Alistar Krieg
in:
Locked Room
by
Red Wolf






PROLOGUE:
ARRIVAL


The Shadow stared out of the window of the Mansion in Maine at the cars pulling into the courtyard below.  It smiled.  It's victim was there.  The Shadow blinked, snapped out of it's reverie by Steppenwolf's "Magic Carpet Ride" blaring out of a PT Cruiser convertible.  It was as white as snow, just like it's driver; his skin, his hair, even his eyes.  But he was no albino, he was The Snowwolf.  The Shadow's smile returned.  Good, it thought, some challenge.




CHAPTER 1:
AT THE TABLE


Alistar Krieg didn't get one step through the door before being bowled over by 140 pounds of happy 19 year old.  His goddaughter, Sara Bradley, with blonde hair, blue eyes, and standing at 5'10", she was growing to be both beautiful and bright, mastering anything she put her mind to.  "Snowwolf!" she screamed, using the nickname he had had since high school. "Sheitzer! When did you get so heavy?" he said. He spoke with a light German accent, but could drop it at will.  As he sat her down she grinned, "Oh, come on Snow, you and I both know that you could lift me one-handed."  He smiled, and took off his custom white sunglasses, revealing the snow colored eyes that marked him as something other than human; a werewolf.  "Ja, but don't tell anyone at school that."  She gave him a look, "I know that, I'm not stupid Snow."  He nodded, "I know, I know" he said fondly. There was a small squeal behind him, and he turned in time for his older goddaughter to go barreling past him into her sister, Alice, who was home from college for the holidays, and only too happy to be back.

"Alistar!" came a hearty voice from the stairs. Alistar turned around and saw his old friend Tom Bradley, a short, stout, dark haired, green eyed Welsh born vampire.  His father had already died, risen, and moved back to Wales, but Tom was still up and kicking.  At 37, he was two years older than Alistar, and at 5'8" he was five inches shorter.  Tom skipped down the last few steps and Alistar loped over and they embraced roughly.  Slapping him on the back, Tom said "It's good to see you again, my friend."  Alistar smiled, "You too, Vlad" he said, using the name he had given Tom in response to the 'Snowwolf' thing.  "Now," said Tom, smiling, "take off your coat."  He gestured toward the white trench coat Alistar was wearing, "get comfortable, then meet us in the dining room in thirty minutes."  Alistar went straight faced, clicked the heels of his white carnaby boots together, threw up his right arm, and said "Jawohl, mein commandant!"  Tom nearly fell over laughing.

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Alistar sat down at the table, smiling as the food was placed in front of them; jam, fresh baked rolls, mashed potatoes, yams, potato salad, and right in the middle, the biggest, juiciest roast turkey he had ever seen.
All-in-all, a fine Thanksgiving meal.  The atmosphere was jovial, but there was a tension that he couldn't place.  This wasn't surprising however; the werefox, John McCarthey, and the werecat twins, Abigail and Shelly Andrews, were all friends of the family, and it wasn't uncommon for friends to fight.  It was entirely possible that one of them had had a fight with one of the family and was still upset about it.
He didn't think anything was wrong with the family itself; the two cousins, Sharon and Kelly only came over on holidays, so they were always welcome, and the sisters were all grins and giggles.  Tom seemed happy, but there was something that was bothering him.  After dinner, while they were cleaning up, Alistar saw him slip a note to Alice.  To any less observant eyes it would have looked like nothing more than a collision in the bustle of the cleanup, but Alistar saw it and watched out of the corner of his eye as Tom came toward him.  It was a different tactic, but was just as subtle; Tom simply slipped past him, making excuses for the bathroom, and dropped the note into Alistar's back pocket.  He grinned slightly, they had had another name for Tom in high school; The Pickpocket.

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Later, in the privacy of a chair in the lounge, he took out the note and opened it.  In neat, tidy, block script, it read;

MEET ME IN MY STUDY
IN 1 HOUR.
TOM.

He frowned, wondering what was going on.





CHAPTER 2:
MURDER!


Precisely one hour later Alistar walked up to the door of Tom's study and knocked.  There was no answer.  He raised his hand to knock again and smelled it; blood.  "Tom!" he yelled, banging on the door.  He lifted his foot as the twins and the cousins came up the stairs behind him.  John came out of a bedroom to the right of the study, and Sara came out of a door at the end of the hall opposite the study.  The study door was stout, and took him three kicks to open.  The first thing he saw when he entered the room was blood.  So much blood.  His eyes followed it to it's center; the body.  It was Tom, lying in a spreading crimson pool.  The scent of death was too strong for him to smell the killer.  The only thing he could tell for sure was that the attacker had to have had amazing strength; Tom's heart had been physically torn from his chest.  The only problem with that was that everyone in the house was backed by supernatural strength.  In other words...
anyone in the house could have done it.



CHAPTER 3:
INVESTIGATIONS


"Good Lord" said John, looking at the corpse over Alistar's shoulder.  "Who...who would want to kill Tom...I...I don't understand..." he said.  Alistar slowly turned and looked at him, "Oh, really... well, we'll see."

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A few minutes later Alistar was sitting down in the lounge in a chair across from John.  "So, John, why were you in that room?" he cocked an eyebrow inquistively.  "Uh, well...I,er, um..." he stammered.  Alistar glared at him.  "Well, you see, I, uh..." he sighed.  "Oh, hell... you'll probably just find out anyway."  Alistar cocked his head, indicating that he was listening.  "I was... waiting for Alice" he scratched an ear, an obvious sign of embarassment in a werefox, "Me and her, we'd been goin' out for a while, before she went off to college, and when we met up at the train station, well, we sorta hit it off again.  Of course, we'd actually never really cut it off, we've been writing to one another off'n'on for the last year or so."  Alistar leaned back in his chair, contemplating.  Then he came quickly to his feet, smiling.  "Never fear, John, I believe your story.  And I think that I may also need your help before this investigation is through."  John looked up, blinking in surprise, "Really?"  "Yes, John.  Now, come along, I think a look at the scene of the murder is in order."

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They went up the stairs and stopped in front of the oak door to the study, which now listed slightly on it's hinges.  Alistar turned to him and said "You need to stay here and guard the door, make sure that no one else tries to interupt me, alright?"  John nodded and Alistar went through the door.  He stepped slowly into the room and stopped beside the desk.  He then turned slowly in a circle, taking in the entire room.  He stopped, looking at the door.  It had been locked, so how then did the killer enter?  All windows were out of the question.  Unlike in the movies, vampires couldn't fly and other than flight there was no way the windows could be reached.  Immediately he strode across to one of the walls and began tapping at it.  It took several minutes of this, but finally, there came a hollow sound behind the East wall of the study.  He pulled back and smiled in satisfaction, bingo.

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Alistar walked out of the room looking both satisfied and worried.  "What is it, Alistar?" John asked.  Alistar was looking at the floor as he said "Did you hear anything while you were waiting in that room?" John blinked in surprise, Alistar had a way of making him do that.  He thought for a minute, then remembered.  "Yes, yes I did...there was a low conversation, it....it sounded like Alice and her father, then there was a loud scream.  It sounded kind of surprised, and then there was the sound of an argument.  There was loud screaming, and then there was a loud crash and a thump then....well, then nothing, just silence."  Alistar nodded, it was entirely possible that even a house full of shapeshifters would not have heard this down-stairs, given how thick the floor was.  "Did you hear anything else?" John frowned, "Like what?" Alistar finally looked up at him, "Like footsteps, behind the outside wall of your room?" John's frown deepened but he thought back and sure enough, "Yes, yes I did...and it was right after that that the argument started."  Alistar narrowed his eyes "Why did you not mention this before?" John reached up and scratched his ear, "Well, to tell the truth, I...I sorta, completely forgot about it."  Alistar nodded, then dropped the bombshell, "There is one thing that we've forgotten to ask ourselves through all of this; where is Alice?"




CHAPTER 4:
CONCLUSION



John stood in the entrance of the lounge looking at the guests sitting around in the chairs.  Shortly after his announcement to him on the stairs, Alistar asked him to assemble all of them here and then to wait for him.  And so, he waited.

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Alistar stepped through the door into the old master bedroom and looked around.  He was here to follow up a lead that he hated to contemplate, but seemed to be the only thing left that he hadn't thought about.  He searched the room from top to bottom but found nothing.  Then he remembered the old master bathroom. He entered through the door that was hidden as just another piece of wall, and looked around the bathroom.  Then he began to search.  He had almost given up hope when he found it hidden behind the old hot water heater...the passage.  He stepped through into the darkness and stopped a minute to let his eyes adjust and then kept moving.  He walked for several minutes and felt sure he was coming to the end of the passage when he saw it.  His breath left him in a sigh of remorse and he stepped forward.  He stopped next to it and knelt down.  He touched it and rolled it over.....Alice.  He snarled, his face morphing for a second in anger, he brought himself back under control quickly though and continued on to the end of the passage.  He came up to the door and felt along it's side until he felt a switch and opened it.  He stepped out of the East wall into the study and immediatley noticed something he had not before:  A small slip of paper under the grandfather clock on the opposite side of the room.  He walked over and pulled it out.  It turned out to be bigger than he thought.  Some sort of official document, and when he flipped it over and started to read, it all made since.

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John turned as he heard Alistar coming down the stairs.  He had a grim look on his face and his eyes never left the floor.  There was a piece of paper in his hand.  He walked into the lounge and looked up "This," he said holding up the paper, "is Tom Bradley's will."  Several people looked surprised but Sara simply said "What? That old thing?  What about it?."  Alistar looked at her and the grim look on his face became even grimmer.  "You misunderstand, Sara.  This is his new will."  Her eyes widened fractionaly. Alistar continued, "The one in which he cut you out and left everything to Alice.  The one that you knew about.  Of course, you couldn't let this happen, and you just happened to know of a secret passage leading from the master bathroom into your father's study.  Alas, I wasn't the only one to see Tom slip a note to Alice after dinner.  Knowing what this must mean you waited until you knew she was in the study, then crept to the entrance to the passage. You went down the passage to the study, intent on confronting those who would disinherit you.  And that's just what you did, and, in a fit of rage, you killed them both, hiding Alice's body inside the secret passageway, knowing that if she was not immediatly found that it would be assumed that she had done it."
John shuddered and fell into a chair, tears silently sliding down his face.  Alice, dead...no, it couldn't be.  But it is.  He knew it was.
There was a long silence, then, sirens in the distance.  Someone had called the police.  He didn't know who, wasn't even sure that he cared.  When the police came in Alistar explained to them what had happened and they took Sara away.  He sat there for a long time, then he felt a hand on his shoulder and he looked up to see Alistar, looking down at him grimly.  John was ready for it, the pity, the "I'm sorry", the"I know how you feel", so he was surprised when Alistar said "I have a guest house in my apartment in New York, and I think you need to get away from here for a while."  He was surprised by the offer, and he was even more surprised when he felt himself nodding.  He watched Alistar walk away, then realized what he had just agreed to.  He was going to be living in the same house as Alistar Krieg.  "shite!" he said.  With feeling.






The
End......?