NOVGO.NET Chapter 2012 Suspected of Hale
Chapter 2012: Chapter 2012 Suspected of Hale
— Kat —
“So you really want me to tell them Gran?” asked Jen. Lin nodded. “Alright… it’s just… I don’t really know who would want to kill me if not… well the other Haleblooms…”
Lin scoffed. “They know better than to try it with my eye on things. Even if they had tried to do something without my knowledge I’m quite certain I would’ve been able to pick up on it.”
Angie yawned and said, “Well, her saying it was your family is a pretty decent opening for us to go look into things.”
Lin shrugged. “Look wherever you want, I’m quite certain none of them would dare. They know what I’d do to them if I found out they were trying to kill family. Is there anyone else you can think of, Jen?”
Jen considered the question for a while. “Um… well there are a few people who don’t love that I’m part of the thieves network the Diggers set up but that was mostly when I first signed up. I don’t think I’ve had any real problems in years at this point. The closest I have to an enemy is…” Jen blushed and looked away.
“Ah, yes. Angry sex, I understand,” commented Lin.
Jen blushed, burying her face in her hands. Angie seeing this sighed, but had to ask. “Can you talk a bit more about that?”
“Right… um… well… I used to have this bully, or maybe I still have her? We um… she used to get up in my face all of the time. Physically dominate me in spars and leave bruises. She’d steal my lunch sometimes but that was basically only when I made my own…” Lin started cackling at the admission. “Oh don’t laugh Gran. I figured it out eventually didn’t I!”
“Oh I don’t know. Apparently having your lunch stolen every time it was made by your own hand wasn’t a good enough clue!” Lin managed through her laughter.
“Well SORRY I didn’t know I was gay until she kissed me against a wall. It um… was pretty nice. We didn’t start dating at that point, and we… well I’m going to be honest we sort of just beat the shit out of each other instead of flirting like normal people…” admitted Jen.
*I can’t really imagine that kind of love. I know it was covered in the ’talk of doom’ I have firmly sealed in that box… but I just don’t understand it.*
[I’ve got a better idea… but not much of one. I’m happy when you take charge a bit and I don’t think I’d mind being like, trapped by hugs or something but I agree that pain isn’t something I really want in a romance.]
*You seemed to enjoy it when I bit your lip though?*
[That’s COMPLETELY different.]
*Is it?*
[Um… ok maybe not? I want to say it is but if I’m being honest… it has some links. But it didn’t really hurt and I don’t think I’d want to escalate any further.]
Back in the real world, Lin had finally recovered from her laughter. “So, I suppose I’m going to need to give someone the shovel talk then. Not like your parents are going to do it.”
“Wait Gran NO!” hissed Jen. “I actually really like her! And… ok I might be a bit too into the pain and humiliation sometimes but she can be really, really sweet as well. She’s never let me go home too injured and the one time she accidentally broke my arm she was a whole different person for like a MONTH. Taking wonderful care of me. You will NOT give her the shovel talk.”
Lin studied her ’granddaughter’ for a few moments. “Wow, that was a surprising amount of confidence right there. I don’t know when the last time you stood up to me was… I’m still going to give her that talk though. If she’s really the one for you, then she can withstand it.”
“As fun as this is,” cut in Angie. “I’m not sure it brings us any closer to the culprit. We’ve established that, whoever this other girl is, she doesn’t have a motive for it.”
“It might though,” cut in Lin. “Perhaps someone is jealous of my granddaughter here, or maybe Olivia was keeping the worst of the bullies away, and they saw a chink in the armour. Or perhaps Olivia just had enemies.”
“WAIT! How did you know her name!” Jen said, freaking out.
“It wasn’t hard to work out,” Lin admitted with a dismissive wave. “Sure I didn’t know you were together, together, but you think I wouldn’t keep track of the woman bullying my little girl?”
“We’re the same age?!” cried Jen. Lin patted Jen on the head with a small smile as if to say ’if that’s what you want to believe’. Despite the fact Kat’s truesight could tell they were in fact the same age, or at least, Jen believed it to be true.
“You seem to know a bit about the… organisation Jen here was part of. Can you not think of any potential culprits?” asked Angie while looking at Lin.
Lin sighed, “It’s not that I can’t find any but that I can find too many. I’m pretty suspicious of people I don’t immediately take a liking to, and the group Little Jenny here,” Jen made a grumble of protest at the nickname but Lin simply pulled her into a hug and kept patting her head. “ended up in just isn’t that good. I’d be worried for her safety constantly so I tried not to look into it too much.
“The only time I did start to investigate things was when her bruising got excessive and that one time she mentioned breaking her arm. Alas, I already had a pretty good idea about what was going on there and the confirmation, while not something I necessarily loved, did at least make me unconcerned for her happiness,”
Jen was blushing and trying to hide her face from the world. “Really there’s nothing you can add?” asked Angie.
Lin sighed again, “Look, we could talk about how I don’t think her main teacher actually wanted to give her the tools to do the job properly. I could mention that the minders for the job counter probably shouldn’t have let her go on all the missions she’s been on without more training. I could say that the man in charge of those missions shouldn’t have ’accidentally’ mislabelled a few when Jen was likely to go looking for missions.
“I could mention the people in my own family that weren’t happy with her career choice, or that the Fleurs thought we were using her as a spy within the thieves guild. There are plenty of people to point fingers at if all I wanted to do was have them investigated. The problem is that I’m surprised any of them would try to blow her up.
“It’s a bit amateurish and a significant escalation. There is also the fact that I’d certainly get revenge if something happened to her, and likely still will if you lot don’t take proper care of it. So… considering the amateur nature of the attack maybe it was one of her classmates, jealous of her skills or girlfriend like I already suggested. Perhaps it’s someone Olivia knows from her family?” Lin shrugged. “It really is a long list if Jen doesn’t have anything to narrow it down. I might like to know she’s safe, that everyone in my family is… but I don’t like to micromanage or puppet them. That’s not love.”
Angie sighed a bit but didn’t dwell on it. “Alright, why don’t we start with your classmates then? If you had to pick one of them to have been responsible who would you single out?”
“Um… probably Joey?” admitted Jen after a bit of thought. She also slowly moved her face away from Lin now she was less embarrassed. “He was never particularly bad to me. In fact, he just sort of… showed up, did the exercises and left. The main reason I’d pick him is that I heard a rumour I’m not sure I believe, that he was interested in Olivia. That and the fact he really likes explosive enchantments. Though I’m not sure if he would’ve intentionally tried to hurt me.”
“So you think he might have been trying to free you and perhaps got distracted by the old enchantment?” considered Angie.
“I… well I don’t know how likely I think it is, but if you really forced my hand and it had to be amongst my classmates? Then yeah I’d say you’re right. Though how injured he might have considered ’acceptable damage’ on the way out is debatable. I mean, I don’t even know if he’d want to break us up. Perhaps he just wanted to show off to Olivia. Then again, I don’t know how true that rumour is. He never really reacted to it. It’s just one I heard,” explained Lin.
Angie made some notes on her notebook. “Alright, what if we move on to the instructors then?”