I NEED A HERO (𝓒𝓞𝓜𝓟𝓛𝓔𝓣𝓔)

CHAPTER TWELVE

"Yeah?" Orr answered. "Hold on, I'll put you on speaker." He pushed the necessary button. "Go ahead."

"Thanks Ranon," said Elian. "Are you all there?"

"All three of us," said Nemera.

"Cha just finished the comparison," said Elian. "The remains we recovered from Roki match the DNA of Idrial Bayu that you recovered from the theatre. It's her."

"Yes!" crowed Tau. "Finally a break!"

"And you're certain that this is Rakshasa's mother?" asked Orr.

"As certain as I can be without absolute proof," replied Elian. "It's not anything you can take to a judge, yet, but it's going to get you there. I've also confirmed that we have DNA from Avrapat Tangor, so we can make that link, also"

"I've found indications of a child, but nothing concrete yet," said Tau. "The Roki document system is convoluted and a record is pretty easy to lose or hide. It's possible that the birth was kept quiet either for the sake of her career or because Tangor wanted it that way. His mate may have gotten hostile over his having a kid with his mistress."

"Isn't it unusual for a Roki female to only have one child?" asked Nemera.

"It is," replied Elian, "but not entirely unheard of. Considering her lifestyle and associates, it may be that she was stressed and so conceived only one kit or perhaps the siblings died. Some areas of Roki don't even register births legally before five or six years of age."

"So we need to connect Idrial Bayu and Tangor with Rakshasa, through document evidence or DNA," said Tau. "Even better if we have both. That means we have a lot of serious digging to do. If I can find a birth certificate it'll help."

"We can't even get a good description of this blasted shadow, much less any DNA," said Nemera.

"We'll get Rakshasa's DNA eventually," said Tau. "And we know it should match Bayu's and Tangor's. I'd really like to get ol' smoke and mirror's birth certificate and have it pop out a name. Even better a picture."

"That would de-ghost the ghost," said Orr.

"So let's dig it out, if it's there," said Nemera, turning back to her workstation.

They got back to work.

Although Tau found mention of a child several places, there was still no birth record. Frustrated at every turn by the vagaries of the Roki public network, he refused to give up. Little by little he accumulated his data, following every lead in hopes it would pay off.

For a woman who had spent only a few months in Simaliki, thought Nemera, there were an inordinate number of pictures taken of Idrial Bayu. Every one had to be checked, and every possible lead covered. The woman was undoubtedly beautiful, but after several hours of studying Bayu's pictures, Nemera thought that there was a weary, haunted look in her eyes. Perhaps it was just imagination on her part, but she saw it nonetheless.

Orr continued to sift through information on Avrapat Tangor. The information was spotty, since the Roki underworld rarely had business outside of the Roki homelands. He did discover some prostitution and gambling interests in Simaliki, back before Gideon Cavanaugh's reforms cleaned up the law enforcement.

It was a long, tedious process, but they were all seasoned investigators. Investigations concerning criminals who buried themselves beneath a layer of underlings often took months of meticulous work to crack. Sure of their direction, they pressed on despite the slow pace.

Tau's injuries were healing swiftly and he was soon working his way back to top form. Nemera made sure he spent some time in the massager each day and Orr had him doing careful stretches and moves. For a week they labored on.