Cold Case Set On Fire

"She's not someone you'd want to cross paths with," Brian said. "I do need to educate you about her. Definitely." He motioned to her and made his way down the passageway, crouched under the window of the potions lab door, slipped past and over to the stairs. He went up the stairs and tapped the door with the toe of his shoe three distinct times. The door opened. "The trick is getting it in just the right place. Otherwise, you could spend days down here kicking this bloody door. It's a touchy old thing."

The door opened to brilliant daylight. He took a moment to let his eyes adjust. "Let's go get a decent cup of tea, shall we? Something better than what we had earlier. And then we can talk. My treat."

He knew she looked like she needed a cup of tea to steady herself, and he was actually getting the munchies. He needed a snack. He headed them towards Sparks.

"That woman you saw," he said quietly as they walked, "was Zada Forbes. Well, Zada Forbes D'Eath. She's married to Lorcan D'eath, who is the current leader of the Death Eaters. She and Lorcan are both potions masters, and they're wealthy. If anyone would be able to manage an illegals lab, it would be them. However, that's not what bothers me. I'll go back sometime and bust up the lab, but that's for another time."

Okay, so yeah, he should have been giving that one to Bishop, but he rather liked busting up potions labs. It wasn't actually within his purview to do unless he used it as a training exercise, and that was just exactly what he figured he would do at some point. He knew of Robert's problems with copycat potions, but it didn't seem to be the D'Eaths. Didn't seem to be their style. Brian had mentally written them off for that. The lab was not his concern today.

"The thing you need to know about Zada is her career before she married Lorcan. Zada was well known in dark arts circles for being a mercenary for hire," he said. He looked at Anabelle before he clarified. "She was a paid assassin, and a damned good one. She's all business, all the time. Period. She's also an ice queen. I don't think anyone has ever seen any sort of a warm spot in her anywhere. I have no idea how she and Lorcan make it work but that's none of my business. Bottom line with her? Don't be at the wrong end of her wand or it'll be the last thing you ever see."

They reached Sparks, and he opened the door for her. The smells of all the luscious blends of coffees and teas that were brewing hit him in the face. He could pick out the deep nutty tones of the French Roast, the strong fortitude of the Earl Grey, and the warm comforting spicy smells of their fall flavored teas--the Pumpkin Creme Brulee tea, and the the Salted Caramel Cider tea. He could smell the fresh baked breads and pastries. This was definitely a more welcoming environment. This smelled and felt like comfort.

"Let's go get a table," he said. The servers and the regulars began waving and saying hello to Brian. Well, yeah, he and Khaat did own the place, but these folks knew him, knew Khaat. They came here regularly.

"Your usual, Brian?" one of the servers asked.

"Not sure," he said. "Give us a minute, and we'll let you know."

"The new Eggs Benedict pasties are top notch," one of the customers said. "Keep those on the menu forever, would you, Lad?"

"I'll talk to the boss," he laughed. "Glad you like them. I'll let her know." That merited a laugh from some of them, as he picked an out of the way table for him and Anabelle. "Will this do?" he asked her.

"D'Eath. That must be why she seemed so familiar then." she said softly, mostly as a thought to herself.

She walked next to Brian as he led them to Sparks, a place that Hit had always heard about but she'd never really been to. It seemed to be a high quality and pretty classy place, so she never really had an interest in going but she knew her parents had taken a liking to it at one point, though she didn't know if that liking was still there. The girl listened to what he was saying about Zada quietly, not wanting to interrupt him as he spoke.

She knew a little bit about her, but only what Damitrius had told her which wasn't much as the other Gryffindor didn't spend much time around her family, being the only Gryffindor - as far as any of them knew. Hit had become close to the D'Eath girl because they were both in pretty much the same situations with their families, though she felt as though she had it harder than Damitrius because there was a chance that more Gryffindors could emerge, as bad as that might have sounded, but that couldn't happen with her family. Unless one of her parents had an affair which she thought was highly unlikely.

"Hm? Oh yes, this is fine." she blinked and nodded, looking up at Brian when he asked her if the table he had chosen was okay.

"I knew she looked familiar but I couldn't figure out where I'd heard of or seen her before, but once you mentioned her name I remembered the little bit of information I knew about her." she told him. "My friend, one of her step-kids, Damitrius D'Eath told me a little bit about her. But Dami didn't know much about her either, at least not everything that you told me. I'm not even sure if she knows what Zada was before she married her father. Damitrius isn't around her family much anyways." She added softly, placing her head on her hand as she placed her arm on the table.

She thought about the small talk he'd just had with customers that were already in the restaurant and she looked off to the side for a second. "Do you work here or something?" she asked him, knowing it was a weird topic change that she hadn't meant to bring up so suddenly.

"I don't know that much more about her than what I told you," he said, "but her dossier reads that the victims they believe are her work are not ones they can trace to anyone, really. If she has a trademark, it seems to be that it is exceptionally clean--overly clean, if that makes sense.

"At any rate, do I believe that she has anything to do with this? No. I don't have any information that would lead me to believe that Zada is a werewolf. In fact, the fact that Lorcan is a half vampire would almost guarantee that she isn't a werewolf. If they could have gotten through the inbred hatred that werewolves and vampire have for one another anyway, they still can't procreate together. The marriage law forced the D'Eaths to have a child, like it did the rest of us. They have a boy who should be 2-ish by now. Name is Xander, I think. i think I remember it b/c of the unusual X in his first name. I think we can safely wipe the D'Eath family off of our list of possible suspects."

He waved over a server. "Bring us tea and a morning pastry sampler, would you?" Brian asked.

"Certainly," she said. "What flavor of teas would you like?"

"Um...how about bringing us a flight of the regular breakfast tea blend and then, um...Pumpkin Creme Brulee and the Salted Caramel Cider tea so we can try them all?" The flight would give each of them elegant half cup portions of all three of the selected teas, poured and presented just as if they were full portions, and a platter of miniature, tasting sized versions of the various breakfast pastries the bistro had. It wasn't something on the regular menu, but some of their regulars had come to like it and knew they could get it if they asked for it.

"On your account?"

"Yes please," he smiled. "Which one is selling?"

"The teas? They're pretty neck and neck right now. Ask me at the end of the week," she laughed and went to get the order filled. He nodded when she said she knew one of Lorcan's kids. Lorcan had a lot of kids, so that wasn't entirely surprising, and he wasn't sure exactly what relationship Lorcan had with any of them.

"Well, I don't know that I can see an assassin being exactly the overly maternal type, but maybe I'm just stereotyping there."

She asked if he worked here. "More or less," he smiled in answer to whether he worked here or not. "My wife owned it before she and I were married. Then when we got married, she made me a partner with her, so, yeah. We own it. I do little more than helping her with the books when she needs an extra hand or I help with staffing issues. The design, the recipes, and all the real work that makes it run, well, that's hers. Our personal chef helps her design some of the menu items, and my father in law is the one who designs all the flavored teas. It's a hobby of his. I suppose it comes naturally since he does so much with potions. I suppose tinkering with the flavoring of tea leaves isn't a huge leap away for him. He comes up with all kinds of new flavors and blends and tries the out on us. We take the ones we like best and bring them to staff to try, and the winners end up on the menu as specials for either the month or the season.

"Actually, I think my favorite of the new ones is the Pumpkin Creme Brulee. I don't know how Robert did that one, but, it has a lovely pumpkin and sweet egg custard taste. The chef here adds a vanilla foam to it and then tops that with a caramelized sugar tuile. It has that lovely snap to it that you get with the real creme brulee. It's a really elegant little tea."

"Mm, I think she wasn't too thrilled to know they had another kid. Not because it added one more child to the enormous family they already have, but because it was Zada's. Damitrius isn't a huge fan of her, from what I can tell." The D'Eath girl wasn't too thrilled with her new step mother, but she thought that might've been because she wasn't used to seeing her father with any one woman.

She's learned to live with the fact that her father had finally been married, though she had always wanted it to be with her mother. She'd told Hit all of this before, and the only thing she could tell her was that it was probably something all of her siblings want or had wanted at some point. She was sure Damitrius had never thought about it like that, selfishly wanting her parents to be together without thinking about how her other siblings would have felt about the situation.

"Even though they are enemies, I can't help but think that they're somehow involved in it." She said softly. They were a big family and not all of them were vampires, there could have been some kind of connection between them all but the more she thought about it the more unlikely it seemed to her. It was an odd feeling though.

"That's pretty cool," she commented lightly at his explanation. "It must be nice to own something as successful as this place seems to be. But probably a lot of work, right?" Owning a business was something that she'd hoped to be able to do at some point in her life, but she wasn't sure how it would get done with everything she had going on. Besides she was only sixteen, she had plenty of time to think of that. And to be able to do things without her family influencing anything.

"That sounds like it'll be my favorite." She laughed softly. Anything that has to do with pumpkin flavoring and fall would be on the Gryffindor's list of favorites as she loved the season and anything that came with it. It was the most beautiful season, to her, because even though the leaves were dying, they would change to different colors and the cool breeze that came with Fall would blow them around everywhere.

"Well, I can understand your friend's hostilities," Brian said. "Lorcan has never been known for his loyalty to any one partner, and this relationship with Forbes seems to have lasted more than his others, not that I have the inside story as to why."

The server brought the tea flight and the pastry sampler quickly and left again. Brian pointed out which pastry was which to Anabelle as well as which tea was which. There were mini scones, banoffee tarts, tiny chocolate éclairs, caramel apple puffs, mini cream cakes, and a small plum loaf to share. They were all small enough for them to be able to comfortably taste.

Brian chose the salted caramel apple cider tea first. He liked the blend of the sweet spiced cider taste in the tea with the caramel drizzle on the top that had just the slightest bit of salt sprinkled on it. Brian liked the blend of the salty and sweet.

"Help yourself," Brian invited. "That's what this is all about. Its about tasting and sampling. You don't have to finish anything. You can take bites of everything if you want. Its about just having fun with it." He smiled when she asked about the bistro. "Khaat's the one who has put the energy into it. I enjoy it, but my heart is with my family and with my auror work. I certainly get a lot of tasty benefits from it though," he grinned. He picked up one of the banoffee mini tarts.

"I could be wrong," Brian said, getting back to the case, "but there are a pair of werewolves that do fit the physical descriptions of what we saw," he said more quietly. "There aren't many people who are that big as the male we saw down there. This man had to be exceptionally tall, and his hands were certainly bigger than mine. If I'm right, our victim was just one more in a long list of victims. I don't know how much you've read in the papers in the last three or four years, but there is an out of control werewolf that fits what we saw. He is not anyone for you to be mixed up with. I'll pull his dossier for you when we get back. I want you to look over the dossier of James Blood. I've tangled with him before, and I'm sure I will again. He's got a female that he runs with. I don't know a heck of a lot about her, except that her name is Moira. Hopefully we'll find a last name for her in his dossier that we can pull a file for her too. If she's his supposed partner, as much as any animal has, then she would be his alpha female, depending on how much power she has within the pack and with him.

"Interestingly, while Blood clearly has an alpha personality, he is no longer the alpha in his pack. He has taken on the role of a Beta male now. We broke up Blood's pack a little over two years ago and destroyed their lair. In order to save the pack, James had to withdraw and had to beg asylum for his pack with Fenrir Greyback. Greyback has probably the largest pack in London, and old as he is, he seems to be one of the only people who is able to reel James in with any power at all. That doesn't mean that James is happy with it. I think he's chomping at the bit to be the alpha of his own pack again, but that's not about to happen so long as Fenrir still lives. I don't know where that places Moira in the hierarchy. Unless she serves Fenrir now, that places her in a beta role as well.

"What concerns me is that if James has resurfaced to start killing again, then I can't see that Fenrir is going to be happy with it. That surely puts all the werewolves in the pack at risk. The authorities won't hesitate to try to bring the werewolves under control. And, if the local citizens decide they've finally had enough, then, we could have a huge issue at hand.

"And, if this is James' doing, or Moira's, I don't know if this is just a rare, one-off sort of killing for them, or if this means he's hunting again. I could be misinformed, but I thought that James is the primary killer, not usually Moira, but again, some dynamic could be at work in the pack that we're not aware of. Either way, if our victim ran into these two, she didn't stand a chance."

Hit couldn't help but feel like she'd heard that name before. James Blood and Fenrir Greyback were names she'd already heard of, so it was easy to tell who they were. But the woman's name sounded familiar though she's never seen or actually heard of her. Where had she heard it before? She began racking her brain for the answer she seeked, while Brian spoke, and though she was paying attention to an extent she continued trying to figure out where that name had come from.

She hadn't heard it outside of Hogwarts, she was certain of that, so maybe it had been a student that had mentioned her? It was far-fetched but entirely possible if she thought about it. "I've heard of her before." Hit blinked, looking at Brian. "Her name sounds so familiar but I can't place where I've heard it. I think another student mentioned her before, but now that I think of it, that was a while ago so they might not even be students anymore." Bits and pieces were clicking I her head but she couldn't get a clear picture of what she was trying to find.

She remembered hearing it during the time half-breeds weren't allowed to go to Hogwarts for whatever reason. It was shortly before they all had to leave, and it had been in a group of students. They were made up of mostly Ravenclaws if she remembered correctly, and a couple of Hufflepuffs. They all seemed like they were fairly close, but none of their names really came to mind besides Olivia.

That was it, it had been someone Liv was close to, someone in her year and in that group.

She took one of the pastries on the platter and took a small bite of it after giving it a quick look over. Hit was usually a very picky eater, but she figured she couldn't be too picky here with Brian since his wife was the one who came up with most of these. "It was a boy, if I remember right. He was a seventh year at the time, but I don't remember if he graduated or not, and he'd mentioned something about a Moira and a pack. He'd been talking to his friends which makes me think that if he mentioned that, it meant that he and the three others he spoke to were werewolves, but they all seemed reluctant to follow him. He disappeared shortly after. This was during the time when half-breeds couldn't be in Hogwarts, but once that was resolved he didn't come back, I don't think. So I believe he might've dropped out."

She covered her mouth as she realized that she'd still had food in her mouth when she began to speak and waited until she had nothing else in there before she spoke again, "At least that's what it seemed like since his friends came back and graduated." She cleared her throat and sat back in her seat. "I don't know if that's of any help, but it's just something I remembered. I don't remember if he mentioned a last name though, maybe something starting with a 'C' or close to it."

He sipped on his tea, listening to what she was saying. It made sense.

"It's certainly possible. A few years ago, Blood and his pack broke onto the school grounds and killed some folks. He also took several students and turned them, apparently looking to demonstrate his power and also looking to grow his pack. He was fairly successful at both. Some of those students just never came back to Hogwarts, but when James is spotted, often times he'll have some of the younger pack members with him, presumably teaching them to hunt and kill."

Brian hadn't told her his family's personal part of the history of James Blood, but if she read the papers at all over the last few years, then she might already know it. His wife's name had been screamed all over the headlines ever single time James had attacked her and wounded her. The last time it had been all over the papers was when Blood had nearly killed her. He'd slashed open her face and her shoulder.

Khaat had retreated from view. She'd resigned from the Wizengamot. She'd kept her job at St. Mungos but she had covered her face with veils in order to avoid having anyone see what James had done. It had taken Robert multiple surgeries to put her face and her shoulder to rights and then to remove the hideous scarring. Now, after James' determination to take Khaat for his own, Robert had hired the best bodyguard he could find for her--a very dedicated, experienced man named Marcus Belby who went everywhere she did, not just in public but at her own home as well. James was not beyond breaking into the supposedly unplottable Lupin family compound to try to break into the house and take her. So far, he hadn't managed to penetrate into the house. But Brian had a full staff of security guards who were all trained and ordered to kill Blood on sight.

"There's been a long standing warrant for the arrest of Blood," Brian said. "The ministry wants him and they don't care how--dead or alive. It makes no matter. If they catch him, they'll just put him to death anyway. And it wouldn't break my heart if I were the one who got to off him. I've got a score to settle with him.

"Blood is one big barmy bloke. He's really not right, and I mean he's big time not right. I know a specialist on werewolves who believes that James has what he calls a 'blood lust,' meaning that he has gotten focused or obsessed with a particular female. He has a theory that may partly be a biological thing with werewolves. I don't know one way or the other about that, but what I do know is that this nutter is fixated on my wife. He has convinced himself that he already 'owns' her, and that he has the right to just come and take what he thinks is already rightfully his. So, that means that he has never quit trying to come and just make off with her. Nothing would please me more than to be the one to put this madness to an end for my family. What we do see, though, is that James tends to hunt and kill blondes, probably because my wife is blonde. Not to say that he wouldn't have killed our victim if she weren't blonde, but she wouldn't have been his first choice. I can't outrule that Moira would have been the actual killer. I think we have enough evidence to go and try to get a copy of the autopsy.
So, I'm going to skip a few layers of bureaucracy. When we get done here, I suggest we go see the Minister. We need to get a copy of that autopsy, and not only can he sign the order for it, but he can get it for us because he is one of the two people that hold the keys the medical records for St. Mungos because he's also Chief of Staff there for the healers. We go see him, and we can kill two birds with one stone. Besides that, he has a very vested interest in getting Blood off the streets, not the least of which is protecting his daughter, who is his only child."

He picked up one of the little chocolate eclairs that were small enough to eat in one bite, ate it thoughtfully and said. "You know, we really do need to go pull any records on her before we see Robert. Birth, death, marriage certificates--anything we can find. The more we have when we see him, the better off we'll be. He'll want to be sure we've covered all the bases we can without intruding into St. Mungo's turf. So, give some thought. Is there anything else that we should look into and prepare before we go up to his office?"

"Is there anyway to get him to leave his infatuation with your wife for someone else?" She wasn't sure how a werewolf's bloodlust worked but if there was any chance of getting such a dangerous person away from someone he loved he would surely try it. She couldn't imagine what having someone she loved hunted down by a madman like that felt like, but it couldn't be anything other than terrifying.

"I don't mean to sound sexist in any way, but typically women are cleaner with things and I don't think it excludes messes in this type of situation." She commented softly, wincing slightly at the sound of her own words. "I know the scene must have been cleaned once the body was moved but even the marks that were left make it seem like there wasn't much blood splattered everywhere. That's what makes me think that it might've been Moira who did the actual killing." The thought of what could've actually happened that day sent shivers down her spine and she didn't like it at all.

What little appetite the girl had slowly faded away with their discussion and she quickly found herself playing with the pastry on her plate. She was never a big eater anyways, so it would've happened sooner or later but she would've liked to have tasted more of the pastries. She sat there, thoughtful, as she played with the pastries thinking about anything else they would need to look into before going to the Minister.

"Er.. I don't think so, but I'm not exactly sure." She said softly, dropping the fork in her hand into the plate. She leaned back in her seat again as the fork fell to the plate with a slight clatter and she shrugged lightly. "I've got nothing." She said, almost reluctantly.

"I don't know," he said when she mentioned trying to refocus James on someone else. "I'd be happy if he got that infatuated with his own female. Moira could probably deal with that better than we can. I don't know if its even possible to rid him of that obsession, though. Its certainly worth looking into. In the meantime, I do my best to make sure my wife and kids are always secure."

He listened to her observations about the bloodstains, and he had to agree, she was right. "No offense taken," he laughed. "It's a wise observation. Men, in their most primal state, then to not be so concerned with neatness. The primal male persona tends, I think, to be more interested in territory and conquest. I think you're right about the comparative lack of blood stains.

"You remember the stains that we encountered when we first entered the catacomb? I know those stains because those were made by James when he attacked my wife and her bodyguard. Those stains were hers and her bodyguard's--not James. And, obviously, they both lived. So, someone bleeding out would have been more. I've seen what that looks like, and it is more. Even if the aurors cleaned up the mess, that sort of stone would still stain. So, I think you're onto something. I think Moira might very well be our killer. Good work, there. Nice job."

"Okay, so, I think our next move needs to be looking into the records we have at the Ministry. I'll send word ahead to Robert asking for a moment of his time. We'll have to catch him before he buggars over to St. Mungos. If we don't, we'll be chasing him down there. He's a hard man to keep track of."

Was he breeching protocol by not alerting Bishop? Only to some extent. Protocol would have called for him to have at least alerted her what he was working on. He decided to send her a routine memo to alert her that he was using a cold case as a training exercise and if he got anything worthwhile, he'd send her word. At least he was following procedure that way.

He summoned the server. "Pack these to go for us? And the teas too, please? I think we need to go."

"So soon? Lizzie wanted you to try the new roasted turkey paninis for lunch."

"Okay, wait. We've done turkey paninis forever. What's new about these?"

"Lovely fresh sourdough bread, a bit of a chestnut and walnut cream cheese, followed by slices of roasted turkey, slices of roasted sweet potatoes, a generous slice of harvarti cheese, a slathering of cranberry chutney, and then all grilled together in the panini press."

"Oh, God, it sounds like it would take us both to eat one," he laughed.

"Can I send one with you?"

"Send me two. I'll bribe Robert's time with a bit of lunch."

"Oh, if its Robert you're bribing, I have just the thing for him."

"Oh?" he frowned.

"Lizzie just made a pumpkin trifle with an apricot orange sauce," the server grinned.

"Oh, that definitely will win us a bit of time in his schedule. Send us some of those as well. He'll not like eating dessert alone."

"Coming right up. Three box lunches."

"Two," Brian said, "We'll share."

"I was going to split the second into two boxes for you and for the young lady," she said, nodding at Anabelle.

"Oh. Yeah. That works. On my tab."

"No, tasting items are at the expense of the house," the server said, picking up the tea and the platter of pastries and then leaving them.

"Well," Brian looked at Anabelle,"I hope your schedule today included lunch with the Minister of Magic because it looks like that's just what we've been handed a prime opportunity for. If someone brings him food, he stops for lunch. If not, he keeps on working." Brian shrugged. "That's just him. He's a bit of a workaholic."

"I think it's strange that no one knows too much about her though. She's certainly seemed to have done a good job at keeping herself in the shadows." Hit commented. "I wouldn't be surprised if other attacks have been her work, but she's gotten someone to cover for her somehow." She added as an afterthought.

Though she didn't know much about the woman, just like the others, she seemed like she was the type to be manipulative. To her it seemed like it anyways, mostly because of the fact that no one seemed to know much about her at all. Not even her name had been revealed, and it seemed like she'd been running with James for a bit. The only thing they had on her, was a nickname and that wasn't usually of much help as it wasn't an offic name that would be put on records.

"Is there any way her nickname would help us find who she really is?" She asked, as an attempt to see if maybe a nickname could be used.

Anabelle kept quiet when the waitress came over, and watched her exchange with Brian silently. The Gryffindor had always been awkward with conversations involving strangers, and though Brian was also a stranger, she knew she couldn't let herself be as awkward as usual because he was technically her boss. That didn't mean she couldn't feel uncomfortable in some situations, though. "L-lunch wit the Minister?" She stuttered out, shock evident in her eyes as her eyebrows were pulled upward with her question.

There was one of those situations, but there was nothing she could do. It was to get work done, and she would eventually have to meet with important people on a regular basis so it was good for her to start now. "Well, if it helps us get things done.." Hit said softly, trailing off at the end. There was a mixture of embarrassment and nervousness in her stomach at the thought of meeting someone as important as the Minister of Magic.