The Four Chimes

Chapter 19 - LERA

I walked up the narrow flight of stairs to Ari's apartment, glad that this would be the last time I had to go to another planning session. Unless, I reminded myself, they found something. I chuckled to myself as I rang the doorbell. They wouldn't have found the evidence if it fell in front of their feet.

The door swung open. "Hey, Lera!" said Tanta. "So glad you could make it." Paile very slightly smiled and gave a gruff nod from where he was sitting on the couch.

Ari stood in the corner. "Nice to see you," he said quietly.

Kurie grabbed me by the wrist and took me over to an armchair. "Have a seat. You're gonna need it once you find out what we got."
Paile shot Kurie a dirty look. "We don't have that much—"

Kurie ran over, shushing him. "Don't let her know that!" he whispered. He wasn't very good at keeping his voice low.

I leaned in. "So, what do you have?"

"A lot!" said Tanta. "So, you know how Faro was the Minister of Magic?"

"Yes." I nodded my head.

"She's in control of the nation's chaita supply."

"I know that."

"Basically," said Tanta, "she opposed chaita-powered technological weapons, and as a result Janie Mara killed her so she wouldn't get in his way."

"You make an interesting point," I said. I wasn't lying either. I almost wanted it to be true. This would have been the biggest puzzle I had ever solved. If it were true. "How do you know about all this in the first place?" I asked.

"They bothered us about it until we gave in," said Ari. "Then we showed them a letter which had some pretty big evidence towards Faro not being suicidal." Damn. I really didn't give Paile and Tanta enough credit. I didn't even expect them to go to Ari and Kurie for help.

I smirked. "Still not the goldmine of intel you were expecting, huh?"

"It's a lot harder than it looks," said Paile defensively.

"Still pretty impressive," I said.

"Thanks," said Tanta.

"Well, listen. I'm not going to beat around the bush," I said. "We need more proof. This is just the tip of the iceberg. We need more. We still don't know anything about Savonal Staffing Solutions. We barely know anything about Janie Mara. Does he have any accomplices? Is there someone controlling him? We basically know nothing. We need more."

Paile shrugged. "That's all we got."

"Well, then we need to find more out," I said. "Could you, Tanta, and Ari look for information about Savonal Staffing Solutions?"

"We could ask around Rhoes Derassitu," said Paile. "I wouldn't be surprised if some of the patrons were hitmen themselves."

"And is there any other lead we can follow? Anyone who might know about Faro Ghera?"

"She has a daughter," Ari said. "But... I'm pretty sure she won't be happy to hear us spewing conspiracies about her dead mother."

That was true, but she seemed to be the only connection we knew of... "What if we showed her the letter?"

Ari shrugged. "Maybe. But I'm still not totally on board."

"Got any better ideas?"

Ari looked down at the carpet. "No. I don't."

"Okay, then. Kurie and I will track down her daughter—What's her name?"

"Esfea," said Kurie.