Page 88 of Drift

“Fingerprints.” Light looked at Simon. “Jude’s have been acid-burned away.”

Raif stiffened. “Fuck,” he breathed. “He’s been Night-walker at some point.”

Gray’s look went back to his laptop, his mood changing entirely. It rested on Simon a moment later. “Get a DNA sample from Jude’s mask. Compare it to the emesis sample taken from the crime scene in Wales—”

Someone had vomited at the crime scene?Judehad? Light frowned. Gray thought he’d been there. Which meant he’d run a check on the Wales sample prior to this, but any DNA Jude had stored from when he was a kid would have been taken by the likes of the hospital. Their databases weren’t tied to the MI5 Dunbar database. He wouldn’t have been found in any official search.

“Somebody with parkour skill good enough to avoid CCTV was up on those rooftops,” said Gray.

Martin’s head came up off the settee as his look rested on Gray. “Oh that talk,” he said flatly. “I suggest you make it now.”

Saying nothing, Gray went and crouched by him.

Light was damn curious over the earlier request for the toxicology reports. That meant something was in the bloodstream that Gray thought shouldn’t be there, and that… that did itch under Light’s fingers to look into. Was that why the threat level had been increased to biological warfare? But that would be a walk into Gray’s streets, ones where Light had damn well lost Brin to. It was soul-tearing enough to allow Simon in with Gray, even if just from the sideline, so to walk into it as well? No. He’d fuck up. He’d end up losing Simon this time by walking it, because Gray was right: him and Gray, they fucked up each other’s signals far too much, but it was everyone else that caught the shrapnel.

“So sorry, Gray.” Sat next to Martin, that came from Jan. “I should have stopped him from leaving—”

“Simon was right to let him leave when he saw him take the phone,” said Gray, crouched in front of Martin. “This isn’t down to you. Jude shouldn’t have taken the phone.”

“Why not?” Martin levelled a look on Gray, his drink rested on his knee. “He’s lived life in the void, where talking comes with repercussions. So he takes personal data to avoid trouble. He trusts the perceived honesty of a phone over ours.”

“He took Ray’s phone,” said Simon. “Head of Gray’s security.”

“You’re missing the fucking point,” Martin said flatly. “He tookRay’s. He didn’t take yours, he didn’t take Light’s, or Jan’s, or Jack’s, or even Gray’s even though he pinned him as ‘poppateer’.” Martin had already reviewed the footage too. “He took the one person’s in the hall who didn’t have a family tie. That’s him saying the theft isn’t personal.”

“Fingerprints,” Simon said just as flatly as he worked. “He’s had them burned away. That and he has the Night-walker parkour skillandtech knowledge to dodge CCTV.”

“We’ve all had our fingers burned in one way or another, asshole.” Martin looked his way. “But he chooses to keep running, where you? You stay and burn here with the rest of us. Who’s more the threat in his world?”

“So who’s he running back to, then, Mart?” said Simon. “You see a name in his eyes too and the size of his crew, because that would really cut security time here.”

“Jesus, are you that fucking slow without a laptop to molest?” Martin looked his way, and Light warned him to back off with a glance. Martin levelled a brieffuck youglance his way beforefocusing back on Simon. “Jan’s right. He’ll run to home. Why? Because he took off his fucking mask as soon as he saw the cameras. He was playing distraction for a reason beyond saving his own skin.” He rubbed at his head again. “Each time there’s been a girl caught watching out for the threat around him, which running with the basics of the birds and bee sting logistics—he doesn’t wantherhunted, which suggests he’s better at running and going underground than she is. Find the home, you’ll find the bird, and he’ll hear her caged call. But I can tell you now, he may have run with the Night-walkers, but it didn’t make him one of them. Colour to your eyes you can’t fake.”

“He still ran with the Night-walkers despitenothaving a taste of you in his eyes,” said Simon. “The question is still why. So cage the girl, he’ll hear the call, andthenwe’ll find out why. But we need to know who else he’s running back to.”

Martin held his look. “That talk from another caged bird?”

“Joanna.” That came so softly from Jan, sending the room into silence. But he didn’t look at Martin. “With anyone you could have slept with, why her for god’s sake? Why Cutter’s daughter?”

Martin fell quiet, then took a sip of his water. “What, exactly, do you want my answer to be here, Jan? That maybe I didn’t know who she was, and at seventeen, nothing but sex on the mind, we fucked like rabbits like most normal kids? Or maybe you want the romanticised version, hmm? That she was the only twisted girl around wild enough to lay naked with me in the aftermath of fucking, that we… fell in love as well as bed together? That’s how your world goes around, right?”

Jan snorted a bitter smile. “My…world, as you call it,consists of psychopaths, sociopaths, and multiple-personalities that come coated in blood no matter which skin is worn.” Helooked his way. “Takemyoffer of a friend now. Because I lie with you, Gray, and Jack with no black in my eyes. And you? You’re not facing a killer or Cutter now: you’re facing your own boy with no black in his eyes. So between you and me, just who do you think will know what could happen if he does step in here, huh?”

Martin said nothing for a moment, then he took another sip of water.

“She was Cutter’s daughter,” he said eventually. “Nothing more needed.”

“He didn’t know about her. You didn’t have to touch.”

“Didn’t I now?” He levelled a look Jan’s way. “And what, exactly, do you know about me, my world, and my touch, huh? You draw conclusions through Jack’s half-baked versions and Gray’s penalty-time appearance.” He eased forward slightly. “First memory I have? I woke naked in Cutter’s bedroom, cuts running my inner thighs. I didn’t know Jack then, how much he thought he loved Cutter’s blade, how he hid behind me when it got too much. I just knew Cutter, his blade, and thatIdidn’t fucking like it, fuck anyone else. And that’sexactlywhat Jack needed to fashion.”

Martin rested on Gray. “So you come talk to me about Jack. You tell me just how butthurt he is over learning about Joanna and Jude, and I’ll remind you every goddamn time: Not. Jack. Ever. Fucking. Here. I love, live, and touch on my terms, my way, no one else’s—because that’s how I was damn well born in order to keep that bastard and myself alive. And that includes fucking with Cutter’s daughter in order to drive home no part of his life is untouchable around me.”

Gray looked down, rubbing at his head for a moment. “That’s not the issue, not deep down, Mart.” He looked at him. “We are,and it’s why it looked like he was trying to pull back control a few hours ago in the hall.”

So thathadbeen a new development. Light frowned as Martin leaned forward.

“So talkusto me,” Martin said quietly. “Because I swore for a while back there at least, me and Jack… we were okay. I backed off from you all to ease his head after I knew I’d fucked with it too much.”

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