Chapter 8

We gotta go to the office today, boss." Alex says, with a forkful of scrambled eggs that Nicole had prepared for breakfast, as Dante entered the kitchen. Nicole was busy ripping a piece of bacon before stuffing the piece she broke off into her mouth while Victor was spreading jam on a slice of toast. Dante nodded toward Alex before taking a seat across from Nicole, sharing a quick glance with her.

"So, Nicole,'' Victor begins, "What were you doing in Dante's room all night?" Nicole chokes on the bacon in her mouth while Dante coughs up juice. Victor smiles at their reaction while Alex looks back and forth between the two.

"Did something happen?" Alex asks leaning forward with curiosity.

"Poor Alex. You have much to learn about the adult world." Victor says with feighed sorrow.

Dante clears his throat and looks over at Alex, "What's planned for today?"

Alex pouts before answering, "Another board meeting and Detective Brian made an appointment to see you."

"Ugg!" Dante groaned and fell back on his seat, "What does he want now?" After a moment of silence filled with the sound of chewing, Dante looked over at Alex who was enjoying his eggs, then fully turned to face him.

"No!" Alex said even though Dante didn't say a word, "You have to go to the meeting and if you avoid Detective Brian, you will appear suspisious."

"Touché." Dante replied, sounding defeated as he turned back in his chair to face a smiling Nicole.

~~~

"Sometimes I wonder why I ever decided to become a businessman." Dante complained as he loosened the maroon tie around his neck on his way to his office, Alex walking beside him.

"Well, it's your fault you didn't want to appoint a CEO, so you gotta do everything yourself." Alex replied making Dante stop. Upon realisation Alex continued walking, "No! No and again no. I will quit my job if you ever think about making me CEO."

"Well, think about it!" Dante calls and runs to catch up with Alex, "Your father was CEO, it's only fitting that you take the position and follow in his footsteps."

"Dante," Alex says coming to a stop again, "Remember the favour I asked you when I agreed to work for you?" Dante sighs but nods.

"Fine, fine. I'll just suffer by myself." Dante enters his office to find a patient looking Detective Brian in one of the seats, "Detective Brian." Dante greets as he heads over to the man who stands to greet him as well, "How may I help you today?"

"I have a few questions for you." Brian replies but looks over at Alex warily.

"Thank you Alex, that will be all." Dante says looking at Alex who nods and leaves the office, "More questions." Dante says and heads over to his seat behind his desk, "At this rate I might as well as be google."

Brian chuckles at the lame joke and takes a seat as well, "Yes, but that is the procedure." Brian takes out a notebook from his inner pocket and opens it on an empty page, "Mr Cabrera, where were you between two and five pm yesterday afternoon?"

"I went to a night club with a friend of mine." Dante replies. He would have lied but he felt no need to. The detective probably knew exactly where he was so lying would just add to the detective's suspision.

"A night club near the pier?" Brian questions.

"So you know it."

"Yes, I also know that the night club or warehouse I should rather say, burned down about half an hour after you've been there."

"Wasn't my luckiest day." Dante replies with an innocent smile.

"Uh-huh." Brian says and closes his notebook, "What were you really doing there, Mr Cabrera?"

Dante leans forward and rests on his forearms, "What do you think I was doing there, Detective Brian?"

Brian clicks his tongue in thought, looks out the window and nods to himself as though he made up his mind, "What I'm about to tell you, is highly confidential" Brian begins, "We know that the nightclub is a cover for something else. We've been investigating it for some time now but we've come up with nothing. Until yesterday. We finally got one of our men in but before he could get anything, the place burned down. Wouldn't it be a strange coincidence that the day we get an informant in, is the day you show up at the club and also happened to be the day the building burnt down?"

This time Dante clicked his tongue, "Strange coincidence." If the police were investigating the building it must mean that they know who owns the building, which could lead Dante to finding out who is making the new vampires or maybe confirming that it could be Remy. The only problem is, Remy doesn't have the intellect to pull something like this off without help, so there must be someone helping behind the scenes. Sounds like work for a very talented hacker that Dante knows.

"I think we can help each other out." Brian says leaning back in his chair, "You clearly know something, or is involved somehow."

"What makes you say so?" Dantes asks tilting his head.

"My man said he saw you with another man enter another room, a room he, for some reason, could not enter."

Of course no human could enter, a sensor above the door takes the temperature of those wishing to enter and then unlocks the door. A safety measure to keep unwanted guests out seeing as vampires have incredibly low temperatures. Quite a smart device which proved that this was definitely not Remy's doing. He could just be a puppet while the real mastermind operates from the shadows.

"I wish I could help you Detective but I am going to give you some advice instead: this is not a world you want to get involved in." Dante states.

"And what kind of world would that be? Drugs? Human trafficking?"

Dante smiled then leaned back in his chair, "If that is all, I have a lot of work to catch up with."

"Of course, being away from work for several days can do that to you." Brian says and gets up from his seat, he buttons his blazer then heads out the door with a short nod in Dante's direction.

Dante sighs in defeat and leans his head against the back of his seat and he sinks further into it. The door opens and Dante peaks through his closed eyes to see who it was. Alex walked over to Dante stopping in front of his desk.

"The detective's catching on." Dante says, he then sits up straight again.

"Mmm," Alex says looking down at his feet, he then looks up with a wicked smile, "So you got some work for me then?"

"You scare me sometimes Alex." Dante says shaking his head then gets up from his seat, "And what's with you lately?" Dante asks once he reaches the door, turning to look at a smiling Alex, "Have you turned psychic or something? You keep reading my mind." Alex chuckles then pats Dante's shoulder.

"It's in the job discription, boss." Alex says. Dante Hmphs before heading out the office, a smiling Alex trailing after him.

~~~

"What do you mean they are no longer there?" Dante asked. Victor had planned to spend the day in Limbo but all their hostages were no longer there. They had all disappeared which was impossible because only supreme creatures of darkness could access it, and as far as Dante knew, that was only him and Victor.

"I'm telling you, I went there this afternoon to do some questioning, but they were gone. There was no trace of them or anyone who had recently visited there." Victor says with his arms crossed. Dante was pacing the study with his hands on his hips while Alex tried to be invisible and continued to type on the computer in front of him, searching through the police data base for anything surrounding Remy or the night club Dante and Victor had visited.

"Well they can't just disappear." Dante said clearly upset about the whole ordeal, "Someone must have let them out, and besides you and me, who else could it have been?"

"Your guess is as good as mine, Dante. One thing is for sure." Victor replied.

"And what's that?"

"Someone else has joined the big table."

Dante groaned and placed his hands behind his neck in frustration. Nicole walked into the room with a tray of cups of coffee.

"I don't know what's going on, but one thing is for sure: You guys need caffeine." Nicole said placing the tray on the nearby table.

"Yes!" Alex exclaimed and rolled his chair over to the table to grab a cup.

"Alex, tell me you have something." Dante pleaded while Alex took a sip of his coffee.

"Oh I got something alright, I was just waiting for mom and dad to stop fighting. You know they say it's rude to interrupt your elders."

"Alex!" Dante said annoyed.

"Alright, alright." Alex said with his hands in surrender as he rolled back towards his table, "So I found out that the abandoned building indeed belongs to one Remy Denery."

"Oh, I know that name." Nicole says over her cup and nearly jumps back when everyone turns to face her, "What?"

"What do you know?" Dante asks.

"Well not much really, just one of my patients who works at the municipal office said that several abandoned buildings and warehouses have been bought by a man named Remy Denery." Nicole explained.

"Quite true," Alex confirms, turning all the attention back to him, "The police report says he owns several other buildings all around town, but they all are in some or other abandoned or quite area. So, I've searched through CCTV footage around several of the buildings and found that only one of them has been getting a lot of attention lately and lucky for us, it is nearby. I also hacked into the cameras inside the building and found that it too has been turned into a night club."

"Is there anyting you can't do?" Victor asks astounded as all four adults stare at the various screens where all the camera footage, floor plans and contracts were shown.

"Nope, that's my super power." Alex says turning in his chair to face them.

"Good work, Alex." Dante praises when suddenly they all hear the front door open and close. Dante and Victor look at each other for a second before rushing out the study to meet the intruder but stop in there tracks when they see a woman dressed in a long white fur coat and tight black dress with long blonde hair standing by the door. Her lips painted ruby red and large gold hoops hang from her ears and in her one hand she holds a black purse.

"Evening gentlemen." she says in a sickly sweet voice.

"Cleo?" Dante calls.