Side Story #1 - Colt - Page 30

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'Alright, well, I was just going to tell you that Janet and her two cohorts here have been arguing almost nonstop,' said Bohwanox. 'I think even they realize that they're in over their heads, now.'

'That's great, but have you gotten any details out of them?' said Colt. 'Like why they decided not to call the police?'

'They seem to think that the cops will just rat them out to the Muett family. Or Janet believes that, anyway. She seems to have convinced the others of it as well, but it occasionally manages to creep into their arguments about other things, so who knows what's going through their heads?'

Alice was asking for a reminder on instructions, so Colt had to pause to provide them.

'They're still freaking out about you, by the way,' said Bohwanox.

'Not too surprising. Do they have any theories about who I am?'

'They seem certain that you're after the missing money, too.'

'Hmm.'

'Heh, which is a good question. ARE you after the money, Colt?'

His mouth flattened a little as he humored that idea. 'Would it bother you if I was?'

'Probably not. We're still lacking a lot of context here, so I won't go so far as to say that I would definitely be fine with it, but at the moment, it looks like you'd only be stealing from a bunch of lowlife murderers, so I don't think I'd be very upset about it if the money somehow ended up in your hands indefinitely.'

Colt couldn't help smirking a little. 'I've been thinking this for a while now, but that clinches it. Hector and Garovel really left a lasting impression on you, didn't they?'

Bohwanox fell silent for a while, which gave Colt an opportunity to notice that Alice wasn't using enough wood ashes. He helped her out.

'I guess they did,' Boh finally said.

'Why do you sound so reluctant to admit that?' said Colt.

'Hmph. You're one to talk. Would YOU be willing to acknowledge that they made an impact on you?'

'If they had, then sure. But I'm the same as I've always been.'

'Yeah, right. You're even worse than me.'

Colt made no response, but needless to say, he very much disagreed. He'd just murdered two men in cold blood last night. Hector never would've done that. He would've captured them and turned them over to the cops.

No. Colt knew he hadn't changed at all. And he probably never would.

He supposed it was good if Boh believed otherwise, though. If the reaper truly understood how fucked up his servant was, he'd release his soul in a heartbeat.

Colt wanted to get the conversation back on track. 'In any case, I don't plan on keeping the money. Assuming we ever find it.'

'Are you sure? I'm not trying to be a bad influence on you or anything, but as long as we keep investigating, I feel like we'll definitely find it sooner or later. And if it's as much money as it sounds like it is, then just imagine what you could do with it. That would sure help raising the twins, don't you think?'

'True, but dirty money is a pain to clean. And I don't exactly have a launderer.'

'Fair point. But what if you could be certain that no one would miss it?'

'That's a nice fantasy, but I could never be certain. There's no way for me to know how many people know about the money. Even if the entire Muett family were to die, there could still be others. It's not worth the risk.'

'Well, if you say so.'

'Did you learn anything else from Janet?'

'Uh. Maybe. I'm not really sure, actually. I've been listening to them bicker and whine for hours, and it's a little hard to know what might be important or not.'

'Hmm.'

'But you're the detective. Ask me about things that you want to know.'

That wasn't actually true, Colt knew. He'd only been an officer, not a detective. He'd failed the detective's exam once and had been working his way up to taking another crack at it when the twins' mother went batshit crazy and tried to stab them.

That had thrown quite the wrench into his career plans.

But then again, his captain had been a real jackass, so maybe it didn't even matter. Maybe she never even would've allowed him to take the test again.

Hell, he wasn't entirely certain that he'd actually failed the first time. The test-takers weren't allowed to see the correct answers even after the fact, because then the department would have to create a different test for them the second time.

That had been the rationale, at least. It had crossed Colt's mind that perhaps his captain just didn't want to promote him, but he never wanted to believe that she could've been that much of a petty bitch.

It was just one more reason why that job had been endlessly frustrating. One more reason why he'd ended up taking the law into his own hands on multiple occasions.

And of course, that department was so fucked, his actions went completely unnoticed. Shit, sometimes he'd even felt like he hadn't been the only one doing that. That had probably just been some psychological bullshit on his part, though. Wishful thinking or some shit.

Obviously, though, Colt didn't much feel like correcting the reaper on that point. It was a harmless error and would've been obnoxious to explain, anyway. 'Well, maybe this a dumb question, but has Janet mentioned who killed Rex?'

Bohawnox chortled. 'No. I may not be terribly confident in my investigatory skills, but I would've told you about that.'

'So she doesn't even have any theories?'

'Well, she hasn't stated anything explicitly, but I suppose given how she's acting and the arguments that she's getting into, she's probably under the impression that the Muetts had him killed. Which could be true, I guess, but we're looking for proof here, aren't we?'

'Yeah. Has she met any of the Muetts personally?'

'Ah... y'know, she might've. She hasn't said it outright, but it's clear that she knows quite a bit about them. I suppose she could've just learned about them from Rex, though. And wasn't her father killed in a gang war, as well?'

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