Cougar2k2 wrote:I'm still wondering about Steve... I mean I know he's dead and all but that doesn't really give any answers. A little to neat and tidy for my liking. Maybe a Paladin coverup or the real killer is trying to cover up his tracks or throw them off the real 'scent' And who knows maybe there are multiple furs who want to harm Kit and Jessie, maybe a third party we don't know about and the Paladins just kinda stumbled into the scene spoiling the third party's attempt. The mass conspiracy thing is going a little far I admit and is highly unlikely.
Do we know Steve's dead? What we have to go on is this:
“So I see.” Her phone rang, and she quickly took it out. “Hello? Yes.” Kit watched as her eyes seemed to turn haunted for a second, and then she closed them and bowed her head. She closed the phone without another word, then she sighed. “Kit. Steven just died.”
Kit gave her a steady look. “Don’t expect any sorrow from me, Maxine, but thank you for telling me,” he said simply as he brushed the chopped tomato into the bowl. “Was that Uncle Zach?”
“His chief butler,” she answered. “At least he and Alicia reached the hospital with enough time to see him and say goodbye,” she said mournfully.
If Fel wanted to save up a surprise for later, it could be that Zach and Alicia faked Steve's death to avaoid an investigation into how much they were involved.
“Does Zach know that Steve is involved with the PPC?” Vil asked.
“Vil, both my parents are involved with the PPC,” she retorted. “Do they know Stevie is the Knight Templar? I can’t tell you. But they both know he’s in the PPC. They inducted him.”
“So your parents may have been involved,” Vil pressed.
“Please,” Bridgette snorted. “You should have heard Dad sniveling on the phone, Vil. He wouldn’t have raised a paw against Luke, he was too afraid of losing everything.”
While I don't believe that Zach was involved, Alicia is another matter. I suspect that Steve ran because he thought that he would be blamed. I dare say Fel will enlighten us when he decides to.
“I dare say, I think that Miss Bridgette was telling the truth,” Clancy said mildly. “Master Zach’s family has had certain sympathies in that direction, and Alicia is vindictive and shallow enough to risk the ruination of her family in order to settle a score. But then again, Alicia isn’t broke. If I recall, she entered marriage with Zach with a sizable fortune of her own.”
“Yes, and maybe Zach felt that Alicia could support Steve after the attack, so he said nothing,” Kit grunted. “By separating things, Zach might just be able to sneak through the clauses in the agreement, if he has no knowledge of what’s going on, makes no attempt to aid or stop Alicia, and his wife is the one doing all the dirty work. And like you said, Alicia does have her own money. It’s entirely possible that he told Alicia to take care of it and not tell him a single thing, so he could maintain his plausible deniability.”
Rational people have supported the worst dictators of history - Hitler, Stalin, Mao, Pol Pot, etc.
I'm mad - at least I have an excuse for what I do.