Chapter 18 #2
“I’d be fascinated to know how you came to work with the Conclave Investigators.” That sounded like real curiosity. Hallie could imagine that Zurine liked collecting knowledge. A very useful trait in her work.
“It’s a long story, but it started off with them suspecting me of murder,” Hallie answered, and had to smile at Zurine’s reaction. “Yes, it surprises me that I ended up working with them, too.”
“And the man you were with, Abbott, was it? He’s happy working with someone from low city?”
“He hasn’t complained,” Hallie said lightly. She could understand Zurine’s surprise. From the outside, it must seem extraordinarily strange. It still felt odd from the inside. “Now I’ve told you some things, perhaps you’ll return the favour?”
Zurine sat back and folded one arm across her stomach, glass still half full. “I suppose that’s fair.”
“We’re trying to track down a veondken who goes by Findo Trask. Have you had any dealings with him?”
“Findo? I know him, yes. Haven’t seen him for a good long while. A couple of months, I think. Last I heard he had broken out of Conclave custody and was on the run.” Zurine hadn’t changed her position, apart from a slight lift of her brows suggesting surprise at Hallie’s question.
She was telling the truth. Hallie’s little spark of hope for a definite lead to Findo started to fade. She replayed Zurine’s words in her mind.
“Did you create a new identity for him?” Hallie asked.
Zurine’s brows lifted again, but this time the surprise was false, grating on Hallie’s senses. “Now, why would you think that? I run a dress shop.”
“Oh, please,” Hallie said, rolling her eyes. “We found your workshop and the chip machine. Girard was quite annoyed about that. Apparently, they should only be in government hands.”
“I don’t know what you are talking about.”
“I wasn’t lying when I said it’s been a rough couple of days,” Hallie said, leaning forward slightly, “and I’m in no mood for more games or lies. I know you are a master forger and can create new identities and new ID chips for people. I knew that before we found your workshop.”
“That kind of thing will get you into Conclave custody with no prospect of release,” Zurine said. She was masking it well, but there was a hint of fear in her face and voice now. “I’m not going to admit to anything.”
Hallie sat back and stared at the other woman, turning over what she’d said and not said and what she’d found.
Zurine took another, deliberate, sip of the drink in her hand.
The woman was scared by Conclave custody, but Hallie thought she might prefer that to the alternative, and decided to test her theory.
“Findo has a network of contacts and brokers across the world. Or some of it, at least. We came across a few in our travels. The last one we encountered was shot dead by some of those attackers who came to your shop. If we hadn’t been there, and if you hadn’t already run, you’d most likely be dead now as well.
” Hallie kept her voice even, her gaze direct.
“I don’t believe you,” Zurine said, but there was the faintest tremor in her hand when she took another sip of her drink and the lie tasted bad in Hallie’s mouth. “If Findo really was killing off his contacts, I’d have heard about it.”
“The man who was killed was in Minamaan,” Hallie said. “The news might not have got here yet.”
Zurine’s colour faded and she leant forward slightly. “Who was killed?” Her voice was low, thick with emotion, as if the answer really mattered.
“Manju Nayak.”
Zurine’s head dropped and she pressed her glass to her forehead, murmuring a few words too low for Hallie to catch. When she looked up, there were bright, fat tears on her face. “Manju was my cousin on my mother’s side. We spent a lot of time together as children. He’s really dead?”
“He really is. I’m sorry,” Hallie softened her voice.
“He didn’t just work for Findo, though. Manju is - was - a broker with a lot of clients,” Zurine said.
“That may be true, but from everything I’ve seen and learned, the most likely connection, the most likely thing that got him killed, was his tie to Findo Trask,” Hallie said.
She knew that analysis wouldn’t stand up to detailed outside scrutiny, and she couldn’t prove anything that would satisfy the legal system or the courts, but she felt that it was right.
Felt it all the way to her bones. The attackers had killed Kasmo and Oreste, but in the room of three people, the first and only lethal shot had been for Manju.
“Did he suffer?” Zurine asked.
“No. He was happy, content, one moment and then dead the next,” Hallie said. It was far more blunt than she would have been with most people. But Zurine wasn’t most people. Even though her hands were still trembling, the forger wiped the tears from her face and straightened in her seat.
“And you believe that Findo was involved in Manju’s death.”
It wasn’t a question, so Hallie didn’t answer, letting Zurine sit for a moment, staring into middle distance, another tear falling.
After a long pause, Zurine got up again, moving to the storage cabinet.
She removed two small objects and came back, sitting on the edge of the sofa, her back straight, face set in a determined expression.
“I have a proposition for you,” Zurine said, her voice cool and hard.
“I’m listening.” Hallie tried not to give anything away on her face, but that little spark of hope lit up again.
“I have a lot of contacts. In this city and elsewhere. Give me until morning. No more, no less. I will see what I can run down about Findo’s whereabouts and how you might find him.”
“And what do you want in return?” Hallie asked.
“Two things. One, I want your assurance that if you make a connection between Findo Trask and Manju’s death, you will do whatever you can to see that he’s punished.
A lifetime behind bars would be torture for him, so that will do if you can’t arrange his death.
And, two, you will not try to find me again before tomorrow morning.
I will contact you on this phone.” Zurine held one of the objects she’d collected out towards Hallie.
Hallie took it, finding that the small, plastic item was a cheap phone, the kind that allowed text messaging and phone calls but nothing else. There would be no tracking such a phone. Glancing across, she saw that Zurine was holding a twin to the one she’d given to Hallie.
“Yes. These phones are paired. I will call you or text you from this phone tomorrow with what I have found.” Zurine lifted her chin and met Hallie’s eyes. “Do we have a deal?”
Hallie held the phone in front of her. She didn’t bother asking if the phones were registered.
Zurine would only laugh. Possession of an unregistered phone was a criminal offence in low city.
Doubtless it was a minor one compared to the other crimes Zurine had committed, but Hallie had managed to stay on the right side of the law until now.
All the same, she knew that the bargain Zurine was offering was a fair one.
More than fair. And she had no doubt at all that, by tomorrow morning, Zurine would have found a way out of the city with a new identity that would make her difficult, if not impossible, to trace.
“Do you think I am lying to you?” Zurine asked, a hint of temper in her voice.
“No,” Hallie answered without hesitation. “We have a deal.”
“Good. You will leave now, get back to wherever it was you were going. You’re welcome to bring the investigators back here,” Zurine added, the ghost of a smile on her mouth. “I will be gone moments after you.”
“I have no doubt.” Hallie got to her feet, Zurine moving with her. “This may seem an odd thing to say, but I think that under other circumstances, we could have been friends.”
The smile became full-blown, the forger’s dark eyes gleaming with humour and warmth. “It may be odd, but I share that view. I fear we will not meet again, though, Hallie Talbot. Or, if we do, it will be in far less comfortable circumstances.”
“Fare you well, Zurine Halinburn.” Hallie lifted her glass in a toast, drained it, and headed out of the building without a backward glance.