Uncle Bob meets the family

"What is that?" Akahana knew exactly what she was looking at but she was not at all sure how it had ended up in Shelby's home, situated on her counter next to a nice bouquet of flowers.

"That's Uncle Bob.” Shelby gesture casually to the urn and then looked from Akahana and then to Mahesh. "Its a long story. Let me go get those sketches first and then I will tell you about Bob there.” Akahana nodded and watched as Shelby turned and went to her room.

"What is it? You are upset.” Mahesh spoke quietly from beside her. "What is that urn? And who is 'Uncle Bob'?”

Akahana spoke in hushed, hurried tones because Shelby would be back in mere moments. "I don't know who Bob is but that urn belongs to Morrigan Kinsey. We need to get it away from Shelby as soon as possible.” She had seen that urn before on a shelf in Morrigan's office. She might not have noticed except that it was a beautiful piece of ceramic. The unique pictures on it were identical to the one sitting on Shelby's counter. This was definitely the same urn.

Shelby walked back in the room and handed her sketchbook to Mahesh. He quietly opened them and began looking, casting only one sideways glance in her direction, his eyes also drifting over the vase beyond them.

"Okay, so it was like this.” Shelby sighed. "I was out looking for furniture and decorations for the apartment when I saw a yard sale near here. So I stopped. Most of it wasn't worth buying but there was this beautiful Grecian vase and I thought it was beautiful so I bought it for eight dollars.”

Akahana's eyebrows rose slightly but she remained quiet while the tale was going on. Someone sold the urn of Morrigan's daughter for eight dollars? Someone, somewhere had a death wish.

"I packed it carefully in the back seat and continued to The Strip for more shopping.” Shelby sighed softly, getting, Akahana hoped, to the important part of this tale. "While I was putting in some of my other purchases I accidentally knocked the little lid off the urn.” She looked at the object of conversation and smiled crookedly. "That's when I found out that it wasn't just a decoration but someone's final resting place.”

"It is?” Akahana walked over to the vase and pulled open the lid, looking back at Shelby, who watched her incredulously as if to say 'Yeah, that is what we were talking about. How else would I have known it was an urn?'. She was confused but peered down into the ceramic container. Indeed there were ashes within the urn. From what she had heard, Morrigan didn't have the ashes of her daughter. Maybe she had heard wrong.

"Well, yeah. I don't know who it is, hence 'Uncle Bob' but I intend to find out.”

Mahesh's head came up from the sketches and his gaze caught her's before moving slowly on to Shelby and then back down to the artwork he had been purusing.

"What?" Shelby looked at her as if she had grown a second head. "Surely you don't want me to just keep it? Or get rid of it?”

Yes. "No, of course not.” Akahana smiled serenely and smiled at her adopted daughter. "Perhaps I could help you look?”

Shelby smiled and shrugged. "Thanks for the offer but I have someone coming with me to the ceramics place. We are going to see if we can find out who ordered it made.”

Mahesh's grip on the sketchpad was so tight that his knuckles had gone white. Akahana leaned over and wrapped her arm around his waist. He slowly relaxed and leaned into her embrace. She would take care of this problem. Everything would be okay.

"Well at least you aren't going alone. When are you planning on going?”

"Tomorrow.” Shelby smiled and shrugged. "Julian saw me with the urn and offered his condolences so I explained the story. He offered to help me find out who this really belonged to also.”

"Hmm, very nice of him.” Convenient. Akahana wondered who this Julian was and if he had any prior knowledge of the urn before meeting Shelby.

As she saw it, she had two problems to sort out. The first problem was to make sure that Shelby did not get in contact with Morrigan or her people. The time table was tight and it might mean a scary walk through daylight unless this place happened to cater to vampires quite often. If so then perhaps she could visit them later tonight. The second problem was finding out exactly how this urn ended up in Shelby's hands. That would require knowing more about the yard sale.

"Tell me” She smiled at Shelby. Akahana had to be careful; she couldn't let Mahesh knew she was capable of Command. "where this yard sale was.”

"Down on Acre's Mill road.” Her daughter answered readily and shrugged. "It was the big house with the green shutters. I liked the quaint scroll work on them.” That shouldn't be hard to find. Thank goodness Shelby had an eye for artistic detail.

"Oh, Such a big house. I'd have thought they would have more interesting things to buy.”

"Meh,” Shelby shrugged. "too new and plastic, most of it. No personality. You see why I was interested in what I thought was a nice decorative vase.”

Akahana laughed and let the matter drop. She would visit this house and talk to its owner about how they had acquired the 'vase'. For now, she leaned closer to Mahesh and peered over his shoulder at Shelby's sketches. Later she was going to have a busy night.

((OOC: Everyone Out ))