Page 44 of Reaper Razed

Dice is at the desk, firing up the computers, listening to the message. “Fuck.” He pulls up Bran’s number on his phone and calls it. “Voicemail.” then Bernie’s. “Voicemail.” Dane’s. “Fuck voicemail.”

Then Demi’s. “Hey, Dice, everything okay?”

“Yeah, hey, Demi, I was just trying to get hold of Ray. Is she with you?”

“No, sorry.”

“How about Bran? Is he there?”

“No, he’s away with Bernie, some gun convention or something out of town. I’m staying with Marie till they’re back.”

“Oh, okay, do you know where Dane is?”

“Nah, I thought he was with you guys? He was moving in at Ray’s today.”

“Yeah, he did. I just haven’t seen him since. No worries, Demi. See you soon.”

“Bye, Dice.”

“Dane told me he was going back to uni for a bit!” I tell him, and Dice seems to relax slightly at that information.

Dice pulls up the footage of the clubhouse, and we see Dane and Ray talking, then get in Dane's truck and leave together.

“So she’s with Dane?” Ares asks. “So, has she gone to uni with him, or does Dane work for whoever she does?”

“Fuck, fuck, fuck!” I start pacing. “Ares, keep trying Bernie. I’ll keep trying Bran.”

After about thirty minutes or so, Dice shouts out, “Fuck, that makes no sense.”

“What makes no sense?”

“I’ve tracked their vehicle, followed it, found it on every camera, then it just vanishes.”

“They must have turned down a side street or—”

“No, look, it just vanishes here!” He points to the screen, and sure enough, it just disappears.

“How the fuck is that even possible?”

“I’m scanning all the cameras outwards from that point to see if they reappear, but there’s something funky going on. Trucks don’t just vanish.”

After another hour, he says, “I've got nothing. I’ve tracked every truck, ignoring the number plates in case they changed them, nothing!”

“The armoured truck!” Ares shouts out. “When she went after you guys, they had an armoured fucking truck. What if they swapped it out somehow?”

“I’ll pull up the footage from that day and see.” Dice starts tapping on his keyboard.

“Go back to when she left,” Ares says, giving Dice the day and time to search for.

“Who the hell are these guys?” I ask. This is the first time I’ve seen this and shit, that’s a professional team setup. “What the fuck is she involved with?”

Dice pulls up the footage of when they brought us back. “That’s at least one different guy, possibly two different guys!” Dice says. “Look!”

He’s pointing towards the screen. “The one that puts Hades in the back is about the same height as Ray, and when they bring us back, they’re both taller and physically bigger.” He pulls up a screen grab and lays them side by side.

“So she’s working with at least three different guys, possibly four.”

We sit there for what feels like hours, just trawling footage. Blade, Priest and Tank join us, and we're all huddled in this box, just waiting.

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