She paused for a moment, looking down at the baby before returning her attention to us. Jess sucked on her bottom lip for a second before speaking. “Sanctuary is yours if you want it, Rebecca. For all of you.”
I took a step back, absorbing the news. Sanctuary meant Bran and I could disappear into any of the Prides, vanish off the grid and take Liam with us. It wasn’t offered lightly and Jess would have to justify it to the Grand Council along with dealing with the consequences of helping us disappear into a new life.
It was an option offered only under the most dangerous of circumstances when total anonymity was needed, a chance to start over with a new life. It was offered to few Felis, a handful within my lifetime.
And to no human, as far as I knew.
Stunned, I couldn’t do anything but nod. “Thank you. I’ll keep it in mind.”
“You do that.” She cooed to Liam, who blew bubbles back at her. “Call me when you need the wee one back.” Jess strode toward the door. “He is a cutie. Takes after his brother.”
Bran shook his head as Jess left. “I have no idea what that woman is thinking from one moment to the next.”
“That makes two of us.” I tried not to think of all the debts I was accruing with Jess and the Pride.
“He’s so small.” He looked at his hands. “Hard to believe I was that little once.”
“You were.” I chuckled, despite the situation. “Don’t tell me your mother hasn’t told you the story about how she was forty-eight hours in labor without any drugs.”
He cocked his head to one side. “How did you know?”
“It’s what most mothers say. Can’t tell you how many women have ranted to me about how ungrateful their husbands and kids are about all the trouble they went through to give birth.” I stopped as a horrible option came clear in my mind. “Could your mother be involved in this?”
Bran took a step back as if I’d punched him in the gut. “My mother?”
“She’s a possible suspect.” I continued my reasoning despite his pained expression. “If we’re considering your father I don’t see why we wouldn’t have to include your mother.”
“No.” Bran sliced the air with one hand. “Not an option. She loves me, adores my father. She’s been dedicated to the family for her entire life. Why would she toss it all away for an illegitimate child?”
“Your father—”
“My dad’s been a hound dog for years. Why start killing his lovers now? Why Molly Callendar and leaving Liam alive?” Bran gave an emphatic shake of his head. “No. Not my father and not my mother.”
I decided not to tell him about Bernadette’s threats to me over dinner. Right now I needed us more united than divided.
“Okay.” I shrugged. “I don’t know. Right now I’m so turned around I couldn’t find my way home in my own front yard. I’m not even sure this is the same damned day. Feels like weeks since I got up.”
I gave myself a shake and walked around the small room. “Let’s search here before we’ve got to get out. Once we leave we’re not coming back.” I sniffed the air. “He’s going to get ripe soon enough without air-conditioning.”
Bran gave me a sideways glance. “You going to be okay with him?”
I wrinkled my nose. “Have to be.” I took shallow breaths, trying to cut out the smell of death. “He’s here with no suitcase, no man purse, nothing. Bastard traveled light.”
Bran pointed at something lying on the couch. “Not light enough.”
I walked into the bathroom and grabbed a handful of toilet paper. “Don’t touch it. We’ve got enough prints around here and I’m out of gloves.”
Bran smiled in spite of the situation. “Going to have to teach you to carry more rubbers.”
I ignored him and picked up the disposable cell phone. It was slender and looked like a toy.
Bran winced. “Getting smaller and smaller.”
“Cheaper and cheaper too.” I hit the redial button.
“Hanover Investments.” The automated cheerful voice babbled, going through a series of options.
I cut the connection.
Bran let out a heavy sigh. “Is it enough evidence against my father?”
I shook my head. “Not a chance. A good lawyer will make the argument Brayton’s an employee of Hanover Investments and it’s as likely a call from here was routed to Brayton’s office as it was to your father’s.” I held it up to the light. “But it shows it wasn’t a random killing or kidnapping. Someone set out to kill Molly and kidnap Liam—a definite plan was in place.”
“Hardly a relief.” Bran stared at the ground. “So we know it’s not random.”
“It’s better than nothing.” I placed the phone on the table, careful not to leave any marks on it. “Let’s keep looking.”
Bran worked on the couch while I yanked on the cheap desk drawers, scowling with each empty box. “No clothing, no toiletries, not even a bottle of water. He wasn’t planning to stay here long.”
“A pit stop on his way elsewhere.” Bran flipped the seat cushions. “Ugh. I think I found Hoffa’s body. Or at least the last meal he ate.” He withdrew a pen from an inside pocket of his duster and poked at a fossilized French fry. “I hope Liam doesn’t have trouble eating.”
“Don’t worry. If he’s a breast man like his big brother Jess’ll find a wet nurse in no time.” I shot him a sassy wink. “If he’s on formula it’ll be inside the diaper bag and she’ll make it up for him. He’s in good hands.”
Bran let out a nervous grunt. “I know. I guess I’m still in shock over all this.” The weary smile tore at my heart. “Been a hell of a few hours. All I wanted to do is meet you for lunch and maybe a little afternoon delight.”
“Keep that in mind.” I checked the empty closet. “The day’s not over yet.”
“Tease.” Bran wiped the pen off on the back of the couch.
“I hope Shaw paid for a few days instead of a few hours.” I finished my brief search. “He’s going to start stinking soon enough.”
“Can we find out who he is, where he came from?” Bran asked.
I paused, weighing the options. “I can’t call Hank—he’ll be on me in a second to find out why I’m asking. A request for a search hours after being at a murder scene is going to get me pulled back into the station for questioning. When we get home I can run a computer search on him but if he’s been keeping a low profile there’s not going to be much.”
Bran kicked the couch with the bottom of his boot. “Fuck.”
I didn’t try to stop his little temper tantrum. Truth was I felt like screaming.
The system I’d worked in for most of my life, I couldn’t access for fear of being caught and accused of murder or at the least, be accused of being an accessory to murder.
The system I’d shunned for most of my life, the Felis society that had thrown me out, I had to rely on to protect the smallest victim of all.
Irony sucked.
I looked around the hotel room. The dingy brown walls might have been painted a long time in a past life as a real hotel. A cockroach scurried out from a hole in the wall to glare at us before scampering back inside to join his brothers. There was a faint scratching behind the plasterboard as rats and mice made their way back and forth to the garbage bins out back to feed and to breed.
Liam had sat in the middle of all this with Keith Shaw, waiting for an unknown fate. He hadn’t asked for his mother to be killed or for his father to be a douchebag. He hadn’t done anything other than be born.
Bran motioned for me to hand over Shaw’s wallet. “Let’s go to the bastard’s home. Maybe he left something there saying who he worked for. The cops don’t even know he’s involved so we won’t be tripping over them.”
“Good idea.” Bran recorded the address on his phone. “We need to fin
d out how he got hooked into Hanover Investments. I don’t think he worked there as a temp.”
I used my cell phone to take a picture of the driver’s license before taking the wallet, and pushed it back into Shaw’s pocket. At least they’d be able to identify him when he was found.
Bran studied the pistol on the table. I could almost hear the wheels grinding in his mind.
“No.” I picked it up and wiped it down, sure to erase any prints I’d put on the weapon. It took a minute to put it in Shaw’s hand and wrap his fingers around the metal grip. I let it fall out of the dead man’s hand to the ground.
“It’s the weapon that killed Molly Callendar. It has to stay with him.” I sounded stronger than I felt. “When they find him they’ll be able to track him back to Molly without any problem. We can at least give her parents that much satisfaction, having him dead.”
Bran nodded but still eyed the pistol with longing. I couldn’t blame him for wanting to pack something more than a smile.
We headed for the door and slipped out the back of the hotel via the emergency stairwell and exit door, climbing over empty beer boxes and puddles of vomit to emerge in the back alley. I wasn’t sure how long it’d take for the hotel to find out one of their customers was dead but it didn’t hurt to keep a low profile. The kid at the front desk might or might not remember us but the last thing I needed right now was a phone call from Attersley demanding my immediate return to Division 14—or worse, an alert going out to find and bring me in.
“Think Liam is going to be okay?” Bran winced as he stepped over the remains of someone’s lunch.
“I think he’s going to be spoiled rotten. Doubt Jess is going to hand him over to anyone under the pretense of keeping him in the dark about the Pride.” I took a deep breath of clean air as we moved onto the larger and cleaner sidewalk. “He’ll be safer than if he were in Fort Knox.”
Bran lifted a hand to flag down a cab. “Good.”
The first two cabs sped by us as if we were holding up signs saying “We’re going to rob you.” The next one stopped because Bran held up a fifty.
According to his driver’s license Keith Shaw lived in Parkdale, a handful of blocks from my house.
I didn’t try to analyze the odds of it happening.
Decades ago the neighborhood had been for the Toronto elite, granting easy access to Lake Ontario and bringing in the rich and their friends to lounge by the lake. Large mansions filled the narrow streets. But times change and the wheel turns and Parkdale had devolved into a lower-class community where prostitutes controlled street corners and if you wanted crack you just needed to put your hand up and wait for a drive-by dealer.
I’d gotten my house cheap and my first task had been the removal of a pair of addicts from the alley right behind me. A firm talk, backed up with a few punches, had convinced the addicts to take their needles elsewhere—I’d pointed out the free needle exchange down the street. Maybe I couldn’t stop them from shooting up but I could lessen the chance of stepping on a needle while getting to my car.
Shaw lived in one of the many dilapidated apartment buildings a few streets over where they rented apartments in three-month deals. For new arrivals to Canada it was a great opportunity to save their money and get a fresh start if you could avoid the temptation of the ever-present pimps and drug dealers offering easy money for little work.
“What a dump.” Bran stated the obvious as we pulled up. The cab driver shifted in his seat, eager to get moving.
I couldn’t blame him. Bran paid the fare and we got out. The cab pulled away and spun around the corner back toward a safer area of Toronto.
Bran gave the tall towers a curious look. “Interesting décor. The shower curtains blocking off the balconies sure make it colorful.”
I glanced upward to where a handful of apartments had blocked off open access to the concrete boxes with brightly decorated shower curtains. “Probably pot plants.”
He followed me up the chipped cement walkway to the front door. “No kidding?”
I shrugged and pulled the door open, smashing into a scent wall of urine. “Might be. Might be sleeping quarters for a large family who can’t afford a second apartment. Around here no one asks.”
He looked around. “Hard to believe you only live a few streets away.”
“I can walk the same distance from your condo and find the same type of area. All depends on where you go.”
The buzzer panel hung off the wall, barely attached by a series of wires. I ignored it and tugged on the locked door.
It opened on the second tug with an annoyed click.
“Ouch.” Bran shook his head. “That’s not good.”
I didn’t say anything. Shaw’s address put him on the third floor. I stopped inside the empty room masquerading as a lobby and pondered my options.
“Let’s try the stairs.” I gave the elevators a wary glare. “Wouldn’t trust those.”
Bran chuckled. “Love you to death but don’t want to spend the next six hours waiting for a repairman to show up.” He sniffed the air as he pushed the stairwell door open, using his sleeve for some sort of protection. “Smells bad.”
“Elevator would smell worse.” I drifted by him, taking the steps two at a time.
We’d stepped over a handful of needles and crushed soda cans serving as makeshift crack pipes before we reached the third floor. Bran opened the door and stepped through.
“Do we have a plan?” he asked.
“No.” I led him down the hall. “Unless you want to duplicate your last great entrance.”
“I was sort of all kinds of awesome.”
“Don’t start believing your own PR, mister. We’re not out of the woods yet.”
Bran stopped in front of the apartment door. “Not yet.” He smiled. “As long as you’re with me I’m fine.”
“Good. Let’s try the easy way first, ’kay?”
He pouted as I pounded on the door.
“What?” The muffled shout came back.
I kept knocking.
A head stuck out farther down the hallway, sized us up and disappeared again. The faint smell of marijuana drifted over us.
“What?” The door opened a fraction of an inch. A bleary bloodshot eyeball glared at me. “Whattauwant?”
“You know Keith Shaw?” I asked.
The eye narrowed. “Who wants to know?”
Bran pulled out a wad of cash from his pocket. “We owe him some cash. Looking to pay up.” He glanced left and right. “Let us in and we’ll talk about it. Don’t want to be chatting out here in the hallway.
I glared at Bran. The last thing we needed was to be mugged on our way out.
The cheap gold-colored chain serving as a barrier jingled as the eyeball studied the thick pile of bills for a few seconds.
The door closed.
The door opened.
The rank smell of body odor was overwhelming as we entered the dimly lit apartment. It took a second to adjust and realize what I was seeing.
The apartment was decorated in post-garage-sale décor with nothing matching but the mold on the walls. An odd water stain looking something like a happy face spotted the far wall and I could smell beer and urine, each trying to top the other.
“And you are?” Bran extended his hand to Shaw’s roommate.
The sliver of a man smiled, then rubbed his palm on his dark blue T-shirt before taking hold. “Frank Yupp. Two P’s.” He gave me a nod. “So you got something for Keith?”
Yupp had to be in his sixties, maybe seventies judging by the scattering of thin white hair on his head. A scattering of homemade tattoos on his hands identified him as a longtime criminal.
Bran put the wad back in his pocket and withdrew a slender leather case. He flipped it open to show his Toronto Inquisi
tor identification.
I scowled and bit my tongue.
“We’re doing a story on female guards sexually harassing male inmates.” The words poured like warm honey off his tongue. “Keith was supposed to meet us earlier today for a meeting but he didn’t show.” Bran tilted his head to one side. “Any idea where he is?”
“The Inquisitor? Oh, wow.” Frank scratched the back of his neck. “I read your stuff all the time. Best thing inside, if you know what I mean.”
Bran beamed. “Thank you.” He looked around the sparsely decorated apartment. “Since Keith kinda stood us up, I was wondering if I could interview you.” He patted his pocket. “We pay very well for informants.” His free hand dug into a pocket and came up with a notebook and pencil.
The young man grinned. “Sure.” He jabbed a thumb at me. “Who’s she?”
“Rookie learning the ropes,” Bran replied. “Say hello, rookie.”
“Hello, rookie.”
“She’s the silent type. Now let’s get down to it.”
I loved seeing Bran at work. He knew when to talk and when to listen, when to push for more information and when to sit back and let his target babble.
Like right now.
The chatter went from bawdy prison stories during which Yupp revealed he’d been in for breaking and entering (but totally not legit, he was set up by the cops donchaknow) to how he’d met Keith Shaw in a prerelease program and accepted his offer to room together. They also shared the same probation officer.
“So what are you doing now?” Bran asked.
Yupp shrugged. “Working in a soup kitchen/food bank. Only thing I can get right now and they pay shit.” He grunted. “But it keeps me in the clear and looks good on the resume.”
“Which kitchen?” Bran drawled. His tone was so seductive I wanted to answer.
“Second Chance, Second Life. Off of Yonge Street and Charles.”
I brought up a mental map of downtown. It was a pretty rough area, prime spot to help the street people.
Family Pride (Blood of the Pride) Page 14