Veil (58 page)

A little over an hour later, the two of them
walked through the front door of the doctors’ house. Dragging him
behind by the hand, Suren pulled Roy down the hallway and into
Ken’s office, where Ken, Hunter, and Brock anxiously awaited them.
Well, they anxiously awaited Suren. Or Surveillors, who would
inform them Suren just committed some kind of heinous, torturous
murder against a one “Royce Houze.”

When Suren left, she was a wild-eyed, crazed
madwoman who Ken was pretty sure had a gun stashed in her purse. He
was pretty sure she was going to use it to confront the man who
they investigated for the last week. It did no good whatsoever to
argue with her, and all they could do was sit and wait. So, they
did. In silence. They sat and waited. Not sympathetic toward Royce
Houze at all, but still afraid for his life. Afraid for Suren’s
freedom.

Ken tried to talk her driver into not letting
her go or at least not letting her go to the man’s door alone.

“Mr. Ken, Ms. Suren does what Ms. Suren does.
You know that better than I do,” Carter replied in one of his
typical Carterisms.

“I know it. Heck if I don’t know it,” Ken
answered. Carter was right, though.

“Hello, guys!” she beamed as the office doors
flung open and she practically skipped through
.

The three gawked at the pair in
disbelief.

“Guys, Roy. Roy, guys,” she grinned and
gestured around the room.

“Huh—hi,” Roy Houze nodded, shrugged, and
simpered
.

“Uh, hi,” the three said in unison. Brock’s
chair said the word in unison with the other two. They all looked
in shock.

“Ok, Roy, this,” she motioned toward Ken, “is
Dr—”

“Oh, oh,” Roy interrupted her. “I know who
the Tsay Truh—Trustees are. I know them.”

Ken chuckled. They knew people called them
the ‘Tsay Trustees’ or the ‘Tsay Legacy’ but no one had done it to
all of them in person before. Not so casually and not in their
presence, all of them together in one place.

“There’s you, Ms. Tsay and that,” he pointed
at Ken, “is the Dr. Ken and that,” he pointed at Hunter, “is the
Dr. Hunter.” When he got to Brock he admitted, “I’m afraid … I—I
know who you are of course, but I can’t remember your name.”

After a moment came the computerized voice,
“No problemo! I’m Miss Sassyfrassy, hear!”

Brock broke out in grunts of laughter,
obviously very pleased with himself.

“Don’t pay any attention to him,” Hunter
shook his head and kicked his foot to the side, striking Brock’s
chair. “That’s Brock Albert Elsbeth, my partner in crime. He’s
apparently off his medications.”

“Mr. Brock!” Roy shouted and snapped his
fingers. “That’s it! Cool name, bro. Cool name!”

The Tsay Trustees laughed as Brock grinned,
still pleased.

When the laughter died down, Hunter raised
his hand like a schoolboy.

“Heh—heh—helloooo? I have a question.”

“What’s up?” Suren grinned.

“What’s up? What’s up?!” He shook his head in
disbelief. “Oh, I dunno crazy woman, how about … why in the fuck
are you so happy?”

Suren and Roy looked at each other, and Suren
burst out laughing. Roy nervously took her cue and also
laughed.

“Funny thing,” Suren started and proceeded to
fill them in on the events of the last three hours. At least, most
of the events. She left some out, including how Roy happened to get
the giant gash on his head … and how she had one less round in her
gun.

“So, after we got that all cleared up, Roy
agreed to come here with me. He’s going to allow one of us to Veil
him, so we can see if he knows anything we can use to track down
Jin’s murderer. Simple as that.”

“Anything to help I told her, anything,” Roy
nodded and smiled at the three men sitting across from them.

“After you got all that cleared up, huh?
Simple as that?” Ken shot a scowl at Suren and then frowned at Roy
apologetically. “In case Suren didn’t already say it, we’re sorry.
We’re sorry we jumped to such a horrible conclusion. I … I hope you
can—” he tried to say.

Roy shook his head, “She didn’t have to say,
not a word. I don’t blame her. Don’t blame none of y’all. I knew
what people would think. I knew what they’d think. No apologies,
none. I’m just glad I’m forgiven. Even more glad no one got hurt.
With, you know, with what I did. With Dr. Jin … his memory.”

Ken sucked air through his teeth and gave a
quick glance to Suren, who grimaced and subtly shook her head. She
forgot about that; no need to tell him right then. He was a good
man
,
which was all that mattered. They had
time for all that other stuff; they would have time to put it all
into context for him
.

Ken took her hint and redirected the
conversation.

“Yeah … and what’s important right now is
that we’ve put together a lot more pieces. With your help,” he
raised his eyebrows and locked eyes with Roy. He repeated himself.
“Your help. I’ve been trying to put these pieces together for six
years. I didn’t get very far with the hospital so—”

Roy interrupted again, “That’s no surprise
Dr. Ken, not at all. They were all covering their own asses, the
whole time. Like they did with me. I tried to tell them, but they
weren’t going to listen to a man like me. They ain’t going to
listen to a man like me. Covering their own asses, I’m telling you
all.”

“I figured as much,” Ken frowned. “They
barely wanted to talk to me. What I did get out of them, I about
had to force out of them. And the only reason they gave up what
little they did is because I am who … I mean because I’m…”

“Cause you’re Dr. Ken!” Roy belted with a
smile.

“Yeah,” Ken reluctantly admitted
.
He felt his face flush, which embarrassed him
more.

Roy leaned forward and lowered his voice, as
though afraid someone might overhear. “I shit you not, Dr. Ken, I
tried everything to get them to see. It’s like they didn’t want to.
Was easier for them to think I was crazy. And well, no offense to
none of y’all, no offense at all, but you all,” he wagged his
finger back and forth between the rest of them, “are impossible to
get to. I understand it, everyone wants a piece of you, but there
was no way to get to you. To make you see.”

Suren rubbed and patted Roy’s back. “No one
blames you. You did what you could.”

She leaned forward until her face was even
with his and then tilted her head to look directly at him. She
spoke in a tone rarely anyone heard from the Great Widow Tsay, a
tone only those who truly knew her recognized as her realest voice.
Her
Suren
voice.

“The fact you did what you did brought us all
here today. We wouldn’t be here without you. And I think I speak
for both me and Ken,” she looked at Ken and then back to Roy, “when
I say that you gave Jin,” her voice cracked, and she had to start
over. “You gave my Jin what we would’ve wanted him to have. What we
would’ve given him ourselves if we could.” She took both of Roy’s
hands into hers. “All things said and done, you made us proud. You
gave our Jin the goodbye he deserved.”

“I tried, Ms. Tsay,” Roy lowered his head and
a single tear rolled down his check. “I did try.”

“I know.” She looked at Ken
.
A tear was already streaming down his face as well.
“We know.”

Just so Roy could hear it from someone, Suren
added, “You are a good, good man, Roy. You are a good, decent
man.”

“Nope, no port.” Roy rubbed the back of his
neck. “I haven’t used Veil since … well, since before Dr. Jin’s
memory.”

“So how did—” Suren started to say.

Ken interrupted. He wanted to get it right.
“Your name was on a list of people who purchased Jin’s memory from
where you sold it. That’s how we found you. You were on a list of
names of the people who bought it. So we started focusing on you.
We thought maybe Jin’s killer wanted to get rid of you. That’s why
we thought you were on the list. We thought you knew something. So
we started looking into you.”

Roy appeared confused and they gave him some
time to think it over. Shocking everyone else in the room, he
finally jumped and clamped his hands once
.
He figured it out.

“You know what!” He explained, “I don’t know
why he’d put me on that list, but I did call again. I called again.
I wanted to see if he was still … still selling it. Just to see.
When he said he was, well...” He trailed off and bowed his head. He
stopped talking.

“Roy?” Suren prodded.

“I … I, you have to understand, ya know, I
was at a low point. A low, low point. I’ve been at a low point for
almost seven years. But I figured, well I deserved it. I figured I
did this horrible thing and once anyone knew about it … well, that
would be it for me. I’m not gunna lie, there were times when…” he
swallowed back tears, “I didn’t want to go on anymore.”

Ken was empathetic but more so confused.
“But, you didn’t buy it. I mean, I know for a fact you didn’t buy
it.”

“Nah, I didn’t go through with it. I told him
I wanted to. I gave him my information. Had to pay this, this
deposit, but I never called back. He said I would have to come in
and get the memory or call back and schedule an appointment. I said
I’d call back and schedule an appointment, to get it from the …
the—”

“Vault.”

“Yeah! To get it from the Vault. But I never
did call back. I simply couldn’t kuh—kill myself like that.
Couldn’t bring myself to. Lost my money, too. Not that I
cared.”

Ken laughed to himself and shook his head. He
looked at the other Trustees
.

“It was probably after, you know, the Right
To Veil, so Mariano would’ve had to get Roy’s information before he
could move forward with it at all. Get his name and VSN. It’s in
the regulations. Because Roy never called back, Mariano got to keep
the deposit. He didn’t have to report that. He could just keep
it.

“Bastard is still sellin’ it,” Roy groaned
and leaned back on the couch. “He’s still selling it even after I
told him.”

“Oh no he’s not,” Ken grinned.

“You can be damn sure of that!” Suren
laughed.

“Actually,” Ken added, “I did call Mariano
while you were gone, Suren. I realized that we didn’t want to tip
our hands
,
in case the guy called again.
It might send up a red flag if suddenly Mariano stopped selling the
memory. Clue him in that we were on to him. So, I told Mariano to
go on as normal. I told him I discussed it with you, and we
wouldn’t sell the memory anymore but he wasn’t to let anyone know
it wasn’t for sale. Go on as normal. You put the fear of god into
that man though, that’s for sure.”

“I know I did,” Suren smiled. “ But … darn
good point about not tipping our hands. I wouldn’t say we’re on his
trail, but he doesn’t need to know where we’re at with it either
way.” She smiled again, slapped her knees and stood up. “Who’s
hungry?”

Roy, Ken and Hunter all raised their
hands.

“Ok, I’ll go fix something. Ken you work on
creating the memory questions for the Veil with Roy,” she delegated
as she walked out of the room.

“Hand,” came the voice from Brock’s
chair.

Suren stopped. “Huh?”

After a moment, “I’m hungry. I raised my
hand.” Brock stuck out his tongue.

“You’re sure you want to do this?” Ken asked
as he handed Suren her collar back. Before she could Veil, he had
to enable her device, he informed her. Because, he admitted, he
disabled it six years ago, just like Hunter told her
.

“Yep, I’m sure,” she smiled as she placed it
on her neck. “I want to do this.”

“Ok.”

“It will be my first Veil,” she told Roy.
“Well, my first time Veiling someone else.”