A Fraudulent Death, Draft 02 CH 47 (Patreon)

Trembor looked at his hands. They were clean; he knew that. He hadn’t done what he was being accused of, but this was still his fault. There should be blood on his hands to reflect that.

* * * * *

Two enforcers he didn’t know waited for him when he got home. It had been a long and miserable walk, and all he’d wanted to do was call his wolf, ask him to come, and hold him tightly. Maybe tell him everything.

“Trembor Goldenmane,” the jackal called, smirking, “you are under arrest for the unclaimed death of Bolifen Goldenmane.”

He’d been so surprised he hadn’t resisted as they took him to the car. He couldn’t understand the meaning of it.

* * * * *

It had been set up.

The simple fact he was in a precinct instead of the RB processing center told him that. Maoma wanted him because she didn’t have any RIs.

It didn’t change the only fact that mattered. Bo was dead. He cursed softly. How could he have failed his brother this badly?

“I’m sorry,” a female said, and his head snapped up. Derimak sat in the cage opposite his. “I thought he was cooperating, then he and three others arrest me for being your accomplice in a scheme to defraud the system.”

Trembor nodded. He’d been an idiot to think he could take them on. He should have ended his life the moment they made the offer, or accepted it, to protect his family. Either would have removed the incentive for them to hurt them.

“Are you okay?” she asked.

“My brother’s dead Derimak,” Trembor snapped. They were lions. They were as high on the food chain as it got. They didn’t die like this, to make a point. They died because they were too old. Not for the first time, Trembor realized that he’d never considered death as something that happened to his family, no matter how many died in failed hunts or accidents. This had been neither.

She didn’t say anything.

The section’s door opened and closed. Boots clicked on the tile. The jackal who had been one of the two arresting officers came into view. He leaned against the bars of Derimak’s and smirked at Trembor.

“The great Goldenmane, finally brought down to our level.”

“Do I know you?” He asked, trying to find anything familiar about the jackal. That level of vehemence had to come from somewhere.

“Oh no, someone like you would never take the time to get to know the little people like me. But I know you,” the jackal snarled. “Too good to work with us anymore. Had to go and work for the government.”

Trembor leaned to the side to see Derimak. “What is he talking about?”

She shrugged. “You do remember you built quite the reputation while you were an enforcer. Everyone’s friend, always able to get suspects to talk. The stories of your exploits haven’t diminished since you left.”

“Okay, but what does that have to do with his animosity?”

“Do you have any idea what it’s like to always be compared to you?” the jackal snapped. “Goldenmane could have gotten him to talk five minutes ago. Goldenmane would have convinced her to surrender without laying a hand on her. Goldenmane would have thrown a better party!”

“Sure,” Derimak said with derision, “blame Trembor for the fact criminals own you.”

The jackal waved the comment aside. “That’s got nothing to do with him. And they don’t own me. I work for them, and they pay a lot better than this place ever will. Having the golden lion in a cage in my precinct, that’s just an unforeseen benefit of working for them.”

“Don’t get used to seeing me here,” Trembor said. “Unclaimed death fall under the purview of the Revenue Bureau. I shouldn’t even be here. Who’s the RI in charge of the case? Why weren’t they present when I was arrested? Do you have any idea how many procedures you didn’t respect by not having Clawrake there?”

“Who?” the jackal asked,

“He’s the RI for the territory I live in.”

“Don’t you live in your own territory?” The jackal asked.

“I couldn’t find a house I liked there.”

The jackal shook himself. “They don’t need to be involved. This isn’t an unclaimed death. It’s just the latest in a chain of bodies you’ve left lying around.”

Trembor rubbed his face. This couldn’t be Maoma’s work. She had to have delegated this to someone, someone who didn’t know what they were doing. “Making me a hunter still puts me under the RB jurisdiction. You’re going to need an RI to take me to a processing center. Any unclaimed death becomes an RI’s responsibility. I can’t imagine how you think you’re going to get to watch me suffer unless just knowing you played a part in my capture and tarnishing my name is enough for you to jerk off to.”

“Watch what you say,” the jackal snarled. “If that’s not enough, I’m just going to make sure it’s something else. Like you targeting specific people to free positions in certain companies so you can place your people there. Don’t worry, I’m going to make sure you stay here until it’s all done. I mean the deaths are there. And people have been put in those positions.” The jackal grinned. “With you killing your brother, why wouldn’t they use that to shift the focus off them? It’s going to make continuing doing that so much simpler when there’s another organization to take the blame. I get to watch you suffer, they get to work in peace. Win-win.”

“You see,” Derimak said in the jackal’s ear, causing him to jump away from her cage with a scream. “That’s how you get a suspect to talk. You just be taking notes.”

“How do you move so quietly?” the jackal demanded.

She laughed. “You should see your face. And hyenas are scavengers. That means half the time we’re stealing other predators’ meat. We’re born knowing how to sneak around. Why do you think half my brothers spent time in cages?”

“Don’t do it again, it’s freaky!”

She shook her head sadly. “You’re missing the point, Blackback. Did you pay attention to anything Trembor did? He got you emotional, but he wasn’t abusive. He got you to explain how he was framed in an environment that’s being recorded. Or did you forget that the cameras are always running in this section? Just in case someone in a cage says something important.”

“It’s basic interrogation techniques,” Trembor said as the jackal nervously looked at the cameras. “If you’d paid attention in your academy courses, you’d know that. Afterward, it’s just about practicing it. I have a large family, so being friendly became a survival skill for me.”

The jackal calmed down and smiled. “I didn’t think lions were that vicious. I thought you were all about loving one another, standing against the hordes at the gate.”

Derimak snorted. “You’re clearly an only child. There’s no such thing as cordial relationships among siblings when you’re cubs. It’s all about asserting your dominance.”

Trembor tilted an ear at the hyena, who shrugged. “I love my sisters, but that doesn’t mean they weren’t a pain in my ass when we were cubs.”

“I don’t care how you’re good at it. It’s over,” the jackal said. “And before you gloat about how what I said is on the record and will save you, no one watches these things live. You know that. I have friends in on the monitoring schedule. They’ll make sure there was a malfunction with the cameras.”

“Is he making that up?” Trembor asked the hyena.

She shrugged. “He’s the only one I know of in this precinct. It was sloppy enough I’m surprised his employers didn’t remove him for us. But it makes sense there’s more. Once I’m out of here, I’ll make sure I have a talk with them too.”

“You think you’re getting out of this?” the jackal asked in disbelief. “You’re his accomplice.”

She nodded. “And accomplices can turn against their boss to get on the good side of the enforcers. It happens all the time.” She smiled at Trembor. “You’re not going to hold that against me, are you, boss?”

Trembor shrugged, his amusement at how worried the jackal was becoming pushing thoughts of Bo aside. “Of course not. Everyone knows hyena can’t be trusted. It’s my own fault for thinking you’d be different. You do what you have to, then make sure no one hurts the people I care about.” He bared his teeth at the jackal. “You think about that when you rejoice about me suffering at the claws of your bosses.”

The jackal looked from Trembor to Derimak, then rushed out.

Trembor sighed and slumped against the wall.

“Trem?” Derimak asked worriedly.

“I’m fine.” He chuckled. “As fine as I can be. Do you know anything more than what I got him to reveal? It wasn’t as useful as he’s afraid it is if he can get it erased.”

She shook her head. “When they were arresting me one of them mentioned your brother being dead.”

“So you have no idea what happened to his sons?”

She shook her head. “No one mentioned them, or cubs in general. Standard procedure is for cub services to be called in, but if your family got pulled into this, there’s no telling how that will go.”

Trembor ground his teeth. That was one thing he needed to remember. His family was still in danger. He cursed.

“I’m sorry,” Derimak said.

“This isn’t on you. I brought this on myself. I’m just pissed that the blood’s going to splash on others now.”

“This isn’t over,” she said, trying to sound comforting, “you have a lot of friends in a lot of departments. They’re going to make sure this doesn’t work.”

Trembor nodded, but didn’t hold out hope. He was seeing how few rotten chunks of meats it took to spoil the whole cooler. And there was one more ambush Maoma had under her; Flattooth. Trembor didn’t think the hippopotamus would be interested in wasting time looking for evidence he was set up. She’d be happy to take what she was handed and make sure he paid for all of it.

He wondered how Maoma would go about protecting the enforcers she owned when Flattooth then used him to dismantle them. He sighed. He’d be happy for it if he didn’t think the mole had considered that, and if a lot of innocent people wouldn’t end up caught in the prosecutor’s worthless hunt.

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