Fraudulent Death, Draft 01, CH 48 (Patreon)

Marlot bought a cheap pad on the way to his car and, uncaring if his followers could hear him, called Harik.

“I need you to look into what’s going with Trembor, now.”

The answer took interminable seconds to come back, enough Marlot was about to tell him to answer. “This isn’t your usual number,” he said, hesitatingly.

“We still haven’t made the time to clean it, I just bought this off an electronic shop. It’s as secure as it gets for now.”

“Why do you want me to check into your mate’s troubles?”

“I just had a conversation with a Maoma Burrows, she’s part of the criminal organization behind what you’re looking into for me, and it turns out they were also going after Trembor. I want to know how and why, it probably has something to do with Bo. And if you have the time, can you check if he’s still alive?”

“His tax hasn’t been paid,” Harik said. “For the rest, I will have something by the time you arrive.”

“I’m not going to your place, I’m heading to wherever Trem is being held. Call me back as soon as you have information.” He disconnected. In movies, they’d throw the pad away, but Marlot didn’t have the kind of finances that let him do that; and it wasn’t like a pad could be hacked into that easily without getting their hands on it or connecting it to something infected.

Once in his car, he called Bahamel with his pad. This call he didn’t care if Maoma’s people listened in.

“Ba, find out where Trem’s being held,” he said as a greeting.

“And hello to you too, wolf,” she replied. “How do you know he’d being held anywhere?”

“He’s my mate, I know when something wrong,” he replied, trying to come up with something that wouldn’t tip her to his conversation with Maoma Burrows. Not yet. Not until he had a plan to get Trembor out of this. Then… Then he’d need Bahamel’s help in destroying that mole.

“That’s crap and you know it, but you aren’t wrong.” She gave him a precinct number, and Marlot thought it was the one Trembor used to be at before he became an RI.

“I thought this was an unclaimed death. What’s he doing at a precinct? Never mind. I’m heading there.”

“Marlot, it’s best if you don’t go. Until the preliminary work is done, you don’t want to step into this and do something stupid.”

Marlot snorted. “This isn’t going to be stupid, I promise you that.” He disconnected. She called him back, but he ignores her. Let her scream at his message center.

The new pad buzzed when he was halfway to the precinct.

“What have you got?”

“And hello to you too,” Afirna replied. “What we have is that your mate is in deep trouble. He was arrested on the unclaimed death of his brother, Bolifen, but there are witness testimonies being logged indicating that’s the tip of a very long claw. It’s still incomplete, but from what I’m seeing there’s mounting evidence he’s behind a lot of deaths over the last decade, people in powerful positions, who were replaced with others who have what Joren calls questionable loyalties.”

“Are those deaths real, or is this stuff they’re making up to scare Trem?”

“They’re real and paid for.”

“That’s going to undercut their case, if there’s a money trail, there’s little they can do to Trem.”

“They’re not going for the financial aspect,” Ukely said. “It’s looking like they want to turn him into some sort of mastermind behind a secret pack trying to take over the city.” He mused over something. “You know, when this is done, you two can sell the rights to the story and become rich off the movie deals.”

“You might need that to pay for his attorney because Prosecutor Flattooth is back on your mate’s case,” Afirna said. “And with the evidence they’re creating now, it’s going to make her previous case even stronger.”

“Wait, I thought that was dealt with. Trem said they were just waiting for a judge to sign it.”

“They were, but it isn’t signed yet, so she’s trying very hard to make sure it doesn’t get signed.”

“But she can’t do anything once the paperwork is in the queue, right?”

“It’s the law,” Harik said, “they will do whatever they want to make the meat fall on their side. You should know that, working for them.”

“Harik’s Paranoia aside,” Afirna said, “if she can demonstrate that case is linked to what’s going on now, the judge might decide in her favor.”

Marlot cursed, then straightened the car back in its lane. Now was not the time to get in an accident, or even attract the attention of an enforcer on traffic duty. Trembor had been so sure that side of it was done. Why had the case been almost canceled if—not the time. What he needed to do was save Trembor; afterward, he could work out the hows of everything.

So how did he take all of Trembor’s legal problems and make them vanish?

“Marl, are you still there?” Afirna asked.

“Yeah, just trying to come up with something to get Trem out of this.”

“Short of shifting the blame to someone more deserving,” Harik said, “I’m not sure how you’re going to do that.”

Marlot smiled. “Harik, as always, you are a genius.”

* * * * *

He almost made it into the precinct’s bullpen, but he had to stop as the form of a brown bear stepped in front of him.

“Where do you think you’re going?” Bahamel demanded.

“To talk with Trembor.”

“No.”

“Ba, I have to talk with him.”

She crossed her arms over her chest. “Not without a damned good explanation this time.”

He glared at her. “Last time even that didn’t get me to see him.”

“Last time, you didn’t even close to a good explanation.”

“This time you’ll just have to take my word that I have a good reason.”

She grinned, baring her teeth. “Wolf, I don’t have to take a damned thing. I’ve given you a lot of leeway over the years, but—”

“Please, Ba,” Marlot pleaded. “I need to talk with him. You’ve seen what he’s being accused of. Do you think anyone will let me even look at him once the lawyers get here? He’s my mate. We finally are working out our troubles and now this. Don’t I deserve a chance to talk with him? Even if it’s just to say goodbye?”

She narrowed her eyes on him. “You’re planning something stupid, aren’t you?”

He smiled. “Nope.”

She growled. “I swear, wolf. Sometimes I think you’re worse than the criminals we cage.”

He beamed. “You mean I am so much better.”

“Don’t push your luck. And don’t move from this spot while I see what I can do.”

A minute after she left him alone, under the supervision of every officer in the precinct, the pad in his pocket buzzed with a file.

You were right. Was the message that accompanied it. Reading the file gave him a list of names and positions they occupied within the city, positions that had been made vacant when their previous occupants had been eaten. They had linked the half a dozen names that Trembor was accused to have eaten, and Marlot suspected Maoma would try to get Trembor to take the blame for each and every one of them. It might lead to her losing some people, but he was certain she’d have more ready to take their place, and it would mean she wouldn’t have to worry about enforcer investigations into them for a few years even if she was sloppy.

He typed a reply. Do it. And hesitated in sending it. No matter how this went. It would hurt. If he was extremely lucky, it would only hurt him, but anything that hurt him would also hurt Trembor. He had to hope his lion would understand, since he needed to play his part with barely any information.

Once this was over, the two of them could talk about the benefit of proper communications, since that would have kept things from going this far, but that was in the past. He sent the message to Afirna as Bahamel returned.

“You have maybe half an hour before the lawyers get here,” she told him, eying the pad as he put it away.

“I shouldn’t need that long, but I also need a slight favor.”

She growled. “What?”

He gave her the most innocent smile he could manage. “I need you to turn the camera off while I speak with him.”