More silence.
“You’d be the first,” Hadeom said eventually. “Anything to report?”
God, where to start...
He sat at his desk and pulled his gloves off. “I’m still working on any preliminary assessments. The people here have been welcoming.”
More or less.
A few days ago, he wouldn’t have been able to say that. Not about Ciaran Brenner, anyway, but they seemed to have turned a corner.
Sawyer certainly turned more than that in his dream last night....
He cleared his throat and concentrated on the task at hand. “I’ve met some of the locals. I think the population estimate of twenty-two is out, though. So far, I’ve only met eight, so I don’t know where the rest of them claim to be.”
“You’ve met eight,” Hadeom repeated.
“Yeah.” The seven guys of the “consortium”—whatever the hell that was—and old Mr Brown. “I might go for another drive out along the outskirts and see what I can find. You don’t have any old maps laying around, by chance?”
“Hm. I’ll see what I can find.” There was the sound of tapping on a keyboard. “So, these eight men?—”
“I never said they were men,” Sawyer interrupted, because as an inspector, Hadeom shouldn’t have assumed.
“Are you saying there’s a female out there?”
Sawyer frowned because that was really fucking weird.
Afemale?
It was a weird way to phrase it, and a weird thing to say.
And Sawyer didn’t like it. It didn’t sit well with him. “I’m not saying that, no. Though I’m curious as to why you would....” He let that trail off, deciding not to question the man who was technically his boss. “Is there anything I should know, Inspector? I kinda get the feeling you wanted to drop me here blind, but now I’m sensing you might know more than you’re letting on.”
“Not at all,” Hadeom said coolly. Dismissively. “I wouldn’t say you went in blind, Detective. More like fresh eyes without prior information that might sway your judgement.”
Sawyer frowned at that, noticing Salem curled up on the jail cell cot, his yellow eyes watching him.
“I’ll need you to send through names of the residents,” Hadeom said. “Brief descriptions, that kind of thing.”
Why...
Why would he need that?
“Next week. Make a note in your calendar so you don’t lose track of time.”
“Sir?”
“I’m not asking,” he murmured, his voice low, and there was definitely an underlying threat.
And then the line went dead.
What the fuck?
Sawyer slid his phone onto his desk. “What the actual fuck,” he mumbled out loud, and Salem closed his eyes, now seemingly content enough to sleep. “Sorry to keep you up, Your Royal Highness.”
Salem didn’t open his eyes, but his ear flickered.
Sawyer rolled his eyes.
