Series of Death, Draft 02, CH 20 (Patreon)

Trembor breathed in the clean air and smiled.

He hadn’t realized how stuffy his house had gotten. He’d been so focused on remaining busy, working to close each case, even this last week, tracking down leads on the coyote’s killer had kept him going to the point that, this morning, he’d gotten up to realize he had nothing clean to wear.

He had considered grabbing the least dirty set of clothing; every enforcer in the precinct had done at least one multi-day stakeouts where a change of clothing hadn’t been considered. But while he wasn’t as finicky as Bo when it came to his appearance, he did have some pride; and the memory of the alleys with the homeless wasn’t so old as to not make him shudder still.

With his clothing in the wash, he checked his pad for any message from Herelex. He’d given him the task of keeping an eye on his father and informing Trembor when he did something too out of character. For the last week, Bo had behaved. Going to work, returning home, spending time with a female on three evenings. Different females. This morning was the usual, nothing to mention message.

Walking around the house, waiting for his clothes to be clean, and picking up things he’d left lying about, he noticed the dust on top of his family’s picture frames, cleaning that led to vacuuming the carpet and discovering just how much fur was embedded in it. Once he noticed some of it was black, he vacuumed the entire house.

By the time he was done, he’d taken his clothing out of the wash, replaced that with bedsheets and towels, and noticed the air was stuffier than it should be, so he called the local technician to look his air filtering system over.

By lunchtime, Trembor accepted he wouldn’t be going into work, so, after the technician berated him for going so long without changing the filters, and the damage that could do to the whole system, he did more housework.

He ran a clean-up app on his computer, not one Marlot had installed, that one he’d removed as soon as he’d gotten home, but he had found another one on the net with good ratings. The wolf had always been on him to run such an app regularly, but Trembor never saw the point, his computer always worked fine. Now he decided it was just another way the wolf tried to assert subtle control over Trembor’s life.

He ordered his office, throwing out notes so old he didn’t remember what they had been about, filing case-related files he’d left lying around recently, annoyed at another display of how walking away from his would-be abuser had unsettled him more than it should have.

He shouldn’t be missing Marlot.

“Don’t let this happen again,” the technician warned, putting her tool away as he breathed out. “You’re lucky nothing burned out. You need to change the filters every two to three months.” She looked him over. “With your mane, I’d aim for two months to be safe. Long strands clog things up faster.”

He took out his pad to pay and noticed it was out of charge. Growling to himself, he plugged it in long enough to finish the transaction and escorted her out. Where a hyena walked up the walkway as the technician left.

“What are you doing out of uniform, Derimak?” he asked her.

“Day’s over.” He raised her hands. In one she held a pack of cans, in the other a parcel wrapped in butcher paper. “I brought drinks and snacks. Will you let me in?”

He considered her. It wasn’t like he’d planned anything now that the cleaning was done. Maybe call up an episode of the Survivor Experiment; he needed to catch up before the next family dinner if wanted to keep up with Cerek.

“So that’s a bribe,” he said, moving out of the way and motioning her inside. “It explains how you planned in getting in, but not why you felt the need to come.”

She sniffed the air. “You didn’t show up at the precinct and we were concerned something had happened.” She handed him the wrapped package as they headed to the kitchen. “For some strange reason, the others figured I had better odds of surviving if it turned out you were in a bad mood. Cleaning day?”

He took a plate out and place the package on it, opening it to reveal dried meat. “It’s what happens when you wake up one morning to realize you’re out of clean clothes.” He put that on the table with two glasses.

She handed him a can, ear tilted. “The last time I remember you wearing dirty clothes was the Rogretos Stakeout. You exploded when you found out the laundry was broken in the complex they set us up in.”

“We were only supposed to be there for two days,” Trembor grumbled. “If they’d told us it was going to be longer, I’d have brought more clothes. No one should be forced to stretch two sets over five days. The least they could have done was send someone to fix the washer.”

“You know I’d have covered for you while you went home for extra clothing.”

“That was against the rules,” Trembor grumbled darkly, and Derimak laughed. He clawed the can open and poured the content in his glass while the hyena drank out of the can. He tilted an ear at her as he only tasted the hint of alcohol.

“I’m not looking to get you bawling on my shoulder,” She answered with a roll of her eyes.

“No, just loosen my tongue a little, right?”

She shrugged. “It’s the first time you haven’t shown up since you came back from that trip to the wolf’s home. You’ve even been in your office on your rest day. You know what they taught us about broken patterns back at the academy.”

He sighed. “When s suspect breaks their routine, be ready for things to become very interesting.” He took another swallow. This was the better quality stuff, not as much of an artificial taste to the blood. “As you see, it wasn’t all that exciting, and if I wanted to talk, I would, no alcohol required.”

“I know, while you aren’t on the front line anymore, keeping things at the bottom of your den isn’t good for anyone.” She raised a hand to stop his protest. “I’m dropping it. I’ve verified you weren’t about to throw yourself off the tallest building around, so the others will be happy.” Her swallow was long. “You keeping the office? The renewal is in three days. The Captain is going to have to let the accounting department know, and they aren’t going to let you stay there for free.”

“Already?” Trembor rubbed his temple. He’d been sure he still had time. He’d returned only days after the rent cycle began, so Captain Gold had told him not to worry about it. He suspected it was the tiger’s way of nudging Trembor into staying there. Where his old enforcer family could keep an eye on him. Make sure he didn’t do anything detrimental while he dealt with his heartache.

“I’m going to see what’s available,” he said. “See how the rates compare.”

She chewed on a piece of dried meat. “I’m pretty sure someone in the department can talk accounting into giving you a lower rate than any other place, you being an RI and all that.”

Trembor narrowed his eyes at her as he grabbed a piece of his own. “Threatening the staff is against the law.”

“I didn’t say anything about threats,” she answered innocently, “one of us would simply have a nice, polite, conversation with one of those weasels.”

“Now you’re either insulting weasels or my father,” Trembor replied, chewing. “Is that the elk from the bust?” He looked at the dried meat. “How is there any of it left?”

She snorted. “He was a big bastard. And there’s only so much we can stand eating the same thing. Ogber did his drying magic two days after we brought the body in and he’d been leaving the strips lying around hoping we’d finish them.”

“So that’s why you’re here.” He grinned. “You volunteered me to clean out what’s left of the meat.”

She shrugged innocently. “How are you eating?”

He frowned. “Quite well, thank you.” Her surprise surprised him. “I do go out and hunt. I have warthog in my cooler from my last hunt, maybe two weeks ago?”

She studied him. “Then what’s been distracting you? This last week you’ve let things slide the Trembor I know wouldn’t.”

He straightened. What had he missed? Cases, or precinct things, not that he really involved himself in that anymore. If it had been something important, someone there would have pointed it out.

“I swear, Trem, if you tell me it’s that wolf again, I’m heading out and bringing you back his body.”

“It’s not him,” Trembor snapped, then swallowed the mounting anger. Why did the wolf still get to him like that? “It’s family stuff.”

She nodded knowingly. “Family can be a bitch.” She raised her can. “Especially big ones.” Derimak also had a large family. Trembor had met a lot of them while being her partner. There had been a lot of barking, biting, and snarking during those meetings. Hyena families were strange as far as Trembor was concerned.

“You’re not bringing me that body either,” he warned as she got that look that said she was getting an idea.

Immediately her expression turned innocent. “I wouldn’t dream of it. Getting in the middle of some other family’s problem is the fastest way to lose limbs.”

As was getting involved with criminals. Trembor wished Bo would talk to him.

“How is your family doing?” he asked to change the subject, and Derimak almost choked on her drink.

Then she recounted him the latest, one of her brother was on the outs with their mother, not the same one as last time, Gerthen, this was Koldat. Trembor nodded as if he knew who she meant. Then she talked about which of the fathers was trying to ingratiate himself back in her mother’s good grace.

There was none of the love between parents in Derimak’s family that he saw between his. Her mother had picked the males to mate with by some criteria that made sense to her and her alone. No contract, then as the children grew up, the females struck close to each other, while the males were slowly ostracized.

Her family made for great entertainment and distraction.

But hyena families were weird.

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