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Colt sighed deeply, almost wearily. “I knew you would ask this… I knew he wouldn’t be able to tell you, or show you himself… it’s why I’ve come today, actually… What Phantom does… it makes Michelin star sushi chefs look like sloppy fast food burger flippers-”
Sophie took a slow, calm, deliberate breath in and out. “Itamae,” Sophie said.
“Bless you.” Rafe gave her a chin lift, mistaking her utterance for a sneeze.
She bit back a smile. “No, that’s what a top sushi chef is called, Itamae. Anyway…”
Colt’s face turned serious, he threw a glance over his shoulder to check that no other customers were coming in. “I wanted to share something with you. Something about Phantom’s past…”
Sophie bit her lip. Rafe took his coffee, nodded his head toward the door, and raised his hand to say goodbye to Sophie. He’d be waiting outside. Sophie felt her heart rate quicken as she distractedly waved to Rafe. Colt put down his coffee and began swiping on his phone.
Now they were alone, Sophie came around the front of the counter, and indicated Colt to take a seat at one of the tables. He sunk into a seat, Sophie sat opposite him, clutching her own steaming coffee mug.
“Something happened to him, didn’t it?” She knew it, he had to have come from something terrible, something to have made him who he was.
“Limo driver, former SoCal chauffeur that I told you about, who is the key to Phantom’s past? He woke up from his coma, and he was up for talking,” Colt said.
Sophie knew what that meant. The limo driver knew who Phantom was.
“You want to hear?” Colt asked. She knew what he was asking. You want to go down this rabbit hole?
“Yes.” She nodded firmly, definitely.
Colt hesitated a moment, and brought her up to speed on the SoCal Demonios found in the tunnel. How everyone had assumed Phantom had done it, how even Phantom himself had assumed he had done it, killed them all. But in fact no, gas poisoning had, but Phantom had stabbed the limo driver and fled.
Sophie listened. Her heart kept pounding, her lips still drew breath. She carried on, because really, what else could she do?
Colt put his phone in the middle of the table. Sophie peered at it. He pressed play, playing a voice recording.
A croaky voice starts talking. “Ortiz’s wife dies from cancer, then shortly afterwards Ortiz himself gets ill, can’t work-”
Sophie leaned over and pressed pause. “Who’s Ortiz?”
Colt shrugged. “We tried to get that out of him, his stories are all over the place, the PD are fuming, he won’t stick to one timeline, he won’t tell things in order… he keeps passing out again and the hospital tells us to back off until we can next speak to him…” Colt gritted his teeth, obviously annoyed.
“So this is you, interviewing him-”
“Sergeant Carmelo… I just tagged along.” Colt flashed his eyebrows.
Sophie nodded, though she didn’t quite understand. Pretty sure the PD weren’t meant to let MC Prez’s ‘just tag along’ to interview victims, but it seemed Carmelo and Colt were thick as thieves together.
Colt pressed play again. The croaky voice started up.
“Elias steps up to continue the family business as the cold blade of the Demonios. And he’s good. The most trusted hitman, gets sent to do all the high profile killings, all the ones that need a silent touch. That’s when he earns his name, Fantasma de la Muerte.”
“Ghost of death?” Sophie heard Carmelo’s voice piping up now, translating.
She pressed pause again.
“Elijah,” she breathed. Then flicked her gaze to Colt and snapped. “Elias? Hitman?”
Colt nods.
Sophie sighed. “He told me his name was Elijah. Eli.”
Colt blinked at her. Then blinked again. “He… told you? He spoke?”
Sophie swallowed, unsure how much to tell him. “Yes, when he…” she paused, then decided to plunge right in. Colt needed to know, for Phantom’s own good. “When he came, he… said his name. Shouted it, more like. He didn’t say much else,” she added hastily.
