“I wish I knew. I’d change it. From now on, you’re going to have to come to my office.”
“I’ll have to bill my clients for that time,” Rory said.
“You don’t bill half of your clients, anyway, so it won’t hurt them,” Sebastian said. “What’s up? You didn’t call me down here to talk about my prowess with the fairer sex.”
“You’re right.” Rory slid a file to Sebastian. “Tommy McCarty is a small-time drug dealer who was busted with a variety of drugs, including tranq, which is called the zombie drug. Dealers are mixing the horse tranquilizer, xylazine with fentanyl. When people do a shot of it, they just drop where they are. If, and when, they finally wake up, they are paralyzed.”
“I’ve read about this. It’s called the zombie drug because it creates nasty sores that never go away and causes the skin to rot. Some users have had to have limbs amputated because of it. Others have died,” Sebastian said. “This is some pretty nasty stuff.”
“I agree and so does the district attorney, Sonia. Tommy says that he has physical dirt on the man who is higher up on the food chain. Sonia agreed to get him into the witness protection program and give him immunity if the information pans out.”
“You want me to check it out.” Sebastian stated it as a fact, not a question.
“Yeah. Tommy says that he started selling weed because his friend told him it would be a good way to get out of debt. Then, he was forced to sell harder stuff. He said that there was only one way out of it – death.”
“Do you believe him?”
Rory sighed and ran his fingers through his hair. “My gut says that he is telling the truth.”
“I’ll go with your gut then, and check out his information.” Sebastian closed the file and stood up.
“Thanks, Brother.”
“You can thank me by occupying Mary Ann with the copier or something in the back room so I can get out of here with my clothes intact.”
As soon as he got back to his office, Sebastian started working on Tommy’s background information. He wanted to know more about the source of information first. He had to be credible for his information to be any good in court.
Sebastian had gathered quite a lot of information by the time he was ready to go home. Tommy seemed legit. He prepared a report for Rory and emailed it to him.
Talia was in a lounge chair in her front yard working on her computer. She looked up at him and smiled when he pulled into his driveway.
“Hello,” she said, a little shyly.
“Howdy, neighbor. Working hard I see.”
“Lesson plans -- that and grading papers are going to be my life for the next nine months,” she said.
“Hopefully, you’ll have time for some fun.”
She grinned. “I’m sure I’ll squeeze some in once in a while.”
“Do you ride motorcycles?”
Talia laughed. “No. I have no balance. It was all I could do to ride a bicycle. It’s one thing to fall over and have a thirty-pound bike land on me. It’s quite another to have a five-hundred-pound motorcycle land on me and ride me down the highway. Being flayed alive is in the top five ways I don’t want to die.”
“That’s too bad. The Griffins and our sister club, the Horsemen, are doing a charity run to gather toys for the homeless kiddoes in Albuquerque. You would have fun.”
“It’s definitely a cause I can believe in. I’d be glad to donate either toys or money. Just let me know when the run is.”
“Will do,” he said. He paused for a second and then, without even thinking, he asked, “Do you feel like heading up to the mountain, shifting, and going for a run?”
“Actually, that sounds awesome. I haven’t had a lot of time to get exercise in Albuquerque, and I could use the mental break. Let me put my computer up.”
They talked easily as he drove them to the mountain. They hiked up the trail to where they would shift. She looked around in wonder.
“It’s been so long. I can’t believe it’s been six years since I last came here. It almost feels as though the place is welcoming me home. It’s in my blood.”
“That’s because it is,” he said. “You belong here.”