"It's just some clothes!" Zana clutched the bundle to her chest and glared at Galen. "It's not heavy, and you don't need to cuddle me! Dr. Aldo said I was fine!"
"It's not about the weight, but about you not trudging up and down those stairs a hundred times," Galen argued, but he made no move to grab for the clothes. "That woman beat you up like a street thug!"
"He's right, for once." Alan gently pulled the bundle from her hands, and steered her towards the door. "Why don't you go down and have an eye on Pete while we finish packing up here? He's a bit... a bit..."
He paused, and Zana glanced up into his worried face and decided that it wasn't a ruse to get her out of the way. According to Alan, Peet had won the race only because his mind had jumped back to that day the bounty hunters had captured him; trapped in that memory, Peet had run for his life, and had overtaken the whole racing field, winning by several lengths.
And immediately after that desperate flight, he had been caught by apes, even if those apes had been officers of the Sapan town watch, and had been taken away, and thrown into a cell.
Junior had brought back Pete this morning, and after one look into his shuttered face, Zana had retreated upstairs and busied herself with throwing things into backpacks, and getting under everyone's feet. She hadn't forgotten Peet's last outburst against her, and she had a feeling he wasn't too fond of seeing an ape now.
"I think it would be better if it was your eyes on him than mine," she demurred, but Alan shook his head.
"This is a world of apes, whether Pete likes it or not," he said. "He can't keep running away from that fact."
"And I'm to be the object for his aversion therapy?" Zana asked, irritated. "Alright, I'll sit my butt into the wagon while you two champions clean up here." She stalked away before the human could say anything.
She changed her mind immediately when she saw the sole visitor in the guestroom.
Rogan rose from his seat, and for once, his quick once-over didn't feel flirtatious, but like genuine concern. "How are you, Alta?"
"Fi- better. It still hurts when I laugh, so don't try to be funny." She slowly made her way over to him, and sank into the chair he pulled out for her. "I hope you're not here to take my human back. I won't allow that."
Rogan sat down across from her with a lopsided smile. "Mothers forbid that I try to wrest your human from your hands, Alta. No, I thought you might be curious about the case, and about the latest gossip before you leave."
"I wouldn't have thought you to be a gossip, Constable," Zana teased.
"Well, nothing's official yet, so what else should I call it?" Rogan grinned. "First things first - Halda survived, and we had a very interesting chat with her this morning. She's willing to tell us everything about her deal with Olman, and about Olman's deals with the Chief, and the Prefect." He leaned back in his seat, his grin becoming feral now. "I alerted the District Chief to the latest developments, and for the time being, Chief Tugal is taking an extended holiday, while I'm Acting Chief of the watch."
"Congratulations on your field promotion, Acting Chief," Zana said dryly. "What kind of payment has Halda been promised for her services?"
"I detect a note of disapprovement in your voice, Alta," Rogan chided her. "Would you've preferred it that we kill a bushcat, and let the hyena continue to ravage the valley with Blaze? And not just this valley."
Zana regarded him steadily. "You haven't answered my question."
Rogan scratched his head. "She'll be spared the gallows. She'll go to jail for many years, but her children will still have a mother they can visit. Weren't you worried about her little kids?"
"And where will they live between those visits?" Zana wanted to know. "Who will feed and clothe them? Love them?"
She had agonized over these questions for the last three days. Halda had no living relatives, and neither had her late husband. It was a very unusual constellation - normally, orphans were taken in by some aunt, or distant cousin, but both families had been killed in one of the landslides that were common in the deforested parts of the mountains.
She even had fantasized about adopting Iska and Evon herself, but luckily, common sense had asserted itself by morning. Not only would it be more than obscene if the woman who had brought their mother to the gallows would now become their substitute mother, but a life on the run from Urko was much too dangerous for two little children. Zana had already lost her own baby to those dangers; it would be irresponsible to put another woman's children at the same risk.
"Morla has agreed to take them in," Rogan interrupted her brooding.
"Is that a good idea?" Zana asked, doubtful. "Halda had killed her daughter - surely she must feel resentful of the whole family..."
"You're insulting Morla now, Alta," Rogan said softly. "She doted on the kids, saw them almost as her own grandchildren. She had given up hope that any man would put up with Felga's, ah, temperament. When she got the court's permission this morning, she looked happier than I've seen her ever since Felga died."
"Oh. Alright then," Zana murmured. "I'm glad things have worked out for the children."
"They also worked out nicely for your friend Levar," Rogan said. "We released him from jail this morning, too. I heard he's planning to buy up Vilam's kennel now."
A pack of hyenas, that's what Felga had called the kennel owners. Zana silently agreed with her.
"And, " Rogan continued, and now he was positively smirking, "it turns out that Felga had named him as her successor for the shelter. Chairman Levar. I don't know about you, but I find the irony delicious."
Galen and Alan came down the stairs, packed like mules and pointedly ignoring her and Rogan. Rogan turned in his seat to watch them stumble towards the door and into the gray morning.
"You know, it's a good idea not to linger," he said when he turned back to her.
He was probably right, but there were so many things about this case Zana didn't understand; she just had to ask, or they would be haunting her for weeks to come. "Did Halda also explain why she dumped Felga's body on Levar's estate, only to then drag me into this whole investigation by swearing it couldn't have been him?"
Rogan regarded her for a moment, probably wondering if he shouldn't usher her out of the door. "Well, it seems Halda thought that if anyone deserved to be framed for Felga's murder, it should be Olman," he said finally. "I remember he refused to pay the disability pension for Felga's father, even though the man had his accident while working for him. Maybe Halda thought that framing him would make up for her killing Felga?
"But Olman was off-limits to her - she'd never have gotten past his security. So she deposited Felga's body on Levar's ground, because she thought he'd be easily exonerated."
Zana raised her brows. "Because of his secret relationship with Felga?"
Rogan nodded. "Halda had some very romantic ideas about secret lovers - she was completely taken aback when I didn't release Levar, just because he had been sleeping with Felga. I guess if we had excluded Levar from our list of suspects, Halda's next step would've been to drop hints about Olman's drug business. I mean, Felga had been on Olman's tail since forever, so her finding out about his use of the shelter to smuggle Blaze would've been a solid motive for him to finally get rid of her."
Instead, Halda had to come up with a different tactic to get the "right" person to the gallows, Zana mused. And an outsider promised to be easily manipulated, lacking the intimate knowledge of Sapan's secrets. Maybe she had also caught on to Rogan's affection for Zana. It was true that Rogan had listened to her more than he would - and probably should - normally have.
It must've greatly distressed Halda when she had locked onto Vilam instead. "What about Vilam's murder?" Zana wondered.
Rogan shook his head. "It was probably her, too, we just can't prove she was even at the racetrack that night. True, we found a wound on her shoulder, where Liquid Fire said he slashed his attacker that night - but a human can't be called as a witness, you know that. And even if we could pin Vilam's death on Halda, it wouldn't change her deal. I know it irks you, Alta, but Olman is the one I'm after. Halda is just a very convenient source for me now, especially after she told us where she stashed the drug for him."
Olman had been using the shelter's vases - the art objects - to smuggle Blaze to the City and its surrounding prefectures. Halda had been tweaking off some of it, but had vigorously denied that she had provided Vilam with it.
Zana wondered if Rogan would ever find out what had been going on between those two - had Vilam blackmailed Halda into giving him the drug for his own racers? Had he become too greedy, and she had felt forced to kill him off, before he could report her to the police? Had he tried to convince Halda to turn herself in, too, like Zana had urged him to do for himself?
Was Rogan even interested in finding out?
"This feels so... unsatisfying," she murmured. "Halda is getting off easy for what she has done. She won't even be tried for trying to kill me, or Dehni."
"We could include her assault on you in the indictment," Rogan conceded. "But then you'd have to stay around, to make your statement before the court, and... I don't think that'd be wise."
Zana slowly raised her gaze to him, dread clutching at her chest. "Why is that?" she whispered.
Rogan moistened his lips, and turned away to stare at the open door, where Galen hovered, clearly signaling her that everyone was just waiting for her to stop chatting with the police.
"Felga's brother is on his way here," Rogan murmured, his eyes fixed on Galen, who stared back, frozen to the spot like a mouse before a snake. "You know, the one who was badgering me to join the City's watch under Chief General Urko."
"Well, he can't be mad at me," Zana said, and cursed the slight tremble in her voice. "I helped finding his sister's murderer."
"True," Rogan said slowly. "But I'm not sure his gratitude would override his sense of duty. Nelva is under orders... as you know."
The dizziness returned with such force that Zana had to grip the edge of the table to steady herself. For a moment, she couldn't think, couldn't see or hear, except for the incredibly high note ringing in her ears.
Nelva. And Rogan... "How did you know?" she finally whispered.
"I'm good at my job," Rogan said tiredly, "even if I didn't catch Halda."
"Why aren't you arresting me then?"
Rogan flicked her an annoyed glare. "Don't tempt me."
"No, I... I just don't understand it." Zana nervously brushed her hands along the edge of the table. "I'm very grateful..."
"I don't really want to think too much about it myself," Rogan admitted, "I don't want to risk my sense of duty suddenly kicking in. So better get going now, before I have to change my mind."
She really didn't want to - she had so many questions left, like how probable it was that Olman managed to wiggle out of this investigation again, and if that would spell trouble for Rogan...
But he was right - Urko had caught up to them again, and there was no time.
Zana rose, and to her surprise, felt a surge of sadness well up inside her. She forced herself to smile at Rogan. "I'll miss Sapan, despite everything."
Rogan smiled back, a tinge of sadness in his eyes, too. "Safe travels, Alta." He had the good sense to sit down again, and not bring her to the door, where Galen was still waiting, clearly impatient by now.
When they stepped out of the inn, the sky was hanging low and gray, and a cold gust made her shiver. Galen handed her her woolen scarf, and Zana gratefully wrapped herself into it, and climbed up to the passenger's seat. She turned around to make sure both humans were safely in the back - Alan was already busy with his leather work; Peet had crawled under his bedsheets and was fast asleep, or pretending to be.
Galen flicked the lines, and Zana turned back to face the street again. A light but steady drizzle was beginning to coat the wood of the footrest, and glazed Tala's and Ahpahchee's croupes.
Alan's words about Peet came back to her. Ever since he had been returned from Urko's hands, Peet had been... troubled. Zana had no idea how to help him, but suspected that Alan would expect her to come up with a solution - after all, she had studied humans professionally, hadn't she? No matter that her subjects had been sweet little toddlers who had never suffered under Urko.
But when, when, when would they have the time to take care of Peet's wounds? With Urko hunting them up and down the prefectures, relentlessly, mercilessly...
And what about her own grief? Galen's? Alan's?
Rogan had wished her safe travels; but Zana was tired of traveling.
I wish for a safe haven, Rogan. And I pray that the Mothers may have mercy on us, and let us finally find one.
Behind her, Sapan vanished into a shroud of mist and rain.