Here is the next chapter in my upcoming new Finder novel. Enjoy!
Chapter 3
Vince went very still, his dark eyes narrowing. There were only a couple of reasons that he could think of why this particular detective from Zone 3’s Station Authority Precinct 1 would be calling him—and none of them were good.
“Commosky.” He risked a quick glance at his comlink display. “Looks like you’re not calling from an official comlink, so talk away.”
“Not now. Later.”
Vince inhaled through his nose, barely registering the smell of aloe vera still filling the office. He took exception to the peremptory way Commosky treated people sometimes. “Detective, you’re not the only one around here who—”
“It’s important, Grable.” Commosky hesitated, then said grudgingly, “It’s in regards to our last case.”
A sharp jolt of adrenaline spiked in Vince. He perked up, instantly alert. The last case they’d both worked had involved murder—something Vince didn’t often handle, as he preferred less violent cases.
It had also involved a classified investigation Commosky had been leading for months.
Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Bella straighten in her seat behind her desk, looking interested. Her hearing was spectacular.
“Oh, really?” Vince narrowed his eyes to slits, staring at his old brown couch without really seeing it. He chose his next words carefully—if Commosky was being cagey, there was probably a good reason. “I was under the impression that particular case had been closed.”
“You’d think so,” Commosky said cryptically. “Tonight, Grable. I’ll send you the time and location.”
The detective ended the transmission before the Finder could respond.
Two seconds later, Vince’s comlink vibrated with an encrypted text. Commosky wanted to him to show up at a little fish and chip shop in Zone 3 on Level 8 at 8:30pm—and he wanted Vince to make sure he wasn’t followed.
Vince was not surprised that Commosky wanted him to come all the way to Zone 3 instead of coming to Zone 5 himself, or even meeting him halfway.
He was also not surprised at all when the text self-destructed.
“He’s not paranoid at all,” he said wryly, holding the comlink up for Bella to see.
For her part, Bella looked confused. She canted her head to one side. “Didn’t your last case together involve finding out who killed Dent Antwerp?”
“Yes.”
“And wasn’t our client innocent?”
“Yes.”
She spread her hands. “So what does he want?”
“Not sure.” Vince slid his comlink into his pocket and returned to the other side of the room to straighten the basket of tea that had fallen over on the credenza. “I have an idea, though.”
A few heartbeats of silence filled the office, and then Bella said flatly, “The Ruby Gauntlet.”
If it wasn’t such a sobering thought, Vince would have smiled with pride. She really was an excellent assistant.
He set about brewing himself a cup of green tea, but nodded grimly over his shoulder. “That’s what I’m thinking.”
Dead silence flooded the office again as Bella absorbed this.
The Ruby Gauntlet was a nightclub inside the virtual world of Everheart, one of the most popular multiplayer games aboard Zyga Space Station—a nightclub with an elite, illegal gambling club hidden inside. Gambling was illegal on Zyga Station unless it took place at one of the few casinos and online venues authorized to operate aboard the Station.
Technically, everybody paid a cut to Station Authority and Zyga Station’s governing body for the privilege of being open. The two Families that controlled the Core each owned—or at the very least owned a vested interest in—one of the physical casinos. Given that their influence stretched throughout the entire Station like dark, poisonous vines, they probably also had ties to several of the online operations, though one of those was owned by a wealthy playboy who lived on the Rim and had nothing else to do with his life.
The Ruby Gauntlet, however, had neatly bypassed Station Authority and kept all the profit for themselves. They’d gotten away with it for more than a year, until they grew too popular to stay under the radar any longer. Starlit and Lumen, the nightclub’s mysterious owners, had been buying up property all over the Station from people who’d gotten in too deep.
And then they’d branched into murder.
Usually, gambling sharks kept their victims alive, so they could squeeze every last drop of blood out of them, but the Ruby Gauntlet’s owners took things to a new level. If they believed someone truly couldn’t pay…they killed that person and then went after family and friends for the rest of the money they were owed. It was a truly insidious operation.
Dent Antwerp had been one of those people. He’d also been one of Detective Commosky’s best informants on what happened in the club. When he was murdered, the detective had thought he had his chance to pin the Ruby Gauntlet’s owners to the bulkhead.
Things hadn’t quite worked out that way, but at least the real murderer had been caught.
Vince had helped with that investigation, because the alternative was that his client, Corwin Antwerp, ended up convicted of murdering his brother.
And, in the process, Vince had given Commosky more leads and evidence and wished him luck in hunting the owners down.
Those leads had apparently had hit a dead end of some kind, given that Commosky, with all of his Station Authority resources, was turning to Vince for help again.
“Things got a little hairy at the end of that case,” Bella said wryly. “I hope this doesn’t end up with us getting stuffed into shipping containers again.”
A memory of waking up in darkness and realizing he was trapped in a narrow box returned to Vince in a flash. He banished the memory, a fine shudder working its way down his spine. “You and me both. That is not an adventure I’d like to repeat any time soon.”
Blowing on his fragrant tea to cool it, the Finder carried his mug back to his desk and resumed his seat. The desk, he realized suddenly, was a little more off-kilter than he’d thought, but he didn’t feel like righting it this moment. His mind flooded with thoughts of the Ruby Gauntlet.
Starlit and Lumen might not have been responsible for Dent’s murder, but they were probably responsible for other deaths. Vince and Bella had turned up a trail of bodies during the course of their investigation, and Commosky was digging into them.
“Do you think he’s stuck?” Bella leaned forward to prop her elbows on her desk. “Or do you think he’s found something new and he needs your help to investigate it?”
“My gut says he’s stuck.” Vince glanced down at his mug, watching steam rise in swirls. “He wants something, though. That’s for sure.”
“Well, that’s obvious.” Bella waved a hand. “You’d think he’d have the decency to pick something in Zone 5 though, instead of making you trek all the way to him.”
She’d picked up on that too. Vince nodded slowly, considering. Commosky was a good detective, and as far as Station Authority officers went, someone he, Vince, trusted. Mostly. But the man had a hard shell, and he had that proud streak Vince had encountered in other Station Authority officers that was often hard to work around.
A human being simply couldn’t be right all the time. It wasn’t possible, mathematically speaking or otherwise.
“I do have to admire his tenacity.” Vince shook his head. “He knows there’s a deeper mystery—a bigger crime involved—and he’s not about to let a few setbacks stop him.”
Bella huffed. “Well, I’m in as long as we don’t get kidnapped and almost shipped off-station again.”
It was easier to smile about that now than it had been a few weeks earlier, even if the memories weren’t great. Taking another sip of his tea, Vince tried to shift his mind back to his own caseload. Now that the excitement of the power outage was over, he needed to start investigating Mrs. Kawana’s missing sculpture.
Commosky and the Ruby Gauntlet would have to wait until later.
His goatee bristled, but Vince ignored it—or tried to. He had work to do. Paying work.
He swiveled his chair to face his computer terminal on one side of the desk. No point in letting his mind get all wrapped up in a case that wouldn’t earn him a single credit.
Liar, whispered a small voice in the back of his mind. You didn’t get into the Finding business because of money. You did it because you like unraveling mysteries and solving puzzles.
And without a doubt, the Ruby Gauntlet was both of those things.
Vince suppressed sigh, irritated with himself and with Commosky. His gaze strayed to the cool blue numbers floating in the corner of his computer display. It was going to be a long day.
8:30 pm couldn’t come soon enough.
~~~~~
If you enjoyed this, you can pick up an early copy of Blowback in ebook form or a trade paperback via my Kickstarter campaign.