Chapter 17

As Ashley and Cotner led the Valdemir’s into the room, Artemvian studied them carefully.

They were both thin.  Not terribly so, but just enough for clothes to look good on them in a sophisticated way that the wealthy tend to prefer.  Not merchant wealth either, like old-money wealth.  The husband, Mr. Valdemir, wore thin-rimmed glasses which sat perched on his beak-like nose.  Artemvian studied the man’s hands as Mr. Valdemir slightly adjusted his blazer, fiddling with the buttons.  The man had black hair that was graying at the tips.  He was all black and gray, from his accessories to his clothes, even to his pale skin.  A rather monochromatic man.

Mrs. Valdemir on the other hand was all color and life.  She wore a vibrant rich red dress which was tight in just the right places –not too tight, but just tight enough to show off her curves.  Especially the transition between her hips, midriff and chest.  Her blonde hair was perfectly curled, brushed up in just the right places in the same way that her make-up was.  Blue hair with a nose that was cute as a button, she was just the right type of girl-next-door and prettiest girl in the village and the next three over.

“Mr. and Mrs. Valdemir.  Please meet Mr. Delacreau.  He’s a consultant we’ve hired who specialized in cases just like this.”  Ashley introduced him.

“Smith Valdemir.”  The husband introduced himself first, shaking Artemvian’s hand.

“Pleasure.  Such a pleasure.”  Artemvian walked over and shook the wife’s hand as well.

“Sarah.”  The wife said, her blue eyes welling up with tears.

“Please, if there’s anything I can do to help-”  Mr. Valdemir began.

“As a matter of fact, you can start by answering some questions.”  Artemvian didn’t let go of the young man’s hand, giving him a smile.

“Did you cheat on your wife?”

And the entire living room just froze.

Except Artemvian who kept pumping Smith Valdemir’s hand.

“Uh, I’m sorry.  Excuse me?”  Valdemir took his hand back, using it to smooth the front of his blazers again.

“Delcreau.”  Celine Alvarez hissed while walked over, putting herself between Valdemir and Artemvian.  “Mr. Valdemir.  I’m terribly sorry.”

Everyone had a different sort of reaction to Artemvian’s rude and sudden question.  But really, the only people’s reaction that Artemvian cared about were the two in front of him: Mr and Mrs. Valdemir.

And strangely, they acted the same way.

With shame.

Sarah looked away from the situation, developing a faint blush.  Smith kept stammering, trying to form a coherent sentence and fiddling with his buttons.

“Ah, so you’re both cheating on each other.”  Artemvian spoke over Celine’s shoulder and casually stepped back as she attempted to elbow him in the stomach.

“Delacreau!”  Celine hissed again.  “Ashley, Cotner.  Take Mr. and Mrs. Valdemir back to-”

Artemvian cut in.  “Look at them.  Neither of them are denying it.  She doesn't seem outraged or angry, which is the correct response in a situation when your husband is accused of cheating.  She’s ashamed just as much as him.  And you, Mr. Valdemir, an innocent man, would have gotten angry at me by now.  Tried to punch me even.”

The mage’s words were delivered without hesitation.  But more importantly, it was convincing.  Perhaps it was the subtle confidence behind his words or how Artemvian framed his findings.  Maybe for the agents in the room, it was due to the power he displayed only minutes ago and many of them were starting to suspect that he was a powerful Empath.  Maybe that feeling of trust in his opinion was spreading to the Valdemirs.  What was important though, was that everyone listened.

And slowly turned to face the Valdemirs for an answer.

The two looked at each other then at their protectors.  Artemvian studied them again.  Though his hair was graying, Smith Valdemir wasn’t an old man.  His gray hair might be due to genetics or stress.  There were no wrinkles on his face.  Perhaps in his early-to-mid twenties at most.  Sarah looked to be around the same age.

“I fail to see how our personal lives have anything to do with the issues that we are having trouble with.”  Sarah muttered, her blush deepening.  “I’m not admitting anything, however but I would like to hear more of how questioning us on… those type of intimate details would prove to be helpful.”

“See?  No denial.”  Artemvian said smugly and when Celine glared at him, he cleared his throat.

This time, Celine’s elbow made a solid thud against his stomach.  But when she spoke, it was in his defense.  “Mrs. Valdemir, Delacreau is acting with the GIB as a Consultant.  I understand his questioning might be a touch sensitive, but I assure you, there’s a reason for it.”  And with another solid glare at Artemvian added, “Isn’t there, Delacreau?”

Rubbing his stomach, Artemvian quickly explained.  “There are rules that the Daemon –sorry, Darkling– has to follow.  It can’t just come into a house and start haunting it, unless it was an abandoned house and you moved in.  But that limits its influence in a lot of ways, it’ll be rooted to the house and wouldn’t have been able to follow you here.  And to my knowledge, it did, in fact, follow you two here.  Is that correct?”

Seeing the Valdemirs nod as one, Artemvian continued.  “Another possibility is that it’s not rooted to the place, but to the people that it’s haunting.  I asked you two if you are… unfaithful, because for the Demon to have formed a connection to you two, it needed permission.”

“Permission?”  Celine said, frowning.

“Yes, a Darkling cannot act without permission.”

Celine continued to frown but motioned at Artemvian to continue.

“Typically, for a Darkling to receive permission, it will prey upon the darker nature of its targets.  For example, it might imitate the voice of a deceased daughter to a grieving mother, asking to be let in.  Or it might dress up as a granddaughter of a grandmother, wearing a red hood.”

“...That’s just downright fucking creepy.”  Ashley said blandly.

Artemvian nodded in agreement.  “The point is, that it had to have had permission to not just enter your former home, but engage with the two of you in an intimate manner.”  He leaned forward, still smiling.  “So the question is, have you?”

As Artemvian continued speaking, Gary, Cotner and Celien had kept their eyes on the Valdemir couple.  This wasn’t the first time that the agent’s had questioned them, but it was different.  After all, the Grimms had questioned the couple like the two had been victims, which they were in a way.  But Artemvian had changed everything with this.

The couple, whether willingly and knowingly or not, had been complicit.

That changed everything about this investigation.

Also, Artemvian spoke about Magic and the Darkling in a way that Celine and the others weren’t used to.  Almost like…

Almost like it wasn’t based on science.  It wasn’t just Celine who was growing increasingly both curious about and impressed with Artmevian either.  Gary, Cotner and Ashley felt the same.

“Ms. Alvarez, would it be possible to talk in private?”  Sarah said, breaking people out of their thoughts.

“Sarah!”  

“Hush, dear.”  Sarah turned to Artemvian.  “And we'd like you to join us as well, Mr…”

“Artemvian Delacreau Moneti.”  Artemvian did a little flourish with his hand, bowing at the waist.

“Then let’s talk in the room.”  

***

“We didn’t cheat on each other.”  Sarah began.

Celine, Artemvian and the Valdemir’s around a coffee table in the guest room.

“Then why did you two look guilty when Delacreau questioned you?”  Celine followed up.  She was making it clear to Artemvian that despite his expertise, she was still the lead for this investigation and that he was a consultant.

Message received, Artemvian began to devour the small delectable treats that were set out before them.  They were supposed to be taken in little bites, to enhance the flavor of the tea which were set steaming before them.  But if Artemvian knew the etiquette for tea, he didn’t follow it.  He reached out and grabbed the small pastries by the fistful, stuffing them into his mouth.

“Ooof, Sho gewd!”  Artemvian muttered, crumbs flying out of his mouth.

“Because…”  Sarah gave a sideways glance at her husband.

“I want to make sure that whatever we share here, is in utmost secrecy, Lieutenant Alvarez.”  Smith added, “You understand that we’re sharing very sensitive information.  We’re afraid that information like this could prove to be… unfavorable for our family.”

“Rest assured, Mr. and Mrs. Valdemir, that whatever you share with me won’t be shared with anyone outside of this room, unless absolutely necessary.”  Celine followed up with, “Did you commit a crime?”

“Oh no, nothing like that.”  Smith and Sarah shared a look and something like determination passed between them.  Smith sort of inflated a little as he shared.  “Sarah and I have been… indulging in a particular type of service.”

“What kind of service?”  Celine said, giving a sharp look to Artemvian.

Ignoring the warning to behave, Artemvian took one of the plates and licked the crumbs off of it.

“Holy shit, the food in this era is… it’s indescribable.”  He said, licking the crumbs from his fingers after he was done with the plate.

“We’ve been engaging in adult AI services.  Both of us, I mean.”

“Ah, I see.”  Celine replied.

“What’s that?”  Artemvian finally looked up enough to ask Celine.

“I’ll explain after.”  Celine said, “Please, continue.”

“Well, what Mr. Artemvian said earlier made me remember.”  Sarah said, “You see, my husband and I prefer our AI services in the flesh.  The AIs make house visits in a Skinsuit.  There was one particular time when an Skinsuit came to our door.  It rang the doorbell and like always, we opened the door for it, saying come in.  But…”

“But there was no one there.”  Smith shook his head.  “Thinking it might be a robbery or one of our family’s enemies trying to trap us, we replayed the surveillance tapes.  Even got access to the building’s security footage.  No one came to our door that day.  And now that I think of it, I think that’s around when these things started happening.”

“Would you mind describing what kind of things started happening?”

“It was horrible.”  Sarah said quietly, her eyes downcast.  “At first, we thought someone was playing a prank.  Or one of our family’s enemies was trying to threaten us.  But it was different.”

“Different how?”  Artemvian pressed.

“Just different.”  Sarah shuddered and it took all of Artemvian’s self-control not to look at her nicely-fitted dress to see what sort of interesting things that shudder did to her body.  “Cruel.  Someone left a cat on our doorstep one day.  Just the head.  And then the next day, we found its legs in our trashcan.  The next day, we found its tail in our bed.”

Naturally, the mage failed.

Celine clapped her hands and Artemvian cleared his throat, looking away.

“And those kind of things kept happening?”  Artemvian asked again.

“Yes.”

“Hmmm.”  Artemvian leaned back on the couch.

Celine asked a couple of more questions to the Valdemirs but Artemvian wasn’t listening.  He was lost in his thoughts.  It wasn’t long before the Valdemirs retired to their room while Celine and Artemvian joined the rest of the team.

“Well boss?”  Gary greeted, seeing the two return.

“Check out this place for me, Dream Bodies.  It’s an AI Adult Services Boutique, specializing in Skinsuits.”

Gary nodded  “That’s some freaky stuff, threesome with AIs.  Rich people are into all the sick stuff.”

“Expensive too.”  Ashley commented, she was checking her gun again.  Artemvian noted that her eyes kept shifting towards the windows, waiting and watching.  “Skinsuits don’t come by cheap.”

“You think this has anything to do with the Darkling, Boss?”  Gary asked.

“No, but I want to make sure the Valdemirs are telling us the truth.  My gut says they were, but need to make sure.  I want to see their transaction with the Valdemirs in the last year or so.”  Celine turned to Artemvian.  “Did you get everything you needed?”

“Hmm? Oh yes, the cookies were delicious.  Thank you, I was starting to grow quite hungry.  Though I do wish they had something more hearty.  Like a hoagie.”

“I meant the answers to your questions.”  Gary scowled.  “You’re being paid to consult.  So consult.”

“Oh, so that’s what you meant.”  Artemvian answered nonchalantly.  “It’s not just the Daemon we’re dealing with here.”

“Oh no.”  Cotner muttered.

“I think there’s a person who’s pulling the strings.”  Artemvian smirked, looking in a particular direction.  “And I think I know exactly how to sniff him out.”

And everyone realized that Artemvian was looking at one of the display cases.

A display that was full of jewelry in fact.

“Oh yes… I’m sure they won’t miss a gemstone or two.  Or three.”