Chapter 65: Larissa
Kaelric’s POV
The weekend was over, and a new week came faster than I could ever have imagined. The weekend came and left in the blink of an eye.
The case was still pending, and the hearing was scheduled to commence today, as the council had been informed that Aria was well enough to stand before them.
Due to the ongoing case at the council involving two candidates for the upcoming elections, the elections were postponed.
I bet that the council room was already set, waiting for the council members to assemble.
I was informed that Tracy had already biased some council members against Aria, as some council members seem to take her side, regardless of how the case is presented against her.
Anyway, the case is still under investigation, and the footage didn’t show an apparent involvement between her and the vampires, so she wouldn’t be outwardly called the culprit.
Then there’s the shadow that has not been noticed all this time, ’Larissa’. I have to study her movements carefully.
This case has kept me restless throughout the weekend, and now I’m pacing around my office, trying to find clues. I wondered if the reason I took the case so personally was because it involved Aria, or if it was what I would naturally do. The answer was already glaring.
I went back to the footage recordings. I saw Larissa move out of the dormitory, her hair covered with some scarf, she walks into the same camera blind spot, through which Aria was taken on the night of her abduction.
The same pattern was detected.
"Hmm, but I wouldn’t really pin an accusation on her yet, until I find the student who abducted Aria and Becca," I murmured against my breath.
Soon classes were over, and the hearing had started, and before I could wrap my head around the scattered documents and footage on the screen, time was already far spent.
I packed my briefcase, set it on the couch in my office, and locked the door carefully to prevent anyone from getting inside and tampering with the evidence.
Now it is time for me to use my Dravari instinct.
I walked into the council room, ready to carry on the questioning, and was met with that familiar pull, the mate bond pull. I looked up, and it was Aria; she had just finished presenting her testimony.
She looked prettier than ever, and I wondered why I only felt this pull when I was close to her and not when she was in danger, as other mates felt.
A wolf only felt like this because it wasn’t an actual mate bond but a wolf bonding ritual that was made, maybe just in case the wolves had never met their fated mate.
And only one name stuck in my mind as I thought about a ritual: ’Andria’, my betrothed mate who had suddenly disappeared. But this couldn’t be her; she was different, and Andria couldn’t afford Ashwood without her family knowing her whereabouts.
One of the primary reasons I left home, apart from the kingdom protection spy business, was to escape the arranged marriage between me and Andria’s younger sister. I would choose the kingdom business many times over, marrying the lazy daughter of Alpha Darrien.
Could Aria be Andria? Could she be my betrothal? I shook the thought off my head and focused on the case ahead, smirking at her and enjoying the unease in her face and mind before heading over to Wayne.
The headmistress ordered her to leave, as she had finished giving her testimony. All the better, because I wouldn’t want her to witness what was about to happen to Wayne; she wouldn’t look at me the same ever again.
I bent down to make sure my eyes met Wayne.
"You were the face she saw inside the casino, close to the entrance of the dungeon. If you claim that you had no hand in the abduction, why were you there at that same instance?" I asked in a low tone, pronouncing each word carefully to ensure the question sank in.
"I was there to let them know that I was no longer interested in carrying out that job as it was very risky," Wayne maintained, looking from me to the headmistress.
I held his head, so I could not only read what he was thinking at the moment, but also see what he had done over the past few days through his mind. I had to hold his head.
The process was going to be a harrowing one, as it was only used on criminals during questioning.
"Brace yourself," I informed him, not out of pity, but to get him ready for the painful exercise.
"Arrgh, please make it stop, I’m innocent, I swear I wasn’t the one... I didn’t...no.." he screamed at the top of his lungs until he passed out.
There was nothing there, just him gambling, losing games and getting drunk, nothing really related to Aria’s abduction except the discussion he had with the vampires earlier on the kidnapping.
Lucas was next; he was already fidgeting, having witnessed what had happened to his friend.
"Now tell me for the last time, what do you know about the abduction of Aria?" I asked, staring into his eyes, and he kept averting his eyes. He didn’t have that false confidence he had the other day when he was under the influence of Alcohol.
"I swear, I..I don’t have..I don’t know anything about the abduction. I thought it had been clarified. She didn’t see me inside the casino; I wasn’t even close at the time of abduction, so how am I still a suspect?"
He stammered, his eyes wide open like he was staring death in the face and trying to bargain with it.
"You always forget that you were seen, or rather detected by the footage, to be around the casino premises almost the same time of the abduction, in fact, Zade and the Alpha successors seem to have even met you too in the same place when he came in search of Aria, and besides, why didn’t alert anyone when you saw Aria, if you say you weren’t involved."
I reminded him, and without any more words, I placed my hands on the side of his head.
"Arrgh," he groaned and much faster than Wayne, he passed out.
I breathed in and out, and I saw what I was looking for. He had a conversation with Larissa concerning Aria and the business.
Somehow, Larissa had found out about Zade’s apartment and had decided to visit him. And instead of meeting Zade, she meets his housemates.
She is pissed off that she hardly meets Zade at home, but she decides to befriend him either way to keep at least someone close to monitor Zade.
Lucas later finds out that Larissa was Aria’s housemate and decides to make her monitor Aria as well, unaware that Larissa was the one who orchestrated the whole setup.
Although he had feigned disinterest in the business with Wayne, he really wanted to undertake the job and do it alone, enjoying the profit, playing it out with Larissa
"What’s that?, You look lost," the headmistress asked, scrutinizing me.
"Call in Larissa, she needs to answer some questions, this looks like a set-up," I said, looking into the headmistress’s eye.
"Right away,’ she said, and in split seconds, Larissa was in the council room.
She looked confused, as though she was unaware of her actions.
"I wouldn’t bother to ask you any questions, because you seem like a good liar, so let’s skip the formalities,"
"Bind her and take her to the questioning seat," I ordered the security personnel who brought her in.
"Whatever is going on, don’t you think I deserve to know?" She said with fear written all over her face as she looked over at Lucas’s passed-out body on the floor.
"Ok, since you want to know what is going on, although it wouldn’t make a difference, I’ll ask you some questions and if your answer doesn’t satisfy me, I’ll go ahead with what I was about to do, and I promise you, it’s going to be very painful, you are likely to join your pal on the floor."
"Ok, sir, I’ll try my best to answer your questions in a way that I hope will be satisfying," she replied, with a trembling voice.
"Now, what do you know about Aria’s abduction?" I asked her, locking my eyes with hers.
She stared into my eyes and then averted it.
"I don’t have so much time for you to waste, and if you don’t answer me quickly, I’ll go ahead with my decision," I reminded her.
"I don’t know anything about Aria, except that she is my flat-mate, and she has not slept in the apartments for a while because rumor has it that she was abducted," she replied in a shaky tone, goosebumps were already formed all over her body.