Tanned Hide (7 page)

Again, I said nothing.

“
They will also threaten
those who hurt them.” The policeman paused, supposedly for effect,
as he leaned over the table. He eyed my uniform, tracing his gaze
over my campaign ribbons and various metals and honors. “A Marine
from the War of Eons, yes?”

I pressed my lips together. “Yes,
sir.”

“
A special task force,
yes?”

“
Yes, sir.”

“
And your role,” he looked
over the paper in front of him. “Was designated
marksman.”

I stared at the table. “Yes,
sir.”

“
Your exploits in war are
rather famous, Mr. Black,” the policeman said. “A sniper of
considerable skill. And as the papers said, The Matron was killed
by a .338 Lapua Magnum round. Likely from a gun very similar to the
one you used in war.” He eyed me. “Do you still practice
sniping?”

“
No, sir.”

The policeman slapped an open palm on
the table, causing me to jump. “Bullshit, Mr. Black.” He leaned
back in his chair. “If it were up to me, we’d be searching your
apartment right now. And I bet we’d find the murder weapon and
evidences of your connections with the Fawn Family. We would find
every reason for them to target your family, even if they left no
evidence at the crime scene.”

I lifted my gaze, hardening my
features. “Why do you even care? She was the boss of a mob. She
ruined businesses and used her corporation to smuggle drugs and
weapons into this country. She killed left and right without
discretion.”

“
She was a living,
breathing, sentient creature. Just like your parents,” the
policeman said. “And murder is still against the law.”

I pasted my ears back. His message was
clear. By killing her, I was no better than she was. I was
responsible for my parents’ deaths.

“
I’m not sure what your
connection is in all this yet, Mr. Black,” the policeman continued.
“But take comfort in the fact that I’m not going to let it go. So
until we know more about what happened, and we will learn more
about what happened, you can be sure of that, Philip is a ward of
the state. Talk with his social worker to arrange meetings. I’ll
make sure you have her information before you leave today.” The
policeman stood up and walked out of the room.

I don’t know how long I sat at that
table, stewing in guilt. I took a life. I essentially killed my
parents. I lost my brother.

I lost everything. I couldn’t even get
my brother to safety and avenge our parents’ deaths. He was stuck
as a bargaining chip and I couldn’t fix it.

As I stood, the horrible, awful truth
hit me. There was no such thing as a magic hit.

When I left the room, Philip came out
of another room down the way with his new social worker, a pale
colored housecat in a gray business suit and red high heels. I
tried to avoid scowling at her. It wasn’t her fault that they were
taking Philip away from me.

Philip ran over to me and I fell to
one knee to pull him into my arms. He gripped back and the tears
that had been missing at the news of Mom’s death finally appeared
in his eyes.

“
Neil, they’re taking me
away! They won’t even let me into the house to get my stuff!” He
sobbed.

I clutched him tight. “It’s just for a
little while, kiddo. Just until we get things settled. I’ll come
see you all the time, okay?”

Philip looked at me with tear stained
fur and splayed ears. “I’m scared.”

I ruffed the fur between his ears. “I
know, Philip, but this woman will take care of you.” I gave her a
quick look. She lifted her gaze, folded her arms and frowned. The
contemptible look she threw at me stung, but I probably deserved
it. I shook my head and looked back at Philip. “I’ll get you soon.
I promise. I’m not going to leave you.” I smiled. “But now I need
you to be a big boy and do what she says. Okay?”

Philip sniffled and nodded.
“Okay.”

“
It’s time to go, Philip,”
the social worker said.

I gripped him one more time. “I
promise I’ll see you soon.”

Philip didn’t say goodbye. He just
hugged me and dragged himself back to his social worker. I stood
and she gave me her card with no smile. I stared after them as they
disappeared around the corner.

Trecheon was waiting for me in the
lobby, poking at the hole in his left mechanical hand with a small
screwdriver.

I frowned and splayed an ear. “Are
they salvageable?”

“
They’ll be fine,” Trecheon
said. “No major damage.” He stood and patted my shoulder. “Come on,
I’ll take you home.”

I nodded. It took all my willpower to
make my legs move and leave my brother behind.

Nine

“
I’m sorry, Mr. Black, but I can’t in good conscience approve
this application.” The pale housecat stamped the papers in front of
her with a huge red “REJECTED” stamp.

I held in a snarl. This had been the
fourth time in ten months since my parents’ deaths that I had saved
up and worked through the supposed issues to apply to adopt Philip.
This social worker had it in for me. “Tell me, Miss Piper. What’s
wrong this time?”

“
I never said anything was
wrong,” Miss Piper said, half-glaring at me from across her oak
desk.

“
You have every other time
you’ve rejected my applications,” I growled. “First it was my
location--”

“
You lived in one of the
highest crime areas of El Dorado, Mr. Black.”

“
So I moved,” I said. “I
packed everything up and picked up a nice place in one of the
suburban areas. But then you complained about the state of my
furniture and apartment.”

“
Your apartment wasn’t fit
for a feral pig.”

“
So I fixed that too,” Neil
said. “It’s sparkling clean. It just smells of perfection. You
could probably eat off the carpet. But that wasn’t good enough
either. You complained about my business.”

“
You make next to nothing
in your pathetic business, Mr. Black.”

“
So, then I changed
that,”
I said. “My
business has grown now. I’ve got employees and a reputation to
match. Heck, I’m thinking about buying a house.” I leaned over her
desk. “I’m in perfect standing now. So tell me. What’s
wrong?”

Miss Piper narrowed her eyes at me.
“Did the FBI ever clear your name?”

I flattened both ears. “The FBI never
dirtied it. Where are you going with this?”

“
I was there the day
Officer Wilde accused you of being involved with the Fawn Family,”
Miss Piper said. “I know you’re a suspect in Miss Fawn’s murder.
And I know that you’re likely responsible for your parents’ deaths.
So forgive me if I repeat myself, but I cannot, in good conscience,
let you adopt Philip.”

I snarled. “That evidence was
circumstantial. They never even followed up on it. You can’t deny
me the chance to adopt my brother on a hunch. There are laws that
prevent that.”

“
I can, and I will,” Miss
Piper said. She leaned forward with an angry frown. “There are
always ways around the laws when it means protecting innocent
children from murderers, Mr. Black.”

I stood, slamming a fist on her desk.
“You little--”

She leaned back and flipped open my
case file. “Displays unprovoked bouts of anger and aggression,” she
recited, while writing. “Worries about possible abuse and neglect.
. .” She glanced at me over the file. “Anything else you want to
add to that, Mr. Black?”

“
You’re a horrible monster,
Miss Piper.”

“
No, Mr. Black,” she
said.
“You
are the
horrible monster.” She passed me the rejected application. “Better
luck next time. Assuming there will be a next time.” She waved me
out of her office.

I walked out with the application in
hand, consciously closing the door slowly so she couldn’t add
“violence” to my case file. God dammit. Damn it all to hell. How
the hell did this happen?

And yet, I couldn’t really get mad. I
knew she was right. I was a monster. But I was working on it. I had
spent the last ten months cutting all my assassin connections. I
was getting out of the business, like Mom asked. Trecheon with me.
We’d finally be clean, even if it meant I was stuck with the slow
life of an HVAC man for the rest of my life.

But I couldn’t prove that to Miss
Piper. It wasn’t like I could show up and say “Hey! Remember how I
was a horrible assassin? Well I’ve been clean for ten months!
Here’s my rehab records!”

If only life worked that
way.

The only thing I could do is somehow
“prove” my innocence to the FBI and let them tell Miss Piper that I
was clean. Only I couldn’t think of a single way to do
that.

“
Need help with something,
Mr. Black?” a cooing voice beckoned to me.

I glanced up and nearly froze in
place. The three doe of the Triple Danger stood in the parking lot
near a limo. They wore matching dark green dresses and pearls. All
of them eyed me with disturbing half-smiles.

My first thought was to run, but I
couldn’t get my legs to work. I tried speaking instead. “What do
you want?”

“
We want to help, Mr.
Black,” one of the doe said, pacing toward me. I noticed as she
walked that she was heavily pregnant. She stopped in front of me
and held out a hand. “If you’d just come with us. This won’t take
long.”

“
I imagine it wouldn’t,” I
said, but I didn’t take her hand.

She lifted an ear and her smile
widened. “Oh come now, Mr. Black. Don’t be so nervous. We want to
help. I’m sure you’re curious.”

“
Curiosity killed the cat,”
I muttered.

“
But you’re as skittish as
a newborn fawn,” the doe said. She reached down and gently took my
hand. “I promise, Mr. Black, we only want to help. Give us a
chance.”

Everything screamed at me to get away,
but I allowed her to lead me to the limo. The four of us got in and
the driver drove off. One doe pressed a button and raised the
privacy glass between us and the driver. As I settled myself, I
noticed a car seat with a baby fawn in it. She couldn’t have been
more than two months old.

“
One of you jumped the gun
before I ever got the Matron, huh?”

“
We were pretty
confident.”

One of the doe handed me a glass of
champagne. I took it gingerly, but I didn’t drink it. “I never did
get your names.”

The doe who took me by the hand
giggled. “Logos,” she said.

I lifted an eyebrow.
“What?”

“
My name.
Logos.”

“
I’m Pathos,” another
said.

“
Ethos,” the last one
nodded.

I blinked a moment, until my mind
drudged up an old English lesson. I rolled my eyes. “I get it.
Clever.”

“
The Matron thought so,”
Logos said. “Now, Mr. Black. We understand you’re trying to adopt
your brother.”

I tried not to flatten my ears. “Yes,
I am.”

“
No luck so far,” Pathos
said. “After four tries. Yes?”

Lightning ran up my body, but I didn’t
let it show. “No.”

“
All because Miss Piper
believes you’re Matron Fawn’s killer,” Ethos said. She shook her
head. “Tsk, tsk. Speculation can really turn a person.”

I ground my teeth. “Just get to the
point of this conversation.”

“
We want to help you get
your brother back.”

I froze in my seat. “Why?”

Logos rubbed her pregnant belly and
Ethos patted the head of the sleeping fawn in the car seat. “It’s
always a shame to see families torn apart.”

I tilted an ear. “Motherhood has
mellowed you.”

“
Nonsense, Mr. Black,”
Pathos said. “We’ll help you, but it’s not as if this service comes
for free.”

I tiled the other ear now. “What do
you want?”

“
Assurance,” Logos said.
She dug a piece of paper out of her clutch purse. “And payment.”
She handed the paper to me.

I glanced over it. It was a very
official looking invoice for a “bargaining chip.” I skimmed the
legal stuff, then caught the price listed. My jaw
dropped.

One million dollars.

I looked over the paper at the girls.
All three of them smiled at me.

“
You want one million
dollars. For Philip.”

“
Certainly, Mr. Black,”
Ethos said. “You pay us one million dollars, and we’ll make sure
the FBI finds the ‘true’ culprit responsible for Matron Fawn’s
death.”

“
And who’s this poor sap
you’re going to frame for me?” I asked with a snarl.

“
Oh, it’d be easy to frame
a rival mob assassin,” Ethos said with a sly grin. “Consider it a
bonus magic hit. Your name is cleared, Miss Piper will apologize,
and you’ll be free to adopt your brother.” She leaned on one hand.
“I’m sure with your skills, getting that money will be a
dawdle.”