Peter's past

Chapter 23

The following evening at precisely eight o'clock, Jacob arrived to pick me up for dinner. The steakhouse we had booked was the best restaurant in the Pack, and it was clear that Zelda was very keen on being on good terms with me.

When Jacob and I arrived at the restaurant, Zelda was already there waiting for us. We ordered our meals and started chatting over a few glasses of wine.

"Gamma Aiden, how's your work progressing? Is there anything I can help you with?" Zelda asked me.

"His Majesty sent me to investigate the drug-related matter. He is very serious about this situation, but I haven't found any clues yet, and it seems to me that the drug dealers are very cunning. If you guys know of any possible clues, please do let me know," I replied sincerely.

"We are a small Pack, in a very remote area. As you can see, we are very law-abiding and wouldn't dare to get involved in drugs. However..."

Zelda suddenly stopped, hesitated for a split second and continued, "you may have heard that my sister Dorothy was expelled from the Pack by my father because of drug use. But my sister was on drugs at the bar in Gold Heart Pack and had nothing to do with our Pack."

"I've heard about your sister. Alpha Edward was right not to cover up for his family in this matter." I remained perfectly calm.

"But Dorothy is my sister after all. If I had found out about her drug use, I would have stopped her, and things might not have turned out this way. I heard she was sent to build the new Palace and ended up being executed for breaking the rules there." Zelda's voice choked up, and she dabbed the corners of her eyes with her napkin as she spoke.

I cursed her in my mind: In the 19 years I've known you, I never knew you were so good at acting. But I had to pretend to agree, "She brought this on herself, so don't beat yourself up."

Jacob put his arm around Zelda and comforted her, "Honey, don't blame yourself, it's all in the past."

He explained to me, "Zelda was on good terms with Dorothy, and speaking about her demise makes her very sad."

My expression suggested that I understood, and I continued, "I don't think there's any sign of drug dealing here either, so I'll check out the other packs tomorrow."

"If you go to Gold Heart Pack, make sure you look me up. I'm going back to Uni in a couple of days. I'd like to have you as a buddy, and the nightlife at Gold Heart Pack is much livelier than here, so we'll have fun together then!" Jacob winked at me.

I smiled and agreed.

The following day, I drove to Gold Heart Pack, where I found Peter's file; the file recorded when he switched from obstetrics and gynaecology to dentistry. I concluded that it was one month after Zelda's birth, which means Peter changed jobs one month after delivering Zelda. Why?

And I still didn't understand why, if Peter worked at Gold Heart Pack Hospital at that time, why would he go to Night-fall Pack to deliver Zoe's baby? Was it just a coincidence?

I decided to check out Peter's house. After his identity had been revealed, Theo had sent his men to search Peter's house, but they did not find any useful clues, only that Peter's visa to the human world had been issued by Paul's men.

I entered Paul's house and carefully checked every room. Of course, I also checked the trash can, but much to my disappointment, I found nothing.

Just as I was about to leave, I glanced at the books on the shelves. An idea suddenly flashed in my head. Maybe these books would hold some kind of evidence, are detective novels not written like this?

So I went to the bookshelf to try my luck. Soon, I found something interesting: there was a row of older-looking books on the shelf, all about hybrid babies, and I remembered that he had delivered Zelda as a baby. I frowned; Was there a connection between this?

I decided to go to the dentist's clinic where Peter worked to try to find out more about Peter's past. When I arrived there, I was greeted by Miss Julie, the Clinic Administrator.

Since we had blocked the news that Peter had died, Miss Julie informed me, "Gamma Aiden, Dentist Peter has applied for a month's leave and will not return until next week, you can come back to see him then."

She looked a little nervous, as she had clearly not expected a Gamma to visit.

"That's okay. Since he recently applied for a position at Palace as a Royal Dentist, I was just instructed to do a routine background check. You must understand, working for the King, safety comes first." I clarified.

"That's absolutely right." Accepting my explanation, Miss Julie now looked much more relaxed.

"It's a shame, as Dentist Peter is a very popular dentist, his patients love him, and so do we. What would you like to know about him?" she asked, looking sad.

It seemed that Peter was a decent enough guy on the surface. I asked to see the profiles of his patients.

Miss Julie tapped at her computer for a moment, rose from her seat and said to me, "All the relevant information on Peter's patients is here, please sit down and take your time. If you have any questions, feel free to ask me. I'll be right here if you need anything."

"Thank you so much." I said gratefully.

I sat down and started to browse through the patients' information carefully, but after reviewing it for some time, I hadn't found anything suspicious.

The only strange thing was that Peter kept going part time, but that I was not surprised as I knew he had been colluding with humans, so of course he would need to spend time in the human world.

I decided to leave. Before I said goodbye to Miss Julie, I asked casually, "Peter has been working part time, do you know where else he works?"

"Peter is very caring, so he spends his spare time doing charity work. He joined a charitable organization and every month he gives free dental care to people on low incomes, even rogues." Julie's voice was full of praise.

"Peter's such a generous man, I'll mention this in his recruitment report as a positive. Do you know the name of the charity he joined?"

Julie rummaged in the drawer for a moment, pulled out a business card and handed it to me: "It's this one, and our clinic has also made donations to it."

I took the card and put it in my pocket, before addressing Miss Julie seriously, "Miss Julie, as I'm checking Peter's background on a matter involving the King, can I remind you to keep this confidential."

"Of course, I understand." Miss Julie pretended to seal her mouth shut.

I left the clinic and made a beeline for the offices of the charity whose name was on the business card.

I told the person in charge that I had been sent by the King to check the operations of the charity. The person in charge quickly brought me their records, and I copied the list of Peter's patients from his pro bono work and left hurriedly.

I called Luke, "Beta Luke, this is Gamma Aiden. I have a list here, could you please help me verify if anyone here has been involved in any cases involving drugs?"

Because many of the patients on the list were rogue, who of course had no IDs at all, only Beta Luke could find any information on these patients.

"No problem, I'll get back to you as soon as possible." Luke replied.

I had just hung up the phone when the phone rang again. The screen showed that it was Jacob calling.

"Hi, Jacob, what's up?" I answered the phone.

"Hi Aiden, I'm back at Golden Heart Pack. How about we go out for a drink tonight? Just two boys out on the town, no Zelda this time," he said laughing excitedly.

"That would be great, we guys have more fun together." I pretended to understand what he meant by that and laughed too.

"Cool! I'll see you at Moonlite Lounge at nine o'clock tonight then."

From what I could see, I could tell that Zelda was the one who told Jacob what to do, but Zelda followed Zoe's instructions, so it was best for me to gain Jacob's trust and break the weakest link to dig into their deepest secrets.

When I arrived at Moonlite Lounge that night, the air was thick with the smell of alcohol, sweat and excitement. The music was loud, the thumping bass sound reverberating through the room and filling every corner.

"Aiden, come with me." Jacob took me upstairs to the private room.