Bay stared at her and for once, she actually held his gaze. “You’re telling me that Haroon might have murdered my grandmother.”
“Yeah,” Sila said. “That’s exactly what she’s saying.”
“But…How?” She’d suffered from a heart attack brought on by extreme emotion. That’s what he’d been told. “I suppose he could have threatened her, made her sign everything over to him by holding a blaster to her head and that could have been enough to—”
“The Shepards aren’t all wannabe Brumal,” Nila stated. “Most of them were just kids who had shitty homelives they wanted to avoid. Haroon was the one with the weird complex. His biggest infatuation at the time was the concept of a Butcher. It’d gotten out that Baikal Void was already grooming his and that made Haroon want one even more. So he hired this really scary guy to fill the role.”
“Who?”
“It doesn’t matter,” Sila sounded annoyed. “He was killed recently by the Brumal for unrelated reasons.”
“I’m certain he had something to do with it though,” Nila nibbled on her bottom lip. “I remember seeing Haroon grab something from the dash of the car before we got out. It was a small bottle of clear liquid.”
“Even if this fake Butcher had created a poison for him, it does us no good. There’s no way to prove it or get answers since he’s dead. I had my contact in the Shepards try to dig for more information on it, but Haroon must have scrubbed his shit clean. There’s no mention of him ever experimenting with anyone in any capacity, let alone someone like a Butcher.” Sila slipped his hands into his front pockets. “Going to Haroon himself is the only way we’re going to be able to clear any of this up.”
“He won’t tell you anything,” Nila said, and she sounded concerned for him. “Seriously, I don’t want you putting yourself at risk.”
“You’re unwilling to make a new statement with the police,” Sila reminded, cluing Bay in to the fact the two of them must have already discussed this amongst themselves before he’d been brought on.
He didn’t like that much either.
Stupid jealousy.
“He already killed someone to keep them quiet,” Nila argued.
“That’s a theory.”
“It’s a good one, you even said so yourself! And Russ isn’t the only one.” She turned to Bay. “I’m still close to some of the girls who’ve stuck with the gang. There’s talk that August was taken out too because he got too close to something Haroon didn’t want him knowing about.”
Sila hummed. “His throat was slit, so the police assume he was killed by someone he knew. Haroon could have easily done it. Especially since August was already drugged and out of it when it happened.”
Nila grabbed onto his wrist. “What?”
“Someone slipped him Abundance and wandered around town for a bit in a rage,” Sila said, as though it disgusted him that someone would do that.
“The police said he must have been wasted.” She frowned at them.
“Lan was drugged too.”
“Is that why he picked that fight with Kazimir?!” She gaped and slapped her hands over her mouth. “Kaz almost killed him!”
According to the timeline of events, Bay didn’t think Lan would have been able to confront Kazimir at all before he’d gotten into his car, so it must be another occasion she was thinking of.
“He’s fine,” Sila rolled his eyes. “Unfortunately.”
“Who’s going around drugging people?” Nila asked. “Should I be worried?”
He shook his head. “Don’t think so. At least not about that. You’re right to be concerned over Haroon though. Make sure you don’t tell anyone that you’re talking to us.”
“I don’t have a death wish,” she said.
“If you told the police they could protect you,” Bay tried. He didn’t think he could convince her, but now that there was a very real thread of proof standing in front of him, he had to give it a shot.
Sila leaned in then and brought his mouth close to the curve of Bay’s ear, whispering, “We can always drug her and force her to the station. Got anymore Abundance, Professor?”
He shoved him away and gave him a stern look that didn’t affect the younger man in the least.
“I’m sorry,” Nila said. “I know it’s wrong of me, it was wrong from the start, but I can’t. I won’t wreck my life like that. I’m sorry.”
