Chapter 7: More Questions Than Answers

Marcus watched the animal control truck to pull off, with Travis drugged and unconscious in the back, chuckling to himself. Let’s see the sonofabitch get out of that one. Marcus stepped back into Travis’ house and closed the door. Now, he could take his time looking around. Travis didn’t strike him as being particularly imaginative or creative. So, Marcus headed for the bedroom and checked underneath the bed. He found a velvet-lined drawer filled with stiletto knives. That was interesting.

So, Travis liked to get up close and personal with his wet work. Marcus supposed that made sense. As a shapeshifter, Travis could shift into the guise of someone trusted. By the time the victim figured out he was not who he appeared to be, the knife was already twisting inside of them. It was a surprise to find half a dozen vials of pharmaceutical grade Amytal Sodium in a black zippered pouch, tucked away in the drawer. Truth serum. What the hell was Travis doing with truth serum? More importantly, where did he get it?

He was far too impulsive and amateurish to have been recruited by the secret service. Travis must be working for someone who wanted information. Did he intend to use that stuff on Cat? Once they got what they wanted, what would happen to her? Luca Moretti was the only person in town, whom Marcus knew used Amytal Sodium on people. If he was the one who had set Travis on Cat’s trail, then anyone who interfered would be in danger as well. Marcus felt as though the rug had been pulled out from under him. If Travis mentioned him to Moretti, was there a target on his back now too?

Marcus realized that he needed to finish searching the house and vacate the premises quickly. There was no telling how long it had been, since Travis had checked in with his boss. Moretti was the kind of man who kept tabs on his minions. For all Marcus knew, one of Moretti’s thugs might be outside watching the house and lying in wait to punish Travis for his impertinence. With Travis being incommunicado, the first place they would most likely check was his house. Marcus rushed through the rest of his search and let himself out via the back door. Better to take a roundabout route to his car, then to get caught walking through Travis’ front door.

When his friend Chester had asked him to find Cat, Marcus figured it wouldn’t take more than a few hours or a day to find her. This undertaking was beginning to feel more like peeling back the layers of an onion; the more he peeled away the more things stank. Marcus was beginning to wonder if Chester had told shared everything he knew about his sister’s disappearance. Their mother had been a lot more forthcoming, despite Marcus having been a stranger to her. It still bothered to him that his friend never disclosed the fact that he was a magic practitioner. What else was he hiding?

Marcus knew without asking that Chester would claim that he never meant to be deceptive and point out that Marcus had never asked, so he never lied about it. Wasn’t failing to disclose something like that still deceptive? Marcus had blindly trusted his friend and waded into this mystery up to his neck. He still had no idea what Cat had gotten herself into or why. Who else was looking for her? It was time to pay his friend Chester a little visit. Marcus was going to get the truth, even if he had to shake it out of him.