Cloak of Masks by Cloak of Masks (epub)

Author:Cloak of Masks (epub)
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 0000000000000
Published: 2022-11-17T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 11: A Plausible Story

On the morning of June 26th, Fell Warren eased her car into one of the strip mall’s parking spots.

She took a deep breath, collecting herself and calming her mind. She needed to be calm.

After almost two years of searching, seeking, and digging, she might finally have what she had sought.

An eyewitness to what had happened the night of Kyle’s death.

She had spoken to witnesses before. Everything that had happened that night at Arnold Brauner’s charity dinner had been classified, the records sealed in UNICORN far beyond Fell’s level of access. But there had been hundreds of guests and workers and caterers at the event, and not all of them cared about UNICORN classification rules or even knew they existed. From them, Fell had pieced together a semi-coherent account of what had happened. Nadia MacCormac had entered the basketball arena with some companions and had spoken with Arnold Brauner and Duke Tamirlas, and then Shadowlands creatures had appeared out of nowhere and attacked, hideous wolf-like things that killed with claws and fangs.

After that, the account became confused. The Homeland Security officers had fought the wolf-things. Some of the guests and workers claimed that the officers had transformed into the wolf-creatures, which Fell didn’t believe. People often saw things that hadn’t happened in moments of stress. A majority of the guests had been escorted out of the arena under the pretext of a gas leak before the fighting had begun, and they hadn’t seen anything of note after that.

The surviving Homeland Security and MSPD officers that had actually seen and participated in the fighting wouldn’t talk to Fell. Oh, they would speak to her, of course, and offer condolences about Kyle’s death, but they all repeated the same story. The incident at Brauner’s charity dinner had been a terrorist attack carried out by a renegade summoner, and Kyle Warren had died protecting civilians from harm.

They all repeated the same words closely enough that Fell knew it was what they had been instructed to say if anyone inquired about the incident. Not one of the officers would deviate from that story. They all knew the penalties for mishandling classified information, and the retired officers had pensions they feared to lose while the younger officers thought of their careers.

Jeffrey Clauser, though, was different.

Kirby’s investigations had borne fruit. Like Fell, Clauser had been divorced twice. Unlike Fell, Clauser was paying alimony to both ex-wives, and he was barely squeaking by on his pension. He had children from both wives, none of whom were on speaking terms with him, and (according to Clauser) were ungrateful for all the sacrifices he had made. Fell, who had spent a lot of time listening to people lie to her, knew maudlin self-justification when she heard it. She also had the benefit of Clauser’s service record, courtesy of Kirby, which showed that Clauser had just barely avoided getting dismissed from service due to consistently poor evaluations and had almost been convicted of accepting bribes, though the charges hadn’t stuck.

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