Page 61 of Mongrels United
“The Leroux Raid,” Grady supplied.
He nodded. “So if Wheelock had been using it, then he should have been dead years ago, instead of weeks ago.”
There was an intense emphasis on the last words. Rogerson hadn’t just disliked Nason. It was stronger than that.
“We’re pretty sure the Leroux Raid just pushed the trade deeper underground,” Nash said. “Damn stuff is still out there.”
Rogerson peered at Nash. “And you just found out your father was using it? Tough break, kid.”
Grady fought to suppress her smile. Nash was far beyond being a kid, but at that moment, she could almost see the ten-year-old boy in Nash’s eyes.
Nash said, “You argued with my father, once. I remember it. We’d really like to know what you argued about, if you care to tell us. It’s important.”
“Damn right, it’s important,” Rogerson said, his voice stronger, that of a younger man.
Nash’s brows came together. He’d been surprised.
“I been waiting thirty years for someone or t’other to come see me about that fight,” Rogerson said. “You’re not who I expected.”
“Whowereyou expecting?”
“Her.” He pointed at Grady. “Or someone like her.”
Nash rubbed the back of his neck. “Someone official. What was the fight about?”
Rogerson looked out across the Table. “If Wheelock was on that Bellish shit, it explains a lot.” His focus shifted to Nash. “It tells me a lot, too. It tells me that you, boy, might have saved my life.”
Nash jumped. Grady sensed the jolt of surprise in him, even though she kept her gaze on Rogerson. She put her hand on Nash’s back, where Rogerson wouldn’t see it. “And the argument?” she coaxed.
“Fools rush in…” Rogerson sighed. “My old friend, the boy who lived next to me when we were kids, Hyram Stroud? He disappeared. Just…gone. On a closed, self-contained ship. Everyone said he must have suicided—stepped out an airlock. Only the locks had been sealed for decades, after the Skinwalkers were through using them.”
“You thought Wheelock had something to do with Hyram’s disappearance?” Grady asked.
Rogerson gave a loud snort. “Something to do with it? The bloody man killed Hyram. I’m sure of it.”
Nash moved over to the nearest lounger and sank onto the front edge of it, his hands gripping the frame on either side of his thighs. He looked pale.
“Did you tell anyone that?” Grady asked. “Someone in authority?”
Rogerson sucked at his teeth for a minute. “You have to understand what it was like, back then. Before the Leroux thing.”
“He didn’t know who he could trust to tell it to,” Nash said. His voice was hoarse.
“Yup,” Rogerson said.
Grady could feel sickness swirling in her belly. Cramping it. How close to anarchy the ship had come, in those days! But were these days any better? What she had thought was peace and contentedness was apparently only skin-deep. The dark foulness that had clogged the ship before the Leroux Raid was still there, eddying and sucking the life out of the ship.
“So you confronted my father,” Nash said. “Instead of going to someone in authority.”
Rogerson grimaced. “If I’d known Bellish was involved, I would never have gone near the man. I never could get my head aroundwhyhe would want Hyram out of the way. But if he was into Bellish, that would explain it.”
“You didn’t know why, but you knew he’d killed him?” Grady asked.
“Knew it in my bones, yeah,” Rogerson said. “Even more convinced now. Don’t know how he did it, but it cleared the way for him nicely, didn’t it? Got rid of the one person in his life that would trip him up.”
Grady felt like sitting down, herself. She moved over to the chair next to Rogerson. “Do you mind?”
“You’re looking peaky. Best sit, yeah,” Rogerson said. As she sank onto the chair, Rogerson added, “I know how you feel. I’m thinking it through all over again, now I know this. Accusing Wheelock of murder was just about the dumbest damn thing you can do to a Bellish-head. I’d say I’m lucky Wheelock didn’t come find me in some dark corner of the ship, later, and shut me up, but it wasn’t luck at all.”
