Chapter Seventeen
“I can’t do this.” The captain buried his face in his hands. “I don’t think I can tell anybody anything. Gods, it’s so damn embarrassing. I’m furious with myself, but for fuck’s sake. I had one tiny mistake – barely a blink in the scheme of things. One little mistake, and now I’m nothing more than a puppet being tugged at by strings coming from all directions. This is going to ruin my reputation. I’m going to have to resign from my position. It’ll ruin my marriage if it ever gets out.”
The captain dropped his hands and stared at Ant with stark eyes. “I love my wife. I do. Surely to fuck I’m entitled to one little mistake, aren’t I?”
Ant had no idea what the captain was talking about, and clearly getting anything logical out of the captain in the next half an hour wasn’t going to be possible. Standing up, he indicated for Able to stay where he was as he crossed the short distance to the desk. He held out his hand.
“Take it,” he said, his voice low and firm. “Take my hand.”
The captain leaned back in his seat, his eyes wide with horror now. “How will I know what you can see? I’m aware of your skills, Doctor Channon. How will I know what you’ll see?”
“At this point, does it really matter? Take my hand.”
Ant didn’t have the power to compel anyone, like Viktor might. Information was locked behind the captain’s panic, and he needed to see it. In his head, if the captain had done something stupid, and he was being manipulated because of it, well, that was the captain’s problem.
But this was impacting Ant - somebody behind the scenes was manipulating him and Viktor through the captain. That made it his problem.
There was a long moment where Ant did nothing but stare at the captain, waiting for him to do the right thing. It’s not like the captain had a choice unless he wanted to start talking.
Apparently, the captain couldn’t talk. It was almost two minutes later when the captain held out his hand and Ant took it.
Ant kept the touch brief. He really didn’t want to know the nuances of everything the captain had ever done in his life. Besides, that wasn’t how his powers worked. But much like he had mentioned to Viktor about holding Carmine’s hand, he could pick up a lot by deliberately touching a person, especially if his senses were open. It helped that the captain was panicked enough that the situation behind the blackmail was front and center in his mind.
Images flickered through Ant’s mind - it was as if somebody had taken a movie of the captain’s life and put it on fast-forward. There were snapshots of the captain and his wife, of arguments and tension in the household. There were numerous scenes of the captain out drinking in his car, parked at some lookout point somewhere. It wasn’t an area Ant recognized, but that scene repeated more than once.
More arguments with the wife, more disagreements with people at work. A meeting. Ant tried to slow the movie, but he couldn’t see it. But there was definitely at least one meeting with a shadowy figure, whom perhaps the captain didn’t want to remember.
There were text messages, calls in the middle of the night, and then a flash of skirt and a girlish laugh, and some male voice going, “Haven’t you been a naughty boy, Captain Bains?” Ant let go of the captain’s hand. He had seen enough. The captain had been trapped by his own stupidity.
“Did you see anything?” The captain’s voice was trembling. “Can you help me? How do I get out of this?”
“You don’t need my help. Tell your wife the truth about what you did,” Ant said, clicking for Able to come to his side. “The only way to stop yourself from being blackmailed is to tell the truth to the people your actions impacted. You should tell your wife about your illicit liaison.”
“I was set up!” The captain protested. “That woman came on to me. I was drunk. I didn’t know someone else was even there, filming the whole damn thing. How can that be my fault?”
“Fault doesn’t enter into this.” Ant frowned as he thought about it. But no, he was right. He’d never mentioned the captain’s actions were all his fault, even when they were. Shaking his head, he added, “Once you talk to your wife and accept the consequences of your actions, any power the blackmailer believes they have over you will be gone.”
Gathering his bag and picking up Able’s leash, Ant headed for the door, fairly sure that Viktor, as a silent presence, was behind him.
“What do you mean about the blackmailer? Where are you going? I can’t tell my wife. She’ll leave me. You have to help me.”
Ant slowly blinked and then turned around, keeping his face expressionless. “I am not a relationship specialist. I can’t help you with your wife. But if it is, as you say, one simple mistake, won’t your wife understand?”
“No!” The captain banged his fists on the desk. “She’s been angry with me for years. She’ll leave me, stripping me of my house, my car, my savings account – she’ll take the lot and there’ll be nothing I can do about it.”
I’m almost certain that’s not my problem.“You should’ve considered that when the woman with the flouncy skirt approached you. You have a full command of the police department, yet it never occurred to you to track down and arrest the group who is blackmailing you?”
“I can’t do that, either.” If the captain’s face got any redder, Ant would have to call in the medics. That color couldn’t be healthy. “If anyone finds out about this, I’ll lose my job. Don’t you understand, I could lose my job and my pension fund.”
Ant sighed. “Then I imagine you’ll continue to be manipulated. If you won’t use police resources to track someone who is essentially a criminal, and you won’t tell your wife the actions you are being blackmailed about, thereby rendering the blackmailer’s threats useless, then…”
He shrugged again. “You are only caught in this trap of your own making because you don’t want to face any consequences for your actions.”
Ant had another thought. “It is really positive, for you at least, that I’m not the irresponsible person your previous insults made me out to be. I can assure you I will not speak of this matter unless I’m asked directly by a person in authority, and should that happen, I will insist that a truth-sayer is also present. Have a nice day.”
Able’s ears pricked up as somebody knocked on the office door. “Captain,” a voice on the other side said loudly. “Captain, are you all right? Captain, speak to me. Captain. Why can’t I get in?”
Somebody was rattling the door handle. Ant got the impression Viktor was probably leaning on the door so nobody could open it. “As to who likely planted the listening devices in your office, and is reporting on your behavior to interested parties outside ofthe police force, you will get your answer when I open the door. What you do with that information is up to you.”
