36

You check your appearance over in a tall mirror back in your room, emerging slightly better groomed, even if your budding anxiety remains un-soothed.

"Before you attend to the good Sheriff," Gerard says, "I have some news on the information you requested the other night."

"Oh? Thank you Gerard." In all honesty, you'd forgotten about your request after last night's escapades.

"Of course, ma'am. I spent a good portion of the previous day on research and a few discreet questions to relevant parties. I believe I may have something of interest to you."

You incline your head in acknowledgement.

He lowers his voice to a whisper. "I leveraged my contacts at the police station to obtain copies of the paperwork relevant to the warehouse investigation per your request. It seems that the human police force was held back from performing a full inspection, and I almost wasn't able to figure out why." His mouth quirks up in a rare grin. "I was, however, able to use one of my contacts from the old syndicate. It took less than a minute to get him to talk."

You bite your lip—sometimes you manage to forget your manservant's background in underground crime. "An old informant is still alive and engaged in public life?" you ask.

He nods. "One of the few loose ends your sire didn't clean up. All it took was a mention of her name and he broke out in a sweat. Couldn't work hard enough to help me out."

"And what did you find?"

"The investigation was held back from the get-go by order of Sheriff Qui. He sent in his own men after cordoning the entire site off. Very hush-hush. As far as my contact knows, nothing was written down, just delivered verbally to the man himself before the site was scrubbed. I got the impression that further digging may reveal your involvement no matter my level of discretion. Perhaps it would be best to keep this knowledge in your pocket while I move on to other tasks."