A/N: Shout outs to my anonymous reviewer and James Birdsong! Glad you liked it. Bayram explains himself, not to worry. ;) Thanks!
Chapter 31
"You have a lot of explaining to do Lieutenant," Fiyero gave him a look as Zetti and Duncan grabbed the man and forced him to sit down on the bed.
"I suppose I do. I haven't done anything wrong, though I suppose my presence here doesn't exactly seem like it," Bayram said.
"If you have done anything to Glinda…" Elphaba started.
"I would never. She's too important to me," the Lieutenant told them.
"Start at the beginning and leave nothing out. I don't want to have to tell Glinda that you committed treason," Fiyero's expression had not changed.
"Corporal Morel was my snitch. He kept his ears to the ground for me. This started all before I was forced to become noticeable. When one is the third in line to lead the Gale Force, one does not get much attention thrown your way," Bayram pointed out.
"Until I was sent to find the Captain and that made you head of the Gale Force," Zetti spoke up.
"Quite. Couldn't exactly go running off to meet my informant if I was needed at the Palace," the Lieutenant said.
"Why come all the way out here? What's with the canned food?" Elphaba wanted to know.
"Because we couldn't be interrupted or overheard here. We'd both sneak out and then meet here. I had suspicions that things were going on but I had no proof. Even Morel had no idea that there was an entire contingent of former Gale Force looking to cause trouble. As for the food, sometimes we had to skip a meal to meet up so I snagged some cans so we could eat and talk. Don't ask me about the bed. It was already here, so we just used it as a bench," Bayram told them.
"So he had no idea that the one who entered the house was about to kill him?" Fiyero asked.
"My guess was that if he had any concerns, he never would have opened that door. Besides, I thought you found the real carriage driver asleep in his beer," the Lieutenant said.
"We did. Someone told him, he had the day off, and he decided to spend it in the pub," Sergeant Duncan spoke up.
"So you tell the guy to have a day off but then you go and kill two people, while severely wounding a third? Why not just kill the carriage driver?" Bayram raised an eyebrow.
"We were hoping the note in Morel's pocket would give us a lead," Fiyero shook his head.
"It was going to be our first time meeting up after this whole thing started. Once he'd delivered Kahui to the courthouse, it was the end of his shift. I had an opening in my schedule so I figured we could catch up. I was hoping that he had some leads. Instead I hear he's been killed and so was the man he was sworn to protect. Since he was gone, I didn't bother to show up yesterday. Then I heard you guys were heading out somewhere and I wondered where to. I decided to follow you. Probably shouldn't have been surprised you found something to lead you here," Bayram heaved a sigh.
"He put the note in his pocket. Doctor Talib found it," Elphaba explained.
"The message should have been coded. I figured you had Boq decode it, which is why it took you so long to come here," the Lieutenant was confused.
"It wasn't coded," Zetti chimed in. Baki suddenly screamed out. It was a warning. He could hear something that they couldn't.
"Whoever killed Morel used a fake note to bring us here," Fiyero said.
"It was a trap," Elphaba told them.
To Be Continued…