Side Story #1 - Colt - Page 7

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'Good,' said Bohwanox. 'I'm glad we agree. Then I guess, um... I guess we should, er...'

Colt's expression flattened. 'Never run an investigation before, have you?'

'That obvious, huh?'

'Yeah.'

'Dammit. I feel like I should be a lot better at this. I've been haunting the cops in Lagoroc for months now. They make it look so easy.'

'Watching someone do something and actually doing it yourself are not the same thing.'

'Yeah, yeah. How should we proceed then, Mr. Ex-Cop?'

'WE shouldn't,' said Colt. 'YOU should keep talking to the dead guy. Get as much information out of him as possible. Just because he can't remember his death doesn't mean he has nothing useful to tell us.'

'Right.'

'Ask him why someone would want him dead. And ask him details on everything that happened to him yesterday. Oh, and while you're at it, turn on some of that reaperly mystery and intimidation, if you can. Try to get him to tell you all of his darkest secrets.'

'Colt, the man has just died. I'm not going to try to bully information out of him.'

'Whatever. I don't care how you do it. Just get him to tell you everything he can. Even the smallest details could be important. And you've only got him for another fifteen hours.'

'Okay. What are you going to do?'

'Me? I'm gonna go back to sleep.'

'Are you serious?'

'I'll go check out the crime scene once the coast is clear. Let me know when it is.'

'Hmm. Is that all you plan on doing?'

'No. But it's the middle of the night. And I have information about a man's death that no one else in town does, right now. If I go around and start asking questions about him too soon, that's not gonna look good for me.'

'Fair point. And you're new to town, which probably seems especially suspicious for these humble Orden folk.'

'Yeah. I expect those cops will be looking to question me, sooner or later.'

'And you don't have much of an alibi, do you?'

'Well, I have two kids and no living person who can look after them for me. That's somewhat of an alibi.'

'You also live in the woods. Y'know, like a criminal in hiding.'

'I'm aware.'

'I hope you've got a strategy to help keep yourself out of jail.'

Colt eyed the sleeping twins a moment as he thought. 'You've been following those Lagoroc cops for a while, haven't you?'

'Yeah.'

'What can you tell me about them? They any good? Or are they dirty?'

'Mm, tough question. They seem pretty by-the-book for the most part, but... there WAS an incident about a month ago where a duffel bag of drug money mysteriously went missing.'

Colt's natural frown deepened. 'Any idea who was behind it?'

'I didn't look that deeply into the situation. I was there to find souls to reap, not uncover corruption.'

Not what he'd wanted to hear. 'Well, just stay on the scene. Do you think you can memorize every piece of evidence they gather?'

'Yeah, no problem.'

Heh.

This investigation might prove difficult to conduct without access to all of the resources that he'd been able to enjoy as a police officer, but Colt had to admit, having a grim reaper on his side was looking like a pretty damn good way to make up for it.

'Try to watch the cops' behavior, too,' Colt added. 'If you think any of them are acting suspiciously, let me know.'

'Will do. Anything else?'

'That's it for now.'

'Alright.'

Colt leaned forward in his chair and put his hands together, deliberating over what he should do next. If these capital cops couldn't be trusted, then maybe it was a bad idea to waste time sleeping, right now. If worse came to worst, he might end up having to hunt the killer down just to avoid having the murder pinned on him by a bunch of lazy bastards who were either too corrupt or too incompetent to do their jobs properly.

Even back in Atreya, he had never had much trust in his peers. Hell, why would he? Despite all his intentions when he'd joined the police force, he'd ultimately ended up a corrupt cop himself.

'I've changed my mind,' he said. 'I'm not going back to sleep.'

'Hmm? Then what are you doing?'

'I'm going to start eliminating suspects.'

There arrived another pause from Bohwanox. 'Now, when you say "eliminate"...'

'I mean "rule out," you son of a bitch.'

'Just checking.'

He already had an idea of who he wanted to start with. The sooner he was able to rule her out, the sooner he might be able to use her as a babysitter while he investigated other people. He was of course still reluctant to trust anyone with his children, but circumstances being what they were, he didn't feel like he had the luxury of time anymore.

He wrapped the kids up in blankets and took them back out to the car again. He grabbed some water and snacks in case they got hungry later, as well as some diapers, a change of clothes, binoculars, and a pen and notepad.

It was time for a stakeout.

He'd actually taken them on a few before, back when he was scouting the town. Most of the time, he had preferred to let them stay in the cabin while Bohwanox watched them sleep, but the reaper hadn't always made himself available for that, so Colt occasionally just decided to take the kids with him.

If they were normal kids, he wouldn't have even humored the idea. The threat of them crying or otherwise making loud noises and giving away their position would've been too much of a concern.

But Stephanie and Thomas weren't like that. They were always quiet as mice--so much so, in fact, that it had caused him considerable worry in the past with regard to their psychological development. Those concerns were all but gone now, however. He knew they were able to talk to him and even string a couple of intelligent words together, like they had done yesterday.

He didn't take the car through the heart of the town. It may've been the middle of the night, but he didn't want to risk any nosy people identifying his vehicle for the police later, so he kept to the outskirts and back roads as he made his way toward the suspect in question.

He didn't actually know where Alice Ridgemont's legal place of residence was, but he knew where her pile-of-crap church was, and he had a hunch that she might be living in it. And if not, then searching the place might give him a clue as to where she was living.

He took the car a bit off road and parked it behind a line of trees before approaching the church. He decided to leave the kids locked in the car, for now. They'd fallen asleep during the ride, and he didn't want to wake them. He'd check on them in a little while.

The church looked even worse than he remembered. Apparently, she hadn't quite gotten around to painting over all the graffiti that he'd heard her mentioning. Several profanities and probably blasphemies were scrawled across the southern wall and windows, high up enough that whoever had done it must've used a ladder.

That seemed like a lot of work just to vandalize something, Colt thought.

As he snuck closer through the thinning forest, he noticed a dim light through one of the rear windows. He stopped a good distance away from the church, positioned himself behind one of the larger trees he could find, and whipped out the pair of binoculars that he'd brought.

He decided to scan the area around the church one more time, first. It was not lost on him, how bad this would look if anyone were to notice him, right now. Spying on women through their windows in the middle of the night was not typically the behavior of upstanding citizens. If he found someone else doing this, he'd probably beat their ass without even asking any questions first.

He had to remind himself that he was doing this for a good reason. To eliminate her as a potential suspect.

Why had he picked her to eliminate first? Because, of the handful of people whom he'd met yesterday, she was the one who was the most suspicious--but not because she had any clear link to the murder. Rather, it was simply because he knew that beautiful women often made for the most difficult suspects. As a man, he always wanted to trust them more than he should. And knowing that about himself, the sooner he could cross her off the list, the better.

And yeah, he was hoping that, after she was eliminated, he could get her to babysit for him while he was investigating. If nothing else, at least her religion meant that she probably wasn't a pothead like that girl who worked at the local daycare.

How, exactly, he was going to convince her to do that for him, he still wasn't quite sure. But maybe he could guilt her into it or appeal to her sense of moral obligation. Or something. He could figure it out later.

Once he was content that he was the only creep in the vicinity, he started looking for her through the church windows. It took a little while. He had to keep changing vantage points until he found the right window with his binoculars.

She was asleep, he saw, but she was not in bed. She was hunched over a big wooden desk with the lamp still on and reading glasses still on her face. And there might've been a little drool escaping from the side of her mouth, too.

Hmm.

All things considered, he had to admit that she wasn't looking terribly suspicious at the moment. If she was the killer, then she must've been truly cold-hearted, because she looked like she was sleeping pretty damn soundly, at the moment.

What had she been doing? Had she fallen asleep reading her holy book or writing a sermon, maybe? What did religious people do at night, anyway?

Well, in any case, he'd confirmed her position. He decided to go back and retrieve the kids before settling down for the remainder of the stakeout. Dawn was still a couple hours away, and there was no telling how long it would be before Alice woke up.

The kids still seemed tired, which was for the best. He didn't want to worry about them trying to rabbit on him.

The rest of the stakeout turned out to be rather quiet and uneventful. And long. Colt was accustomed to getting up at dawn, himself, so he found it rather annoying when it took a couple more hours before she began to stir.

Once she was up, though, she only made for a marginally more interesting subject of observation. She changed out of her pajamas and into her white-and-gold robes--not that Colt got to see it. She changed in the bathroom.

She actually seemed to be quite mindful of the windows. She was looking out of them rather frequently, Colt thought, but there was no telling if she was worried about peeping toms like him or if she just enjoyed the view of the forest. She kind of struck Colt as one of those nature-lovers who never actually went hiking or camping--the ones who liked to look at it but not have to deal with it.

Not that he disliked such people. He understood that perspective perfectly well. Nature was a pain in the ass. The only reason he was living in the middle of it was because people were even more of a pain in the ass.

He watched her make breakfast for herself and was a bit surprised that the church had a functional kitchen. It barely looked like it had a functional front door.

The smell of her cooking was pretty good, though, even all the way out here.

Oh, shit.

Was that bacon? He hadn't had bacon in months.

Agh.

He hadn't thought this stakeout would turn into something so torturous.

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