Chapter 7 #3
“Thanks.” I smiled, any resentment I felt toward the Courier evaporating. My nose told me his words were sincere, and they warmed me. “I’ll be in touch.”
I went to Lakin’s house next, and banged on the door for several minutes until he answered.
His steambike was parked right out front, so I knew he was home, and damned if I was going to come back later.
I didn't have a whole lot of time left until I had to report to the Mages Guild, so if I didn’t see him now I wouldn’t see him until tonight, if that.
“Oh for Magorah's sake!” Lakin finally shouted from the back of the house. “Just give me a moment, would you?”
I grinned at the sound of footsteps stomping across the floorboards, and a few seconds later, Lakin flung open the door.
My eyebrows jumped as I took a good look at him – his short blond hair was sticking out in all directions, his lower jaw was covered in stubble, and he wore only a pair of loose drawstring pants that hung low on his hips, revealing his lean, muscular torso.
His chest was lightly dusted with blond hair that trailed over his abdomen and disappeared beneath the waistband of his pants, drawing attention to the v-cut of his abdomen.
“Well good morning.” I waggled my eyebrows at him. “Do you normally answer the door like this, or is it just when the ladies come calling?”
“Sunaya?” A bewildered look crossed Lakin’s sleep-creased face, and to my surprise, he blushed. “Sorry, I wasn’t expecting you. Come in, come in.”
Bemused, I followed him inside, watching the self-conscious way he ran a hand through his hair.
Shifters as a general rule weren’t modest, so I doubted Lakin was concerned that I’d just seen him half-naked.
Maybe it was just that he looked so disheveled.
I guess if my hair looked like that I’d be self-conscious too.
“Do you want coffee or anything?” Lakin asked, leading me into his kitchen. It was small but cozy, with the sink, counter and cabinets taking up the far side of the space, and the refrigerator and a small, wooden table and chair set on the other. “I just bought a new roast yesterday.”
“No, I’m good.” I wasn’t a huge coffee fan to begin with.
“Great. Let me just… can I just grab a shirt? I’m a little cold.”
“Uh, sure.” I arched a brow as he darted out of the kitchen.
Shifters didn’t easily get cold, and it was the middle of summer.
But I wasn’t about to call him on it – if wearing a shirt around me made him more comfortable then I wasn’t going to object.
I wanted his full attention, after all. Bored, I fiddled with the cord of the red telephone that sat atop the table, twisting it around my finger as I waited for Lakin to return.
When Lakin finally came back, I could see he’d done more than throw a shirt on. I arched a brow at the sight of his wet, neatly combed hair and the pair of jeans he’d traded his sweatpants for, but again, I said nothing.
“So,” he said, clasping his hands together as he rested his forearms atop the table. “What’s going on?’
“I came to give you an update on the case.”
Lakin’s brows arched. “Have you?” His lips twitched a little. “I didn’t realize you’d been working on it without me.”
“Yeah, well I couldn’t stop thinking about it after I left so I decided to do a little more digging.
” I told him about my visit to the Shifter Courier this morning, then pulled out the scrap of paper with the advertiser’s name and number on it.
“I was thinking you might want to call The Butcher’s Block and question the contact.
They don’t have a local office so a phone call might save some time. ”
“How nice of you.” Lakin took the paper from me, still frowning. “It’s good to know I’m allowed to participate in my own investigation.”
My spine stiffened. “Are you saying that you would rather not have my help?” I asked, offended at his tone.
“No, no, of course not.” Lakin let out a huff. “I’m just frustrated that you made some headway while I ended up chasing my tail for most of yesterday.”
“Oh.” My scowl softened into a more sympathetic expression. “None of your interviews panned out?”
“Not a one so far.” Lakin shook his head.
“Sillara’s partner told me that she’d come home to find her door unlocked not long after Sillara’s death, but she hadn’t noticed anything missing so she figured she’d just forgotten to lock up when she’d left.
None of the families I’ve interviewed so far have told me anything helpful, and several of the missing shifters had moved to Solantha from outside Canalo.
Their families, if any, will be hard to track down. ”
“Well, hopefully we’ll get something helpful now. Why don’t you make that phone call?”
Lakin picked up the phone, then dialed the number on the piece of paper. We listened to the shrill ring tone for a couple of seconds, and then a receptionist answered in a cheery voice. Lakin asked for Borin Tate, the advertising rep Faron said had made the call.
“I’m sorry,” the receptionist said after a moment. “But there is no Borin Tate in the company register.”
“There isn’t?” Lakin scowled. “How long has he been gone?”
“To my knowledge no one by that name has never worked here.” The receptionist paused. “Is there someone else I can direct your call to?”
Lakin sighed in disgust. “Your current advertising representative would be a good start.”
“One moment please.”
Lakin gave me a look as the receptionist transferred him. “This isn’t going well so far,” he muttered.
“Yeah well, let’s see what this guy has to say.” But I bit my lip, privately agreeing with him.
“Hello, this is Wilam Randor,” a male answered. “Can I help you?”
“Yes, hello.” Lakin’s voice was smooth and professional. “My name is Inspector Lakin, and I’m calling from Solantha’s Shiftertown regarding an investigation. Do you have a moment?”
“Certainly.” The man sounded surprised, but polite. “How can I be of assistance?”
“It’s come to my attention that your company recently threatened to pull their advertising dollars from the Shifter Courier. Is this true?”
“Why no,” the man insisted. “The Shifter Courier brings us a significant amount of business each year. I wouldn’t think to do such a thing.”
“I see. And how long have you been employed in your current position?”
“Three years.”
“Okay. Have you ever used a temp, such as on sick leave or vacation, in the past year?”
“Oh no,” the man said emphatically. “Whenever I take time off my supervisor takes over for me. We don’t trust that kind of thing to temporary employees.”
“Alright. Thank you very much for your time.”
Lakin hung up the phone, then glared at the receiver. “Another dead end.”
“Yeah.” My shoulders slumped. If the person who’d made the phone call wasn’t an employee of the company, there was no way for us to track them down. The incident had happened far too long ago, in any case.
“Oh wait. There’s one more thing.” I dug out the other piece of paper Faron had given me and gave it to Lakin. “The Chief Editor also told me that one of his reporters, the one who would normally be in charge of writing up the disappearances, has disappeared himself recently.”
“Huh.” Lakin’s eyes lit with interest as he stared down at the address. “Say, that house is right up the street from here, a few blocks away. What do you say we check it out now?”
“That’s exactly what I was thinking.”
Lakin donned his leather coat, and we walked over to Nevin’s house, leaving our steambikes parked outside Lakin’s residence.
Like Lakin’s house, it was a small, one story dwelling, but unlike Lakin’s place there was a distinct air of neglect hanging about it.
The grass on the front yard was nearly a foot high, the planters were empty of flowers, and there was the faintest whiff of rotting garbage.
“Ugh.” I pinched my nose as we approached the front door, the smell getting stronger. “How has no one come to investigate by now? This whole block is full of shifters. Surely they would have come over to complain about this stench.”
Lakin shrugged. “The smell’s not too bad from the street. He probably wasn’t incredibly friendly with his neighbors, and nobody cared enough about the smell to bother with it.”
“Yeah, well looks like garbage wasn’t his only problem.” I looked over at the overflowing mailbox hanging from the exterior wall to the left of the door. Grabbing a few letters, I noticed they were postmarked from the end of April. “I get the feeling the postman stopped delivering weeks ago .”
The front door was locked, so Lakin fished a set of lock picks from one of his pockets. I arched a brow as he jimmied one of them into the locks, and seconds later the mechanism clicked open.
“Didn’t know Inspectors were allowed to do that kind of thing.” I could pick locks with the best of them, but since I went after wanted criminals, breaking into their houses was a little different from doing it to someone who as far as we knew was innocent.
Lakin snorted. “You wouldn’t believe how many times I’ve had to do this,” he said as the door swung open.
The rotting garbage stench was even stronger on the inside, and as we quickly discovered, came from the kitchen trash and the refrigerator, where months-old supplies of meat and dairy lay wasting away, covered with green and black mold.
Gagging, I quickly closed the refrigerator and moved out of the room, wanting to get myself away from the awful smell as fast as possible.
“Lakin?” I called as I moved into the living room. Unlike Lakin’s it was fully furnished, but the surfaces were covered in a layer of dust. This guy definitely hadn’t been home in awhile, probably since he’d stopped showing up to work.
“In here,” Lakin called, and I followed the sound of his voice into Nevin’s bedroom.
The space was half-bedroom, half-office, with a desk and a small filing cabinet located on the left half of the room, and a bed, dresser and closet on the right.
Lakin was seated on the bed, peering down at some pieces of paper in his hand.
“Whatcha got there?” I asked, coming to stand in front of him.
“Ticket stubs.” Looking up, he handed them to me. “Take a look.”
I did, and then frowned. They appeared to be for some kind of betting event, though I couldn’t really tell what for. The name “The Dirty Habit” was scrawled across the backside of the ticket in cramped, messy handwriting.
“The Dirty Habit,” I murmured, the name tickling a memory in the back of my mind. “I think that’s a bar or nightclub of some kind.”
“Is that right?” Lakin stood up so he could look at the tickets over my shoulder. “I don’t think there’s a club by that name in Solantha, but it must not be too far from here.”
“I’ll ask Annia about it. She’ll probably know.”
“Annia?”
“She’s an enforcer friend of mine.” I winked at the dubious look on his face. “Don’t worry, she’s one of the good ones.”
“Alright, well I trust you.” Lakin glanced at his watch. “I should get back to my house soon. I’ve got a meeting scheduled with one of my deputies.”
“Crap,” I muttered as I realized it was nearly noon. I had to get back to the Palace!
“Is everything okay?”
“Yeah, yeah, it’s fine.” But inside I was kicking myself. I hadn’t put any time into investigating the bank, or reading the book the Chief Mage had given me last night! “I’ve just gotta get back to the Palace now. I’ll catch you later.”
Somehow, I was going to have to figure out how to manage my time better. Otherwise I had a feeling I was going to end up in hot water again.