"I know where Desh's is," Yindu gave me a grin and sauntered off.
I was ready to visit the second casino kitchen on my list that day when a cocktail waitress caught up with me. "We have someone who is demanding to see you. I think he is very upset with the food order he received. He is waiting in the back office—he wants to speak with someone right away."
"Come with me," I said, motioning for the waitress to come along. Part of her statement was true; I just couldn't sort out which part. She hadn't given me a name, either, so I hoped she'd be able to make introductions since she'd been the one to carry the message. The girl seemed worried that I'd ordered her to come along, but she came with me anyway.
Haral had moved the desk aside—he wanted plenty of room in case the girl struggled while he was taking what he wanted. The poison was nearby, too—he'd force her to drink it afterward. Haral was strong physically and he usually chose his targets so they wouldn't be able to fight him. He sat on the side of the desk—it wouldn't be long now. That's why he was so surprised when his throat was slashed nearly to the bone. There wasn't anyone else in the room—he saw nothing. He might have shouted if his throat hadn't been severed—the wounds that appeared on his body after that made him want to shriek before he died.
"He's just inside here," The waitress led me inside the office and then began to scream. I stopped short and stared in horror at the sight of the blood splattered everywhere. Haral's body—what was left of it, was on the floor. His head was nearly severed from the body, his sightless eyes staring up at me as if he were silently begging for help. I pulled out my communicator to contact security.
"We need some help in the back office," I said curtly and waited for them to come running. The chief of security and three others showed up quickly. The chief cursed under his breath when he saw the body. "Get Arvil," he ordered. One of his staff had Arvil on a communicator immediately. Arvil and Teeg both showed up only a few minutes later. I'd backed up against the cleanest wall inside the office, pulling the waitress with me. She was still whimpering and sliding down the wall, huddling there and rocking her body in shock.
"Reah, what happened?" Teeg asked the question—Arvil looked as if he were about to explode. This was his most powerful wizard, after all.
"This one," I pointed downward at the waitress, "came and got me after I finished with Kiasz and his staff this afternoon. Told me there was an upset customer inside this office. Said he was angry about the food he'd gotten at the restaurant. I asked her to come with me, since she didn't give the customer's name."
Arvil and Teeg were both staring at the waitress now. "What do you know about this?" Teeg had the woman up, gripping her arm in his hand.
"He paid me—told me to get her here," the waitress sobbed.
"Why? Did he say?" Teeg's voice was hard as he pressed the waitress against the wall.
"No. He just said to bring her. And when we got here, he was like this," she wept. She was pretty—with long dark hair, brown eyes and plenty of cosmetics. I imagined that she thought she wasn't pretty enough so she wore too much makeup.
"Have you done this before? Brought girls to him?" I stared at Teeg—I'd never seen this side of him before. He was relentless. As surprised as I was at Teeg's behavior, I was more surprised at the waitress' answer.
"Yes," she quavered. "Many times. He paid me."
"What did he do with them? The girls you brought?"
"I never saw them again." The woman sobbed. Arvil still looked like a thundercloud, but he was staring at the waitress, now.
"So anybody who learned what he did to those women could have been out for revenge. Pull the vids," Arvil ordered. "Now. Teeg, hire bodyguards for Reah. Delvin?" Delvin and Milus had arrived and were surveying the murder scene.
"Master Arvil?"
"Did you know anything about Haral? What he was doing?" All of us turned toward Delvin.
"No, Master Arvil. I never guessed." I knew right then, even if Arvil and the others didn't. Delvin was lying.
"It looks like a warlock's work. Or a powerful wizard's." Arvil ran the vid over and over again. It went blurry at the same point every time. When it cleared—Haral was lying on the floor and there was blood everywhere. "Look into the disappearances for the last full turn—see if any of the missing women had a wealthy family. Someone who might have been able to afford this," Arvil ordered.
I watched Arvil as he fretted. Something had slipped past him and he didn't like it. It had been right under his nose, too. Not only had women been disappearing, but his pet wizard had been responsible. The waitress had been handed to the constabulary—at Arvil's insistence. She'd be charged on Campiaa. Perhaps sentenced to lengthy jail time—if Arvil didn't order her death. It wouldn't surprise me if he chose to do so.
Haral had been waiting to do the same with me as he'd done with countless other women—abduction and poisoning. The chief of security had found the vial of poison, handing it to Arvil after it was analyzed. Arvil pocketed it. Delvin had remained silent while all this was happening. Milus hadn't said a word. Teeg ordered a security team and a special housekeeping detail to get rid of the body and clean up the mess.
"I'm going to contact Wilffin—I think I need his warlocks," Arvil muttered after a while. "Reah, Teeg, have you had anything to eat? Come with me."
I didn't want to eat and picked at my food. Arvil and Teeg managed to eat. Delvin and Milus also ate a meal in Kiasz's restaurant, but I hadn't failed to notice the brief look of dismay on Delvin's face when Arvil mention Wilffin's name.
"Reah, sweetheart, I'll hire security for you tomorrow. Until then, I don't want you going anywhere without me, all right?" Teeg pulled me against him the moment we shut the door of our bedroom.
"Teeg, I'm just shaken up," I said. Teeg wasn't satisfied with that. "Come on, let's use that spa tub in our bath," he coaxed. I wanted to tell Teeg that Delvin had been lying to Arvil earlier while I leaned against his wide chest in our tub. How could I tell him that? How could I explain that I knew when people were lying? There wasn't any good explanation for it. It was just something that was.
I worried, too, over Teeg's interrogation of the waitress—it looked as if he'd done that sort of thing before. He'd known what questions to ask. It made me want to ask him about his background. Why he'd come to Campiaa—what he'd done before. I didn't. That might open up questions about my life—questions not covered by the information on Arvil's comp-vid. I didn't want to lie to Teeg. I loved him. That's what I ended up saying instead.