Page 42 of The Devil's Bargain
“Yeah, I’m still here.” He started to turn and then thought better of it, pausing. “One second.” Cal motioned to Zane. “Keep your eye on him for me, will you? Don’t let him do anything stupid.”
“Where are you going?” Aodhan pursed his lips. “You literally just arrived. I’ve been waiting for you all day.”
“Stop being a baby. I’ll be back as soon as I’m able. I’ll just be—”
“If now isn’t a good time—” Mitri began, but Cal didn’t let him finish, heading toward the door before his Second could come up with any more complaints.
“No, no. Now works fine. I’m on my way.”
Chapter 18:
Calix hadn’t visited the mortuary at the hospital since Bruce’s murder, but he’d been around enough death and destruction lately that the smells of embalming fluid and the sudden drop in temperature didn’t do anything to him.
He found Mitri in the back, in a little alcove area with a sink and a single door leading into a small private room.
“Is that where you usually work?” Cal asked, motioning with his chin toward the door as Mitri continued washing his hands.
“That’s it,” the forensic scientist said. “You came quickly.”
“I was just upstairs.”
“How is Aodhan doing?”
“Better.” Calix tried glancing through the window cut in the door but couldn’t make out much aside from something metallic within the room. “Is the body of the driver in there? What did you find?”
“It’s badly burnt,” Mitri began, drying off his hands before pressing on the censor on the side of the wall to automatically open the door for them. “So I won’t be able to tell for certain if he was drugged beforehand until the toxicology report comes back, but from what I can find, and going off ofpictures from the crime scene, it doesn’t appear as though foul play was involved.”
“Have we been able to identify the body?”
There was a single table set in the center of the room, the charred remains laid out over it. some clothing had survived, patches of red material, and maybe what had once been part of the man’s jeans, as well as some brown hair. Calix didn’t pay much attention to the face though, certain he wouldn’t recognize him even if more than half of it hadn’t been burned away.
“It’s Nero Quinten,” Mitri said, and when Calix gasped, shrugged. He pulled on a pair of latex gloves as he spoke. “His multi-slate was discovered on the ground nearby. Either he dropped it while dousing the truck in gasoline, or he tossed it on purpose before lighting the match is yet to be seen.”
“They found his device?” Calix checked his messages, but he hadn’t missed anything from the rest of the team.
“Maybe they figured I’d tell you. I mentioned I was going to ask you to stop by.”
“Thanks. I just…I can’t believe it was Nero.” He tried to think of the last time the two of them had spoken. The night they’d gone to the bar was the same night Aodhan had gotten into the accident, but Nero had messaged Cal the next day, to give his condolences and send his best wishes.
Why would Nero have been in a truck that night at all? He’d dropped Calix off at home, and Aodhan’s accident had happened around an hour and a half after that…Would Nero have even had the time to switch vehicles? He’d been drunk too, had been the one to call the driver for that very reason.
Had he faked it?
To what end?
“Something about this isn’t adding up,” he murmured to himself, staring at the body more closely now.
“It makes sense to me,” Mitri replied, having heard him. “Gives us a motive, too.”
Cal glanced at him over his shoulder and frowned.
“He was driving Titus Mercer’s car that night, remember?”
“So?”
“It’s pretty safe to assume Titus was the actual target.”
His spine stiffened. “You think whoever rammed into Aodhan was actually trying to kill Mercy?”
