Halloween I.F. – “Something Rich and Strange” – Day 19

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On the one hand, letting Dom and Dandelion walk back to Dom’s place together might be mildly dangerous, in case the suspicious duo had their eyes on Dom. But they surely couldn’t keep track of him at all times, and Dandelion was strong; Star was confident that they’d have to do something subtle and nasty to get to him, so whatever they were going to do probably wouldn’t be while Dom was with Dandelion. Still, it was nerve wracking to leave the two people who seemed to be targeted alone together.

Though… maybe giving them some time to chat would let them work things out and Star wouldn’t feel nearly as in-the-middle as he had been.

Split the difference, he decided, tired of thinking it over. “I’ll walk with you back to Dom’s place, then say bye from there,” he said. “I was thinking of heading up a little anyway. Besides, I need Vayne’s number from you, Dom.”

“Do you?” Dom asked, a bit disapproving. “He’s a jackass, Star.”

“Sure, but I need to talk to my new bestie Georgio and Georgio does not have hands to answer calls with,” Star said. “Georgio’s expecting it, don’t worry.”

They began to head uphill, Dom reading the number out and Star dutifully typing it in, then hitting dial. It almost went to voicemail before Vayne answered. “Jack Vayne. Who is this?”

“Hi, Vayne,” Star said. “It’s Son, That Ain’t Right.”

“The fuck you’d get this number? From Toulali?” That was Dom’s last name. “We’re competition, you know, he shouldn’t—” Vayne’s voice cut off; Star could hear the ambient loud grumble of Georgio’s voice in the background, though he couldn’t make out the details. “Ah, hell, Georgio says he’s expecting a call. Whatever, I guess you were heroes together earlier, I should’ve realized you’d have bonded or some shit. Here. I’m putting you on speaker.”

Not Star’s favourite way of having private conversations, but it made sense. “Hey, Georgie Porgie. You with me?”

“We at nickname level, Son?” Georgio growled cheerfully. “You ready to send me flowers too?”

“I’ll think about it,” Star said, rolling his eyes. “Any news?”

“Yeah, some,” Georgio said. His voice just sounded like that, Star had decided, but he at least dropped the overblown metaphors most of the time when just chatting. “I did get to talk to Heronika. Garrett was the scheduler who’d double booked us. So maybe the dynamic duo were trying to ELIMINATE WITNESSES.”

He sounded way too loud and excited at that last part. “Or maybe they’d worked directly with him and were worried he was going to talk,” Star said. “Hard to say.”

“He was taken to Branwin Central Hospital,” Georgio added, smug. “Asked around. Obviously I can’t go there, but you might be able to. You’d have to wear shirt and shoes and not be a naked lil monkey.”

“I do when I have to,” Star sighed. “I just like to have my sexy, silky, unblemished perfect skin free to the air, Georgio, you don’t wear pants either, you get me.” Both Dandelion and Dom were looking at him, Star abruptly realized. Well, let them. He wasn’t wrong. “But yeah, I’d wear ’em to a hospital. Okay, that’s an option, sure. Anything else? Did anyone see the guys in question?”

A bullish sigh. “No such luck. The only other thing I found out is that they’re closing things down for a bit at the track Building should be shut up tighter’n a nun’s panties. No races for the next week, Toulali should’ve got a text about it, I’d bet. They haven’t cancelled any two weeks out yet, it’ll depend if they can drain the standing water and get things fixed up properly by then, but I wouldn’t hold my breath.”

“So it’s basically abandoned until they can get it pumped?” Star murmured. “Interesting.” That meant he could break in at any time, theoretically. “Let me know if you hear anything else, though I know you probably won’t given… not being at the track. You going to a nice field somewhere?”

“Don’t worry about Georgio,” Vayne said. Background noise dimmed; he’d taken it off speaker again. “I got a nice stable for him just outside the city.”

“Lots of room to run around?” Star asked dryly.

“You think you’re so funny,” Vayne said, and hung up. 

Star shook his head as he glanced back up at the other two. “What a guy.”

“I told you,” Dom said. “…My place is just up this road.”

“Then I’ll peel off from here,” Star said. “You two be careful, okay? Situational awareness. Look both ways before you cross the street and behind you so you don’t get jumped.”

“I’ll take care of him,” Dandelion said, leaning in and giving Star a lingering kiss on his cheek, just next to his lips. “You do the same for yourself.”

Star flustered, backing up a few steps., “Yeah, yeah,” he said lightly, waving a hand and turning to go. He peeled off another piece of bread and chewed it as he headed off. So that was interesting news, and led to several possible next steps. Star checked his wound absently as he chewed; it was healing nicely, so there was no need for a doctor even if he did go to the hospital, though he supposed he could always use it as an excuse if he needed to get in to see Garrett, since the EMT had been insistent he should go. And of course, the racetrack was no longer swarming with people, from the sound of it, so that was also a new option.

The bread wasn’t satisfying, and Star knew he needed to eat some real meat. Not letting himself have complicated feelings about what was always a guilty pleasure at the best of times, he swung into the Humanburger restaurant and ordered a number 4, bringing the tray back to his table as soon as it was ready. 

Star peeled the wrapper back, and the familiar scent hit his nostrils, flooding his mouth with saliva. Legally, Humanburger meat wasn’t actually human, but whatever trick they did with it did make it taste and feel much like the real thing. He took another bite, then a third almost before he’d swallowed the first, the flavour almost making him shiver with a satisfaction he’d denied himself for almost too long.

A deep breath, and he forced himself to slow down before he annihilated the burger fast enough to make himself sick. Half to distract himself, he checked his messages to make sure that his general group had been checking in on the hour as needed. Along with messages he’d already seen, he’d got a couple new ones:

Dandelion had sent him a selfie of himself with Dom packing in the background, though Dandelion’s own image was slightly blurred. 

Adrien had sent him a selfie also, this one unblurred, though he was smoking a joint while surrounded by cute girls, so he was definitely taking this whole thing seriously. A cat tail was visible in frame, so Star had to assume he was at least out at one of the girls’ places, and not out somewhere that he could easily get jumped in a crowd. 

Caoimhe’s message was a little more alarming; hers said that an old friend had called her and asked for some help, so she was going to go deal with that. He texted her back and told her to message if it was related in any way, and Caoimhe sent him a thumb’s up back immediately, so presumably at least she hadn’t been kidnapped or anything. Yet. It probably wasn’t related, though. Caoimhe had her own life to live.

That whole thing had killed at least a half hour, especially given how he’d forced himself to slow down on the burger. He finished the last few bites, hit up the restroom, and headed back out into the brisk, late-afternoon air. As soon as he stepped out, he got a chill that he wasn’t sure was entirely the air, a sense like he was being watched. He turned slowly, taking a look around him, but didn’t spot anything out of place.

Anxiety, he reminded himself. He was uneasy, on edge, undecided about next steps, still unfamiliar with the shape of the threat. He was just asking for trouble. Next he’d see a bag in the wind and start running or something—

Star almost jumped out of his skin when his phone rang. He fished it out quickly, seeing Vayne’s number on the screen. “Vayne? What’s up?”

“Hey,” Vayne said. “Listen, I’ve separated from Georgio for now, didn’t want to say this in front of him because I’m worried. He’s headstrong and hot-blooded and rushes into things, you know?”

“Yeah,” Star said. Star was too. It was basically required to be a racehorse. “Okay, what is it?”

“I may have some news about the situation,” Vayne said. “I got the gist of what you were looking into, and obviously I saw what happened at the track today. You were looking for a person in black, right? Creepy? Skulking around?”

Star’s pulse quickened. “Yeah, I was.”

“Okay, well, I have to finish some stuff up, but if you want to meet me in a little bit, I’ll send you an address. I don’t want to talk about it over the phone, don’t know who’s listening. I’ll text an address over. I can be there in an hour, hang out until evening, so come by if you can.”

“Vayne,” Star began, but the other jockey had already hung up.

Well, hell. That raised even more questions. He licked some burger grease off his fingers absently as he put his phone back, trying to figure out the best next step.

There was the hospital, though he didn’t know how much of a lead it would be, especially since he wasn’t sure if Garrett was conscious or ready to talk, or even alive—but if he wanted to go today instead of tomorrow, it wouldn’t be open to visitors for too much longer. 

There was the track—though that was likely to have to stay locked up and thus unoccupied for a while, Star if people might catch him trying to sneak in if he didn’t wait until dark, but there was always the risk someone else might have the same idea and might get there first, too. 

He could try to follow up with whatever was going on with Caoimhe, though he doubted it was related. 

He could go right to Vayne’s address as soon as he got it, see if he could set up and keep an eye out for things before Vayne got there. 

Or fuck, something else he had yet to think of.

Star let out an audible whine and stomped a foot. Oh, he hated decisions.

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