Excerpt: Tattoo

“You don't give up on your grudges easily, do you?” Tio laughed, straightening and moving to drop onto a chair with his hands clasped around the edge of it between his legs.
“You disgraced Ruta!” Ridhi snapped. “I never forgive anyone for that!”
Tio shrugged. “Raku asked. I was answering.”
Raku suddenly went red, whimpering as she moved around the room to stand behind Kyril. He closed the fish food contained and placed it on the table, his eyes meeting Tio's.
“Before I can find the man you are looking for...” Kyril turnd to face Raku. “I need to know what he looks like.”
“No you don't- Shaai said you don't need to!” Ryo leaned over to see Shaai and straightened to meet Kyril's eyes. “I didn't see. I was asleep.” Ramona told him.
“All of you claim you were asleep.” Kyril answered gently. “But if all of you were asleep, how do you know Ruta was murdered? Where is her body?”
Tio's hands slipped off the chair, causing him to loose his balance and fall forward so his hands landed on the floor for a second. Shoving himself back up again, Tio stared hard at Kyril. The Russian Mongolian mix turned his head to see why he'd made so much racket.
“Oops- sorry, slipped!” Tio shook his hands in the air in front of him. “Never mind me- I'm shutting up and sitting very still!”
“One of the others is lying.” Ridhi's voice dripped with acid. “I'm not even ruling Ramona out, the selfish b--, she always did have her own agenda!”
“You don't like the others?” Kyril asked.
Ridhi's curled lip of disgust was enough of an answer. Tio covered his mouth in an effort not to let his laughter be heard. Ridhi shot him a death look but Raku kind of ruined the affect by shrinking away from him. Tio snorted against his hand, leaning forward so his head almost connected with the table that was just a bit to far away from him.
“I may be able to find the murderer without knowing what he looks like.” Kyril brought the conversation back on topic. “But...” he paused.
“I know how you feel!” Tio suddenly straightened. Kyril shot him a look that could almost be taken as an annoyed look. That was beyond strange on his face. Tio sucked back his laughter long enough to get the words out. “What in the world are we supposed to call you when addressing everybody?”
Kyril let out a soft sigh as he met the dark red haired teen's eyes. “It would help to know what you as a group want to be called.”
“R- chan.”
“You're not Japanese!” Tio objected.
“Two of us are!” Ryo fired back, her thumbs coming up to her ears, her fingers spread while her tongue shot out in his direction. “Two wins over one!”
“There's not only one other of you, though.” Tio held up his fingers. “There's a Spaniard, an African, and a Welsh girl!”
Everyone silently watched him.
Tio glared around the room at them. “Come on, don't tell me non of you knew that's where their names came from...”
“You're so off topic it's not funny.”
Turning his glare on the teenager who was standing with slightly blurry eyes in the hallways entrance, Tio crossed his arms and leaned back in his chair.