Making the Rent the Hard Way - 17

"Are you sure you want to help me?" Luca asked. "I have the feeling it could become dangerous."

I smirked. "I live for danger."

"Uh-huh. If you say so. I'm not kidding, though. Farnham's not looking for me to make nice."

"Yeah, I get that. Since I don't like what you've told me about what he and his cronies are planning, I'd like to help stop them. But"—I held up a finger—"I need to hear the recording first."

"Don't you trust me?" Luca asked, scowling. Then he relented. "You have no more reason to do that than I have to fully trust you."

"There you go. Before you ask, I don't want to go wherever you're hiding out, on the off chance Farnham does have someone following me."

"I wouldn't take you there, anyway. We need neutral ground, somewhere he doesn't know about. My being here is bad enough."

"By the way, how did you find out I lived here?" I asked.

"You've heard of the phone book, haven't you? Both your office and home address are listed in the online one."

"I must be losing it," I muttered.

Luca chuckled. "You're tired and stressed."

"That's no damned excuse." I sighed. "Okay. Where would you feel safe meeting me with the recording?"

"I don't know. Let me figure that out and I'll call you."

"I take it you're leaving? One question before you do, if you don't mind. You're a graphic artist. How did you… Why were you working at Farnham's restaurant?"

"Long story short, I was there one evening several months ago with a client. I saw two of the shifters I mentioned earlier, a councilman and the police chief, go into one of the back rooms with Farnham. That caught my attention and not in a good way, since I was aware of the rumors about Farnham's plans, though not the details, at that point. So, a couple of days later I got a job there. I told Farnham I needed extra money because I'd lost a couple of clients to a competitor. He bought it."

"Okay. And you've been spying on him ever since?"

"Yeah." He nodded. "Okay, time for me to get going. I've been here too long as it is. I'll be in touch." With that, he pulled a vanishing act, teleporting away before I had a chance to reply.

With him gone, I took the time to process everything he'd told me. The idea that some of the politicians who ran the city were shifters pretending to be human was definitely alarming, to put it mildly. Proving it to the satisfaction of the general populace would be difficult, not to say dangerous, without Luca's recording. And I gathered, from what he'd told Rocky, he needed more than that before he could come forward.

Sure, I could walk up to the chief of police and announce, in front of whoever was around, that he was a shifter. A lot of people knew about my ability and trusted in it. I had the feeling, though, that if I did that, one of two things would happen. He'd say I had a political agenda and was lying to get him out of office, or I'd be dead before I managed to get out two words. Then they'd say I had been about to attack him and plant a gun on me to prove it.

For the moment, there was nothing I could do. I had until next Tuesday to come up with my first report for Farnham about what progress I was making on finding Luca. If nothing broke before then, I'd fake something, because, selfishly, I needed what he'd owe me for the week's work. Man—well, this man—cannot live by doing background checks and tailing errant husbands.

Speaking of which, I'd missed doing that tonight, so I made a mental note to remember to tail him tomorrow—well, this evening, since it was now after midnight. Nothing would come of it, because his wife wanted to find out what woman he was playing around with. I could honestly say he wasn't—and it wouldn't be a lie. Then I'd write her a final report and end the case.

With that decided, I took a shower then headed to bed.