Screening calls was a trick of his that his brother was well aware of, however.
Pity.
“Did I do what?” Sila asked, even though he knew what this was about. That was half the reason he’d expected the call in the first place.
“Did you kill him?” His brother should be in Vail, headed toward their sociology class, playing the role of Sila, while Sila was here, acting as Rin. He must have overheard the gossip that had spread through the city like wildfire the past few days.
“I didn’t,” Sila smiled to himself, “as far as anyone else knows.”
“Seriously?”
“Relax. They’ll never suspect me. I was meant to be at the library during the time of the murder.” Which was exactly why keeping an open and public routine was so important.
“And when they ask around and everyone says they didn’t see you?”
“Won’t be a problem,” he said. “I move around on purpose. Every day. If someone didn’t notice me, they’ll just assume it was because I was in a different section of the library that day.” With any luck, people would also get confused. Since they did see him on those days he was meant to be there, they’d mix and jumble up to the point it’d be hard for anyone to be certain they hadn’t seen him even if that were the case.
Last month, he'd waited for the right time before following after August, trailing behind for a while to confirm whether or not Bay meant to take things further. When it became apparent he wasn’t going to add any fuel to the fire, Sila took over and did the job for him.
The only way to guarantee there was no evidence? Get rid of it. Bay and Berga believed the drug couldn’t be traced, but why take the risk when it wasn’t necessary? When the professor had someone like Sila there to take care of him?
He’d repeated the process with Lan, waiting for the student to stumble out of Bay’s office. Lan had been a bit easier since he’d been so out of it, he’d gone straight to his car and sped off. Sila had followed and caught the guy just as he’d driven off the road and into a tree. August he’d hidden away to ensure the body had plenty of time to start decomposition before it was discovered, but that hadn’t been necessary with Lan.
The official verdict for his death?
Car crash.
No one had to know he’d still been breathing when Sila had found him.
“I know you’re doing something for that professor,” his brother accused.
“Yes,” Sila confirmed. “But the professor didn’t ask me to murder for him.”
“There was no mention of it being a necessary killing.”
Sila took a detour on his way to the shooting range and slipped into an empty classroom, clicking the door shut behind him. “He got in the way. I didn’t just kill him for the hell of it.” Mostly true. Sort of.
“Whatever you’re doing with the professor, call it off.”
He bristled. Usually, his brother was the only person allowed to try and give him orders and it was rare for him to react negatively to them, even if he didn’t want to listen to his nagging. But in this regard… “No.”
“You were supposed to fix this stalker problem and that was meant to be the end of it,” his brother argued.
“We’re both happy where things are and you know it,” he retaliated. “What takes place between the professor and me is my business.”
“Not when he spends an hour and half staring at me the way he did in class today,” his brother snapped.
Sila felt his stomach clench and he lowered himself down to the surface of a nearby desk. “Explain.”
After the confusion he’d experienced in the alley last week, Sila had needed a change. He’d gone to his brother and asked for them to switch places for a bit, just long enough he could contact Kelevra and ask about Insight, and ideally, figure out these odd feelings.
The corner of his mouth turned upward smugly. He’d known Bay was bullshiting him and just gotten lucky when he’d called him by name at his house. He may have recognized him once, but that’d been a fluke. He couldn’t tell them apart any better than the next useless meat sack. Now that he’d cleared that up, Sila could forget all about—
“He knows, asshole,” his brother said.
Sila shot back onto his feet.
“The way he was looking at me,” his brother continued, “was different. He knows. Did you tell him?”
