Fraudulent Death, Draft 01, CH 34 (Patreon)

Marlot impatiently waited for the driver to print and hand him the receipt, then ran for the office door. Inside, Hela’han and the rust colors wolf were talking, Jareth indicating something on her pad.

“Mister Blackclaw,” the elephant greeted him, “This is Jareth Mixcoat.”

Jareth took a package wrapped in butcher paper off Hela’han’s desk and handed it to him. For a moment he thought she’d brought him meat, but the package was too heavy for the size, the edges too sharp.

“I think that’s what you were looking for,” she said.

“You found it,” Marlot stated the obvious, and Hela’han held her trunk as she smiled.

“No, we haven’t found whatever mom received. This was waiting for me at home when I went by for a change of clothing and to grab food out of my cooler.”

“This is a second package?” Had Hardir known the people using him would try to go to length to retrieve it? Had he suspected they’d be willing to kill? He had to. They had the fund to pay anyone’s tax, Marlot suspected.

“Look,” Jareth said, “I don’t know what this is about, and I don’t care,” she added as Marlot opened his mouth to explain. “With mom gone, I need to look after my family. I can work out that whatever mom got is responsible for getting her eaten, so I’d really like it if you kept me out of this. Brath is a good guy, but he isn’t responsible enough to look after the others. They need me. They can’t afford to lose me, do you understand?”

Marlot nodded, trying to think of something he could do to help ensure her safety. He could tell Bahamel, or maybe Vlein would have people he could assign. Or maybe the best thing to do was not draw attention to her at all?

“Who knows you got the package?”

“I didn’t tell anyone. I found it between the doors and came right here. The postal service knows about it.”

“But they’re no reason they’d know the significance.” Mirden could have been under surveillance due to being Hardir’s mate. There had been no indication he’d sent out two packages from the store, not that Marlot had thought to ask.

Was his pad being listened to? It was easy enough to do, but why would anyone, especially that criminal organization do that? It wasn’t until after Mirden’s death he began looking into what they were doing.

He was over complicating things. There was a direct line between Hardir and Mirden. She might have had the package when she died, probably at their claws, so they would think they’d covered their scent.

“I don’t think you have anything to worry about,” he told the rust-colored wolf. “But keep your nose to the wind, just in case. If you can do it in a way that won’t raise suspicion, try to remain among larger groups.”

“You want me to act like prey?” as asked, offended.

“It’s a suggestion,” he replied, raising a hand to forestall other comments. “I’m sorry I made it sound like an order. But you have a family to think about. I think your pride can afford to stand upwind for a few days.”

Her eyes narrowed, but before she could say anything Hela’han took her hand.

“Why don’t we talk about if there’s anything less extreme you can do to stay safe?” she smiled at Jareth. “I happen to have some experience acting like prey, so I’m sure we can come up with something.”

Marlot thanked his receptionist with a smile of his own and a canted ear, then retreated to his office. Definitely something Trembor would have handled better.

He placed the package on the desk and opened it.

Papers.

Yet more papers. He didn’t think he’d ever seen as many papers as he had in these last few days. Looking quickly through them in an attempt to figure out what it was Hardir had sent and why, he looked through lists of names with numbers that might be IDs, or possibly banking accounts, or other things entirely. A handful of pages were businesses, with more numbers, too long for ID or accounts. Some internal accounting system. Here and there pictures were included. Clearly taken furtively by someone who wasn’t an expert. In some, he couldn’t tell who was the target of the picture in the group since all the people were fuzzy, the blank wall behind them the thing in focus. No names were attached to the pictures to make their significance easier to grasp.

Looking them over, all he could tell was that it wouldn’t be easy to figure out why Hardir had wanted this to be in his mate and his daughter’s hands. It couldn’t be as insurance, since the one his mate received had been sent (need to establish if it was sent before or after his death). He could track down this package’s provenance since he had the tracking information stamped on it.

He called Trembor. “Hey Trem, are you okay if I don’t come over tonight? I just got a stack of information I need to untangle.”

“Were you supposed to come over?” the lion answered, sounding tired.

Marlot frowned. “Didn’t I? I forgot to call you to ask, didn’t I? Sorry, it’s been busy.”

“It’s okay, it’s been busy for me too.”

“How are you doing?”

“I’m alive, and it’s looking like the lawsuit will be dropped.”

“You don’t sound as happy about that as I’d expect.”

Trembor was quiet for a few seconds. “Just exhaustion, I guess.”

Marlot looked at the papers. “Alright, I’m coming over.”

“No, don’t.” Trembor sighed. “I’m good. I promise, I just need sleep and for things to get back to normal. Finish your case and hopefully, in a few days I’ll be back in the office.”

Marlot looked at the empty desk and smiled. “I can’t wait.”

“Me neither.”

“Okay, I’ll let you go, but if you need anything, call me. I mean it. This isn’t more important than you.”

“I will; now go back to work. I love you.”

“I love you too.” Marlot’s lips hurt from smiling so hard.

He called Bahamel, and left a message telling her he might have more information soon about the organization behind the fraud, then set to work putting everything before him in some sort of order.