Page 4 of Broken Obsession
“No?” He chuckled darkly. “I don’t know how truthful that is.”
Eden frowned. Was this someone from the kink club after all? Someone he’d interacted with on the Enraptured app? “Do we know each other?”
“Maybe in a past life we did,” came the cryptic reply. “It depends on who you ask.”
“I’m asking you.”
“Then I don’t know. I’m not sure how much I believe in things like that. What about you? What do you believe in?”There was a pause, but it wasn’t long enough to give him time to respond. “Justice? Or...is it vengeance?”
His frown deepened, and he rested it on Galen, silently questioning what was going on, even knowing the investigator wasn’t in any position to explain.
“April thirty-fourth, year X-89B,” the man in the shadows tone changed, as though he were reciting something from memory that he’d once read. “Three dead upon arrival at the scene, one male, two female. No known survivors. Scene of the crime: Quick Grab convenience store and the apartment above it. Assailants entered through the open store. Forced entry at level two.”
“Stop.” Eden didn’t need to hear this. “How did you get a copy of the police report?” Had he stolen it from Galen? The report had been sealed from the public for reasons he still didn’t understand.
“I have my ways.” He sighed, but the sound wasn’t as sharp, like it’d been muffled by a mask. “We’ll move on to the next part then. Galen Stone, age forty-six, ex-detective—on Usurn, not to be confused with an agent of the Intergalactic Police Force. That’d be too good for him.”
Galen grumbled and rocked in the chair, but the ropes tied around his wrists, keeping them secured to the chair arms, held.
“According to his bank statements, he’s been on the Dephik payroll for nearly a decade,” the man said.
“Dephik?” Eden wasn’t seeing the connection.
“As in, the owners of InDepth United, the construction empire. It was built from the ground up by a millionaire who wanted to break away from the control of his parents. Basically, that family is old and new money, if you catch my drift.”
Eden really didn’t, and it must have shown because the man tsked, the first inkling of disappointment in his tone.
“He didn’t even tell you that much?” The man may or may not be looking at Galen now. “Useless prick. Then again, your interests were never his priority, so I guess it makes sense he buried all leads. I thought for sure one of the officers on the case would have leaked at least a list of suspects to you, but apparently not. Note to self, everyone on this side of the planet is incompetent.”
Was he not from this side of the planet? At least with that statement, he’d divulged he was Usurn. In this day and age, with planetary travel so accessible, Eden could be meeting with literally anyone.
“Initially, there were three main suspects for the crimes committed against your family, but the case file, along with any evidence, was destroyed. Galen here happened to have a single name, but that’s only due to the nature of his job.”
“You found something?” Eden momentarily forgot what was really happening, the first rush of hope too great to keep a straight face. Excitedly, he turned to Galen, only for the man in the shadows to scoff at him.
“Found? He’s had that name this entire time, even before you hired him.”
“What?” That couldn’t be right. Eden wouldn’t exactly say they’d become close, but Galen had always been nothing but open and professional with him. There’d been nothing to even hint at what this stranger was suggesting. “You expect me to believe you? Based on what exactly? I don’t know you.”
The man stepped forward until the edge of the ring of light hovering over Galen just barely brushed against his front. He was dressed head to toe in black, literally, with gloves and a mask. A second later, the cyberpunk mask covering the bottom half of his face lit up, stripes of neon red flashing at an angle as though to highlight where his jawline should be.
Whenever the light reached the top part of the mask, the man’s eyes glinted, and Eden caught his breath when he realized how intensely he was currently being stared at.
“You can decide not to believe me,” the man continued. “You could ask me to untie Galen and let you both be on your way. Continue to be played by him and his real employer, and never find the answers you seek. Or,” he tipped his head and slid his hands into the front pockets of his black commando pants, “you could take a leap of faith.”
“Why give me any choices at all?” It’d been Eden’s decision to come all the way out here tonight as well. No one had forced him, and even though the message had told him to come alone, he’d been the one who’d decided to follow that command.
If this person was lying about Galen’s betrayal, would he bother putting on a show like this? If all he’d wanted was to turn Eden against the investigator, it would have been simpler to either show up and tell him directly or slip a folder with proof into his mailbox. He’d done none of those things. Instead, he’d lured Eden here, clearly so he could see Galen panicky and humiliated.
Why?
“It’s for purely selfish reasons, I assure you,” the man responded, and it took Eden a moment to recall what his question had been and realize he wasn’t answering any of the ones he’d just thought of in his head.
“Like what kind of reasons?”
The man grunted. “I have no use for a weak player. Not on my team, or as a rival. If you don’t measure up, this will be the last meeting we have.”
“So this is a test?” A wave of anger overcame him, and Eden clenched his fists tightly at his sides. “You’re using my dead family to test me?”