To say the clothier was overjoyed was putting it mildly. Before the end of the fittings, he was daydreaming aloud about opening a shop in the human territories, with my beloved’s Uncle Alan deciding he wanted to manage it. We weren’t even Bonded yet, but Kelly was already having a positive influence on how our two peoples coexisted.
First he led by example, treating me with the same respect and affability as he did any human. Now his family had charmed one of our most highly regarded merchants and together, they were planning on breaking down the trade barrier that had existed until now. Of course, that would depend on the outcome with the Council, who had placed the stranglehold on information and goods in place to begin with. Not that they were likely to be an obstacle for much longer, given the way things were going.
“I can’t wait! Everyone will go crazy for these fabrics! And such style!” Alan was gushing. “I had no idea there was anything except that Hunter garb. I guess maybe because that’s all we really know about you guys is the stories about the Hunters. There’s so much more!”
The door opened and I turned to find Miljack sauntering in. “Hey,” he said, looking agitated. “The guesthouse said I’d probably find you here.”
I went on high alert.
“What’s happened?” Kelly asked, coming to the same conclusion I had about the urgency behind Miljack’s sudden appearance.
He tossed a meaningful look towards Kelly’s family members. “Not here,” he said.
“My family knows everything I do,” Kelly replied, “and I think they deserve to be kept in the loop seeing as how they’ve all been dragged into this mess.”
“Everything okay?” Richard asked.
“It might be best if your family returned to the guesthouse for now.”
“Are we prisoners?” Geoff asked, as the rest of our group caught up to us.
“Not at all,” Miljack replied, smiling. “Just some Hunter business.”
Geoff gave Kelly a look. “But he can hear it.”
“It’s to do with their case, so yes,” Miljack said, including Richard in his reply.
“Okay.” He glanced between Kelly and Richard. “I’ll go back with everyone while you two go do your thing. But if you need me, you don’t even have to ask.”
“Thanks, but I’m sure we’ll be fine.” Kelly clapped a hand onto his younger brother’s shoulder. “Just keep everyone from worrying, okay?”
“Yeah, yeah. I know.” Geoff rolled his eyes. “You’ve got all the big , bad Hunters and intergalactic high mucky mucks helping you. But we’re family, so don’t feel you gotta just protect us from whatever is going on. I remember the way back, you guys go do what you need to and I’ll make sure everyone gets back okay.” He glanced over his shoulder. “Come on, guys, these three have to get back to work.”
“But they are getting married tomorrow!” Pops protested. “I hate that they are spoiling this for you.”
I didn’t need to ask who they were, it was pretty clear to all that he meant Fishman and his fellow Councilmen.
Kelly kissed his father’s cheek. “I’ll see you soon, Pops.”
Kelly took my hand, twining his fingers with mine as we followed Miljack out the door, Richard hot on our heels. Richard and Kelly’s family spilled out the door behind us, calling out goodbyes and a couple, ‘see you laters’ as we went our separate ways.
“Where are we going?” Kelly asked.
“The morgue,” Miljack replied.
“This is about the evidence?” Richard looked puzzled. “Are they wanting us to help sift through it? Those were pretty big boxes from what I hear.”
“No. They want you to formally identify the bodies. They need to make sure the ones tagged as Lord Roe and his son Jeddah are really them. The other two are basically skeletons.”
“The two omegas we first found,” Kelly mused.
“Just bodies?” I queried.
Miljack nodded. “I think they meant to rattle us.”
I bared my fangs. “Instead, they delivered them to our lab techs, who can look for trace evidence to find the real killer.”
“You think they might find DNA even after so long and Roe’s being in the water?”
I squeezed Kelly’s hand in reassurance. “If there is anything to find, they will.”
“I sure hope so. Then we can maybe find out who killed all those folks and get the Council off our backs,” Richard said, his voice and eyes filled with undisguised hope.
Kelly snorted. “You really believe that? The only way these greedy fuckers are going to leave us alone is when we put the all of those guilty of crimes behind bars and those who’ve been shamelessly taking advantage of the rest of us get booted out of power.”
Richard looked crestfallen. “Yeah, I guess, but maybe they’ll turn out to be one and the same, hey?”
Miljack hummed in agreement. “They’re all definitely in the thick of things. They made a stupid mistake coming here and handing over the dead.”
“They’re arrogant and self-entitled,” Kelly declared. “No doubt they believed you’d take their word as one hundred percent reliable and fall for whatever explanation Fishman was going to give as to how they proved our guilt.”
It would be interesting to see how that was to be achieved. Had they planted something on the bodies? Was Fishman even now spinning carefully crafted lies as testimony while being questioned? The fool no doubt didn’t realize we could usually sense a lie, from the body’s own reactions to telling one. The Council as a whole also were unlikely to know just how advanced our forensic sciences were, something they’d have discovered long ago had they not been keeping themselves so insular. I grinned. They were about to find out. Giving us such a recently deceased victim was going to be their biggest error yet.
“What’s that smirk for?” Kelly asked me.
“If all goes well, we’ll get to hear a dead man talk,” I replied enigmatically.