“Are you enrolled with SQR, too?”
“Of course I am. Everyone is round here. And they’re always on time to pick up their fees.” She clucked her tongue. “Typical they’re not here when my life is threatened. Only, I can’t afford to be without their protection. Not when—” She stopped before saying anything more, as if her head had finally caught up with her mouth.
“When what?”
“Nothing. They do the best they can. It’s not like we can all have you agents to protect us. You look after your own. Not us poor folk out here. You’re just glory hounds. That’s what they say. You just want to have the pat on the back and not do any real work. I need to go to bed now.” She exaggeratedly fell back against the door. “I feel a little faint. And I need to lock the door before the monster attacks again. Please leave.” She scrambled for the door and then slammed it shut.
“Twice in one night,” Kaleb said. “Good going.”
“This is getting ridiculous.”
“Yeah, I know. That woman was scary.” Kaleb visibly shuddered as we headed out. “No wonder they threatened her with a wool ball.”
“Scary and selfish. She never once asked how the woman was or if she had survived. And how anyone could turn their back while that woman lay there, being bitten into and dying …” The empathy of my gift dared to rear and I took a few deep breaths to push it back. If I followed the trail down that rabbit hole, I would truly open up and become overwhelmed. I’d be crying all over Kaleb until sunrise.
Kaleb nudged me as if he knew exactly what I was thinking. “You saved her. Don’t go down that road.”
“I won’t.” I took another deep breath. “Thanks.”
“It looks like we need to go and pay these SQR people a visit. Want to request data through the comms?”
“Best not. Ground Patrol Officers have been known to tap into those and we don’t want them to know we’re coming. We also need to keep this investigation on the low key for as long as possible.”
“Back to the agency it is then.”
“My stepdad has a T-DAP at his house?” I suggested, not wanting to run into Cole and endure a lecture about dealing with Ground Patrol—or worse, him diverting us from even opening that door. And the Transportable Data Access Point worked like a laptop where we could get access to the PCA database. “I have a key to his place and our security access should work?”
Kaleb grinned. “I love it when you’re sneaky.”
“You’re such a bad influence.”
“And I know how much you love it.”
“At times like this,” I sighed, “I definitely do.”
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Depending on the company, Ground Patrol offices tended to operate in the Indicium and Victorian Quarters of the city. Those who lived in the Crystal Quarter had magic on their side to offer them protection, so Ground Patrol firms couldn’t find a niche to work their way into there. And the Industry Quarter didn’t trust anyone who didn’t live, breathe and work in that part of they city. They banded together and policed their own. So there was no point in the Ground Patrol Officer’s trying to set something up there if no one was going to hire their services. That meant a lot of the firms based themselves in the Victorian Quarter. But the higher, more established firms tended to operate from the Indicium Quarter—that’s where the real money was.
Financiers and law keepers who tended to live in the Indicium Quarter earned a higher level of currency. This resulted in an area rich in grand homes and even grander belongings. It also meant that the citizens were willing to pay more for GP protection. Not that a higher fee meant better quality. But who said that those who had more currency to spend had any more sense? Not me.
Chris hadn’t been home when we’d let ourselves in. So I’d set up the T-DAP and got to work. We’d discovered from the database that SQR had only been established for six months, and that the full name of the firm was Star Quality Rangers. We’d both had a laugh at that.
It was owned and managed by Dathan Raynes, an Amber Citizen. Ambers were mammal shifters of some kind, no matter their animal. Reptile shifters were banded as Citrine Citizens and those of the feathered kind (who didn’t fall under the classification of the Fey like my stepdad) were banded as Gold Citizens. Beyond that, we wouldn’t know what type of mammal shifter Dathan Raynes was until we spoke with him. He could be anything from a wolf shifter like Kaleb, to a tiger or bear shifter who bore similar DNA.
Digging deeper, we found that Star Quality Rangers was owned by Dathan but financed by a company called Tempa Holdings. Dathan currently had sixteen officers employed on a shift-by-shift basis working territories that covered the shops on Desire Street and the park. There had been no roster lists or officer names listed on the database, so that might pose a problem in regards to legally obtaining the information out of them. But we’d cross that bridge when we came to it.
The SQR offices were located on the third floor of a six-story building on the southwest side of the Victorian Quarter. It wasn’t the nicest of areas, but then again it wasn’t far from The Beer Barrel, so that said it all. The building was weathered, and ill-shaped as if it had been squashed by the taller structures on either side. A dark timber held the lighter wood of the facade in place, and the pointed thatched roof looked like it had seen better days. Pipes came out of the roof and down into the ground, showing how old the building actually was.
Built way before the new plumbing system had been invented, the pipes had been erected on the outside. And I don’t think the structure had received much maintenance since.
The front door to the building was open, so we strolled right in and headed for the stairs.
As soon as we reached the third floor, we almost walked into a cardboard cut out of a man wearing a light blue uniform. The large gold stars emblazoned onto his shoulders made him look a little ridiculous. But a speech bubble next to him boasting ‘Protecting the innocent’ showed that he didn’t really care.
Kaleb and I shared a look before heading off down the hallway to try and locate someone. We stopped at the first office where one of the SQR officers was sat with his legs perched upon his desk. His colleagues were cheering him on as he threw a handful of popcorn into the air to try and catch as many as he could with his mouth. I knocked on the door to get their attention.
“Having fun?” I asked, and the man who’d been catching the popcorn jumped, putting his legs down and glaring at us.
“Who the hell are you?” he demanded defensively.
“Us?” I glanced at Kaleb, then back at the officer. “According to a lot of citizens out there, we’re the glory hounds you all speak so fondly of.” We both took out our badges and flashed them at our new audience. “We’re Enforcer Field Agents from the Portiside City Agency. You got a boss around here?”
The man laughed and put his legs back on his desk, relaxing. The others chuckled with him.
“He’s out there working. Unlike you guys.”
A growl simmered out from Kaleb, slightly edgier than a purr. The few officers in the room who were shifters stood with purpose, as if a threat had made itself known.
“Down boys,” I smiled as we walked over to where the popcorn guy was sitting. “We’re here on business. Want to go get your boss for me?”
“Like I said, he’s busy.” He picked up another handful of popcorn and threw it in the air.
“Unlike you, I see. I’ll just go look for him myself.”
His hand grabbed my arm as I went to walk away.
“You’re not welcome here,” the man sneered, but Kaleb was quicker than I could blink. Hoisting the guy up he held him a foot off the ground, his feet dangled uselessly.
“You’ve got three seconds to tell me where your boss is or I’m letting my wolf out. And you know I’m well within my rights to do so if you’re blocking an investigation.”
The fear from Kaleb’s portrayal of dominance left the man’s face as he noticed the other shifters gathering in the room. But
I stepped purposely between them, my back to Kaleb.
“Hold it right there,” I put my hand up. “Now, I’m sure a few of you tried out for the Enforcer Academy, so you know what the training is like. Want me to show you how a human female got through it when you didn’t?” My lip curled up enough to show them I wasn’t kidding and, thankfully, they backed off. “Good. Now we’re not here to cause trouble. We’re here on a case and we need to talk to your boss. If you don’t let us know where he is, then I will personally hunt him down to slap an obstruction order on him. Are we clear?”
“There’s no need for violence,” a smug voice purred from the doorway. And I looked over to see the same features on this man that we’d seen on the cardboard version outside.
“Dathan Raynes, I presume?”
“In the flesh.” He pointed to Kaleb. “Are you going to order your guard dog to put my officer down?”
“I don’t know. Are you going to tell your officer to stop being such a dick?”
“Touché.” He looked at the man who’d grabbed me. “Younan. Stop being such a dick. Happy now?”
“Sure. Kaleb. Let him go.”
“Happy to.”
Kaleb dropped Younan unceremoniously on his feet, then came to stand next to me.
“Why don’t we finish this little meeting in my office?” Dathan put his hand out for me to pass.
“Lead the way,” I replied, repeating Dathan’s gesture. I didn’t know where I was going, and I didn’t like unknown shifters at my back. It also didn’t take a genius to see that Dathan was some form of cat shifter. His eyes were an unusual blend of orange and yellow with oval pupils, and his movements were slow and purposeful. Cat shifters weren’t allowed to go over to Earthside for that reason alone. They couldn’t pull off ‘human’ like wolf shifters could.
Dathan studied me with a smug tilt to his lips and a twinkle in his eye before he walked out of the room.
The office that he led us to wasn’t much in regards to decor or furniture, but he’d made sure to kit it out with the best equipment. It seemed out of place against the aging interior, but there were other comforts reserved for him alone. The water cooler, the crystal lamp, and a transmission pod looked like they cost twice as much as the ones at the agency.
Dathan sat down at his desk and pointed for us to take a seat opposite. “How can I help two Enforcer Field Agents so late in the evening?” He leaned back in his chair, linking his fingers over his stomach.
I took the lead while Kaleb made himself appear as threatening as possible. It was the way we worked. “We have a few questions about your patch on Desire Street.”
“And they are?” he drawled.
“Were any officers supposed to be working that area tonight?” I tried to keep my tone light and non-threatening.
“We’re a little thin on the ground at the moment. Those who are monitoring Desire Street are also managing the park. We can’t be on every corner, at every moment, Agent …?”
“Vane. Are you able to tell me what officers were supposed to be at the park?”
His smile turned into a more deadly one. “And why are you asking?”
“We’re just gathering information at the moment. I’m sure you’re aware that there was an attack on a woman on Desire Street earlier in the evening. I was close by and disturbed the attacker.”
“Earlier this evening?” he asked as he leaned forward with a look of concern on his face. I wasn’t sure if I was being paranoid but the move seemed to be a little rehearsed.
“Yes, earlier this evening. I would like to know who, out of all your officers, were down to manage that territory tonight. We would like to ask them a few questions.”
“I don’t see how they can help you, Agent Vane. If they’d been anywhere near the scene when it had happened, they would have called it in.”
“Are you saying that because they didn’t respond to the attack, they were patrolling the park?”
“That’s correct.”
“Do you know which part of the park they would have been patrolling?” I kept my questions quick and fluid to throw him off.
“It’s a large park,” he replied, without missing a beat. “They patrol what they can, when they can. We only had two officers assigned to that shift tonight as we were trialling some other men. We do our best and we are a business that is trying to grow.”
“And what territories do Star Quality Rangers cover?”
“Why is this relevant?”
“It’s relevant because I want to try and understand why a young woman was harmed in one of your territories. And why, when a citizen tried to call for help, your comms rang out.”
Dathan shifted in his seat and tapped at his desk. “Like I said, we’re a little thin on the ground at the moment. If the comms were ringing out, then we were all out manning the territories.”
“Really?” I asked, contemplating him for a second. “Is that why you have several officers throwing popcorn at one another over in the next room?”
His expression shimmered with frustration before correcting itself into a smile. “They have not long returned from their own shift. They can only do so many hours by law. You should know that, Agent Vane.”
“You’re right. I do know that.” I gave him a sweet smile. “But I should also question why you don’t want to tell us who patrols each territory when we’re only trying to put the pieces together.”
“I never said I wouldn’t tell you. I only wanted to know why. I believe that the Ground Patrol Officers and Enforcer Field Agents are encouraged to work together. Or is that just myth?”
“That’s not myth,” I agreed with him. And it wasn’t. The Portiside City Agency needed the Ground Patrol to do the grunt work in keeping order within the city. Each Ground Patrol firm received a small monthly retainer from the PCA. It was currency to pay them for any help they were legally required to give when supporting the Enforcer Field Agents on the street. And you could say that the Ground Patrol Officers had a dotted line to the agency. But they were still private firms and they relied on their profit to operate and grow. That meant there tended to be a lot of competition with anyone who stepped onto their territory—including Enforcer Field Agents. “It’s, of course, in our best interests to work together,” I continued, “but you’ve just explained you’re thin on the ground. So why not let us help by taking the weight of this one for you? Avoid the hassle of me raising a Senate Approved Access Order to gain entry into your system, and you can have us out of your hair a hell of a lot faster.”
His assessing eyes tried to outstare me, but I’d been around shifters for too long to be dominated by that game. I held my own, taking care not to flinch.
“I agree,” Dathan conceded, his plastic smile even wider. “Naturally, we will help where we can. We must do all that is possible to keep the citizens of Portiside safe.”
I heard the jibe in his voice. I didn’t need the glory hound comment from the citizens of Desire Street to tell me he was being two-faced. His condescending nature seemed to be as natural to him as breathing.
“That’s good to hear. But tonight, no Ground Patrol Officers were positioned anywhere close by when the attack happened. And neither were they near the park where the attacker fled after I disturbed him. I think it’s safe to assume that, to cover all areas of protocol, the officers who were supposed to be on duty must be questioned to eliminate them from our road of inquiry. Don’t you agree?”
Throwing the rule book around had backed him into a corner and he knew it. If he disagreed with me now, it would be obvious that SQR didn’t stand by its cheesy motto and the principles upon which it stood.
“Officers Scandon and Narahin were supposed to be manning that area this evening,” he said reluctantly. “I will be sure to question them immediately. I will send a report first thing in the morning to your office’s Enforcer Chief.”
It was on the edge of my lips to tell him that it was within our jurisdiction to interview the officers directl
y, not through him. But Kaleb interrupted first.
“That’s understandable,” Kaleb said and he stood up out of his chair. “Thank you for your cooperation. Our Enforcer Chief will appreciate it. Come on, Agent Vane, they can send the report over to the agency, and we can sign off, go home and get some sleep.”
He threw Dathan a sympathetic smile then encouraged me to stand up with him. I wanted to argue—to ask him what the hell he was playing at—but then I noticed his gaze. His eyes implored me to follow his lead.
“Fine.” A heavy and exaggerated sigh left my lips. “We should call it a night, I suppose. Just make sure the report reaches the agency first thing.”
“Of course.” Dathan regally bowed his head and purposely stayed where he was so we’d have no choice but to show ourselves out. Suppressing my irritation, I kept my mouth shut as we made our way out of the building.
It wasn’t until we were back in the cool night air that I turned on Kaleb. “Are you going to tell me why you didn’t want us to get to his Ground Patrol Officers first?”
“From the looks of him and those idiots in the office, I’m betting they’re already preened to keep their mouths shut to outsiders. But at least we now have the officers’ names to do some digging. And I don’t mean through the system.”
“What do you mean?”
“He told us those names fast enough with that threat of yours. But I think he’s confident they’ll be clean. He wouldn’t have offered them up so quickly otherwise.”
“You don’t think he’s worried about the threat of the order?”
“He knows we have a weak ground to even apply for one since they’re not direct suspects in the case. All we were asking about was his officers on duty and who was covering the ground where the woman was attacked. He was aware that if we’d taken it in another direction it would have been an accusation. And it helps for them to keep thinking that we’re dumb asses who just turn up to do the basics of the job. This way, they don’t probe further.”
Death Be Blue (The Terra Vane Series Book 1) Page 11
