Series of Death, Draft 02, CH 30 (Patreon)

Trembor startled at the knock, barely stopping himself from looking around the small office for someone hiding in it. What was he, prey? Predators didn’t jump at the slightest sound, he told himself, especially one in the prime of his life with a good productivity rating on the rise.

The door opened. “So, that wolf didn’t have anything useful to say for himself,” the hyena said, stepping in.

Trembor frowned at her. “What were you doing talking with him? Taking statements is a recruit’s job.” He sighed. “Are you annoying Captain Sharpfang again? Did you steal his breakfast, his morning brew?” he narrowed his eyes. “His mate?”

Derimak smirked. “I keep it to my species, you know that.” She shrugged and sat. “And I only too his food once, by accident.”

“I heard it was five times.”

She rolled her eyes. “Fine, three times, but he always leaves in on the counter unattended. What does he expect me to do? It’s food, I’m a scavenger. He knows I only have so much willpower and it’s better used refusing bribes.” She crossed her arms over her chest. “And if I’d sent one of the cubs to take the wolf’s statement, all we’d have is what the wolf said. They wouldn’t have probed to determine why he showed up, or why he left. Why did you let him leave, by the way?”

“I couldn’t stand to have him there.” Which was true. He’d been careful not to write any falsehood in the report, even if he’d only put in the minimum of details.

She sighed. “I really wish you’d tell me what he did to make you like this.”

He fixed his gaze on her. “Deri, I like you, but you keep sniffing where I tell you not to, and I’m going to start thinking of you more as my next meal than as my friend.” He gave her a toothy smile. “I’m not talking about him or what happened.”

“You do get we keep asking because we care and we’re worried about you, right? Threatening us just makes us think there’s something worth investigating there. You know how people hiding stuff are.”

Trembor let out a breath. “I’m not hiding anything. I just don’t want to talk about it. Did Marlot say how he knew to show up in time to save me?”

“He did. Turns out he knows someone in dispatch. He wouldn’t tell me who.”

Trembor stared at her, initially in disbelief, then in anger. How dare that wolf use people in his world to keep tabs on him? He was a criminal, he had no business knowing someone within the enforcers. He’d probably blackmailed them. One of the prey species he’d caught and released with the promise of protection if he kept him informed?

“You need to breathe, Trem, before you shed completely.”

“He has an informant, don’t tell me to relax.”

She shrugged. “So he has an informant. Forgetting for a moment that the end-result was you still being alive, he isn’t the first RI to have one of those.” She grinned. “You’re basically the definition of working well with us. He probably picked it up from you.”

“Are you defending him?”

She rolled her eyes. “No. I’m just reminding you RI work alongside the enforcers, there’s nothing malicious to the wolf having a contact here.”

She didn’t know Marlot. His kind would do anything to keep control.

“What he couldn’t explain, what still doesn’t make sense, is why some prey would target you. Or do you think he was going to go after whoever showed up for the body?”

“I don’t know.” That it had happened in his territory meant little. “He seemed familiar, but he knew me from the precinct, so I didn’t question it. There’s too many people coming and going.”

“You think he’s one of us?”

Trembor shook his head. “I doubt it. Just pretending, trying to calm my instincts.” Then why had he seemed familiar?

Did this have anything to do with Bo? Only Bo had said his problems were taken care of. Unless he’d gone and pissed off the people who had their claws in him again, they had no reasons to come after Trembor. He’d have to check with Herelex.

“Want to tell me what you’re chasing?”

Trembor rubbed his face. “Just trying to make sense of it.”

“Why did he tie you up?”

“He didn’t say.” And Trembor was sure he hadn’t been tied up. There had been no knots in the rope when he’d stood. Which meant it was for show, but for whom? The only other person there had been Marlot.

“Tying someone isn’t usually an indication he intends to kill him, at least not before something else happens.”

Trembor nodded. Like Marlot showing up. Then there was the ID his and Pavir. Why had the hare left Pavir’s ID behind? And what had the hare and Marlot said to each other as Trembor woke up, just before the wolf got ready to administer the killing blow and Trembor stopped him. Some of it had been loud, but he’d been too dazed to understand it. But in the end, the hare was whispering. Had he known Trembor was awake? He hadn’t tried to be stealthy in standing and getting his bearing.

“You’re chasing something again.”

“I think it’s more that something’s chasing me.” He smiled. “Nothing about this makes sense. How about you? I hear that riot was something impressive.”

She snorted. “You really want me to add more scents to what you’re dealing with?”

“Different scents would be a distraction.”

“Fine. So, on the surface, it was a bunch of anti-predation fanatics who decided baring their teeth wasn’t enough anymore, so they rile up a bunch of other prey to the Revenue Bureau and start chanting and screaming their heads off.”

“On the surface?”

She nodded. “See, the weird thing is that it was peaceful, for a limited definition of the word, until a tiger decided he had enough and killed one and things escalated from there.”

“Okay, that seems like a reasonable reaction to a bunch of prey throwing themselves in your face claiming you’re ‘wrong’ and ‘against nature’. I’ve felt the same a few times.”

“Trust me, I’ve been tempted to bash one of those over the head a time or two. Maybe throw him in bed first.”

“I thought you kept it to your species.”

“There’s nothing wrong with experimenting, right? Anyway, where things become odd, is that this tiger who killed the first one got paid a good sum of money to be there. He actually bragged about being paid to thin the herd; which is what got Fortau looking into his finances.”

“So what? Someone knew the rally was being planned and made sure it escalated?”

“Oh, it gets better. The organizer was also paid a good sum, although he isn’t alive anymore, so we can’t find out why. It could be a coincidence, but…”

“Like the captain says. Coincidences just mean you haven’t found all the bodies yet. So, someone paid for the rally to happen? Then someone else paid to have them be killed? Were more predators paid to be there?”

“We’re looking into it. Whoever paid those two did a decent job of hiding their scent.”

“Do you think it’s the same person?”

She shrugged. “Depends on why this happened. From the statements we collected, there might be more than one organizer, so we’re trying to work out who they are and if any of them survived the riot.”

“So someone’s trying to remove the anti-predation group?”

“It looks like it for now, but there are still too many trails we can’t account for.” She chuckled. “It’s a good thing no one’s feeding themselves on this because I’m sure a bunch would go hungry before they found any prey.”

Could Marlot have arranged it? The one consequence of the riot Derimak had missed was that there had been no one available to secure his scene. If the wolf had wanted to be alone with him, that was a good time. But how much meat would go to waste because of it? As manipulative as Marlot might be, he hated seeing meat go to waste. And the hare?

It was a perfect situation for Marlot to rescue him again. To have Trembor fall over himself with gratefulness for it. It didn’t feel right. Marlot wasn’t a good actor, and that look he’d given the hare had been unrestrained hatred.

And the damned ID.

Trembor couldn’t shake the sense that the fact he now had two bodies, both with broken necks and both with IDs that had been taken, then returned meant something.

“You okay?” Derimak asked, watching him.

“Too many scents, not enough bodies.” He ran a hand through his mane. “I should get back to work, and so should you. You have a bigger mess than I do, it seems. If you don’t do your part, your productivity might drop, and you know what Sharpfang does with officers who can’t maintain the average.”

She snorted, standing. “I’m going to have to sleep through all of this for my productivity to drop below the average. You might not know this, Trem, but since you aren’t here to make us look bad anymore, I hold the top spot in closed cases.”

“Attitude like that are what lead leaders of a pack to end up in the rear and get eaten,” Trembor replied. “You know, leaders who get distracted by constantly sniffing around unrelated stuff?”

She placed a hand on the desk and leaned closer. “You’re forgetting one important detail, lion. That you like it or not, you are part of my pack. Cutting you off from us in this tiny office isn’t going to change that.”

“Deri, I’m not an enforcer anymore.”

“But you’re our friends. And before you argue,” she cut him off. “First convince the captain you aren’t, then you can talk to me about not being part of this pack.”

“He’s a tiger,” Trembor scoffed. “He doesn’t do the pack thing.”

She grinned. “Shows who little you know about us anymore.” She straightened. “But all joking aside. Talk with someone Trem. You can’t keep what the wolf did to you inside. He’s going to eat you up like that.” She left.

Alone with his thoughts, his mind went back to the feeling of fingers running through his fur. Black-furred fingers covered in blood as they settled from a meal in the grass. Black claws digging in his chest, ripping his heart out. Of a hare who fought the wolf and managed to injure him.

Trembor straightened.

There weren’t many people who could stand up to the wolf when he was angry. When he was defending what he considered his. The thought might anger Trembor, but the fact remained, when it came to defending him, the wolf couldn’t be stopped.

So why couldn’t he shake the feeling that the hare had let Marlot win? And how could the hare hold his own against the enraged wolf?

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