A Birth day

Jack saw Marcus and relaxed hearing they both got back safe " that's good, and sure " he said walking with Marcus to the duplex . Ruby saw Marcus return with Jack " there's capachino in the kitchen with syrup if you want it sweet" she said holding up her cup smiling to them.

Aria walked over to Marcus " what did you find?" she asked him out of ruby's earshot. She wanted to know wat if anything they found in the graves but she over heard the boys ask first and Marcus answer saying nothing but empty graves . " weird, why go threw all that trouble and expense for two empty graves?" she said as she accioed two cups handing them one to Marcus and taking the other for herself " this will warm you" she said smiling a she then moved to sit back down next to Angus.

Marcus saw that Angus didn't have a cappuccino, so he gave his to Angus and made another for himself.

"Oh, thanks," Angus said to Marcus. 

"I think Angus has it right. Someone is deliberately doing everything in their power to cover their tracks, and I'm becoming more and more convinced we're looking for a single person."

"Oh, I get it," Angus said slowly, not following Marcus at first but following him now. "What did you find that gave you more information?"

"The way they had gone to great lengths to try to protect the graves from being broken into old, ancient protections that were still in place, untouched. They were difficult, of course, but not impossible, and Michael got through them relatively easily."

"Well, that's no judge. Michael gets through bloody everything easily," Angus laughed. 

"You do have a point."

"And besides, if I really wanted to hide something, i'd have gone straight to ancient magic too," Angus said.

"Why?" Marcus frowned.

"Because most of today's wizards and witches are stupid enough to think they don't need to study that anymore. They seem to think they're God's gift to magic. So fewer and fewer witches and wizards have any idea how to deal with ancient magic."

"Well, now you have a very excellent point there," Marcus said. "And you just took us back to the fact that we have absolutely no proof whoever it is is acting alone."

"Sorry," Angus laughed. "I bet tomorrow Robert will be planning some luxurious excursion to Shetland."

"You seriously are demented if you are going to put luxurious and Shetland in the same sentence," Marcus laughed.

"It isn't that primitive is it?" Victor asked. 

"Old stone houses separated by endless views of dead grass," Marcus said. 

"Oh, not fun, is it?"

"If you like that sort of isolation, then yes," Marcus said.

"Sounds like a perfect place to hide something you don't want anybody to find," Sam said.

"Exactly," Angus said. "We need to find those graves."

Ruby was about to make Angus a cup when she saw Marcus give him his and she gave the one she had made for Angus to Marcus then walked back to the living room listening to them talking she chuckled as she heard Marcus talk about luxurious and Shetland in the same sentence. She also heard him talk of the isolation of the houses on Shetland.

Jack now finished his coffee he placed the cup in the sink " okay I'll head out and see you guys tomorrow, me and my walking boots" he said chuckling to Marcus .

Aria listened to Marcus talk of Shetland and shook her head " sounds a sad lonely place" she said sipping her coffee as she glanced over at Angus. She took out her word search and sat quietly working on it while Ruby sat reading her book but soon closed it.

"it doesn't make sense why do all that just to have nothing there there must have been something , a clue or something" she said

"Why does there have to be a clue there?" Marcus asked. "That sounds like your frustration because we didn't find a handful of blonde hair or something. You do realize that muggles leave things like fingerprints and hair and the like. Wizards don't have to touch anything. We can cast spells from a distance and not leave a stinking trace. the fact is that the absence of bodies, and the high end granite vaults with the expensive caskets, all of that is a whole chain of clues in itself. Think. Who spends that sort of money to create 2 empty graves? Somebody with money--a lot of it. And, if they're able to do that sort of dark magic, and, if we're still on the trail of the person who can do elemental magic, now we're most likely looking at someone exceptionally wealthy. Or at least they were when Charlotte and Gideon died. Granted, they're not big clues, but they're clues."

"What we don't have, and presumably won't have until we find the bodies is any sort of motive. We need to know exactly what killed them. Maybe if we find out what killed them, it might point us towards who," Angus said. "Besides there's also all that tangled up mess about what happened to Charlotte and Gideon's things, their money, their house, their land," Angus said. "And if Suzanne weren't so barmy, maybe we could ask her what she remembers about the deaths of her parents and what happened in all that mess about their estates."

"That isn't bloody likely, even with Veritaserum," Andrew yawned. "You give somebody whose mad a big dose of Veritaserum, and all you get is whatever screwball thoughts that crazy person thinks is truth. You can't guarantee a word of it really is truth. Robert won't be very anxious to try that plan because it just is loaded with a million and one errors."

"Hm.. Good to know," Angus said. "So Veritaserum isn't an option."

"Not with someone who's already crackers," he said.

"So, we're back to trudging through the hinterlands with shovels probably because we're probably going to have to have muggle guides to take us to where they believe the graves are. Fun, fun, fun," Marcus said. "Be glad you're not going, Angus."

"I like hiking," Angus said.

"Nowhere do I see hiking through scruff and rocky wilderness as being on your list of approved activities," Andrew said, opening Angus's medical chart and reading. "Nope. Not listed, I'm afraid."

"But Sergio and Ana would eat this up. This is right on their lists of specialties," Marcus said

"It certainly is," Angus agreed, yawning. Andrew passed him a potions cup.

"Do get your night meds tonight, will you. I mixed them together so you don't have five or six of these things to deal with," Andrew told Angus. "Before you get too sleepy."

"It is late, anyway," Marcus said, seeing the clock was just about ready to strike 2 am. "I'll go make the security check." He set his empty cup aside and headed to Edwards to do the checks on that side of the duplex.

Ruby looked at Marcus and took a deep breath " sorry not use to all this investigation stuff" she said and chuckled " so your back to following the paperwork again, like receipts and the money flow?" she asked.

Aria sat and listened to Andrew as he spoke that the Veritaserum would not work and she made note of that. "Okay, so crazy memories shows crazy memories righty?" she said finishing her coffee. " and back to using the muggle term gumshoeing it ?" she said now gathering the empty cups and taking them to the kitchen to wash.

Ruby sat listening quietly now to the men talking she heard Andrew talk to Angus about his night meds , Ruby accioed them and pored each dose handing them one at a time to Angus as he took them she noted each one down on the clip board and handing it to Andrew.

"Well, no. We're not back to paperwork," Marcus said. "I think the most logical move is for us to go to Shetland and try to find out if Charlotte and Gideon were buried there for some reason. If they are, then Robert needs to do new autopsies on them to see what exactly happened to them. And, while that's being done, hopefully Iya can help us develop some sort of plan to deal with whatever Pearl's ghost wants with Angus so he can stop dreaming about her. And last but not least, we need to find out who is controlling the elemental magic stuff we ran into and try to break their alliance with Priscilla who apparently still wants Suzanne's contract fulfilled for the money that Suzanne promised her."

"Such a damned mess," Angus yawned, now really tired. "Like a stinking octopus with lethal weapons in each tentacle."

"Pretty much, Mate," Marcus said, feeling for him. "Get some sleep. The rest of us need to head to bed too so you can sleep. Come on, you lot, how about heading to bed so Angus can sleep? While he's sleeping down here, this is his bedroom." 

The boys got up, took their mugs to the sink and went up to their rooms. Marcus made a check through Angus and Ruby's side of the duplex and let Finn out for one last trip out and then secured the house. 

"We're good for the night, Mate," Marcus said. "You need anything at all?"

"Nope. I'm good. Go to bed, Marcus," Angus said, slipping off to sleep. 

"Okay," Marcus smiled. "Goodnight." He went upstairs, hit the shower, and then headed to bed. Andrew measured how much Angus had had of his cappuccino and charted it and then sat down with a book to read.

Ruby listened to Marcus explain and nodded " logical place to start I guess" she said then chuckled at Angus saying it was a mess and it was like an octopus with deadly weapons in each hand. " yeah, but that's easily solved , stand on its head and it will shoot itself " she said softly seeing Angus slowly become sleepy.

Aria saw it too and smiled standing she headed over to Edwards side and did a cursory check locking outer doors and windows that weren't used before returning to see Finn dive outside and Marcus start his check. " Edwards side is locked down" she told him quietly as she moved to the stairs " see you upstairs" she added and walked to their room.

Ruby stood up once the boys had gone to their room and walked over to Angus she chuckled hearing him tell Marcus to go sleep. Leaning down she gently kissed Angus cheek " you do the same, my love" she said softly to him before she stood up and walked to the stairs " night Angus" she said softy before heading to her room and readying for bed. She did wish she could help Angus as it always seemed her family caused trouble for the Donohue family, was her family cursed to rival any white-lighter romances. With a deep sigh she lay on the bed looking up at the sky light.

Aria showered and sat on the bed drying her hair as he waited for Marcus to enter.

Andrew had accidently dozed off around 4:30, mostly because the book he was reading was boring the daylights out of him. Angus woke up, saw the house was silent, and he got up, put on his robe, went to the kitchen and made fresh coffee. Then he made a fresh batch of scones. The peaches were just starting to come into season, so he made some golden syrup scones that had some peaches and chopped, toasted pecans. Then he made a quick frittata and put it in the oven.  By then, Finn was coming downstairs, so he let Finn out, filled his bowls and collected the papers. 

That was, temporarily, enough activity.  He was having a lot more back pain than he had expected to have, so he set the timer to go off when the scones and the frittata were ready to come out of the oven, and he poured himself a mug of coffee, sat down on the sofa and started to read the papers, all while leaving Andrew sleep.

Aria heard movement below them and slipped from the bed , dressed in her dressing gown over her night dress she had worn. Carefully heading down the stairs her wand in hand she paused and slipped it away as she saw Angus in the kitchen " you should be sleeping" she said softly as she noticed Andrew sleeping soundly. Walking over she pored some of the coffee but realized it was old and now cold. Tipping out the cup she refreshed the pot and pored herself a new cup.

" so you not sleeping?" she asked but smelt the scones " ah sleep cooking" she said with a chuckled " a benefit to us all" she smiled as she sat down on the couch not too close to a sleeping Andrew and chuckled.

"What did you do? You just poured that whole pot of coffee out?" Angus frowned. "I just made that pot. It just finished brewing before you came down."  When she asked if he wasn't sleeping. "4:30 has been my usual getting up time for years. I got out of it when I was on medical leave when I has stuck in a wheelchair a couple years ago, but I need to get back in the habit of getting up and getting things done. So, when I woke up, I just got up and..." 

As he was speaking, an owl tapped rather loudly on the kitchen window. He flicked his fingers at the window to open it, and Luigi, his own owl flew in, landed on his shoulder, dropped a note into his lap and proceeded to take a hard nip on his ear.

"Hey," Angus frowned, tapping him firmly on the beak to let Luigi he did not like being bitten. "No treat for you. Not when you bite." He opened the note and read it. He sighed heavily.

"Robert doesn't want any of the kids leaving the house for awhile this morning, especially Anise," he told Aria. "We're on an indoor lockdown. Nobody but grounds crew outside until he tells us otherwise. There are no details here, only that something or someone attacked Iya in her sleep last night. I don't know if she was hurt, I don't know the circumstances. All he said is that Iya was attacked while she was sleeping in the main house. So nobody goes outside until he clears us."