?”
“We did? Why? It was my fault.”
“Asher was trying to protect you.” And if he’d done that, he probably wasn’t a bad sort. “Beth and I are meant to be warning you off him.”
“And are you?”
“As your father, I’m going to give you this…” Alaric slid a condom into her pocket alongside the spare comms set. “And tell you to be careful. If you have any more questions, ask your mother.”
Beth elbowed Alaric in the side, her cheeks reddening nicely. He’d pay for that later, but you know what? He didn’t even care. In the last few weeks, he’d discovered that under her oh-so-English upper-class exterior, Beth hid a filthy side most people would never even guess at. If she wanted to spank him, he’d willingly bend over.
Thankfully, Sky changed the subject. “Who else was in Dr. Merritt’s office? Or was he talking on the phone?”
“We believe it was Saul Rosenberg.”
“Did they say anything more?”
“Not much. The unsub—unknown subject—said the people with The Count of San Trior had been in touch, and Saul said they’d talk about it at the meeting.”
“What meeting?”
“That’s a question we don’t yet know the answer to.”
“Is Saul the Master?”
“We don’t know that either.”
Sky harrumphed, frustrated, but at least things were moving in the right direction. They had leads now. It was just a question of slowly unravelling them. Alaric’s current hypothesis did indeed have Saul as the Master, a position he might well have inherited from his father. The timeline fit. Sandor Rosenberg would have needed an heir, and who better than one of his sons?
“So what do I do now?” Sky asked.
“Right now? I believe you solve quadratic equations and then go running.”
“Haha, very funny.”
“Just carry on exactly as you’ve been doing. Plant bugs when you can, but watch out for extra eyes. We’re getting closer. I can feel it.”
“Are you staying nearby?”
“For tonight. Tomorrow, I need to travel to Ohio with Emmy to follow up a lead on another case, but call if you need me. You’ll be okay?”
“I don’t have a lot of choice, do I?”
He gave her another dad-hug. “Thank you for doing this.”
“Hey, somebody’s paying me.”
“You know what I mean.”
Beth handed over her goodies. “Thank you from me too.”
“Figure I still owe you for nicking your car.”
As Alaric walked back to his vehicle with Beth, he felt eyes following. Ezra Rosenberg? He knelt to retie a shoelace that wasn’t undone and cut his eyes sideways. A man stood watching him from the shade of an old oak tree, half-hidden in the shadows. An inch or two shorter than Alaric, arms loose by his sides, wearing a school uniform. He glanced back at Sky for a second, and in profile, Alaric recognised him as Asher Martinez. Olive skin, tousled dark-blond hair. He’d inherited his father’s skin tone and his mother’s hair colour. Emmy had done a background check, of course, and they’d worked out where the third Rosenberg sibling had ended up. Asher’s life was one of tragedy. Losing not one parent but two would screw with anybody’s mind. How far gone was he? Research showed he’d veered off the rails and hung with the wrong crowd in San Diego, but he’d escaped charges thanks to some skilful negotiating by his father. After the final incident, he’d dropped off the radar for a year. Poof. Gone. No record of employment, he hadn’t paid any taxes, and he hadn’t gone to school. Then he’d shown up here for the last term of his junior year. Not the behaviour of your average nineteen-year-old.
When Alaric stood, he raised a hand in greeting so Asher would know he’d been spotted. A smile curled at Alaric’s lips when Asher tentatively waved back. Not a complete asshole, then. Alaric only hoped Sky knew what she was doing.
The next morning, Alaric paused with one hand on his fly. He should have been zipping it up and buckling his belt, but all he wanted to do was shuck his pants and climb back into bed with Beth. It was too early for a road trip with Emmy, let alone a seven-hour drive to fucking Ohio, and he also felt like an asshole for lying to the love of his life about the purpose of the trip. He’d stuck to the story he’d told Sky, but there was no lead. There wasn’t even a case.
It would be okay, he kept telling himself. If things worked out the way he hoped, Beth would forgive him, and if they didn’t work out… Well, Emmy knew how to keep her mouth shut.