The man took a cautious step back, obviously reading the intent in Lian's eyes. Scanning his compad the detective answered. "Trestair Dragonwing met his holiness at the steps according to eyewitnesses, but no one inside verified seeing him afterwards."
Lian's heart plunged somewhere around his ankles. "Shit."
"Calm down, Lian. What about the water company," Milot asked.
The man's chocolate brown eyes jumped between Lian and Milot. "The company board lists both Dr Bourne and Trestair Dragonwing as primary owners."
"What?" Milot asked.
"Why would they work together?" Lian asked.
On the surface neither man should have a connection. If Tres cared for Nevair why would he want him to be poisoned?
"That I don't know," the detective replied.
"You're dismissed, Barth. Go get some food in the kitchen," Milot ordered.
"Thank you, sir," Barth bowed and quickly left.
Lian leaned back in his seat, trying to figure out the puzzle pieces. "Why would a dragonkin want to poison his own kind?"
"Tres isn't dragonkin," Milot said.
"What do you mean?" Lian had thought Tres must be dragonkin the way he reacted to Lian's lack of a dragon.
"I mean he was adopted. You don't know the story because you're new but his parents adopted him after his mother turned out to be sterile. They gave him a dragonkin last name. It was quite the scandal at the time," Milot remarked.
"The adoption?" Lian tried to figure out how an adoption would be scandalous.
Milot shook his head. "No, the naming. No one has ever given a non-dragonkin a dragon name unless they are direct offspring or bonded. Some people ostracized his parents over it."
"What happened to them?" Lian wondered if Tres had killed his parents too.
Milo got a faraway look in his eyes. "If my memory serves me they died about six years ago in a space ship collision."
It still didn't make sense. "Huh. I can see why Bourne would be in on the act because for some reason he hates dragonkin. But why Tres?"
"I guess they'll have to ask him at the police station," Milot said.
Lian raised a brow. "You think they'll arrest him on such a flimsy case?"
Milot shrugged. "They can at least take him in for questioning."
"True. I think it would be best if you called it in. I'm not a citizen and they might not believe me." Not to mention Lian had enough problems with the number of issues he already caused with Bourne.
"Yeah, the police know me well," Milot said with a wry grin. "They'll get a kick out of me reporting someone for a crime."
Lian didn't comment on Milot's amusement. He didn't want to know Milot's business. The man had been a good friend and Lian had no plans to upset their delicate balance.
"I'm going to go to the cathedral. I need to know what happened to Nevair." He didn't care what it took but he'd find out where his mate went if he had to tear apart the cathedral.
"I'll send a couple of my guys to go with you," Milot offered.
Lian would've objected, but since he didn't know what he might be walking into, he nodded his agreement.
After dinner, Lian headed out with two human bodyguards who towered over Lian like giants. They both had dark hair, dark eyes, and massive shoulders. Lian watched dubiously to see if they could make it through the door.
He accepted Milot's offer of his driver and hovercar and headed to the cathedral.
