Downsized Hero 2 Ch 11

I checked the identity of my unwanted visitor via location, and was sorely tempted to ignore them and go back to work. Especially now that there was a dragon drone in my house. But I figured this was probably as convenient a moment as I was going to get, and I might as well get it over with. I stood. "Draco, stay silent for now. We have company." I saw her head swivel in my direction, then bob once in acknowledgement. Satisfied, I moved to the entryway.

I peered through the peephole to double-check the visitor's identity. I recognized the same navy blue bomber jacket and tie-less light-blue button-down adorning the form of Detective Flores. I took a breath, unlocked the deadbolt, and opened the door.

"Mr. Carrigan, hello again." The voice was a friendly match for the warm smile, but the eyes were narrowed and inquisitive.

"Detective Flores. To what do I owe this pleasure?" I said with no pleasure at all.

His eyebrows went up slightly. "I'm pleased you remembered me."

"You were here yesterday," I observed deadpan.

"And yet, so much has happened since then. May I come in?" He gestured with one arm still in his pocket toward the interior of my home.

I took a breath in through my nose, and let it out slowly, watching him the whole time. "What is this about?" I turned on Augur's Insight, and immediately felt the sharp probing pressure from him, as well as a different kind of curiosity mixed in.

"Simply following up on recent events. I spoke with a mutual friend at the Dawn City Police Department yesterday. It seems you were at the scene of a second suspicious death. Along with a friend." He spoke softly and evenly, but I could sense his interrogative regard like a buffeting wind against me. It didn't feel like he would go away if I just asked. And, truthfully, I could use the distraction.

"Sure, why don't you come in," I said, stepping back and holding open the door wide. I sensed caution and confusion from him at my sudden willingness as he stepped gingerly inside. "Please excuse the mess. I've been too busy being hospitalized and kidnapped to clean up."

As he was busy looking around the hall, I walked past him to the front room. "Do you want anything to drink, a cup of coffee, or tea perhaps?" I asked, turning around at the kitchen entrance.

"Coffee would be appreciated, thanks." He smiled back, eyes still wandering and taking in the room. "You got some expensive toys," he commented, and I looked back to see him focused on Draco on the floor.

"That's a prototype." I looked at Draco resting on the floor. She looked inert. "We're investigating taking our creation to market. Have to pay the bills somehow."

"We?" A spark of interest. "Would that be Ms. Khan by any chance?"

"Yes," I said bluntly, cursing inwardly. Then I turned back to the kitchen and I busied myself making another cup of coffee. A moment later I heard his footsteps behind me.

"Had some kind of party last night?" he asked, nodding to the pizza boxes and empty bottles of wine.

I looked over and regarded him tiredly. "Why are you here, Detective Flores? Are you here to tell me how finding the body of one of the men responsible for framing me, and then being kidnapped and escaping his accomplice are against the law now?" I pushed the finished cup of coffee at him, and watched him fumble removing his hands from his jacket pockets to accept it. Then I walked back to the front room, not caring whether he followed me or not, and sat down again on the couch. Taiga had, unusually for her, remained seated this whole time, front legs tucked under, and eyes slitted. Her back was toward me, and her ears flicked toward the kitchen doorway as Detective Flores followed me back.

"I can't figure you out, Mr. Carrigan." He stood, looking down at me holding his mug with a half smile, but I sensed the unexpected truth from him. Confusion and curiosity were roiling off him like steam. "Two of the three people involved in framing you died mysteriously, and you happen to be there both times they're found." He took a seat in my lounge chair, glancing briefly down at Draco's form on the ground before returning his inquisitive gaze to me. "I can't tell whether you're a magnet for misfortune, or you're the luckiest guy on Earth."

"That makes two of us," I replied. In my mind I thought, Your math's off, Detective. There are at least four.

"Bruce Paap likely weighed near as much as you and Ms. Khan put together." He took a sip from his hot mug, watching me over the rim of the cup, before setting it on the coffee table. He didn't use a coaster. "And Mr. van den Berg had a gun. Per your statement, you were both incapacitated and bound." He leaned forward, hands grasped between his knees. "How did you possibly get out of that situation?"

"If you read our statements, you know how," I replied, giving Taiga a scritch between the ears. She closed her eyes in enjoyment, but her ears were alert.

"I want to hear it from you," he pressed, his smile unwavering.

"Magic," I smiled back darkly, rubbing Taiga's cheek. She finally closed her eyes all the way, and leaned into my hand.

His smile disappeared, replaced by a thoughtful expression. He leaned back in the chair, hands still clasped in front of him. The sense of frustration and confusion both rose, but a wariness and consideration were now emanating off of him as well.

"According to Mr. van den Berg, he was tricked into going to that warehouse by Mr. Paap and Ms. Khan. That they fought over something, and he tried to defend himself, only to get walloped by you from behind." He chuckled briefly. "He was very insistent that he was taken unawares, and things would have been different if he'd heard you coming. He was adamant that the officer taking his statement get that right." His grin was wry and genuine.

"Thorsten's an ass," I agreed.

"Well, the circumstances tend not to favor Mr. van den Berg's version of events." He leaned back in the chair, putting his hands back in his jacket pockets and regarding me thoughtfully. I sensed he was considering a gamble, and decided to do it. "Particularly as he skipped his arraignment hearing this morning."

"What?" I sat up, alert.

"Oh yes, he's gone missing." He tracked me from the chair like a coiled snake. "Has he tried to contact you?"

"No. I suspect I'm the last person Thorsten wants to see right now." Thorsten's on the run? Or was he taken out like Bruce, disposed of to cover tracks? This was ominous.

"Maybe so. He sure had a grudge against you and Ms. Khan, though." He chewed the inside of his lip like he wasn't sure how my reaction tasted. I sensed he read my reaction as genuine. But he was frustrated I didn't give him more. I felt him change tactics. "His car was reported abandoned last night outside a warehouse in Dominion City. We also found evidence of large animals held at that location. Some kind of cat. Thorsten a game hunter or something?" Genuine curiosity and puzzlement. It didn't fit in with any theory of the crime he had.

I was equally puzzled. "Not that I know of. Thorsten didn't strike me as the outdoors type." He seemed the kind of guy to bring a trailer containing a full media entertainment center into any trip longer than two hours.

"At any rate," the detective brushed the topic away as irrelevant, returning to his interrogation. "Your story has its own issues. Your friend was treated at the scene for abrasions and marks consistent with being abducted and in a fight. You, though," he punctuated his words with a nod in my direction, "were entirely unharmed. Not so much as a papercut. Why so gentle with you?" He smiled wide, showing off his white teeth.

"I don't consider what they did 'gentle,'" I said frostily. He waited, and I added, "I was able to free myself. The ties must not have been pulled tight."

"That's all?" he pressed, his lips now pursed in vexation.

"What else do you want to hear?" I asked, narrowing my eyes. "I was 'lucky'. You said it yourself."

Another lengthy silence descended. His annoyance and confusion were warring within him. I wondered how much longer this was going to last. I thought about turning off Augur's Insight, since it wasn't really giving me a whole lot more than I could see from Detective Flores' face. Other than that underlying thread of uncertainty and confusion, he wasn't really hiding much. It was obvious he wasn't getting what he wanted from me.

"We also found missing evidence from the home of Mr. Hu," he continued, "which places our unfortunate Mr. Paap at the scene of Mr. Hu's death at around the time he died." His attention was fully on me as if he would peel away my skull to read the thoughts in my head. "Did you know Mr. Paap was there, Mr. Carrigan?"

"I didn't know it was him, but we heard someone moving around. I told the police at the time." At least, I thought I did. I paused, weighing the risks. "I saw a man's glove on the ground while we were there, but felt it was better to leave it alone given the circumstances." I looked down at my hands. "It wasn't until Bruce abducted us both that I realized it could have been him. He could have wiped Jon's video footage from Jon's phone, using Jon's face to unlock it." I looked up at Detective Flores again. "But it doesn't make any sense. You said Jon definitely killed himself. But Bruce and Thorsten talked about 'taking care of Jon'. Does that mean he was murdered after all?"

Detective Flores frowned, and I could sense the mild irritation at this line of questioning. "If Mr. Hu was murdered, it was done in a way that left no traces." He paused, and I could feel him weighing how much truth to reveal. "No, we think Mr. Paap discovered Mr. Hu in that state and took the opportunity to rifle through his office, maybe for something that would incriminate him in their other dealings." He sighed performatively, then added, "If anything, we might be able to show callous indifference if Mr. Hu could be proven to still be alive at the same time Mr. Paap was there. But that's somewhat moot now, thanks to you. And Ms. Khan, of course."

We sat there again in an awkward quiet. I could tell he was trying to use the silence to get me to volunteer something more, but I simply sipped my coffee and waited. I'd opened my location to surreptitiously look at my map again. Zoya was somewhere in the South Halo, not at home. From the shape of the building and size of the parking lot outside, it was a big-box store of some kind. I checked for a red dot anywhere in her vicinity, but there wasn't one. I could feel Draco's attention in my direction, but otherwise she remained motionless.

After a few more uncomfortable moments, Detective Flores' face gradually fell to a frown.

"You are a cold man, Mr. Carrigan. I can't figure you at all." I felt nothing but the absolute truth from him in that statement.

◆◆◆

After a few more rounds of unproductive questions and retellings, Detective Flores finally left, advising me again to inform the police if I was going to travel. I closed the door on his insincere smile and turned back down the hall toward the kitchen. I needed another coffee after all of that. Actually, I could go with something a bit more alcoholic than that, but I wasn't ready to start drinking in the morning all alone. Not yet, anyway.

**Is my mistress in danger, Hero?** Draco intercepted me as I passed the front room, hovering now in the air.

"No more than before. Nothing imminent, at any rate, according to my map," I reassured her, but she didn't resume her tasks. We both remained around the sofa, silently contemplating what we'd learned.

Thorsten on the run was worrying. While he was less of a physical threat than Bruce had been, he was unpleasantly hyperfocused on Zoya.

I took out my phone. I had an urge to call Zoya and Cate and check to see if they were okay. It would be good to warn them both, too. But I couldn't think of how to do that in a way that wouldn't reveal more than I wanted to let on to someone listening in. We were absolutely on the radar of the police, and I didn't know what kind of resources Bruce and Thorsten's backers had.

I was overthinking it. But the memory of yesterday's attack wouldn't let me go completely.

I opened the text app, and added both women to a group chat. "Miss you," I typed, and hit send. I waited. A few moments later, Cate reacted with a heart to my text. I sat gripping my phone, staring at the screen for what felt like an eternity. Finally I saw a typing indicator from Zoya. The text came through:

*Miss you 2 baby : kiss mark*

My heart relaxed in my chest. I picked up my coffee mug and started toward the kitchen with my phone in my hand, thinking about how to extend the conversation.

"Hello again, Our Hero!" called out a familiar voice as I entered.