Page 9 of Being Lost

“Apart from the person who warned us, in order for a warning to be required, someone who shouldn’t know they are in San Diego does indeed know, and so that begs the question how?”

Thinking, I narrow my eyes at Niran and purse my lips. It’s impossible to answer.

“Maybe someone saw them.”

I just stare at Snips. The population of San Diego is over one point three million and growing all the time. Needle and fucking haystack come into my mind. I suppose it’s possible, but highly unlikely. They’re not exactly high profile.

“More likely one of them fucked up, contacted someone they shouldn’t have.”

At least Salem is thinking logically. That’s my gut feeling as well.

My VP is staring down at his hands. After a moment he looks at me. “Wouldn’t hurt to check it out, Prez.”

“How?” Grumbler asks, reaching down to rub his leg.

“Ask them.”

I grimace. “That means we have to come out of the woodwork and let them know we know they’re in town.” I wonder if they might think it could have been us who have had loose mouths, but I trust every man seated around this table.You always have,a little voice in my head reminds me.You didn’t see Snake was, well, a snake in the grass.

“Nobody here has said anything?” I decide to ask, watching carefully for anything resembling guilt on their faces. “Let something slip unintentionally?”

I’m gratified when there’s not a sudden chorus of denials. Looking down the table, I can see frowns as everyone seems to be considering carefully whether they might have inadvertently betrayed the knowledge.

Kink clears his throat. “Apart from the drive-bys, which I suppose it’s possible someone noticed, I don’t think any of us have given much thought to the pair. You asked us to look out for them, but not why or who could be on their trail. Haven’t got much to let slip in any event. Couldn’t even describe them.”

There are murmurs of agreement.

“We don’t mix much with citizens, and those who come to our parties are here for our cocks, not our information. The club girls and prospects know fuck all about them. I’d say we’re watertight, Prez.” I nod at Keeper.

“Anyone get the feeling someone’s watching us?” Niran looks around. Like him, several men here are ex-services who tend to get twitchy when there’s trouble around. If they’d picked up a tail when riding around San Diego, they’d probably have noticed.

“Nah,” Salem says. “The hairs on the back of my neck haven’t been standing up.” Again, there are murmurs of agreement.

“What if someone’s fishing?” Grumbler suggests. “What if this contact of Token’s guesses they’re close to a chapter of the Satan’s Devils because of the connection with Pueblo and want to see if they can smoke them out? I don’t much like getting anonymous messages.”

I scribble a note down, tending nowadays to use pen and paper, eschewing my dependence of technology in the past. “Grumbler’s got a good point. I’ll contact Drummer, Snatcher and Red and see whether they’ve been approached as well. I suppose I ought to have words with Demon.” I run my hand through my hair. “If we do nothing and something happens to them, Colorado would be after our scalps. But if whoever it is went to the trouble to send an anonymous tip only to us, they know something they shouldn’t be knowing. You’re right, sergeant-at-arms, it could be a trick.”

“It was all done verbally,” Dart picks up. “No emails. You arranged everything with Demon using your secure phones.”

“Give me yours after church,” Token demands. “I want to check your security and antivirus.”

“You set it up, Token,” I growl.

“Yeah, and advances in technology are being made all the time. I’ll install the latest version of antivirus—there’s been another update recently—but it is possible you were hacked, which means your calls could have been recorded and listened to.”

“Or Demon’s,” Dart suggests. “That would make more sense. The woman we’re supposed to be looking out for is the mother of his member’s old lady, and the man, her brother. If someone knew they’d gone, they might have monitored his phone to get information.”

“That’s another point we can’t overlook. The someone who contacted Token must know the son is alive.” It’s another worrying part of the puzzle which seems to be fragmenting into more and more pieces as we debate.

“But why make a move now? They’ve been here three months. Why not do something when they first arrived?”

“Might be barking up the wrong tree looking at history,” Dart intelligently observes. “The son used to be into some shady business, who’s to say he hasn’t picked that back up? Might be a recent issue.”

“Could he be dealing? Using the info that he had from Alder?” The VP’s caught the sergeant-at-arm’s interest.

I couldn’t rule it out, but, “He’d be pretty stupid to use routes he’s already given up to the feds. Unless, of course, he held something back.”

Kink looks up. “Apart from the feds who I think we can discount, and Demon, the only people who know the pair are in San Diego and have their address are those sitting around this table. If none of us have let anything slip, and as I’d trust everyone here with my life, I doubt anyone’s been loose-mouthed, the only ways someone could have learned are from your phone as Token suggested, or from us driving past the house. Both I’d say are unlikely. I still think it’s the bitch herself, or her son. They’ve stepped out of line.” He toys with his long hair for a moment. “In which case, do we let them reap what they’ve sown?”

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