Chapter 11
By the time we stopped outside Boon Lakin’s house in Shiftertown, most of my grumpiness had melted away. Riding on my steambike always lifted my spirits a little, but it was the thought of seeing Lakin again that did the trick. Unlike Skonel and Garrett, Lakin would actually be happy to see me.
“Sunaya,” Lakin exclaimed when he threw open the door. His smile dimmed slightly when he caught sight of Garrett, but he didn’t shirk away from the strange mage. “What brings you here?”
“Official business, I’m afraid,” I said with a rueful smile. “Mind if we come in a minute?”
“Sure, sure.” Lakin stepped back, letting us enter his small but cozy house.
I hadn’t been here since before I’d left for Garai, and was pleased to note he’d added some family photographs to the walls and side tables, from the Jaguar Clan he’d left back in Parabas.
Included in those pictures was the smiling face of the little girl I’d rescued from the lab in Osero, and I felt a pang in my chest. I hoped she was doing okay.
Those children had been through a terrible ordeal—they’d been lucky to make it out alive, since the scientists were experimenting on them with the deadly diseases they’d intended to unleash on the shifter and mage populations.
Before I could allow myself to sink further into the past, my nose caught the scent of a female jaguar shifter—one who came around often, I noted. As the Shiftertown Inspector, Lakin had regular visitors, but none with quite as strong a scent marker as this one.
Flopping onto the couch, I looked up at Lakin with a grin. “New girlfriend?”
He blushed. “It’s not official,” he said, scratching the back of his sandy hair.
I waggled my eyebrows. “Smells pretty official to me. You have to have been seeing her a few months.”
“As fascinating as this sounds,” Garrett said dryly as he lowered himself on the couch next to me, “I don’t believe we came here to interrogate Inspector Lakin on his love life.”
“Which I am incredibly grateful for,” Lakin said sincerely as he sank into his arm chair. “What are you here for? When I heard you outside the door, I thought maybe you’d come to volunteer as you’d mentioned before, but since you’ve got a mage with you, I figure that’s not the case.”
I flinched at that. “Shit. I’m sorry, Lakin.
” I’d completely forgotten about my promise.
“I was absolutely intending on doing that, but Director Toring’s unexpected visit kind of threw a wrench in my schedule.
” The two of us got Lakin up to speed about Thorgana’s escape and alleged plans, as well as our progress—or lack thereof—on finding her.
We discussed various theories as to where she might be hiding and what plans she might be cooking up, but didn’t come up with anything new.
We were just circling over the same ground, much to my frustration.
“I wish I could be of more help,” Lakin said, his blond brows drawn into a scowl.
“It’s possible that Thorgana only just arrived, and that’s why we haven’t heard or seen anything unusual yet.
I will definitely forward any rumors or info about the Benefactor straight to you—you know that none of us harbor any love for her,” he added darkly.
We thanked Lakin for his time, leaving him with a promise I would get in touch with him as soon as I had a spare moment to volunteer.
We hit up the Shifter Courier next, followed by the Herald.
Everyone we talked to was very helpful, but nobody had any leads, to our mutual disappointment.
I’d expected to get something out of the Herald at least—they were still suspect, even though they were under new management, and I wouldn’t have put it past Thorgana to leverage contacts in her former media company in some way.
But clearly that was too obvious an angle—if she was here at all, she was being careful to fly under the radar.
By the time we finished with the Herald, it was well past two o’clock.
Starving, I dragged Garrett to the diner in Maintown where Annia and I had once shared a meal during our very first case together.
As we settled into a booth with a street view window and ordered bowls of hot soup and sandwiches, I couldn’t help but wish that it was Annia sitting across from me, instead of Garrett.
The director was clever and intelligent, but he didn’t know Solantha very well.
Annia, like me, had grown up here, and her contacts with the city’s underbelly were much better than mine.
I often consulted with her when I was working on a tough case, and she usually spotted things I didn’t.
“There is another place I would like to check out,” Garrett said after he’d finished polishing off a grilled cheese sandwich. “Firegate Federal Credit Union.”
My brow furrowed. “A bank? Why?”
“Thorgana was using several banks around the country to funnel money through, and Firegate was one of two banks she used here in Solantha,” Garrett explained. “The other—”
“Was Sandin Federal,” I said, then scooped a huge spoonful of clam chowder into my mouth. It was my third bowl, and I’d already polished off four grilled cheeses, much to Garrett’s astonishment. I guessed he hadn’t been paying attention to my eating habits in Garai.
“Ah, yes,” Garrett said, a small smile playing on his lips. “I’d forgotten you were the one who shut them down.”
“Along with Lakin, Iannis, and Secretary Garidano,” I reminded him sharply.
I didn’t like the admiring way he was gazing at me—I strongly suspected Garrett had a little crush on me.
I had saved his life, risking my own neck to dive into the stormy sea after he’d been thrown overboard, so I guess it wasn’t totally weird.
But I was engaged to Iannis, and the fact that Garrett, a mage fully capable of controlling his emotions, was letting me see his interest at all was pissing me off.
Just because he was getting the chance to enjoy time away from the office, riding around on a steambike with the exotic shifter girl, didn’t give him license to be anything less than professional.
“Of course,” Garrett said smoothly, as if he didn’t notice my warning tone. “I understand that Fenris has also been of help to you during past investigations and missions?”
“His knowledge comes in handy,” I said, turning my attention back to my chowder.
Garrett had been subtly tossing questions about Fenris to me all afternoon, and I’d deflected them as best I could, refusing to betray that I knew his game.
I wasn’t going to hand Fenris over to him on a silver platter.
“I imagine it does,” Garrett said. “He has decades of it, if that is to be believed. Has he been studying magical lore all his life?”
“I wouldn’t know,” I said airily, flagging down the waitress to get the bill. “I’ve known him less than a year.”
“Surely, he’s told you about his past, though?” Garrett pressed. “The two of you must be well-acquainted, considering you’re both shifters living among mages, and so close to Lord Iannis.”
“You got any coin on you?” I asked, sliding the bill over to Garrett after the waitress handed it to me. “I figure we’re splitting this.”
“I’ll take care of it,” Garrett said irritably, pulling a hefty purse from the magical pocket in his sleeve. “Are you avoiding my question?”
“No,” I said simply as I rose from the table. “I just think that if you want to learn about Fenris’s past, the best person to ask would be Fenris. I’m not his biographer, you know.” Garrett pressed his lips together. “I’m going to the restroom. Meet you outside.”
And with that, I sauntered off before I could give in to the urge to grab Garrett by the collar and punch him in his too-shrewd face.