Chapter Twenty-Four: Call to My Husband:

The boys left Sharon panicky. She picked up her phone and dialed the number. Her heart worked itself up as the other line rang.

"Hello?" a man asked. Sharon's heart began to relax.

"Nobu?" she asked.

"What is it, Sharon?"

"Are you in trouble again?"

"No� why?"

Sharon closed her eyes. "Some men came by the house today."

"What did they want?"

"They were asking about you."

"These men, what did they look like?"

"One was a boy about Vicki's age. The other was a man in a trench coat."

"Was Anna with them?"

"Who?"

"My niece, was she with them?"

"I thought she was dead."

"She was resurrected, remember? I told you that months ago. Now, was she with them or not?"

Sharon paused as she tried to remember that conversation months back. "Oh yeah, you did tell me."

"Was she with them or not?"

"No."

"I see�"

Sharon pressed her lips together. "So are you in trouble again?"

"Not just yet."

"Not just yet? What do you mean?"

"I can't tell you that, Sharon." His ear caught the sound of his wife starting to whimper on the phone. "Aww, sweetheart. Don't cry."

"I don't want you taken away from us!"

"No one's going to take me away from anywhere."        

"When will you be home?"

"I will let you know."

"Promise me you'll come home!"

"I promise, dear. Anything else?"

Sharon pressed her lips together again. "No."

"I love you, dear."

"I love you too."

"I'll be home soon."

"Alright."

"Buh-bye."

"Bye," Sharon said in a small voice. The couple hung up together and Sharon slid back in her seat.

"Was that dad on the phone?" someone asked her.

"Hm?" the woman asked as she lifted her head. Vicki stood in the doorway. Sharon nodded as she tried to keep it together.

"Yes," she said. "That was your father."

"He in trouble again?" her daughter asked. The woman shook her head.

"He won't say," she said.

"Well, when's he coming back?"

"Don't know.�

Vicki turned and went back upstairs. Sharon tightly shut her eyes. Not this again! He promised to stop killing. She shook her head as she gripped her armchair. No! I won't break up this family!  Her heart sank to her stomach and doubled in beats. Come home quick, Nobu!

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"She knows about the Eda-Kimoto murders?" Tsuzuki asked in Ju-Oh-Cho.

"That's right," Hisoka replied.

"And� she doesn't do anything to stop it?" his partner asked. The boy shook his head. Tsuzuki gave him an uneasy look. He already knew the answer to the next question.

"And the daughter?" he asked.

"She studies the craft as well," Hisoka said.

"And her kitsune?" Tsuzuki asked.

"Full-breed copy," his young partner said. Tsuzuki blinked.

"Copy?" he asked.

"Yeah, she just like most of the family," Hisoka replied.

"And Kaoru?"

"He too has a copy, but he doesn't use his kitsune."

"Because he left the family?"

"Yes."

"And he's on the pills to sustain the hunger?"

"Yes."

"And what about Shichiro and Amaya? Do they have any children as well?"

Hisoka shook his head. "They had a son, but he died infancy. No name."

Tsuzuki tried to hide his desperation from his partner. "Any other cousins besides those three?"

"We don't know. Juriko died when she was sixteen." Hisoka paused and eyed him. "Why are you so concerned about Anna's cousins?" he asked. Tsuzuki threw up his hands.

"I'm just covering all possibilities that Anna might not have the mother kitsune." He shifted his focus back to his paperwork. Marrying Anna came with a headache-inducing fee already.