An Aquarium of Deceit by Verena DeLuca

Author:Verena DeLuca
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Aconite Cafe

* * *

One week later, Luca and I helped Parker pack up after a successful stay in Belville.

“Just check to make sure the tanks are latched,” she said, marching up and down the dim hallways. “And the hermit crabs need a cover, otherwise they get scared. Same for the tetras. The zombie piranhas need some extra food—where did I put it?”

She stopped, her head tilted to one side as she tried to remember. I caught Luca’s eye and tried not to laugh.

“We’ll help, but we can only help with things we know,” he told Parker, winking at me.

“I know, I know,” she sighed before smiling back at us. “This whole ‘not having an assistant’ thing is harder than I remember.”

“I heard Niko confessed and that he’s going to trial,” I murmured. “I’m sorry.”

“I’m sorry about the whole mess in the first place. Especially for the poor alpha fish. And the chicken fish, come to think of it. I never realized what was going on,” Parker said. “I hired him because of his experience with breeding tropical guppies. I was so grateful for the assistance, I didn’t look into him the way I should have.”

“You couldn’t have known,” Luca said reassuringly.

But Parker shook her head. “I should have put two and two together. I was just always focused on the fish. Ann only showed up after Niko got here. I assumed she was after me about the cages, the traveling, you know—things being bad for the animals. But it turns out, she was after Niko, due to some shady dealings he’d done in the past. She lost all her family’s money and her reputation on some fish investment scam—that’s what the reporter told me. And then she just wanted to make him face the truth, I suppose. But he . . .”

“He couldn’t stand the exposure,” I finished for her, sympathetically. But it got him anyway. Leo had done some excellent work in the past week, uncovering Ann’s hidden evidence and drawing connections between Niko and a larger ring of black marketers on the coast. Word around town was she was even going to spend her summer tracking the rest of them down, in honor of her friend.

“Well, it all makes sense, at least,” said Luca. “Even if it is pretty terrible. But you and Cobra will be okay.”

“That we will.” Parker’s eyes gleamed fondly, and she hesitated before turning back to work. “I never would have guessed it, though. Niko was always so . . . unassuming.”

“If William were here, he’d say it’s the quiet ones you have to look out for,” I said, in an attempt at a joke.

“Oh, I don’t know. Some of them are pretty cute,” said Parker. My heart skipped a beat before I realized she was gesturing at her fish tanks. Oh, right. Fish. Fish are quiet. And . . . cute?

Across the hallway, Luca winked.

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