Hell, In a Troy (Lopez Time Book 2)

by Phillip S. Power

  Troy turned the machine off in response. No one wanted to be that person, after all.

  The floor in the living room still needed to be cleaned but he decided that just getting ready for work would also serve well enough. With nothing to do, he headed in early. That wasn’t a brilliant plan, since there was nothing to do there either. He ended up sitting in the relatively quiet station. In his office. Which seemed like a waste of time, until Rogers, one of the uniformed officers, popped in.

  “Oh, good. You’re here. I didn’t think anyone would be. We, uh… I think we arrested a vampire? He came with us peacefully and didn’t do anything but he said he was going to die for the day on us. There was a warrant. Parking tickets but he didn't show up in court.” The guy, who smelled a bit of alcohol, even if he was at work, and looked a bit fuzzy around the edges, shrugged.

  Troy had heard that one before. It happened to his people, at times. You got pulled over like anyone else and did the right thing but if they wanted more than a ticket being paid, you couldn’t do anything about it. That led to warrants and generally the vampire having to run and change their name. Normally over little things that shouldn’t have been a problem. Except that, now they were out. The courts still hadn’t started night hours or anything, however. Not in most places.

  “Right. Let me see what I can do about this?” The vampire guy, whoever he was, still had a warrant after all. They might not be allowed to do anything about it. In that case… Well, Troy was stuck. He didn’t make up the law but vampires, young ones in general, died during the day. They really couldn’t help it. It wasn’t the same as staying up late, even if some people tended to think of it that way. The best he could do might be keeping the kid out of the morgue.

  The fellow was in the general lock up. The one they used if they expected the goal would be to turn them back out onto the street inside a few hours. There was booking before that but they didn't process everyone all the time. It saved energy.

  Standing in front of the cage, Troy waved. Rogers, not being an idiot, handed him the file on the man. There wasn’t a lot in it. He had parking tickets. Three of them. The first two had been paid but a paperwork error had put the third in front of the judge, which of course, Mr. Dunkirk, Alan, hadn’t been able to show up for. The judge, instead of doing the normal thing and just finding against him and giving him a fine, had demanded he attend the court on a later date. Which, being dead at the time, the vampire had skipped out on.

  Leaving them where they were at the moment.

  “Mr. Dunkirk?”

  The fellow, looking a bit out of it and annoyed, walked to the door.

  “Yeah? You the lawyer?”

  “Nope. Officer Troy Lopez. Supernatural Division. I’m here to… Basically see what we can do about this, in a reasonable fashion. You’re about to go down for the day?”

  “Right. Sorry. I’m a bit out of it. I can hold out for another hour or so. Then I tend to go down hard.”

  “Okay.” He sucked in a deep breath. “Well… Then we’re going to send you home for now. When will you be up?”

  “Just before dark. Eight or so, I think?”

  “Fine. I’ll stay late. Come back in then and we’ll deal with this. You might end up with community service or something. If so, you’ll serve that at night. Did you send a note to the judge? Telling him that you’re a vampire?” It was a thing they could do now.

  “Nah. Human judges don’t buy that kind of thing, do they? I should have moved but I have a good job here. I got picked up this morning as I was going home. This is bullshit. I had some parking tickets! Now I have to move? I should find that judge and kill him.” He seemed a bit worked up, and Rogers moved his right hand toward his sidearm. Even though the vampire was locked in a cage.

  “Don’t be an idjit, Alan. I can call you Alan?” He waited, since the guy might be about to go red eyed on him. Instead there was a tired blink.

  “Sure. Sorry. Yeah. So, I have to move now.”

  Troy shook his head.

  “Let me see what I can do first? I’m pretty sure that the judge won’t require you to show up, if he knows that you’re dead all-day long. Meet back here tonight. Eat first. I don’t keep any blood here. I’ll see about calling the judge and smoothing this out. Like I said, there could be punishments. Cleaning up or that kind of thing. Even jail time. You should have sent a note or called at the very least. This is on you.”

  There was a chance the man could run off, of course, if they let him go for the day. That wouldn’t happen though. Troy could tell that one. Mainly because the vampire was responding to him as if he were in charge.

  “Oh… Who’s in control of this area. I haven’t checked in yet. It’s about time for taxes and all that though, so I need to get to that.”

  “Harriet? She runs the Y Tavern. You can find her there most nights. She’s not bad. I mean, we all pay our dues and that. No one ends up being locked in a box too often. Nothing like that.”

  “I just ask for Harriet there?”

  “Right. After dark. I… How do I get out of here? I’m…”

  The man needed a ride home. Not in the police car, either. That meant Troy had Rogers process him out, and ran home to get his little beater. The man didn’t say anything as he struggled out into the sun, though he winced in pain a lot.

  “Thanks. Um, Elm and Seventh?” He got into the car on his own but on the far end needed help getting inside. The man didn’t act uneasy, even when Troy took his keys. Inside the small house, there were other, very slow moving, people. One of them was a cute girl that had short hair and several piercings. She had a nice tattoo of a dolphin on her tummy, arranged around her belly button. He could tell, because her robe had fallen open. That was a thick looking terrycloth thing. She was in at least as bad a state as Alan was.

  “Hey… This… You’re… Late.” She nodded slowly at Troy. Her face was so confused that it was kind of clear she was almost dead already.

  In answer, Troy smiled.

  “He has a date tonight at dark. At the police station? We have to cover some paperwork and things like that. Don’t let him skip. I know where he lives now.” Then, waving, he left. It was very possible that the woman wouldn’t even remember him later. He’d had a few weeks where he’d been like that in the mornings. Trying to stay up but not able to, really. A lot of things got lost at that point. The woman would be hallucinating already. So would Alan, most likely.

  Oddly, there was no official paperwork needed for releasing a vampire like he’d done. It was, technically, illegal. At least if anyone wanted to make a big deal about it. Troy wrote it up anyway, as an action report. Then, not having a single clue in the world what to do with it, he got a hard copy and walked it into the Chief’s office, as soon as the man came in. That morning he was dressed in a light polo shirt, and had a donut with him. That, and a Styrofoam cup of coffee. The pastry seemed to be Bavarian cream filled. The bitter brew in the cup smelled worse than what they made there at the station.

  Troy waved the piece of paper a bit.

  “Hey! We had a vampire in last night. This morning really. A bench-warrant. He was about to die for the day, so I told him to come back this evening when he wakes up. I wrote the whole thing up. It’s about parking tickets and failure to appear in court. Since he couldn’t, that seems a bit over the top.”

  The man, looking fresh and alert, took a bite of his food.

  “Got it. I can call Herb on this. Unless you want to do it? He isn’t an asshole or anything. Judge Jolle. Good guy, actually. He goes to the same church I do. Catholic. The pope says that the dead aren’t instantly evil, so that will probably work well enough.”

  He faked a smile and moved with the man, until he could settle the paper on his desk.

  “I can do it. It will probably just take a message, if he doesn’t have a problem with it. I can drop your name if things get tricky?”

  The man rolled his eyes at Troy, and nodded with his mouth full. He swallowed befo
re speaking.

  “Yes. Try to play nice? Like I said, he’s a good guy. If he knows what’s going on, he’ll work with you.”

  “Got it then. Let me get to that, since court hours tend to be early.” All while the hell orb was up, as well. Troy made the pain of it fade as he walked away. Circulating energy, instead of using the wired together crystal in his pocket. It was magic and took energy but was a small drain really. He wanted to save the battery up for times when he needed more power, fast.

  It took longer to look up Judge Herbert Jolle, pronounced Jolly, than it did to get a hold of him. The fellow even answered his own phone, which gave Troy the last name pronunciation for certain in time not to make a fool of himself. The Chief had used it but it looked different on the computer screen.

  “Hi. This is Troy Lopez, over at LPD? Officer, in case that comes up. Supernatural Division. We’re new. Anyway, we had a vampire in on a warrant? Parking tickets, so he can’t make day time court hearings. I was wondering if we could fix that for him? Maybe come up with a plan for that kind of thing in the future? It shouldn’t happen a lot, really. There are probably less than a hundred vampires in the whole city area.” Possibly less than that.

  The Judge sounded pretty normal, when he spoke.

  “Seriously? I can handle that then, if it isn’t a big issue anyway. What’s the name on that?”

  “Dunkirk. Alan.”

  “Okay… Right… And, yes, there we go. He didn't show up, so I issued the warrant to compel him to. I can… There. Taken care of. I’ll waive the ticket as well, for the hassle of being brought in. Now… how do we fix this in the future? I wouldn’t have made a big deal of it if he’d let me know it was a problem. We do make allowances for other people. Women about to go into labor and cancer patients. We can add vampires to the list for that but we have to know ahead of time.”

  He nodded, then spoke, making his voice happy.

  “I’ll have them call your office with that, directly? Trust me, you don’t want the good vampires to tell the patrolmen what they are first thing. It sounds good, until the panic sets in and someone gets shot for being a vampire. Especially if they aren’t. That could get messy.”

  There was a low chuckle from the phone, even if that hadn’t been a joke at all.

  “Granted. Sure. They can call that in here, or I suppose get with your people? Communication is the key. Then… Well, if they get a fine, or punishment…”

  He shrugged.

  “Then they serve it. If it’s too much for us to handle, we kick it back to the Council. Try not to do that though. You’ll be saying it’s too much work to keep a vampire for six weeks in jail… and they’ll kill them for you, if you aren’t careful. We can do lots of community service. House arrest… Or jail but they’ll be awake all night and dead all day.” That and need blood. Most drank it daily, at least.

  There was the sound of typing then.

  “Very good. I’m going to CC the other judges on this. We can get with you as a resource for anything… Supernatural?”

  That sounded like a can of worms that might be opening on him but he took a breath and nodded.

  “Right. If I don’t know the answer, I have people that I can contact about almost anything. Thanks for working with us on this. I realize that you don’t have to.”

  There was another chuckle then.

  “Except that, if I try to get stubborn on this, people might well end up dying. At least we have a plan to get us started. Thanks. Talk to you soon, Officer Lopez.”

  “Talk to you soon.” Why that would be, he didn't know but chatting was low stress, compared to some things.

  Tran was standing in the door, holding her bag. It was a small duffle, since she had work out gear in it. That showed through the top. They didn't have a gym there but the local place for that had a deal with the force, so that all of the officers could work out for free. Technically it was paid for but they got a deal on it and the city covered the costs involved.

  It was a bit strange but not unheard of for a detective to work out on their lunch or after work. Possibly in the middle of the work day. As he hung up, Troy took all of this in. She looked at his line of sight then took a swig from her white coffee mug.

  “It was a bit of a workout yesterday, getting the cuffs on those guys. It occurred to me that I might want to get back in shape, now that it isn’t going to kill me. Anyway, what was that? New boyfriend?” She settled her bag then waved that hand at his phone.

  “Nothing that fun. Judge Jolle. Nice guy. We had a vampire in last night. I sent him home and got his warrant shut down. He’ll be in tonight, after dark. Dunkirk, the vampire. It was mainly a paperwork thing, added to an inability to attend court, due to being dead all day. The plan is for them to call the court with that from now on. I think I found the local hang out for my people. The Y Tavern? I’ve seen it but have never gone in. I need Harriet, I think?”

  Detective Tran let her head run from side to side then.

  “Busy morning. I’m here on time even, so it isn’t my fault. Did they call you in?”

  “Nope. I was just bored. It’s the thing where I don’t sleep. I can’t even clean my place at night, because people will whine about my using the appliances. I need a real house. Another one. I own one, in Vancouver.” He meant Washington but the woman worked that out, being of better than average intelligence.

  “Oh? Is there anything to see there? I need a place to go on vacation.” She was grinning about it but Troy shook his head.

  “We can do better than that. It’s an all right place, I guess but just a city. Pretty. It’s green there, compared to here. It isn’t a destination for that kind of thing though. Not really. You can go to Hawaii, or get with Avery and go to a different reality. She runs tours, on the side. Reasonable rates, since they tend to be free.”

  That got waved away. Not commented on at all, since there was coffee to drink, while she settled and started in on her emails. That did not take long. Troy had three, himself. Probably most of what Denise had going on. Two were memos from the Chief, and one was from Miller, the Desk Sergeant. All of them were about paperwork, so Troy made notes. They didn’t directly have anything to do with what he had going on at the moment but it could come up, later.

  Tran just hit delete several times, not seeming to read the text at all. When she was done with that, she just sat there, sipping at her cup, for a while.

  “So. What’s up for today. More mage stuff?”

  He nodded.

  “We need to check out El Casa. I don’t know if anyone got to it. I ended up being side tracked. Oh. We might be getting a new hire. Santos? You requested her, due to her good work yesterday.” It was the kind of thing that you said to someone you’d known for a long time. They didn't have that kind of relationship yet, Troy didn’t think.

  Tran just nodded.

  “Wise of me. You trying to hit that? She’s a lesbian but I’m guessing more bi, really. Her wife, too. You could totally get a three-way going, if you work at it.”

  The words probably weren’t wrong, actually. Denise would be up on that kind of thing. Troy could kind of see it, himself. It was harder to notice when you stopped caring about sex personally but it was still there. Both women had acted like he was cute, at least. The level of attention was higher than what men got if they truly weren’t interesting to a woman. It was probably the clothing he wore. It was pretty nice, he had to admit.

  “Not an issue for me. She’s solid though. You noticed it and mentioned it to the Chief. I don’t know if she’ll jump in yet. Chief Benson didn’t mention it when I saw him earlier, about me just letting people go for no real reason?”

  It hadn’t been what had happened but there had been no mention of getting a new person at all. She might have said hell no, of course. On the other hand, she might not have been asked yet. It had been less than a day since it had been mentioned. It could take weeks, even if everything all went well. It had taken six months for him to be transferr
ed over to the new division, after all. It might have been about other things in that case, however.

  Tran didn’t answer with a smart comment about his troublemaking ways. Instead she just looked something up. Then she sighed.

  “As you predicted, no one covered the restaurant. We can head out in a bit. They serve lunch, so it will be opened in a bit. At least there will be someone there.” It wasn’t exactly a thing that sounded certain at all. Cornering the prep crew might not do that much as for getting at information about what had taken place the day before.

  Then, if they didn’t check, they wouldn’t get anything.

  That was the heart of police work, when you got down to it. That, and the idea that the police actually had a right to look at things that legally they really didn’t. Warrants were a thing for a reason but most of the time people just gave them information. Hopefully it would work that day as well, since getting one of those to look at a surveillance video was insanely hard to get. Especially when what had taken place the day before was, as far as the law could see, about simple assault. That was possibly in the felony range, but they weren’t going to charge the spelled people. That was the only thing they could really do though. Legally.

  Detective Tran drove again, which was done fairly carefully. Troy was belted in, as was his partner. The woman didn't speed, run lights, or act entitled to do anything except follow the law. A surprising number of cops broke the law all the time, on the little things.

  It was as if they felt like they had a right to speed, because they didn’t frame people for felonies on a regular basis. It wasn’t just on television that it happened. The difference was that a lot of officers were basically good people but they ended up doing things like that to fit in.

  The restaurant was across town from the station. From Raintree as well, after a fashion. If it had been about just finding people to attack, there were fifteen different places closer to the events of the day before. Even King’s Burgers would have worked for that. There would even be high school kids there, given the time of day. Troy knew that one, since he’d sent a couple over. That would have been nearly as dangerous and more damaging to anyone who fought against them.