Matt
Three hours later, I’m standing in front of Moonroot Apothecary with Nick. It looks like the fire started around five hours ago and was put out pretty much right away. The fire department had tried to contact the owners but couldn’t reach them.
It’s quite clear that the attempt was to burn the place down. They would have succeeded if we didn’t have an agent staking the place out.
She called 911 as soon as the fire started. She also made sure there weren’t any werewolf incidents before the human firefighters reached, but the werewolves had long disappeared.
Meena informed us that Dalton’s daughter and her husband didn’t return to their home after they closed up the shop.
With the agent tailing them distracted by the fire, they’re officially in the wind.
We’re still not sure if the fire was just a distraction or ifthey have something worth hiding inside. Now that the place is quiet, we sneak inside to look for ourselves.
Nick scrunches his nose. “I don’t know how you stand this smell so often. It’s making me dizzy.”
“I guess I’m used to it,” I comment absentmindedly, trying to find something in the black soot and shards of glass covering the shelves and the floor. Besides, it isn’t even that bad in here. The fire couldn’t have lasted more than ten minutes.
Then again, it was supposed to destroy the shop, wasn’t it? I closely inspect the shelves, littered with broken bottles.
“Definitely not just a distraction. They wanted to destroy evidence,” I say.
He comes and stands beside me. “Yeah? Why do you think that?”
“I mean, even if we assume everything they sell is highly flammable, the fire still shouldn’t have spread this quickly,” I explain, gesturing at the damage in front of us.
Nick nods. “So, let’s find out what they didn’t want us to find.”
We walk around the perimeter of the shop, flashlights in hand. The only noise is the crunch of glass under our boots.
I scope the shelves again, carefully looking for anything out of place.
“There’s a storeroom back here. I’ll check it out,” Nick says from behind the counter.
I nod, continuing my inspection. I move on to the next set of shelves, right next to a patch of empty wall. I turn the light towards the wall—
There’s a slit. I walk closer, my flashlight trained on the small gap.
It almost appears to be a door. I try pushing it open, but itdoesn’t budge.
“Nothing unusual, I think. I’ll still get a warrant— What have you got there?” Nick walks over.
“It’s a locked door,” I tell him, still pushing.
“Of course, it is,” he sighs. “Wait, don’t break it, not until we absolutely have to,” he says, taking out the set of keys he carries everywhere.
“Why didn’t the LAFD check in here?” I complain, already thinking of the lecture the on-duty firefighters will get the next time I see them. Casually, of course. Can’t really tell them I broke into one of the fire scenes. That’ll dampen the effect of the lecture.
The lock clicks, and Nick pushes the door open. I’m immediately bombarded by the sickly sweet smell of flowers and incense.
“Fuuuck!” I damn near shout.
“What?” Nick urgently asks.
“Oliver was here,” I whisper. The smell I got from him when I was too close. When I was trying so hard to figure out what happened to him. The same one that blocked our senses when Nick and I tried to surveil the shop.
What did these people do to my Oliver? Anger floods my veins. My claws snap out, and my eyes sharpen, focused.
A low growl starts from somewhere, and it takes me a second to realize it’s coming from me.
