A Birth day

Michael had gone to the crime scene, and he'd prowled around on it. The aurors couldn't very well argue with his ID and his credentials, except to tell him not to contaminate it. He had talked with a couple of younger aurors about the so-called evidence, and it actually surprised him. It wasn't what he had expected to find.

In the tunnels, they had found a custom made black leather jacket belonging to Angus, and a case of some of the very finest red wine--some bottles full and some empty--and they had all come from the Donohue vineyards. And then, the most damning piece of all was the murder weapon--one of Angus's own switchblade knives. Michael wanted to talk to Angus. He wanted to know where Angus had kept the knives and where the jacket had come from. How had someone gotten it? Did it connect with Suzanne, or was there some new nonsense going on? The evidence was more than circumstantial now, except that Angus still had an iron tight alibi--the deputy minister of magic had been awake and with Angus all night long.

Michael and Robert arrived back at Angus's at just about the same time. They had apparated in and they stood outside for a few minutes talking very quietly, sharing their findings with each other first before they broke it to the others. This was not going to be something that Robert was going to undo just by undoing a warrant. This time, they needed to clear his name.

Robert and Michael came inside, and Edward saw that one of them had learned some grim news indeed.

"I cannot undo the warrant without enough evidence to clear Angus," Robert said. "The warrant was signed by the minister himself, so to undo this, we have to clear him of this."

"That isn't going to be a quick and simple matter," Michael said. "I just came from the Tyler property. They do have some evidence, but it doesn't make sense to me. I don't think this can be Suzanne's doing. I don't know who is behind it, but I really don't think we're looking at Suzanne. Edward, does Angus have a custom made black leather jacket."

"Well, he's got that duster...." Edward began.

"No. A jacket. A black leather bomber jacket, custom made for him with his name on the inside, right on the inside pocket..."

"Oh! Yes. He does have one like that," Edward said. "Hasn't worn it in years, though. That was what he wore on missions before he got the duster. I think it's in his closet in his room at my house."

"Not anymore. They found it in the tunnels, along with a case of barolo wine from your vineyard..."

"The hell you say," Edward scowled now, angry.

"Oh, I'm very serious. I saw it myself. There was a case, and five of the bottles had been emptied. And--there's one more thing. Does Angus own any switchblades?"

"Yes, he has several. They're locked up in my weapons cabinet in Tuscany."

"You need to go check. I'm betting you there's one missing. It was the murder weapon."

"Somebody's trying to set him up," Robert said. "The saving grace in it, if there is one, is that I was here with him all night."

Ruby heard aperating and saw both Michael and Robert aperate back on to the grounds but they talked befoer coming into the house and talking to them " so your thinking the fire and abductions at Evans could have been a distraction for some one to get into the house, both this one and in tuscany to steal those items?" she asked standing up as she loekd at both of them " how you goign to disprove that evidence , yes you were with him but they will say its your word against the evidance." Jessie walked over and put his hand on her shulder.

"Ruby you know Robert he'll get to the bottom of this and free Angus , sending the real killer to Askaban." he said softy to her but she pulled away now feeling like her world was breaking around her.

"but how?" she asked Jessie looked at her then to Robert and Michael.

"the real person has to have left some sort of evidence, or...Ginger, while you were down there , and Im sorry to make you rember that time , but, did you hear anything that caught you as funny and I mean funny peculier not funny haha" he asked gently to her hoping she might rember something she had forgot at the begining knowing sometimes details can resurface after time.

"None of those items were here," Edward told Ruby. "Not so far as I know. You're leaping to a lot of conclusions. It's certainly possible that someone could have gotten into my house during the fire, but, frankly, they could have gotten in at any time. Some family members have keys, especially now that I'm spending most of my time here. And I do have my two live in servants. I've lived in that house for nigh onto fifty years and I've never needed exceptional security. The wine, the jacket and the knife were all things that, so far as I remember, were in my house in Tuscany."

When Jessie asked Ginger about her time in the cell in the tunnels, Ginger was not ready to talk about it.

"No," she said quickly, with a sharp edge to her voice. "I didn't." She handed the baby to Anise and went outside, wanting to be alone.

"I've got it,' Marcus said, going after her to try to soothe her.

"Let's go to Tuscany and check out your house," Michael told Edward. Edward nodded. The two of them left in a hurry. Robert went over to the cart of medical supplies and poured Ruby a dose of calming potion and handed it to her.

'You cannot afford to get all beside yourself about this," Robert told her. "Take it."

Ruby looked at Robert and the potion " I can't help it Robert , Angus is in Askaban for something he didn't do and hes hurt, thats not doing his mental or pysical state any good, he was just getting over my mother and now this" she said "meanwhile Im sat here at home in the safeness not out there trying to help find the real killer." she took the potion dose and downed it then sat down next to Robert having said what she needed to.

Jessie looked at Kate and Anise as Ginger walked out the door. " I did opologise for asking." He said then walked to the door himself to find Ginger and Marcus. Walking over he stood a little back from her " Im sorry for asking." he said " I won't ask again, I promise."

"I know all that," Robert told her firmly, not willing to let her be a shrinking violet in all of this, "but if you go off half cocked, you won't be helping. Get yourself together. Where do you think he wants you to be or expects you to be? He expects you to be right here, taking care of the family. If you want to take a stand, then you take it. Right here, right now. Until we know otherwise, your job is to stand tall and protect yourself and your kids. And if you can't do that, I'll put the kids someplace else until you can do your job."

"I know," Kate told Jessie. "And she answered you. She'll be alright."

Ginger knew Marcus was there, but she hadn't spoken to him. Right now, she wanted to hit something, kick something, and she wished she was strong enough to just go run like Anise liked to do. The fact was that she was tired, though. There had been enough activity for her this morning. Then she heard Jessie apologize and tell her he wouldn't ask again.

"I don't have any thing helpful, but I wish I did," she said quietly.

In Tuscany, Edward and Michael went through the house. They searched Edward's office and found the weapons cabinet had been broken into and the switchblade was the only thing missing. Upstairs, the only thing missing was Angus's jacket. Nothing else had been disturbed. Michael checked the doors and the windows and saw no evidence of any kind that there had been a break in at all. Then they checked the wine cellar and found that not a single bottle was taken.

"You know what I"m thinking?" Michael asked Edward.

"No. What?" Edward asked.

"There was no breaking and entering as such. And you have countless things that are far more valuable than that switchblade and that jacket. And there isn't even one bottle of wine missing. I think this is an inside job somehow, Edward. Someone in your family or someone that works for you is behind this. I'll bet you a pint that its someone that has it either out for you or for Angus."

"And if its one of mine, I will kill them. My axe will go through human bones as easily as it goes through a werewolf," Edward said icily. "If one of mine has touched my boy, it'll be the last time they did."

"And I'll be right with you," Michael said. "Well, I guess we'd better get a list of your family members and a list of your employees. This is gonna take some time--if they tell us the truth."

"I can fix that. Come with me." Edward took him to his office and opened a safe and got out a large glass bottle that looked like it only had water in it.

"A bottle of water?" Michael asked.

"No," Edward said seriously. "This is the largest damned bottle of Veritaserum you're likely to ever see in your life. And it isn't prohibited here like it is back in England."

"Let's go talk to Robert before we drug all your relatives, shall we?" Michael asked.

Edward put the bottle in a messenger bag, and the two of them ported back to the duplex. Michael told them exactly what they found, along with Michael's theory that they were very likely looking to a Donohue as the culprit of this nonsense.

Ruby listened to Robert but his last words made her stand to face him " you can try" she said "those are mine and Angus's kids and nobody will touch them" she said "but yeah, I am staying here , I'll leave the leg work to you guys." she admited.

Jessie nodded to Kate and smiled to Ginger before heding out for his patrol with Jack who playfully slapped the back of his head as they walked away calling him an idiot. Ruby sat down on the couch and took slowldeep breaths in until the pition took effect and she felt better " Sorry Robert" she said then heard aperating and heard Edward and Michael aperate back in . She sat up and listend quitly to them talk about what they had found in Tuscany.

"I'm going to tell you this just once," Robert said to Ruby in a very calm voice. "You take care of your kids, and I won't have to. If you can't do that, they will be mine until such time as you can woman-up or until Angus gets home, whichever comes first. Let's let the lesson end right there because my attention needs to be on getting to the bottom of this double murder so I can get Angus back."

When Ruby apologized, he nodded. "Thank you. Apology accepted. Now, lets get to work." He focused in on what Michael and Edward had to say about what they'd found. Then Edward pulled the large glass bottle out of his bag, and Robert nodded.

"So, how do you expect to get your family to show up to be interrogated?" Robert asked.

"I'm still thinking about that,' Edward said, as Marcus and Ginger came back inside.

"Well," Marcus said, "I have an idea."

"Speak," Robert said.

"Let's get the Italian ministry of magic to haul them in, in one fell swoop and let them give them the Veritaserum and question them. Make it official. Go directly at them," Marcus said. "I see no point in screwing around. Find out who the hell did it and why."

"And how exactly do we do that?"

"I spent years protecting the Bulgarian minister of magic. He just happens to vacation every Christmas and every summer with the Italian minister," Marcus said. "I think I could ask for a favor and get the job done."

"Go for it," Robert said. "Let's not wait. Let's see if that gets us anywhere."

Marcus opened a channel in the floo and spoke in Bulgarian to their minister of magic. The minister obviously had many warm feelings for Marcus because Robert could tell the conversation was going well just by the context of it. The conversation ended, and within minutes, the minister opened a channel back to talk to Marcus, and it was short but pleasant. When the conversation ended, Marcus looked at them.

"If we deliver a list of names and addresses, they'll round them up for us. We'll have to deliver the Veritaserum because they don't have that much on hand," Marcus said. "But that way, we'll know if we can rule them in or rule them out."

"I'll get the list put together at once," Edward said.

"I'll help you," Simone said, accio'ing a couple pads of paper and a couple of pens. She also accio'd the list of relatives they had put together for their wedding, and they used it as a starting point, adding some names and taking some names off.

Ruby moved to pick up Caprice and hold her close to her from Kate " thanks Kate I don't know how you do it" she said gently bouncing Caprice as she sat down. She looked to Anise and smiled " let them find the culprate, Im sure we'll have a shot at whom ever it was , in time" she said softly "right now, we need to keep this family together." she said hoping she wasn't losing it by doing nothing. With Caprice in her arms she moved to the kitchen to get a soda for herself and a cool pasifier for Caprice while they waited for the result of the delivery of the Veritaserum.

"You have to stay focused," Kate told her. "Stay focused and keep your priorities at the front of your mind. I have jobs that Robert cannot do. He's excellent at what he does, just like I'm good at what I do. When he's doing what he can do, I have to do the things that he can't. It creates balance for us.

"Right now, you can bet that Angus is focused because that's just who he is. He trusts that you are going to take very good care of the kids. Think about it. He very deliberately hid Caprice from the aurors so that they didn't get her. He wanted to be very sure that the kids were still here because he knew they would be best with you. He surrendered to the aurors so that the kids would be safe. Right now, he needs you to do that job because he can't."

Edward and Simone finished the written list, and Marcus and Edward took the list and ported out to Tuscany. From there, they apparated to Rome to the ministry and they delivered the list and Edward's bottle of Veritaserum.

"So, Simone, just how long is this list?" Michael asked.

"Considerable," she said. "Edward has 2 brothers and 2 sisters. Between them, they have 11 children--or Edward's nieces and nephews. And between them, they have 39 children. So, just with that group, that makes 54. And each of those people have spouses or significant others in some fashion. And then, Edward has five surviving children. They each have spouses. And they have children. and grandchildren. So, that list alone, without the employees, is over 160 people. And then there are all the employees on top of that."

"It's going to be at least a day or two, then, before we know something unless someone confesses right away," Michael sighed. "Damn."

"Simone, can Kate and I have your permission to do a walk through of Edward's house?" Robert asked. "I don't know if Kate will be able to pick up on anything with her seer's energies but it's worth a try."

"Absolutely," Simone said. "Anything if it'll help. I'll go get my keys for you."

"Let me go with you," Anise said. "I'm sure I'm not as good as Kate is, but if there's anything at all, aren't two seers better than one?"

"It's worth a try. Any objection, Ruby?" Kate asked.

Ruby listened to Kate as she spoke to her and she nodded "Okay" she said then listened as Michael spoke to Simone it was now Anise spoke to go with them and Ruby smiled "Sure, go ahead, I'll stay here in case they come back with the news" she said letting Caprice suck on her iced pasifier. Ruby placed her down on her play mat and then picked up her book to read while she waited for the others to get done.

Jessie walked around the perimeter of the grounds with Jack who spoke to him about being more sensitive around Ginger about what had happened to her Jessie nodded as they walked past the guard house and the other guards and back to the main house.