FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

I made a right as soon as I got out of the precinct and headed for the sidewalk. Something was wrong with me. I'd never put other people in danger like this. My job, my life, was about protecting others. I could explain my behavior with Flint, I'd been tired. But Not with Mike.

Was it the stress? Loosing my job? The briefcase? Was becoming part of the society changing me? That thought scared me most. They were different, and some of them were assholes, but on the whole they were decent people. We couldn't be the monsters Alice thought we were.

I was forced out of my thoughts by a loud and long honking. Looking around I saw a polecat standing behind the driver side door. The honking stopped as she straightened.

"You Brislow?" she called. "I was told to give a cheetah named Brislow a ride."

"Who are you?" The car looked normal enough, a GF Thunder.

But I didn't recognize her.

"Mary-Beth, I'm with Share-Ride. Are you Brislow?"

"I am, but who told you to pick me up?" I ran through the people who knew I was here, which was no one. Unless it was someone at the precinct? It wasn't usual procedures for them to call a ride. They'd drive me home themselves if that's what they wanted to do. Yeah, I could just see Alice having to drive me around.

She took out her phone. "It doesn't say. Just to be here now, and pick you up."

I didn't have to go with her. It wouldn't affect me since I wasn't the one who had called them. The caller would have a note put on their account, and their next call would be set as a lower priority. On the other hand, if I took the bus I'd have to deal with the people on it. I wasn't sure I trusted myself not to endanger them. I could call a ride service myself, but why spend my money if someone else had already volunteered?

"So you take me where I want to go, and the account to put in the request gets billed, right?" didn't hurt to make sure.

"That's how it works."

I gave her the intersection where I'd parked my car, wondering if Max had somehow found out about my arrest and arranged it, or maybe Raphael? He struck me as the type to keep an eye on everyone around him.

Shit, Raphael. I had to tell him about the dead guy being one of us.

"Can you raise the privacy shield? I have to make a call."

She nodded and the clear partition went up between the front and back.

The call was answered on the second ring. "Raphael, we have a problem."

"What is it?"

"The police found who killed Winthrop. It was Meshek Saracen, and he'd dead."

"Saracen? You don't mean just a random Saracen, do you?"

"No, he's Society."

The rat cursed. "And he's dead?"

"Yes, His throat was sliced. I don't know by whom."

"How did the police find out? How did you find out about them knowing? Do you still have contacts with the department?"

Did I? Maybe, but I wasn't going to tell him that. "I told them about the body."

"You what? You called them instead of me?"

"I didn't call them." It hadn't even occurred to me to call Raphael, murders were police business. "They showed up as I was leaving the house. One of the neighbors must have reported it."

He sighed. "All right, I guess you're calling me to tell me to keep my hands off the investigation?"

I thought about it. Hadn't I just said murder was police business? But what were the ramifications here? Unlike Winthrop, Saracen was Society. Would Alice be able to figure that out? And if she did, what then?

"No. You do what you need to do. I can't work out the consequences of the church finding out the murderer was Society.

Or how much we can afford to have the police know about us." "Nothing, that's what. Where is Saracen?"

I checked the time. "The coroner probably has him by now."

I heard him bark muffled orders. "Okay, I have people heading there. Now, how come this is the first I'm hearing about this. How come you didn't contact me the moment you found out about Saracen?"

"Because this is my investigation. I am capable of going my

job without help. I'm calling you now because I know you need to keep our existence secret, not to have you take over."

His sigh was of exasperation this time. "Damn it, Denton, you are not a police officer anymore. You are one of us. You have to think about our safety first."

"Hey, I couldn't know someone was going to kill him. I'm sorry about that, but you can't lay that on my head. It wouldn't have changed anything if you'd known."

"You can't know that. If you'd told me I would have called his elder. He would have gotten Meshek to turn himself over to me. There wouldn't have been a need to chase him."

"That's true only if he cooperated."

"Why wouldn't he?"

"He killed a man. That speaks of desperation. If he's after some secret the Stenton unearth, he might not be interested in playing nice. Also, what's to say he didn't do this because his elder ordered him? How would you have gotten cooperation then?"

"That's irrelevant now, isn't it?" He was quiet for a moment. "Denton, look, you have to stop thinking of yourself as one of them. You're part of the Society. You follow a God that's real, not some made up one. You have a res[onsibility to see that our interests are protected."

"At the expenses od everyone else?"

"It doesn't have to be, but we need to come first."

"Sounds like some elitist crap to me."

"We are the elite. We have a direct connection with our

God, not many can say that."

"Any of the other factions can."

"That's still not a lot of people."

I was the one who sighed this time. "Look, I need to make something clear. I was a cop. Now I'm a PI. My life is about helping others."

"I'm not saying you need to stop. You just have to prioritize."

Right, I had a good idea where that would lead. Us versus Them, I hadn't liked history class in school, but I'd learned about how some of the wars began. I definitely didn't want to play a part in that. I decided to get back to the subject.

"I don't know what you're going to do with Saracen's body, or what you're going to leave the coroner, but I need you to make sure they can't link him to the Hamilton Clothing Company."

"Why would they do that?"

He's wearing one of their suits.

"Why do you care?"

"Because if they do, they are going to find out about the store he went to downtown for help, and they clerk there is going to remember me. But he didn't actually give me any answers, I... had Max with me, he read his mind. He's also going to tell them about Max. If the church finds out he's also involved, they are going to pay serious attention to this. "Don't worry. The police isn't going to have anything to go on by the time I'm done."

"Thanks," I said reluctantly.

"Don't worry about it, Denton, it's the least I can do to help you."

Disgusted, I disconnected.

* * * * *

Tom was leaning against the wall, next to my office door as

I drove past. The son of a bitch smiled and waved to me. At least this confirmed he'd gotten out, but what was he doing here? Did I even want to deal with him? I still didn't know that when I stopped my car on the second floor of the parking, the first spot I'd found.

I sat there letting the silence soak in. He was a killer, being around him was only going to bring me trouble. But he'd make life interesting... as if my life wasn't interesting enough already. Maybe he'd be gone by the time I reached my office. He wasn't.

"Why?" was all I asked. I didn't have the energy to say more.

"I wanted to continue our conversation. Great lock by the way."

I shrugged as I opened the door. "How did you get out of the house? The bedroom window?" The chime should have been relaxing, but all it did was remind me I needed to install the new one.

"No, bathroom, as as I got in."

"How long were you waiting?" I asked, taking the steps. "And why just stand there? For all you knew They were going to throw me in jail."

"Ten minutes. I heading here as soon as I knew they'd released you."

I frowned. "Were you watching the precinct?"

"I didn't have to. I have a contact there."

I spun and glared at him. "Who?"

"His smile was infuriating. "That doesn't matter. Just someone in uniform who has a knack for hearing things."

"Great, there's a mole in the department," I huffed and head for my desk.

"One? Hell, every crime family had someone in there, not to say every gang in the city. Sometime I think the whole police is filled with cops on the take who act straight because they don't know every other one is also crooked."

"I wasn't on the take!"

He raised his hand. "Hey, I believe you."

I narrowed my eyes. "Why?"

"I just saw the piece of crap you drive. It's the care you dad gave you when you turned eighteen, isn't it?"

"What if it is?"

"The mob pays their informant well. If you'd been one you wouldn't be driving that anymore."

"Fuck you. General Ford makes cars that last."

"Doesn't mean you have to keep it all that time. You should have upgraded a couple of times, at least."

"On a cop's salary? I had better things to do with my money, and dad would have killed me is I got rid of it while it still worked. Without it I'd have to take transit everywhere, and I don't--" surprise hit me "-- You arranged for the ride, didn't you?"

The badger's smile grew wider. "Hey, will you look at that.You haven't lost your investigative skills?"

I flipped him the bird. "If you want to talk cars so badly, what does a mob hitman drive these days?"

"Last year's model of Alliance's Precision."

"You drive a family car? What happened to your Arrow?" The advertising for the Precision was all about dependability, the right car for a hard working family.

Tom shrugged. "I got older. Sport cars aren't really my thing anymore."

"Tom Marrows slowing down. Who'd have guessed that was ever going to happen? Then again, I never guessed you were a killer, shows what I know."

"And I never guessed you were rich."

I froze. The number of people outside the Society who know about that could be counted on one hand."

"Oh, don't act so surprise. Even if all I was was an insurance salesman, I'd have figured it out. You talked about living on a cops' salary, but do you have any idea how much the rent on this place is? Being a PI doesn't pay all that well, so it was odd you lived here."

Fuck, had I made a mistake in moving here? Did the church realize the kind of money I had?

"You couldn't even afford the small space where that bakery is. I did some digging, made use of my connections and found out you owned the building outright. That takes even more money, which you didn't have, and your dad couldn't provide, so it had to be form your birth parents."

"Of course you know about that too."

"I knew about it within a week of us fucking for the first time. I liked you, so I wanted to know more. You never brought them up, so I didn't either."

I sighed and rested my ass on the lip of the desk. "All right. Look I'm tired. Why are you here, straight story."

He grinned at me. "You know I don't do anything straight."

"Damn it Marrows."

"Fine, but first tell me this. How can you be tired? I remember you being able to function on barely a few hours of sleep. And I know you've had full nights of sleep recently, except for that orgy the other day."

So he'd been following me for a while, how hadn't I

noticed? "I'm not physically tired. I'm wrung out. I was dragged through the precinct like I was a criminal. My old partner made sure everyone I'd worked with saw me as a criminal. Those were people who use to respect me. When they were done questioning me, my captain came to as me, *ME* for an explanation of how *I* let things come to this, when the bastard didn't even lift a finger to help me. So fucking forgive me if I'm not my best right now."

He wrapped his arms around me and hugged me.

This was new. He'd never been a hugger before. He was the grab me by the hand and drag me to the park so we can fuck behind those bushes and hope we don't get arrested for indecent exposure.

I hugged him back. We were silent for a few seconds.

"Have you broken in your desk yet?" he asked. That's was more like him.

"Of course I have."

"Really? When?"

"Third week of business. One of my first client, within days of setting up shop, had me follow his husband to find out if he was cheating on him. He was, and I got a recording of him banging the woman two houses up from theirs. He showed up a few weeks later wanting to celebrate his divorce with me."

"That's okay. I don't mind being second, or third, or however which it is at this point."

"Damn it, Tom, I don't--"

"I brought a bribe." He stepped away and produce a piece of paper.

"That's.... Where did you find it?"

"I took it form you at the house."

"How? I was holding it?"

He gave me his infuriating smile again. "I had you nicely distracted, and the nthe cops showed up and we split." He offered it to me, and I snatched it ou of his hand.

"We're not having sex, you stole this from me."

"The bribe isn't that I'm giving it back. It's what I've added to it."

I unfolded it. Under the number four streets had been added. I recognized to of them as being in the Virginia Village.

"There was a time, when I was a kid, where all I'd have to do was look at eh first six digits and I could have told you in which neighborhood the phone was. But now I had to get someone to slice the provide to get me this. And all she got me was a zone based on the nearest transmission towers. Turns out only the cops can activate a phone's GPS."

"Only with a court order," I said, trying to remember the area. I hadn't been there often, but I thought it had a busy commercial district and middle income family housing."

I squeaked when Tom groped me. The number and what it meant became the last thing on my mind.

"So, he said. "Is this bribe enough for me to get fucked on your desk?"

I grinned at him. "After you've been gone for ten years?

Not even close. All it's getting you is a pounding on my bed." That was good enough for him,.