Loopholes - Part 3

Tariq stood and waved, swallowing hard, the moment he saw Leda walk in the door of the coffee shop. Coffee cakes and cappuccinos waited on the table before him.

Leda automatically pushed the coffee cake away and started adding sugar to her cappuccino.

"What’s going on?” Tariq asked, covering Leda's small, cold hand with his large warm one. She'd been staring into her cappuccino, stirring ceaselessly, for the past five minutes.

Leda pulled her hand from under Tariq's, before looking up into his concerned hazel eyes. "A friend of mine is in trouble. It's serious ... a Council matter.”

"Anyone I know?"

"Sebastian."

"I see."

"How much do you know?"

"I know that he's wanted in connection with the deaths of a young couple he was seen leaving the Uptown Bar & Grill with last night. He was turned in by another vampire ... a female."

"Really?"

Tariq nodded. "She told us exactly where to find them. They were in an abandoned warehouse out by RIDC Park."

"Did you get her name?"

"No. Anonymous tip."

Leda snorted derisively. She had a pretty good idea of the identity of Tariq’s anonymous tipster, but she kept her mouth shut. This must have been what Tariq had wanted to talk to her about by the river. Since a vampire had turned Sebastian in to the police, it stood to reason the she had also already turned him in to the Vampire Council. Tariq couldn’t help after all.

"I have to go," Leda said, standing abruptly. Her chair crashed to the floor, drawing the attention of everyone in the coffee shop. She picked it up and removed her coat from the back of it in one fluid motion before heading toward the door. "Thanks for the cappuccino and coffee cake," she called back over her shoulder.

"Leda, wait." It was no use. Tariq watched her disappear into the night like a girl in a magic trick.

Once outside, Leda threw caution to the wind and climbed the fire escape of a nearby building, then proceeded to leap from rooftop to rooftop until she reached her own apartment building.

"Sebastian? You here?"

He wasn't of course. What Leda did find was a note that read:

You know better. Come to the Council office in the morning, when you finish your shift. Your pre-dawn rendez-vous with Detective Assad is canceled.

Is there anyone who doesn’t know that Tariq and I meet by the river after work every day? Leda wondered.

Leda ripped the note into shreds. She threw the torn pieces to the floor where they lay on the carpet like confetti after a ball game. As she left her apartment to go to work, Leda slammed the door hard enough to cause the dog in the apartment below to start barking.

She spent a restless night at work. She couldn’t focus on anything. She vacillated between worrying about Sebastian and worrying about herself. When her shift finally ended at 6 a.m., Leda quickly gathered her coat and went to her meeting with the director of the Vampire Council.

Leda entered a board room furnished with a huge mahogany table surrounded by plush beige leather arm chairs. Photos of past council members hung on the interior walls. Directly opposite her were huge windows with the blackout blinds raised to allow the glow of the full moon into the room. The lights were turned off.

At the far end of the table sat the council director and the vampire who had turned Leda, Jean-Pierre. He motioned for Leda to sit in the chair to his left. She did.

“We have much to talk about, my dear,” he smiled.

Leda sat back in her chair, her arms folded across her chest. Jean-Pierre’s black eyes flashed a warning.

“What do you want to talk about?” Leda asked, uncrossing her arms.

“You know what, Leda. Don’t play games with me. I am talking with you alone because I am the only one who knows that you did not bring Sebastian in the moment you knew what he had done.”

“Perhaps this is my first time hearing about it.”

“Don’t insult me,” Jean-Pierre growled. “Sebastian confides in you. He trusts you. I knew exactly where to go when Moira told me what he’d done.”

Leda crossed her arms over her chest again.

Jean-Pierre chuckled. “Moira is not one of my favorite vampires, but she did abide by both human and Council laws, Leda. You did not.”

“I was going to bring him. I just wanted to see if there was anything I could do to help first,” she explained.

Jean-Pierre leaned forward. The pinky ring on his left hand glowed dully in the moonlight. Why does he like sitting in the dark? Leda wondered. He took one of her hands in his, a fatherly gesture that was incongruous with his wrinkle-free face and thick black hair.

“You should have called me right away, Leda. You know the rules. You know there is nothing I would not do to help you.”

Leda nodded, not meeting Jean-Pierre’s eyes.

“You are fortunate that Moira came to me privately. She thought the news would be better received by the council if it came from me.”

Leda snorted. “She has a reputation, Jean-Pierre.”

“How does that change what Sebastian did?”

“It doesn’t.” Leda looked down at her folded hands. “Her methods of getting information have come under question before.”

“Yes. Other Council members believe she wants a seat of her own when we have our next centennial transfer. Fortunately for me, the director’s seat only changes once every thousand years,” Jean-Pierre smiled.

Leda dared to ask the question that had plagued her mind since she received Jean-Pierre’s note. “What’s going to happen to Sebastian?”

Jean-Pierre sat back in his chair and crossed his fingers behind his head. “What do you think will happen to him? He murdered two humans. What would happen to a human who committed murder?”
Leda bowed her head.

“It is absolutely forbidden for vampires to feed on humans, Leda. You know that.”

“Others have gotten away with it.”

“They didn’t encounter Moira.”

“Do you use her to find vampires who break the rules? Is that what you’re telling me?”

“Not at all, but she does have a certain value to us.”

“Sebastian covered up his crime. No one would have ever known.”

Jean-Pierre shook his head. “Don’t kid yourself. He was seen with them. It wouldn’t have taken your capable Detective Assad to figure out that Sebastian was guilty. And then he would have come to me. It was always going to end up this way, Leda. Accept it.”