Page 6 of Sins of the Fathers

“Maybe we can look into this together.”

Archie was only partially surprised that Jasper was interested. He hadn’t left the hunters because he hadn’t liked investigating. He’d left because he hadn’t liked the way the hunters were guided by what the higher-ups expected them to do. He’d never been the kind of person who disliked monsters and would be more than happy to find a reason to imprison a lot of them. In fact, he’d been fighting against that even when he was a hunter, before he knew that he wasn’t fully human. It was one of the reasons Archie had fallen for him.

But as much as Archie wished he could keep Jasper out of this, Jasper might be a good source of information, and, more importantly, probably wouldn’t want to be kept out of it. If he could help Archie, he would, even if Archie didn’t ask for it.

* * * *

ARCHIE HAD TOLD JASPER about the case, but he hadn’t gone into details. Jasper hadn’t asked because it wasn’t his job or his case, but maybe he should. It was clear that something was bothering Archie, and if there was anything Jasper could do to help, he wanted to do it.

He sat in one of the chairs on the other side of Archie’s desk and gestured at him. “Tell me more about the case.”

“Are you sure?”

“I wouldn’t be asking if I wasn’t.”

“Correct me if I’m wrong, but didn’t you say that you’re just a mechanic and that you’re going to stay out of hunter business from now on?”

Jasper wrinkled his nose. It was true that he’d said that, and he’d meant it. He still did. He wanted nothing to do with hunters, especially not his father.

But he was curious. He remembered Daniel, and he wanted to know what had happened to the guy, even though they hadn’t been friends. He supposed that he was intrigued by the fact that Daniel had been dating a monster, just like Jasper. In a way, they’d been very similar. They were both hunters who’d left the family, as Leroy liked to call it. They were both ex-hunters who’d fallen in love with a monster and had accepted it for what it was. Well, Jasper didn’t know how Daniel had felt about that, but it seemed like he and Petra had been together for a while, so obviously, he’d been fine with it.

It was impossible to ignore the parallels between them, but Daniel was dead. Jasper had almost died several times recently. He’d come way too close, and he could imagine what it would’ve been like for Archie if he had been killed. They hadn’t been together that long, but it would have hurt.

“So what are you looking at for Daniel?” Jasper asked.

Archie turned his computer screen so that Jasper could see it, too. “Like you said, this is an old report. There’s not much in it, which is surprising.”

Jasper leaned forward. It was surprising, yet at the same time, it wasn’t. “I’ve seen this kind of report before. Someone is trying to hide something.”

“These are the hunters we’re talking about. When are they not trying to hide something?”

Jasper huffed out a laugh. “True. But someone’s trying to hide something, and that’s when Daniel left the hunters, right?”

Archie nodded and scrolled. “As you can see, someone scanned handwritten documents. They added them to the file, which is the only reason I found this.”

Jasper squinted at the symbol on the screen. It was in the corner of one of the documents, and clearly didn’t belong. Hunters didn’t use symbols. It was in the case file, but it was impossible to tell how it was involved with just the few details in the paperwork.

“I’ve seen this before,” Jasper murmured, still staring at the black mark.

“Oh?”

“Before you get too excited, I don’t remember where or what it means.” Jasper glanced at Archie. “Can I get a picture of that?”

“I’ll send one to you. Petra found the symbol on the wall when she found Daniel’s body.”

Jasper leaned back in his chair. “She’s the one who found him?”

“She was.”

“God, I can’t even imagine what that was like. Is she okay?”

“As okay as she can be, considering. She wants to know what happened to Daniel, and I don’t blame her. She was really scared that I wouldn’t want to help.”

“That makes sense.”

“Unfortunately, it does. I told her about you, though, and she relaxed a bit.”

Jasper grinned. “Proud of me, are you?”