59

  Conway whistled through his teeth and sat back, placing his hands behind his head as he stared hard at Nairo and Ridley.

  “That there is some tale,” he said half impressed and half in disbelief. “A long dead Owner returns from the grave and becomes a hired serial killer for his cousin, who also happens to be an Owner. But this… Shumacker was his name? He has a proclivity for getting young starlets pregnant and then murdering them. Oh… and for some unknown reason, they might have also murdered somewhere in the neighbourhood of a hundred junkies all across Valderia, giving me more pain in my arse than I've had in decades. That about the sum of it?”

  “The long and short,” Ridley replied, his arms folded across his chest.

  “We don't know if they caused the Bad Batch pandemic of overdoses,” Nairo said quickly. “But we are fairly certain that they were using it as a cover for their own killings.”

  “Forgive me.” Conway said sarcastically. “And all the evidence you have is mouth rot and the blithering of a sick old man?”

  Nairo opened her mouth, but Conway raised his hand and cut her off.

  “Other than coincidence and speculation? Come on Sally, you used to be a copper, a damned good copper! You know all you've got is circumstantial evidence.”

  “All of those junkies and all those dead ex-girlfriends all had the same mouth rot caused by the same drug,” Ridley said emphatically. “Same murder weapon, same M.O. That’s not nothing.”

  “No, what you have is a bunch of junkies and long-dead women with mouth rot. You don't know what caused that mouth rot,” Conway said calmly. “You're asking us to drag up at least half a dozen accidental or natural cause deaths and turn them into murders. And you’re trying to pin it all on an Owner! I mean, seriously, did you just wake up this morning and feel like taking a squat all over my desk? Because that’s what’s going to happen if you try to prosecute an Owner! We’ll all be buried in shit!”

  Conway sighed and sat back, rubbing his eyes. It had been a long couple of days. Ever since the overdoses had started again, the whole department and the rest of the police force were in disarray. The Captain was furious and looking for a neck to fill the noose that awaited him. He had tried to get Conway's neck to fit it, but fortunately for Conway he was just too unimportant to be the only one to go down for this. It was too high-profile and ultimately the Captain knew that the first question if Conway took the fall would be why was once a disgraced Lieutenant reinstated and put in charge of such a high-profile case. That line of questioning, of course, led back to the Captain. It was he, after having his arm twisted by Nairo, who reinstated Conway and put him in charge of the once unimportant Drug Enforcement Squad. That bit of political manoeuvring had stopped the Captain long enough for Conway to get enough breathing room to try and put an end to this new wave of overdoses. However, as far as Conway’s street connections, as far as the police, as far as any damn person knew, there wasn't a single ounce of Burn in Valderia. That was when he was summoned to a mysterious meeting with the former Sergeant Nairo in the ace pain in the ass PI Ridley. He wished he had been stuck in the noose now.

  “And how exactly have you two dragged Edgewater and Washbottom into this?” Conway said.

  “That was all them,” Ridley said quickly.

  “Sounds like they've been having quite an adventure of their own,” Nairo said. “What’s this about butchered Triads and Corporal Nelson getting cut to pieces?” Nairo said pointedly to him.

  Conway rumbled into his beard.

  “That was a bad bit of business,” Conway said, his mouth a grim slash. “Bloody Cap'n rushed us into an operation we didn’t know enough about. Nelson went through the door first, and for some reason, Edgewater and Washbottom were with him. They stumbled on a whole bloody massacre and almost got themselves killed.

  “The Golden Bowl abattoir,” Ridley said, echoing that morning's newspaper. “Fourteen bodies all hacked to pieces. That must be a record for a police department,” Ridley said dryly.

  “As far as we could tell, there was fourteen,” Conway replied. “Some of them had been so dismembered we had to figure out which bits went with which.”

  Conway stared at the table in silence for a few moments.

  “How the wonder boys got involved in our case, we ain’t sure,” Ridley said after silence grew uncomfortable.

  “But it seems like this man in black they went chasing after is Herbert Hess,” Nairo continued. “He’s involved with Frederick Shumacker, and together they might have been committing these murders as far back as a decade, perhaps longer. Maybe ever since Hess faked his death. Even a minor Owner like Shumacker could easily make someone disappear and reappear with a new identity.”

  “And it would mean Hess would be beholden to Shumacker,” Ridley added. “So when Shumacker needed some dirty work done, who better than a natural born psychopath that owes you one?”

  “If Hess is alive,” Conway said. “The evidence of which is… you heard him whistling?”

  “Washbottom heard him,” Ridley said. “But there’s also Quinn’s clues and…”

  Conway held up his hand again.

  “Enough! This convoluted wild goose chase of yours is making my arse ache.”

  Conway ran his hand through his hair and took a deep breath. He was exhausted. He couldn’t even remember the last time he had eaten a decent meal, seen his own bed, or even washed properly. He had been living in and out of the office so long now chasing this case that he even started to believe that these two were making sense.

  “So what I don’t understand,” Conway said. "Is why you've dragged me down here?

  “Don’t worry, we don't need the help of the police,” Ridley said. “We’re actually trying to solve this case.”

  “Quiet Ridley!” Nairo snapped at him before turning to Conway. “To be honest with you, Lieutenant, we need your advice. We know you were working vice back when Hess was alive, and we thought that you might have had some knowledge of him that could help us.”

  "Of course I did. Hubert Hess was a monster, but he was a low-level thug who took pleasure in being a low-level thug,” Conway said. “I wasn't working prostitution, so I only knew the man by reputation. I couldn't pick him out of a lineup if that's what you're hoping for.”

  “Well, it would have been helpful,” Ridley murmured.

  “Even a general idea of how we could track him down would be useful,” Nairo said.

  Conway shrugged and scratched his beard.

  “I mean damn Sally, I don’t know anything about the man, and until ten minutes ago I thought he was a corpse. Have you tried this Shumacker's estate?”

  “Why didn’t we think of that? Ridley said sarcastically.

  “I can just go if you like, kid?” Conway said tersely.

  Ridley held up his hands.

  “I'm sorry this case is really starting to get to me,” Ridley said, motioning for Conway to stay in his seat.

  “Yeah I can relate,” Conway said. “You got anything to drink?”

  “Good idea,” Ridley said.

  He reached into his desk and pulled out the brown bottle he kept there. As usual, there were no clean cups, so he simply popped the top of the bottle, took a sip, and then slid it across to Conway, who nodded his head appreciatively and took a long drink. They passed the bottle back and forth a couple of times.

  “So you've got no idea where this fellow Shumacker could be?” Conway asked.

  Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.

  “None,” Nairo responded miserably. “None of his employees have seen him. He hasn't made an appearance at any of his favourite social clubs. His wife hasn’t changed her behaviour in any way; she still seems to be living her normal life. As far as the world is concerned, Frederick Shumacker has just vanished.”

  “Someone with that high of a profile doesn't just disappear," Conway said. “And to do a runner without his wife and child? That’s not usually how these things go. Man with the resources that Shumacker has takes the whole family with him. You only go on the lam by yourself because you have no other choice. You don't leave your wife and child behind.”

  “Perhaps he has no intention of coming back. Make a clean break and all that,” Ridley said.

  “No, I don’t think so,” Conway said. “These Owners are tied to Valderia. They don’t have nearly as much influence or power anywhere else in the Forest. All of their power and gold is here. They can’t just go to one of the other Free Cities and set up shop, especially without anyone knowing. I mean, when one of these rich sorts buys a new pair of shoes, it makes the rag sheets. If one of them up and done and runner, leaving behind his wife and child, and reappeared in another city, that would be all over the papers. Besides, he’s an Owner. These people are used to living in luxury with servants at their beck and call every minute of the day. I can't see him going on the run without any of his luxuries. If I had to be honest with you, I think he’d have just killed a pair of you before he had to do that.”

  “You reckon?” Ridley said.

  “Of course,” Conway replied, passing the bottle back to Ridley. “You said it yourself, he's killed dozens, maybe hundreds at this point, and he's not even doing it himself, he's sending someone to commit the murders. Why not just get rid of you two the way they got rid of your friend Quinn? Make the whole thing just disappear?”

  “And he knows where we are. He’s broken in here before.” Ridley replied.

  “He has?”

  “Yes,” Nairo said. “We believe Hubert Hess broke into our office and stole all of our casework from this investigation. We spooked him, and he bolted out of the window with all of our files. And then we interrupted his latest murder of the ex-girlfriends, and he stabbed Ridley.”

  Conway looked Ridley up and down.

  “You lived, I presume?”

  Ridley smirked at him and lit a smoke.

  “Takes more than that to kill me,” Ridley said, cavalierly throwing his feet up on the desk.

  “Unfortunately,” Nairo muttered.

  “By the sounds of it, you've got no chance of finding Hess if I'm honest," Conway said, bringing the conversation back on track. “If he's managed to evade any formal detection until now, chances are he’s got a very good hiding place and he's got a very good cover. And as for Shumacker, well he could go on an extended holiday for months and never need to return to Valderia. Even if he does, I don't rate your chances of actually putting him on trial, let alone a pair of manacles, without much stronger evidence than what you've got now.”

  “So he just gets away with it?” Nairo asked.

  “I didn’t say that,” Conway said. “You need Hess, and you need Hess to flip on Shumacker. That is the only way you could ever get anything to stick to him. If you get the man who's committed the murders to finger Schumacher as the mastermind behind it, then you might have a chance.”

  “But we can't find Hess, let alone get him to flip on Schumacher!” Ridley growled.

  Conway scratched the tip of his nose thoughtfully.

  “You said Hess came to your office and took the case files?”

  “Yes,” Nairo replied.

  “And you believe he killed this Cecilia girl because she was going to talk to you and he was worried about what she could tell?”

  “Yes," Ridley said.

  “Then by the sounds of it, they’re on the cover up," Conway said. “A man of Shumacker’s stature doesn’t like having dirt on his name, and if Hess is alive, I’m guessing that’s a fact he would rather not come out to the public. Could be that if either Hess or Shumacker thought you had good enough evidence that you could go public with it... ”

  “Then they would try to kill us,” Nairo said, understanding Conway’s train of thought.

  “You want us to set up a trap," Ridley said.

  “You’ll never find Hess in Valderia, and we don't even know if he's even in the city," Conway said. “But if word gets around that you have evidence and you’re going to go public with it, then he'll come and find you.”

  “It’s a good idea, but how do we get it out there so Hess would see?” Nairo asked. “Do we take an ad out in the newspaper? And besides, then it's not controlled. Me a Ridley could spend the next week, the next month, maybe the next year, looking over our shoulders, waiting for Hubert Hess and his poisonous needle to jab us in the back one day when walking down the street."

  “We need a time limit,” Ridley said, nodding along. “We need an event or something where we're going to present our evidence to the people.”

  Conway nodded along, gulping down another mouthful of brown liquor.

  “And it needs to be soon,” he said. “Don't give them time to set up a plan, and don't give them time to think it through. It needs to be something that will force them to panic and rush. You catch smart criminals when you can make them act sloppy.”

  “Hess and Schumacher are smart,” Nairo said. “They’ve avoided bringing any attention to these murders for years now. No one even knew they were murders, let alone who did it. They’re too smart to fall for a trick. The evidence has to be so good they know it could put them away. But we don't have anything like that…”

  “An eyewitness,” Conway said casually. “We used to do it all the time to these mopes in the back alleys. You tell them that we got an eyeball witness that saw them do it, and they start singing their little hearts out, ratting on each other as quickly as they can. They fall for it every single time.”

  “That’s gonna be hard,” Ridley said. “They’ve killed anybody who could have been an eyewitness to any of these murders. All of the ex-girlfriends are dead and anybody who even had any suspicion has been killed…”

  “No, they haven't!” Nairo said suddenly, sitting bolt upright. “Gerald is still alive!”

  “He's still in the hospital," Ridley said. “I don't think we could use him as an eyewitness anytime soon.”

  “Who's Gerald?” Conway asked.

  “He's a hairdresser in the theatre. He was poisoned at the same time that Eliza and Manny were killed. However, he survived and has been in a coma ever since, but he would have seen the killer!”

  “What makes you say that?” Ridley asked. “They could have had their drinks poisoned, or the food, or anything. There’s no saying that Hess was there himself.”

  “Of course he was,” Nairo said to Ridley. “Honestly, Ridley, you really need to start taking notes coming out of his crime scenes. First of all, the door was locked, remember?”

  “It was,” Ridley conceded.

  “Why would a group of people in an empty theatre lock the door behind them?” Nairo asked. “That means that the killer locked the door. Also remember we found Gerald behind the sofa, and in his hand was a scrap of black fabric. I think he fought with Hess. That's how he ended up behind the sofa, that's how we ended up with the scrap of cloth in his hand, and that's why he wasn't killed because he didn't receive a full dose because he fought Hess off. Hess must have panicked and saw the poison taking effect and fled the room. He probably locked the door so Gerald couldn't crawl out!”

  “It's feasible,” Ridley admitted. “So you're saying if we spread the rumour that Gerald has woken up and he's ready to finger the killer, then Hess will come back to finish him off?”

  “Exactly,” Nairo said.

  “Real cold of you, Sergeant,” Conway said abruptly.

  Nairo turned to him in surprise.

  “Why do you say that?”

  “You're making a defenceless man in a coma the target for a vicious, calculated serial killer that can kill without leaving a mark on his victim.”

  “I didn't think of it like that," Nairo admitted, deflating.

  It's a good idea,” Conway said to her. “But you need more than just a man in a coma waking up, right? You need an announcement. You need something where you can draw him out into a public place, somewhere where he can't hide in the shadows, and ultimately something that he will believe.”

  “I know the perfect place,” Ridley said, grinning like a wolf. He threw his feet off the desk and then pushed a now crumpled newspaper towards Nairo and Conway, tapping on the front page. “You want something believable, you want something that he's gonna see? We make the announcement that Gerald is alive and going to tell the story of Manny's death at Manny’s wake!”

  Nairo and Conway looked at the paper that Ridley was tapping; it was the announcement of Manny Literragi’s memorial show the day of his funeral. It was to be as big as Lana LaRue’s memorial show, with all the names and faces of Valderia and the free cities appearing to pay respect to the deceased director. Nairo looked up at Ridley with a grin on her face.

  “A tell all exposé from the sole survivor of a double overdose at one of the victim’s Memorial shows on stage in front of all of the most powerful and wealthy people in the five free cities,” Ridley said with a grin on his face. “We put this in the papers, and I promise you Hubert Hess and Frederick Shumacker will not only believe it, but they’ll shit out their hearts.”

  Conway smirked at him.

  “That is a criminally genius idea,” he said. “And we catch the bastard in the act of trying to kill fake Gerald and then get him to flip Shumacker.”

  “If anybody can lead us to Frederick Shumacker, it’s Hubert Hess and if there's anybody in this world that Hubert Hess will come out of hiding to murder, it will be Gerald. This could actually work.” Nairo said.

  “Don't sound so surprised, I am the number one Private Investigator in all of Valderia," Ridley said, blowing smoke out of his nostrils.

  “I don’t know if that's something worth bragging about," Conway said. “But I can help you out unofficially. I can put the word in with a couple of the murder boys, and maybe we can get some officers in plain clothes down there to scoop up Hess when he makes an appearance and get him straight down to the precinct. Once he realises he's facing the death penalty multiple times over, we’ll get him to flip on Shumacker, and then we go pick up Shumacker and put an end to this nonsense.”

  Nairo looked at Ridley and saw the downturned frown on his mouth. She didn't want to tell Conway, and perhaps she didn't want to admit it to herself that she was sure all of Ridley's threats of killing Hubert Hess were not just bluster and were not just anger. Ridley planned to make sure Hubert Hess never saw the inside of a cell, let alone the inside of a courtroom.

  Ridley planned to kill Hubert Hess, and Nairo wasn't sure she wanted to stop him.