Page 40 of The Paranormal Investigation Bureau
Marsden was still chatting with the accompanist when I was finally alone. I wiped the sweat off my face with my towel and headed towards him. The piano player looked to be just as old as Madame Lucinda, and I wondered if they would have anymore information on this ballet.
“Ah, Beyla. Excellent work today.”
“We both know why I’m here, Marsden. I don’t appreciate you pitting me against your girlfriend. I’m not sure what you are trying to do, but I’ve found a little bit of the information you’re withholding from me. Iam notyour Tabitha. If you want to motivate Bellatrix, then find someone else. I can’t keep her safe if she’s trying to kill me.”
Marsden looked suddenly younger when he broke into this gigantic smile that lit up his face.
“Well, someone has been doing their research, good job!”
“Yes, becausesomeoneisn’t giving me the tools I need to do my job, jackass!”
Marsden laughed in my face. I really wanted to punch him. Did he seriously not give a shit about the history of this ballet, or that it seemed to be repeating itself from what I could see so far?
“Beyla, listen. It’s easy to take sides with what happened a long time ago, even if you are a federal agent. I have my own opinions about what happened, and if I told you them, then they would cloud your judgment. I only know things second hand, so it might not even be what happened. I know the story from the people who survived and were hurt by this ballet. If I told you their version, you would approach this a certain way.. a way that has been tried before, a way that has failed. That is why I’m taking a revolutionary approach to this, that is why I have you here as a dancer and as understudy to the lead. I’m remaining totally hands off this time... the answers are out there, and I have no doubt you’ll find them. You can do this, Beyla.”
Good pep talk, bro. We might not have time for that, though I got why he was doing it. I already knew they’d arrested Selena the first time, but I didn’t know why. I knew she was a massive diva and that people probably had nasty things to say about her, just like Bellatrix. It was probably even worse if they survived her wrath when the ballet got canceled, and all those cast members were never heard from again.
But what exactly happened? I hoped those files were in my email when I got home. I knew Kaine, he didn’t just go out of his way to help me because it was me… if any of his agents needed help, he busted his ass to get it for them.
“Can you at least tell me if Santiago Suarez is an Unseelie Prince?” I demanded. “I need to know exactly what I’m walking into.”
Marsden’s jovial mood totally evaporated, and he scowled at me. If anyone knew about Unseelie royalty, it was going to be Marsden. I’d gotten to know enough people in this company that I had a vested interest in getting this ballet to the stage. I even wanted to save Bellatrix. I just really didnotwant to fuck with the Unseelie Court.
“The Unseelie Court hasnothingto do with this, and I’d appreciate you not bringing them into this. Judging by that question… I take it you know my story? I was once a dancer with them… eventually I defected and escaped, so I was no longer their property. They wouldloveto pull me back there. I don’t want you talking to them. I don’t want them anywhere near my company. They wouldn’t just take me back. They like to own pretty talented things. They’dloveyou. Don’t risk it.”
Shit. I didn’t even think about that. Maybe Santiago Suarez was never some missing prince. Maybe he was just some savant when it came to the arts, and perhaps he’d defected from the court, just like Marsden.
If Marsden was worried about them kidnapping him and taking him back, then it made sense Santiago Suarez kept changing his name and moving countries. If Selena was arrested by the bureau, then his actual name might get out and that would put a target on this back. I doubted Santiago was actually his name, and I finally got why he kept that a closely guarded secret now.
He might have all the answers I needed, but finding him was going to be impossible if he'd managed to avoid the Unseelie Court this entire time. This just got a million times harder, because I had one Unseelie I’d probably never locate, and another who was probably right about clouding my judgment if he told me the story as it was told to him.
“I promise I won’t bring the Unseelie Court down on your head, but you need to promise me something… I’ll play this your way, but if I have questions, you need to answer them. Oh, and stop pitting me against your girlfriend. I get she’s a talented soloist, but I’ve only been in rehearsal with her for two days, and I can see she’s not a very good partner. Youknowshe was responsible for the glass in my pointe shoes, and if you had searched her bag, you would have found the cocaine she had Julian hide in my dance bag at lunch. I get she’s a succubus, but you can’t be that fucking stupid.”
Marsden just gave me this infuriating wink like he already knew all that. Hello? She put glass in my pointe shoes, and she was on a mission to take out one of his male leads and her understudy!
“Learn the choreography, Beyla. Focus on getting this ballet on the stage. Bella is highly-strung, and she hates competition. She thinks every little thing is a threat to her. Julian and Ivory are like her security blankets, so she wants them at rehearsal because she feels like she’s outnumbered.”
I held up my hand and stopped him right there. There was highly-strung… and there was competitive… and then there was Bellatrix.
“First off, she’d be less highly-strung, and paranoid, if she wasn’t snorting all that damn coke! Julian isn’t a security blanket, he’s her coke dealer, and Ivory isn’t either. The three of them could have seriously injured me with the glass they put in my pointe shoes. I could have gotten my badge taken away and ended up in jail with the massive amount of cocaine planted in my dance bag. That would’ve been enough to charge me for possession with intent to distribute. I could have busted Julian for trying to sell to me, but it would have blown my cover.”
“I’ll compromise with you… I’m not firing Bella, I need her where she is for now, but we might be able to get through the first number if she realizes Bevan won’t be replaced with Julian. I don’t tolerate drugs in my company, but Bella can’t do them if she can’t get them. If I fire Julian, that would solve two problems.”
“Yeah, Julian was giving her cocaine, but she’s the ringleader of the Terrible Trio. I agree that Julian needs to go, but why punish just him instead of your two girlfriends too? They are just as guilty.”
“Because I need those two where they are for now. Bella is vital to pulling this ballet off. I don’t need to explain my methods to you. Ineedher as Damita. I’ve offered you a compromise, you must see how taking Julian off the table will settle some drama and help me bring my vision to life, right?”
“Are you seriously using your girlfriend’s coke dealer as a bargaining chip?”
Marsden just shrugged. My urge to punch him in the face was growing.
“No, I already made my mind up. Julian is gone. The company paid a lot of money to get Bella clean, and I don’t appreciate him using my company to sell drugs. If I had known he was doing it, he would have long been gone. I’ve never liked him anyway, and he’s certainly not the best dancer in this company, but he’s always been there for Bella. If I knew that support also involved drugs, then I would have had him arrested. In fact, I think that’s what I’ll do now. Please, go home and rest for tomorrow. I have a few phone calls to make. Drugs are a huge thing to me, and Julian is going to learn that the hard way.”
Marsden was so weird. I didn’t like drugs any more than he did, but he fired people for the most bizarre reasons. Julian definitely deserved to be in jail. There was alotof cocaine in my bag… but why was Bellatrix still here when we all knew she was his customer?
Firing Julian wouldn’t fix anything. It wasn’t going to stop her from hurting Bevan. She would surely blame both of us for Marsden finding out, even if she was the one that sent him at me trying to sell to me and plant things in my bag. She was going to up her game.
Marsden was done with me. He had his mind set on getting Julian busted. I hopefully had some files waiting for me at home that would contain answers. My feet were killing me, and my bathtub ritual was calling. It was time to go home.
