Chapter eight:
Josephine slows to a stop as they arrive to a location.
Kaoru slows to a stop next to her looking to where they have arrived. He notices that it looks like some typical one floor office space or perhaps a warehouse. He glances to Josephine. "Why are we here?" He inquires to her to which she smiles to him.
"This is a place that helps us make money. It is one of the ways we collect money. Come. I will show you." Josephine heads inside to which Kaoru follows her inside.
Inside it is shown to be a warehouse with a bunch of shelves full of things with workers going around, an area with office cubicles, and even a loading dock where trucks can unload things.
"We sell all sorts of things here." Josephine leans closer to Kaoru. "Though as far as those here know we are human." She whispers to which Kaoru nods his head that he understands. She leans away and goes to one of the shelves holding some of the merchandise. She picks up a shirt with a pattern on it.
The shirt is a black t-shirt with a pretty cool red dragon design on it.
"We do all sorts of things from the type of vampire merchandise that others seem to love, other creatures along those lines, and even just some cool looking things like this shirt." Josephine puts the shirt away. "However to just show off what we sell isn't why we are here." She gestures for Kaoru to follow her which he does as the two of them head towards one office space which is labeled as the boss's office. She knocks then heads inside to which a woman looks up in surprise.
"Josephine?" The woman quickly closes the book that she was looking over. "What can I do for you?" She inquires as Josephine stops to stand in front of the desk.
"Hello Bella." Josephine greets the woman. "This is Kaoru. He is with me. He will is one of the new managers of the company." She looks to the boy who stands kind of behind her.
"Hello." Kaoru dips his head in greeting to Bella.
The blonde woman blinks at him with her pale blue eyes before nodding. "It is nice to meet you Kaoru."
Josephine turns back to Bella. "There is a reason why we are here today beyond introductions. When the new designs were reviewed a red flag came up. Bella. Can you explain why you want to sell someone's online artwork? Did you even get their permission?"
Bella blinks at this clearly shocked. "Oh dear. I do apologize. That was a new company and one of the examples they sent was quite good quality. So I told them I would send one of the designs for review. Let me get the contract to shred it." She starts to go through a drawer of her desk.
"Hold on." Josephine's words makes Bella pause and look up to her. "We can't let them get away with this. How much information do you have on them?"
"Enough that they can't deny that it is them. All the information we needed for a potential contract." Bella confirms to which Josephine nods her head.
"We are going to get them to find out the consequences of stealing someone's work. Contact our friend in the police force and send the information. I will also send the message to get that artist be contacted so they are also aware of what is going on. We won't shred anything until we can get that company to pay for trying to sell an art work. We will only do business with them if there is proof of the artist permission and that the artist will also be paid for the distribution of the product."
"Yes ma'am." Bella agrees to that order. "I will keep their file separated and do the steps you told me to do."
"Good. Our reviewer will deal with talking to the artist. You worry about the police side of things. Our friend should be able to get a case going against them if they really are using it without permission." Josephine turns to the direction to leave. "Come along Kaoru. We don't have anymore business here anymore."
Kaoru nods then follows after Josephine as they head out. He smiles to himself glad that they truly do care about others that will no doubt be affected if they went with selling that product. "Where to next?" He inquires to Josephine who smiles to him.
"You can head wherever you want. I am going to get myself some blood. You could watch if you want some practice on taking someone down secretly." Josephine blinks before adding something else. "There is a program in the works that would make it so we don't have to hunt humans and kill them. However that is still figuring out a few things before it can be implemented. It needs to expand to the vampires of the world after all."
Kaoru does hope that the program will be implemented soon so they don't have to kill. "I think I am okay right now. You guys have talked to me about ways to cover up what we had done. I think I will head back to the main home."
"Alright. I will see you later then Kaoru." Josephine nods and the two go their separate ways at least for now.
…
Hikaru is sitting with Kyouya in the living room as they look at possibilities in the case.
"So. I did manage to possibly find someone that may match the description of who you last saw Kaoru with." Kyouya slides a picture to Hikaru showing him the man that Hikaru remembers.
"That's him." Hikaru nods his head. "I don't think I could forget his eyes."
"Well there is a slight complication with this." Kyouya adjusts his glasses on his face while Hikaru looks up from the picture to him. "The man is already under investigation for possible human trafficking. Also he filed a report that someone attacked his car. On the same night that Kaoru was seen with him. When he sent the report he was reported as alone. If he does have Kaoru then he would have to get him somewhere before making the report. Which would have been hard as a cop in the area reported rather quickly to the report."
"Did he mention anything about anyone taking someone from the car?" Hikaru inquires to which Kyouya shakes his head. "So then it is still possible that he is responsible."
"Perhaps. The investigation has stalled as any potential victims are so far denying that there is anything going on. However there are officers who are not buying into it." Kyouya sighs softly. "It just is hard to make the case go anywhere without someone stepping up to say something."
Hikaru looks down wondering how they can get any information if the guy does have Kaoru.
"I have a man looking into this man himself. If he finds any trace of Kaoru we will know."
Hikaru nods his head hoping that there will be something as he doesn't know how they'll find his brother if whoever attacked the car took him instead. He has so many words that he needs to say to his brother to try to make things right between them. He needs to find him super badly.