Among The Wolves

Investigation

My mind was made. I was going to bring justice to myself. Not only that, I was going to confiscate Mrs. Mu's key to my room. The killer managed to get it unlocked and I can only assume with Mrs. Mu's copy of my key. All her keys were exposed so anyone could have easily taken the key.

I had seen a key or two go through the garbage disposal. So it was not likely going to be hard to find a placebo key.
However,  the first thing I was going to do was get information. Right now, information was gold. And I could obtain it from the workers here. There were about forty people that worked on this side of the wall and all the other wolfbloods worked inside the wall. Obviously, I only had access to the forty but that was still plenty. If there was one thing I learned in the past month it was that gossip was ready for harvest 24/7. Not only that, but I knew my first target. Bal'Tiq, that guy's ego could touch that sun, which made him an easy choice.

I headed for the horse stables as I had just seen him earlier brushing down all the horses. As I approached the barn I noticed a tall blond girl in the distance entering into the office building. I had not seen her before. Shrugging, I kept walking. When I entered the stables I grabbed an empty trash bag. Just as information was gold, discretion was security.

I heard a bucket clutter in one of the stables. I took a peek into it. He was brushing down Alpha G'por'r's prime horse. The biggest and meanest horse in the stables. If I even showed my face when emptying the trash he would make the most horrid sounds, sounding like he was sending death threats.

I made myself visible. "Hey Bal'Tiq, have you seen my-" I started to casually ask before I exclaimed, "Oh wow! That's a big horse."

Bal'Tiq paused his brushing to look at me. He grinned proudly. "Yep, he sure is. I would stay away though. This horse doesn't like strangers. He'll only let me and Alpha G'por'r near him."

I saw Bal'Tiq push out his chest like a rooster. Seriously? "Really?" I asked, portraying interest. "Will he let other animals near him?"

Bal'Tiq shook his head. "The only things he lets come near him are the Alpha and me."

I let out an exaggerated gasp, "Not even chickens?"

"Nope, he'd take his hoof and smash their heads." He laughed.

I needed to steer the conversation to the dead girl. "Oh my, the egg collector would probably hate him for killing his chickens."

Bal'Tiq shrugged, "I honestly don't think he or anybody would care."

Perfect! "Not even the old collector would care?"

Bal'Tiq raised an eyebrow at the question. I gulped but continued to feign innocence and interest. After a few seconds of intense silence, he finally opened his mouth. "You do realize that the egg collector before him was the girl who died... right?"

A hand flew to my mouth, "What? Really? I mean, I knew that the girl who died was a worker but..." I trailed off, guilt hitting me hard for saying a bold face lie.

Bal'Tiq shrugged again. "I doubt that the drug-addict would have cared anyway."

Now I was getting somewhere, "How do you know she was a drug-addict?"

"Her system was full of moonshine when the police found her." My eyebrow shot up. What the nut? Moonshine? I-it-what?? That makes no sense.

Bal'Tiq stopped talking and looked at me squarely. "You shouldn't ask about her. You are a human, you won't be able to understand such things. It gets very complicated and probably too much for you to handle." He paused for a small second. "Did you know that wolf-bloods are bigger by size? I may be a unique exception yet data show we have more muscle mass."