“May I see your books please?” I wasn’t quite sure why I asked that. But I decided to follow my gut. I was aware that protection was a good thing to have, but it was still a luxury. And Desire Street wasn’t the most dangerous area to run a business in the Victorian Quarter. If this woman was struggling to get by, Ground Patrol protection would have been a luxury she could do without.
“I-I don’t think I have them with me,” she replied as she wrapped a purple ribbon around the bag of tea.
Taking a deep breath to muster patience, I leaned across the counter locking my eyes on hers. “Look, if I have to raise a search order for your premises, I will do so. And when the local papers catch wind of it, your business will be over.” Her eyes widened, so I continued. “A tea seller with the PCA doing a search on their property … Do you know what people could say about that?”
“D-drugs?” she asked.
“Or worse.” I paused for effect. “Some teas act as a very good poison.”
“What?” She put a hand against her chest. “But I would never …”
“That may be the truth of it but do you really think potential customers will think the same?” I leaned closer. “Is it worth risking such an order being slapped on you when all I want to do is cast a quiet eye over your books.”
She closed her eyes as if pained, then asked, “What would you like to see?”
After checking off a few dates and figures in my head, something wasn’t adding up. The books from the woman, who I’d discovered was called Rita, weren’t making any damn sense.
“There is a currency of six hundred a month here that you list as miscellaneous.” I pointed to the lines I was talking about. “What are these for?”
“Oh, that? That’s a loan I’m paying back to a friend. Nothing too important.”
“What friend?” I pushed and she stammered over a name.
“G-Garwin.”
“Garwin who?”
“A friend. Called Garwin. Garwin Chambers. He doesn’t live around here.”
“That’s fine. I have access to a system that will find him, and I can contact him to clarify the amounts. All good.”
“No,” Rita practically shouted. “I mean, he doesn’t live here, on Portiside. He lives over on Earthside. Never visits really. Only every now and then.”
“No worries. I have dual citizenship.” I flashed her a brief smile. “I’m due for some vacation time.”
“I-I …” Her eruption of tears had me jerking at the suddenness of her outburst. “I-I’m sorry. But they told me that all payments have to be c-confidential, and to log half of them as miscellaneous in case payment is audited while they get e-established. I didn’t mean to hurt anyone, and I-I’m sorry if I’m breaking the law.”
“Who said?” I asked, reluctantly patting her back as she wept into her pretty, little handkerchief. “Who, Rita?”
“I have to pay for protection each month. They don’t like it if I don’t. And I need it. I really do need it. When they first set up here, I r-refused. Strange things kept happening. I lost stock, my windows got broken … I really need them.”
“Need who?”
“The SQR. But they told me not to say anything. They said they would get into trouble because they were helping me out with a cheaper rate. They said if their bosses ever found out then my rates would skyrocket.” She let out a sigh. “Problem is, they’ve gone up each month anyway. I tried to question it. But the men who came round would always say that it’s to add more protection to the streets so we’re even safer. One got a little bit mean with me, so I decided it was safer to keep quiet.”
“You’ve been making a loss for two months,” I stated.
“I know. It’s my fault. I’ve been buying cheaper, imported stock and drawing out leaves for as long as possible. The customers have started to taste the decline in quality and I’ve lost a bit of business to The Pretty Teapot two streets over. I can’t blame them, though. I really can’t.”
No, I thought. But she could blame the stupid idiots who were obviously bleeding her dry. No wonder the others had become skittish when I’d brought up SQR.
“Rita, there is no way this is sustainable. And I hate to say this, but it’s highly likely that the SQR were the ones doing things to your property in the first place to coerce you into signing up. This is extortion.”
“Oh, oh no. I don’t think so. There is one who isn’t very nice. A man called Riland, or something like that. But the others are okay. They’re quite charming, to be honest. And they’re always telling us that they’re our last line of defense against stealing and murder. They are here to protect the innocent.”
“Yeah, yeah and the EFA are glory hounds who do nothing to keep you safe in your beds at night. I’ve heard their spiel.” Pushing the anger back, I withdrew my hand and used my watch comms to scan a couple of pages of her accounts before handing them back to her. “A woman was viciously attacked a few shops down from yours last night. That’s why we’re involved. Where exactly was your charming protection then?”
Rita’s cheeks reddened and she lowered her eyes to the floor. She said nothing, so I told her, “If I were you, I would contact a financier called Lindsay Swan. You can say I referred you to her and tell her why. She’s very good at what she does. She can start to help you manage your accounts, and go through your contracts with suppliers to get you better payment terms while you’re waiting for this mess to be sorted out.”
“Oh, but I couldn’t do that,” Rita said as she twiddled her apron. “I’m afraid…”
“Afraid of what?”
“I’m afraid that the Ground Patrol Officers won’t take kindly to that,” she said, sheepish all of a sudden. “They will worry if I let anyone else look at my books.”
“Don’t worry about SQR. If I get my way, they’ll be shut down before the month is out. Thank you for your time, Rita.”
I headed toward the door but Rita’s high pitched voice stopped me in my tracks. “Oh, Agent! You almost forgot your tea.”
Damn it. I’d almost forgotten about my guilty purchase. Then I felt even more guilty as I noticed the wilting blossoms in the window. I turned and walked back to the counter.
“I have a friend,” I said, as Rita handed me my bag. “She’s an Emerald-Air Citizen who likes tea. Any recommendations?”
Rita’s eyes sparkled as she smiled in gratitude. I internally kicked myself a little bit more as she turned to where she stored her tea. Then I patiently endured a lecture on the history of the Elemental Emerald Blend of the South.
Sometimes being nice sucked.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
Kaleb turned up at my place not long after noon, very contented and relaxed. I, unfortunately, recognized that glint in his eyes and his grin confirmed it.
“Do you have to look so pleased with yourself after you’ve just gotten laid?” I ushered him through the door. My hand froze before touching him. “Please tell me you showered afterward?”
“Hey,” he said, his grin falling from his face as he took offense, “a wolf is always clean. Especially after getting the cream.”
“Oh, you’re so gross.” I waved at him to sit down. “Don’t put your boots on the couch, otherwise Rosie will blitz a tornado underneath you. And the last time I checked, wolves weren’t windproof.”
“I’ll be good. Want to hear about what I got?”
I sat next to him. “Sure.”
“I spoke to the other agents last night about Ground Patrol, and they reckon a lot of them are on the up and up. You know there’s a bit of resentment simmering between them and us, but that’s mostly sour grapes on their part because they didn’t make it through the academy.”
“Anything on SQR?” I asked him.
“Nothing personal as they keep very much to themselves, and they don’t hang out in the same establishments as the others. But there are rumors that they’re already ruffling a few feathers from the odd reports against them.”
“Like what?”
>
“Threatening citizens into hiring their services, or letting certain things slip through the net. They’re pushing the PR quite hard so it’s just rumor. But they’re also very territorial. That’s caused a lot of irritation from the other Ground Patrol services.”
“Well, they’re all a little territorial, so that’s nothing new.”
“Yeah, but as soon as a new territory opens up, SQR is trying to get in there. They have the money, and their growing resources to throw at it when needed. And for some reason, a lot of their clients in their territories aren’t eager to switch. There’s no real competition there, which you know is what drives a lot of the Ground Patrol companies. And it’s getting worse the more their organization grows.”
“They’re building up quickly, unconcerned who gets in their way. Maybe there’s a reason for that?”
“Maybe. But I checked Dathan’s report when I headed into the agency this morning. I managed to intercede it with one of the Enforcer Administrators before they submitted to Cole.”
“And?”
“And he did interview those two officers. All they said was what we would have expected them to say.”
“Let me guess. They were on the other side of the park and heard nothing?”
“Wow,” he feigned enthusiasm, “you really are psychic!”
“Oh, shut up. We both predicted that would be the result. Yet we can’t force them to come in on any charges relating to the rogue shifter attack because there’s no reasonable evidence or charges to slam them with.”
“Exactly. They’re not legally obliged to man their territories, as long as they can prove they’re providing a service for currency. It’s easy enough for them to fake paperwork to show that Officers Scandon and Narahin were exactly where they were supposed to be.”
Frustration simmered at the same time the need to punch some Ground Patrol Officers arose. “We need to see these stupid, pathetic SQR idiots in action.”
“Want to know what else I found out?” Kaleb asked, interrupting my petty insults.
“Why not?”
His smug grin returned. “Cole sent the rogue shifter off to testing before arranging to have him sent back to Totem Talamh for re-assessment. But it looks like the Consilium heard about it before he could get the results back. They were red flagged again, and the rogue shifter has been taken back directly to the Shifter Hold. They have completely bypassed the usual protocol and Cole is not happy.”
“Seriously?”
“No. I’m joking. Of course I’m serious. It looks like they linked both the cases not long after we did. Cole could only keep it quiet to a certain extent without actually breaking the law, and somehow they found out and blocked him. He’s working with his contacts now, but he’s getting nowhere. He’s demanding we find something, and fast.”
“Did you tell him anything about what we’ve discovered about Ground Patrol so far?”
“No,” he scoffed. “I’m not stupid. He’d try and take over what with how impatient he’s being at the minute. And then he’d try and shut it down because it’s such a weak angle. I wasn’t going to risk it, so I told him we were going back today to question the other store owners.”
“That’s good.” I gnawed on my lip distractedly. “I checked out the record books belonging to one of the owners on Desire Street today. She’s paying through the nose for the Ground Patrol service that they ‘encouraged’ her to hire after a few incidents. Incidents that just happened to frighten her enough into doing so. She’s losing business in a big way, yet still paying them. Definitely looks like extortion.”
“That’s not our jurisdiction though,” Kaleb said as he played devil’s advocate. And although I knew we needed to stay focused on the case, there was something bothering me about these SQR guys and the fact they were absent from duty the night of the attack. They could have been paid off by someone to get them out of the way while the attack occurred. But why? What would someone gain from a rogue shifter being let loose? And where did the similar symptoms that both the wendigo and rogue shifter share fit into it?
“We still need to poke at the trail,” I told him eventually. “It doesn’t fit that those guys weren’t in that location, on that particular night. And this is all we’ve got if the Consilium keeps blocking us on investigating the drug angle.”
“I got something else,” Kaleb said as he stretched his arms across the back of the couch. “Want to know where I was this morning?”
“Not really. No.”
“Nothing detailed. But I can tell you I was with Tamara Peacock, that financier from the Indicium Quarter who helps look after the agency accounts.”
“So?”
“So. She did a little digging for me after we—”
“Don’t finish that sentence.”
“Why not? Are you jealous?” His come-to-bed eyes switched on once more, but I was quick to shut him down.
“Not jealous, just nauseous. What did she find?”
“There are many, many layers to Tempa Holdings. She discovered the owner. And seeing as he is funding the relatively new SQR Ground Patrol services, I figured it was relative.”
“Who is it?”
“Rudolf River.”
The name didn’t register as familiar so I asked, “Who?”
“He owns The River Blue club in the Indicium Quarter. It’s in the shifter district—a shifter place.”
“I’ve heard of The River Blue club but I’ve never been there.” I pointed to myself. “Not exactly the right clientele.”
“It’s also rumored to be corrupt. As is Rudolf.”
“So?”
“So, Rudolf gets away with a lot because of who his daddy is. Fella Wicker.”
“Who the hell is Fella Wicker?”
“He’s a Clan Chief. The same level of what my dad is. Only Fella is a Clan Chief as opposed to an Alpha. They both run their people while begrudgingly trying to get along. But the cheetah shifters are slimy and shady if you ask me. They’ve also got a lot of currency, and currency talks. So does status, and Rudolf has a plenty.”
I thought about it all for a second, trying to make sense of all the information. “So, we have a club owner discreetly investing in a Ground Patrol company, who conveniently made themselves scarce on the night the rogue shifter attacked an innocent woman. Then we have a rogue shifter who showed the same symptoms as the wendigo. Added to all this, the Consilium have red flagged the situation to prevent us from investigating what both of the attackers could have taken, leaving one hell of a screwed up puzzle sitting in front of us. Where is the connection to it all? And why?”
“Guess that’s what we need to find out. And we need to speak to Rudolf.”
“Yes, we do,” I agreed. Then I noticed the look on his face. “I’m not going to like this guy, am I?”
“You’ll like him as much as you’d like a hole in the head.”
“Well, that just about sums up this case so far. I need a coffee.” I got up out of my seat and headed toward the kitchen.
“I’ll take a coffee!” he shouted as I left.
“Actually,” I said, popping my head back into the living room, “how about we have some tea?”
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
Once Kaleb checked in with one of his shifter sources, he’d discovered that Rudolf usually arrived at his rooms at the club at around eight in the evening. We’d also heard that Rudolf was away with his cheetah clan in the cat plains on business, and wouldn’t be back until the day after tomorrow. That left us impatient and annoyed, so we chose to investigate the Ground Patrol Officers further instead.
There were fewer Ground Patrol Officers roaming around during the day, but that tended to be the case for most firms. So, Kaleb and I decided to meet up at the academy gym to go a few rounds before heading out to ‘accidentally’ run into some of the SQR officers later on.
While I was on my way to the gym located in the agency training academy, Mayra transmitted a call through my watch comms.
/> “Hey Terra, are you on The Rail?” she asked as she heard the common hum of the train rattling along in the background.
“That I am. I’m heading to the gym to spar with Kaleb. Are you okay?”
“Sure. Can you talk?”
I glanced around but the carriage was empty. It wasn’t exactly a peak time for travel.
“All good.”
“Phew. Okay. Didn’t want to talk to a whole carriage. Who knows who could be listening to our conversation?”
Mayra was paranoid. Not excessively so—or I should say, not excessively so for her—but she watched her every move and believed in the conspiracy theories of both Earth and Portiside. Sometimes it turned out that she’d been right to believe it, so I often found myself becoming paranoid along with her.
“There’s no one listening in on our conversation, Mayra. You’re quite safe.”
“That’s good. But all I wanted to say is that I’ve spoken to Rosie about the three of us going out soon. I’ve been feeling a little off since we helped the woman from the rogue attack. When you all left my shop last night, a client came by … It’s nothing to worry about,” she hurried on before I could say anything. “But I was spell casting for the client and opened the wrong door. I knew there was something she was hiding from me. And you know the rules of working with me for this very reason, my clients must be open and honest about everything. Only this time, I didn’t trust my intuition since this person had become more of a friend and preyed on our association by hoodwinking me.” She let out a sigh of disappointment. “I didn’t want to mention it this morning as you have enough on your plate. But I had to deal with some dark stuff that came through the door and it’s made me feel so crappy to a point where I can’t shake it. I thought it might help if we brought forward our girl’s night out? Just a few cocktails at the Wicked Cauldron. And I know you’ve had a lot on with this case recently and Rosie is bogged down with work. But whenever you can … don’t mean to ask, but—”
“Mayra,” I interrupted as my heart went out to her. Mayra never asked for something unless she needed it, and she very rarely needed anything. If she was reaching out for us to help level her out a bit, then she’d been in a bad way. She was used to dealing with both dark and light magic—that was her gift—but she was also very respectful and careful when doing so. Most of the time.
Death Be Blue (The Terra Vane Series Book 1) Page 13