Ch.121Request Log #012 – Night of the Mafia (2)

I entered the parking lot and hid among the cars, scanning the roadside near the apartment building. The Morrígan might not have been the only one who came here.

If someone came to meet me, they’d be in the parking lot. If they came to watch me, they’d be on the shoulder of the road. I was used to being followed. Most cars were empty, but I could feel eyes watching me from one of them.

Wolves. A male and female. I made eye contact with the female wolf who was looking at the apartment through binoculars. Giuseppina might not be particularly smart, but she was certainly a cunning wolf.

It was surprisingly reliable of her to have someone follow me with a warning not to betray her, but I didn’t enjoy being followed or watched. I didn’t particularly enjoy doing it either. It was just work.

I tipped my hat slightly to the female wolf who ducked her head as if unsure whether our eyes had actually met or if I was still scanning the area. I was mocking her.

It was important to know how much they’d seen. Any clues? The female wolf quickly moved her hand to the accelerator as if the car was still running, and the male wolf was holding a sandwich that had just been unwrapped.

They had just arrived. I ran toward the wolves who were trying to escape after being caught in the act of surveillance.

New York is a filthy place to park. If you leave your car on the street, it’s common for others to park right in front of or behind you as if they’d been waiting for the opportunity.

That’s why surveillance from a parked car is better suited for residential areas, not downtown. They had tried to use their brains after receiving orders, but they simply lacked the necessary skills.

By the time I reached them, they seemed ready to ram the car parked in front of them to escape, but it was too late. I leaned against the window and pressed my gun to the female wolf’s cheek, keeping it hidden from outside view.

Perhaps it would have been better to keep a step or two away to handle unexpected situations, but she was just an ordinary female wolf, weaker than Giuseppina. There was no chance I’d lose in terms of strength or have my gun taken. The wolf raised both hands.

“You were told to keep watch, right?”

The female wolf nodded with difficulty, as if a rock had been tied to her neck. I put away my gun, yanked open the car door, and climbed into the back seat of their car. I took out a cigarette, put it in my mouth, and lit it.

“Then drive me to Little Eire. It’s better to keep watch up close. Better yet, we might as well go together.”

People fear what they cannot see. I sat in the back seat, which they couldn’t see without turning around, and I clearly had a gun. That was enough to frighten them.

Besides, the Proci branch operated on adoration and fear of Giuseppina. She was probably the only one who truly understood the words loyalty and honor.

If they’re a pack of beasts, treat them like beasts. The back seat, adjusted for the female wolf, wasn’t bad to have all to myself. As the car started heading toward Little Eire, I asked:

“You’ll need something to report to Giuseppina. Aren’t you going to ask why we’re going to Little Eire?”

I would leak a bit of information to prevent Giuseppina from ranting about betrayal again. I just needed to keep my client’s identity secret. I had no interest in dying caught between gangs.

“I figured if you were the type to answer, you wouldn’t be acting this way. Are you going to answer?”

“Yes. I’m going to investigate the Irish mafia establishment that you attacked. I heard that some wolf couldn’t even handle gun recoil properly and failed to kill the Irish mafia branch leader who wasn’t even on guard. Instead, they just set fire to the place and ran away in frustration. Does that sound right to you?”

I took out a silencer from my pocket and attached it to my gun, as I might actually need to shoot now. From the front seat, I heard the wolf swallow desperately.

Still, the female wolf tried not to appear frightened. People who try to hide their fear tend to talk a lot. That was fine by me.

“No way! Do we look like such idiots? No one would handle things so stupidly unless they were personally trying to get revenge for something those bastards did. That’s for sure.”

I needed to find out what the Irish mafia had done to make Giuseppina get summoned by the matriarch and start shouting about revenge, so I started to provoke her.

“What did those Little Eire mongrels do? You know I work with them. Honestly, even if it was too amateurish for professionals, it’s more convincing that they were attacked first. The aim was right, just poorly executed—targeting the branch leader’s clothing store. Meanwhile, you only lost a few establishments.”

I didn’t go so far as to ask if it was staged. It was better to let them come to that conclusion themselves. I needed to make her feel frustrated by revealing that I didn’t know something she did.

The growling wolf finally spilled everything. This was why I liked the Proci branch. They were literally a pack of beasts, making it so easy to stir them up.

“You think that makes sense? Don’t talk shit, detective. We were also attacked—they specifically targeted our most profitable establishments in the Tequila branch. And, sigh… those fish-headed bastards left the floor soaked with seawater. We have physical evidence! If that’s all the information those Irish bastards gave you…”

The floor was soaked with seawater. If it was done by selkie hybrids among the Irish mafia, that could be evidence, but… something was off on this side too.

When I went looking for Giuseppina’s brother last time, even Selkie, the branch leader I met, was going mad from being unable to stay in the sea for long. So how could mere operatives soak themselves in seawater?

If the purpose was to subtly reveal who did it, leaving seawater made sense, but I couldn’t be certain about the method. Neither side had sufficient evidence.

I had no interest in thinking amid the wolves’ snickering and growling, so I bluntly said something to shut the wolf up.

“That’s less than the information you just kindly shared with me.”

The female wolf who had spilled words too easily due to provocation started coughing as if choking. She quickly realized she had revealed things she shouldn’t have.

With the annoying noise gone, I organized what I’d learned so far.

Wolves were spotted on the day the Irish mafia was attacked, but if a wolf had fired the shot, the first bullet wouldn’t have missed. Setting fires wasn’t their style either.

The Italian mafia was attacked by people who left seawater behind, but it was unlikely that Selkie’s operatives had enjoyed swimming in seawater—something even Selkie himself couldn’t do—before carrying out the job.

Yet strangely, there was evidence. Enough information for the two organizations to fight. Someone had clearly laid the groundwork for conflict. I couldn’t tell which side yet.

Whoever did this had impressive skills, targeting both sides simultaneously. Each would be focused on their own problems, diverting attention from what happened to the other.

If this was about creating conflict, internal discipline would be necessary, so it wasn’t necessarily an outsider.

If one side did it, they would only need to focus on setting up the other side. But if an outsider orchestrated this, it would mean they infiltrated both organizations simultaneously and neither noticed. This seemed much less likely. However, the other name for an unlikely event is something that has already happened, so I didn’t rule it out.

As we entered Little Eire, the stares directed at our car grew more intense. The atmosphere was tense enough for a shootout to break out at any moment, but the bosses seemed to be keeping things under control for now.

I directed them to the clothing store where Bavan had reportedly been shot. Several gloomy-looking women, probably from the laundry next door, were gathered in front of the store, murmuring. No one was crying.

As I got out of the car, I gave instructions to the wolves. They had guns pointed at the backs of their heads and had entered enemy territory; they needed me to get out safely.

“Wait here. I’ll need a ride back.”

As I stepped out, all the gloomy-looking women gathered in front of the store turned their heads toward me simultaneously. They began staring at me with expressionless eyes, as if trying to see through me.

This is why I hate this neighborhood. Little Eire was the place closest to the boundary between reality and fantasy in this city, which was already a melting pot of all races. Too many hybrids lived here.

I showed them the address written in the Morrígan’s handwriting. Their expressions softened slightly—women with unkempt, spiky hair and faint dark circles under their eyes.

“I’m an operative hired by the Morrígan. I was asked to investigate the scene—you won’t stop me from entering, will you?”

They nodded briefly. The woman directly in front of me, who appeared to be around my age, spoke in a voice like a wife addressing a detective her husband had hired.

“Branch Leader Gancan mentioned that the Morrígan would bring an operative today. If there’s anything we common laundry women can help with, please let us know, Detective…”

So they’re from the Headless Driver’s people. Despite giving off a terribly gloomy aura—whatever they were mixed with—her voice was reasonably pleasant. Only after hearing it did I look them over more carefully.

Upon closer inspection, they varied in age. From youngsters who looked like they’d do odd jobs at the laundry to elderly women—it was quite eerie how they all reacted similarly despite their differences.

There was one thing I needed to confirm. I took the woman who had answered me to the car and pointed at the wolves inside. I needed to verify if this was Giuseppina’s doing.

My approach is always to doubt everything first. Starting from questioning whether the job I took even exists, I verify what can be trusted one by one—that’s the only correct method.

“I heard there were reports of wolves driving around Little Eire on the day Bavan was attacked. Are these the wolves? If not, what was their demeanor like?”

The woman in loose, shabby clothes approached the car and stared intently at the two wolves. Then she shook her head briefly.

“These aren’t the wolves. The ones I saw were more… if I may say so, sophisticated than these wolves. The female wore a proper suit, and the male didn’t look like he was just tagging along.”

They must be wolves from another branch. Finding out where they came from would be my first priority. After confirming just that much, I was about to enter the scene when the woman grabbed my lapel.

“If Branch Leader Gancan or Madam Morrígan asks, we’ll tell them you came in the wolves’ car with the wolves accompanying you. Is that alright with you?”

She’s quite concerned. Despite her gloomy appearance, she had a good nature. Since I had already told the Morrígan about this, I nodded.

“The Morrígan already knows, so don’t worry. Ah, one more favor. If anyone tries to harm these wolves, tell them they were brought by the Morrígan’s operative. I still have use for them.”

The woman quietly nodded. Despite her ominous appearance, she seemed to be a reasonably decent hybrid.

Only after confirming to the wolves in the car that I had spoken up for them did I enter the store, which still smelled of ashes.

Since I didn’t know techniques for analyzing fire scenes, I went behind the counter toward where Bavan’s office would have been.

I walked down a corridor that would normally be covered with unpleasant eye illusions, but now was fortunately lit only by a single beam of sunlight coming through a narrow window.

Wait, another strange point. Bavan would have been in his office, but the corridor leading to it was only accessible from behind the counter. There’s no way someone could have entered from the front.

Before entering the office, I turned back to check the single narrow window in this tight corridor. It was too small even for me to pass through. Female wolves couldn’t have entered through it.

I considered a second possibility. Did they use a male wolf? A male wolf as small as a goblin or elf might have been able to enter through that window.

Moreover, male wolves have weak grip strength, so it’s possible the first shot went wide. It’s hard to imagine using a male wolf as a shooter—I only just thought of it myself.

It could have been the Italian wolves who did it first. They operated in eastern New York along the coast, so it would have been much easier for them to stage floors soaked with seawater.

The wolf who drove me here insisted that their profitable establishments had been attacked too, but comparing a few establishments to a branch leader, the branch leader was clearly more valuable.

Things were getting messier. I needed to choose the right side among gangsters who wanted to wage war for justification and even hired a detective to investigate, but both sides were shrouded in fog.

Still, a detective’s first virtue is patience. I had the temperament to focus only on the task at hand until a path became clear. Having checked the corridor, I opened Bavan’s fire-scorched office door and entered.

It was quite an elaborate room. The smell of blood lingered. On the shelves were magically preserved blood and orc liquor. I sneered.

“Looks like you created your own medical accident. If you’d had a proper drink at Bar Enoch, you wouldn’t be lying around with a bullet in you.”

Fortunately, there were clear bullet marks in the room. I didn’t expect the bullets themselves to still be there. The area around the marks was damaged, perhaps from digging out the bullets, but that didn’t matter.

To determine the race, I just needed to check the height. The bullet marks were about at the level of my solar plexus. The angle was horizontal, so if male wolves had held the gun properly and shot, this height and angle would make sense.

No, it’s not just male wolves who are this height. Elves and goblins are about this height too. I’ve already tried blindly pursuing just one possibility before. The results were disastrous.

I decided to end my investigation there. I had already discovered all the information I could. The shooter was either a male wolf, an elf, or a goblin.

For now, I could probably rule out elves. The only elf gangsters would be the Followers of the Forest’s Firstborn, but they had scattered after the Forest’s Firstborn died.

For the first time in a long while, I felt a bit like a detective again. It wasn’t a feeling that would last long, so I needed to savor it while I could.