“What?” Kal stared his friend down, waiting.
“You know how you ordered I check out the Shepards?” Flix began. “You wanted me to get in touch with their leader and hash it out, see how much they knew about their rogue members.”
“And?”
“Here’s the thing, they claim it wasn’t members that we took. It was member. As in singular.”
Baikal frowned. “What?”
“They only ID’d one of the bodies as theirs,” Kazimir sighed. “It was the last guy. The one Berga cut the tongue out of?” He motioned to the butcher who smiled wistfully thinking about it. “They say he wasn’t part of their gang at all. They hardly even knew him.”
“Then what the fuck was he doing with one of their members?” Baikal hated the knot of dread forming in his gut. That had been the one who’d drugged Rabbit in the school parking lot. That much they were sure of. But if he hadn’t been a member of the Shepards… “Did Kor hire him out?”
Flix shook his head. “They don’t know for sure but they don’t think so. According to them, he was their member’s cousin who’d only just moved here recently. He didn’t know anyone well enough to get involved with anything, and wouldn’t have known where to go to get hired for a job like that. They say he was into music. Played the piano at the local community center every Saturday. Aside from the company he kept there, he was a loner.”
They’d assumed he’d been working for Kor because he’d been caught with his cousin, who was now a confirmed member of the Shepards, but if that wasn’t the case, why the hell had he gone after Rabbit in the first place?
“We know the second guy was part of the crew who executed the break-ins and started the fires,” Kazimir explained. “So we didn’t get the wrong guy, at least not in that respect.”
“And tongue dude is the one who went after your man,” Flix stated.
“My Possessio,” Baikal corrected, barely paying them any mind when they all stared at him. He’d said it mostly out of reflex, mind still trying to put the pieces of this now smashed-up puzzle together.
Could the guy have simply been a crazy fan? They’d said he’d been into music, it was possible.
“Kal, naming a Possessio is a big deal,” Whim cleared his throat and said. “Once it’s done, you can’t undo it.”
“And I’m not going to,” he snapped back, still distracted. Then he motioned to Kazimir. “Hand me my multi-slate.” He’d removed it along with his shirt and placed it on another table, having set the device on silent mode. His father’s death hit him hard and he wasn’t in the mood to screen calls or talk to anyone who wasn’t currently in this room—aside from Rabbit of course, who he’d already warned not to bother trying to get in touch.
Kazimir retrieved it and set the device in Baikal’s palm.
His eyes widened and that dark feeling within him only got worse when he saw he had several missed calls.
All from Rabbit after all.
He was already halfway to the double doors before he was called to a stop, only turning so he could send a warning growl over to Whim who’d been the one to bother. “I have to go. Now.”
“Where?” Whim shook his head. “You have to meet with the Brumal and hold a proper funeral.”
“After.”
“After what?”
“I have to check on him. Something’s wrong.” He curled a finger at his Satellite and grabbed his leather jacket off the chair with his other hand. “You all, with me.”
They nodded and gathered their things without a single question.
“Take care of the funeral arrangements for me,” Baikal ordered Whim, then turned to Chesh. “And the will. Any of the legal stuff. Get it all together so I can deal with it once I’m back.”
“Of course, Dominus Baikal.” The Counselor bowed his head.
Baikal shoved the doors opened and exited into the long hallway, tossing his jacket on and then securing the straps of his multi-slate over the right sleeve. He clicked on the black stud earring he was wearing that acted as a microphone connected to the device and tried Rabbit, but there was no answer.
“Where we headed, boss?” Flix finally asked as they made their way through the hospital and to the back parking lot where they’d all parked.
“He called me even when I told him I would be busy,” Baikal said, not sure if he was making much sense to them but not wanting to waste time fully explaining either. “Just follow me.”
“To?” Kazimir pulled out the keys to his hovercar.
