Chapter 12 #2
“I have hurt and hungry feelings,” I informed my husband after the waiter went off to give our order to the kitchen.
He laughed. “I mean, I’m not much better. I got the roast beef, too, and while I didn’t get the pie or the cheese sticks, I got a milkshake. I might join you on the pie bender once I see if I have room after the beef and the milkshake.”
“Takeout is real and we can just get an entire pie to go,” I reminded him, pointing in the direction of the display case filled with pies. “An entire cherry pie might handle our feelings.”
“We better get an apple pie, too. Remind me to go get more potatoes tomorrow. For some reason, we keep running out.”
“The reasons are furry, cute, and spending the night with my parents. We better get some sweet potatoes. I want to see if they like them candied.”
“What are we going to do if they don’t?”
“We’re going to gain a lot of weight,” I predicted. “Do you think I did the right thing, Erik?”
He considered me with a solemn expression. “Honestly, I don’t know. But I also don’t know if I could have made a different decision. You showed a child compassion.”
“But by doing so, I may have cost many others their lives.”
“We’ll never know, and honestly, it’s for the better that we don’t.
But think about it this way: if she had succeeded, more would have followed her path, and there would have been even more deaths as other grieving people tried to bring their loved ones back from their graves, no matter the cost. Yes, a lot of people died, but if you had made any other choice, it’s possible even more would have paid the price for your choice.
Never knowing is the price you’ll have to pay.
But I would have made the same one, if that makes you feel any better. ”
I took my time thinking about it before I nodded. “It does. Thank you.”
“Tomorrow after work, we’ll start doing some research into the sickle. Honestly, I don’t think this is something we want to tell anyone about at this point. And if we do find the girl, I think we’re going to have to transport her and her sickle manually.”
“Manually?”
“Once we’re large enough and strong enough to fly her overseas ourselves.
The fewer people who know about her, the better.
It may take us a while, but she’s been waiting hundreds of years to go home.
Hopefully, she won’t mind waiting for us to grow into our wings and returning her in as secret a fashion as possible. ”
Sometimes, I hated everything about humanity.
If the world had been a better place, we would have been able to contact someone in Iraq, request she be returned to her resting place, and be done with it. But no. Humanity, greed, and the pursuit of power made such things impossible.
“We have to find her first,” I grumbled.
“If anyone can, it’s you.”
* * *
Sunday, May 24, 2167
The Diamond Ward
Dragon Heights, Wyoming
Mountains of paperwork waited for me at the police station, taking up half the hallway, several offices, the entirety of the conference room, and an unholy portion of the station’s general storage. I’d expected paperwork, but the number of boxes could readily fill an entire transport.
One person couldn’t sort it all. It fell into the realm of the impossible.
Captain Andretti grinned at me. “Your expression is priceless. You look ready to cry, by the way.”
I made my way to the conference room and pointed at the piles of papers on the table. “That is because I am ready to cry. I left with an unfortunate number of boxes in the conference room. There are boxes all over the station now. What happened?”
“Upon learning that we’re investigating the horrific murders of children by a necromancer, the banks came through and gave us physical and digital copies of everything.
They’re working at digitizing their old records, so not everything is done yet, which is why we have a complete paper copy.
Apparently, the banks involved even offered bonuses to anyone willing to pull files, make copies, and prepare them for us overnight.
The trucks arrived two hours ago, and the entirety of the station ended up helping get everything unpacked.
Before you panic, you won’t be handling this alone.
We have an entire herd of bankers and accountants ready to make sense of the papers on file, and they’re currently signing the legal documents required so their efforts are admissible in court.
The mayor, who is beyond angry over the murders, is paying for the grand ballroom of a nearby hotel so we can make progress on this today.
We’ll be emptying the station as soon as the hotel confirms they’re ready for us. ”
I stared at the collection of documents on the table, picking up one of the files, and discovering a list of transactions. The top page showcased a bunch of similar amounts from the same source, one of the first things I tended to look for when hunting for a trafficker. “Who compiled this?”
“That was a present from one of the bankers, who spotted it while making copies. She made two copies of those specific files and flagged them as possibly useful.”
I nodded. “This is exactly the sort of thing I’m looking for. Do we have everything on this account?”
“I took the liberty of submitting the warrants for that account,” he replied with a grin.
“We should have the transactions by the end of the day. We skipped up to the feds for some assistance, as the evidence of trafficking puts the ball in their court. They have opted to make use of our resources while giving us access to theirs. It’s a mutual back scratch, if you will. ”
I loved mutual back scratches. Mutual back scratches led to a higher case closure rate, especially when local enforcement played nice with federal enforcement. “How much back scratching are we dishing out?”
“Surprisingly little that we weren’t already doing. We’re going to be receiving some official assistance trying to track the trafficker down. Your new acquisition is going to cause us a few issues, but that’s a small matter.”
“We own the evidence that is being brought out of the property as long as it’s not illegal?” I guessed.
“Correct. The liquidation of the Merorie estate has been going well, and it turns out that there was enough in the cash funds to pay out all the victims and their families plus an additional hundred people. The building will be yours along with all physical goods belonging to the clan that was kept on the property. You won’t be able to sell the property for a while; it’s frozen until it works through the court system, but all the liquid funds have been put in trust for the victims, their burial costs, and so on. I have some bad news for you.”
I grimaced and placed the papers down. In a way, I appreciated my parents wouldn’t return my babies until after work; Garnet struggled to handle bad news. “What sort of bad news?”
“More than a few of the ghosts are onto you and your nature, and they stipulated how much of a cash share of their funds you would be receiving. Apparently, they were not at ease with the idea you would not receive proper compensation from the victim fund.”
“I am receiving that entire estate,” I spluttered.
“We tried to tell them that, but when we have ghosts showing up asking if they can give you a share of their reimbursements, we listen. The grounds and estate were apparently insufficient funds.”
I frowned, and upon realizing there wasn’t a whole lot I could do about it, I sighed. “How much?”
“It’s roughly three hundred thousand total.
And yes, they want it to be spent on your personal matters.
They’re already aware the rest of the liquid funds will be going to charity as it is.
” The captain shrugged. “You’re going to be marrying a yellow dragon.
Just save the funds for the rebuild at your one place or for the inevitable kids.
Once the place is renovated and cleaned up, the Merorie estate will make a good home. ”
It would, and I could see turning it into the fancy house while the Valley of Thorns became our comfortable home outside of the city.
“All right. I can accept that. Who would I talk to about getting a full inventory of the estate? I will likely liquidate all the furniture and use the funds to decontaminate the place. I’ll sell the viable artwork I don’t like to museums if there is anything valuable and go from there. ”
“Some of the art is worth millions,” he warned. “The Merorie clan had accumulated a great deal of wealth through legal but shady business practices.”
“And through some illegal practices,” I reminded him, grabbing the nearest stack of papers and waving it at him. “But that’s fine. When will I be able to get my hands on a copy of all the victim statements?”
“We’ve already digitized it; it was a quiet night last night, and all the officers in the station helped with getting the paper records put into the system.
We even had time to check everything over for accuracy, and one of our accountants made a spreadsheet version so you can sort and filter to your heart’s content. ”
“That accountant deserves a raise,” I informed him in a solemn tone.
He chuckled. “I’m definitely giving her a bonus for helping with that. Anyway, your job is to sort and collect all the papers on the table and escort them to the hotel. Once there, you know what to do. Show me what you’ve got, Kinsley.”
“Yes, sir.” I set the pages down, rubbed my hands together, and smiled at the thought of finally making progress on the case.