by Jaye Wells
“So, you figured you off Charm and take over the coven?”
“Something like.”
“Guess that didn’t work out so well, did it?”
“We ain’t at war, are we?”
I tilted my head. “Why all the love for Aphrodite?”
“I don’t give a shit about the hermaphrodite. I just don’t want to see the Votaries get destroyed because Abe’s gone crazy in the clink, you know?”
“What makes you think he’s crazy?” I asked.
He looked down at his prison-issued canvas shoes. “The Chinese aren’t the only alliance he’s made.”
“Well?” Morales prompted.
“Look, you want to know about the Chinese, I told you. But there’s some shit I won’t talk about.”
“Why?” Morales asked.
He laughed. “There’s people running trade in this town that I don’t want gunning for me, is all. Getting stabbed in the eye by the Brazilians or poisoned by Aphrodite would be a relief compared to what they’d do to me.”
“Who the hell is left?” I counted people off on my fingers. “Abe’s in prison, Harry Bane’s mean but dumb—every other major player is dead or in jail.”
Puck looked at me with an expression bordering on pity. “Ain’t my job to cure your blindness.”
I let that bait float by, since he obviously had no intention of doing more than taunting us. Better to focus on the case at hand. “If Krystal is the leader of the Votaries now, do you know why she’d choose to carry out the original plan to work with the Chinese?”
He shrugged. “She probably thinks carrying out Abe’s marching orders will protect her.”
“Do you know who Charm’s connect was in the Fangshi?” Morales asked.
“Never met anyone specific, but I saw him talking to this Chinese-looking dude one time.”
“Can you describe him?”
“Didn’t see him too good. He was driving a black Mercedes.”
“When was that?”
“The day before we killed him.” There was no emotion in his tone. Simply stating a basic fact. Murder was a means to an end. Not anything worth being emotional about.
“You ever see that man again?” I asked.
“Nah. After Charm died, things got a little crazy, you feel me?”
Considering Morales and I had been in charge of investigating that crime, we were pretty familiar with exactly how crazy it had gotten.
“You got anything else for us?”
He held up his hands, as if to signal he was empty. “I been locked up in here with these Mundane motherfuckers for weeks. It’s not exactly a hotbed of Cauldron gossip.”
“All right,” I said, standing. “If you think of anything else, call us.”
He crossed his arms. “If I think of anything else, I’m calling Grey. You want my help going forward, I’m gonna want a deal.”
“We don’t control that shit,” I said. “If you want Grey to help you, you got to deliver the goods on a big fish.”
“One of these days, you’re gonna need what I know and you’ll come running with a real sweetheart of a deal.” He flashed a smug expression. “I can’t wait.”
“Judging by the look of you, you’re going to be lucky to survive here long enough for your hearing, asshole. So, I suggest that if you have something big, you call Grey before they fit you with your toe tag.”
* * *
As we walked out of the jail, my cell rang. It was Baba.
“I talked to Mona,” she said. “I had to give her my spot at the bingo table and promise her a gallon of Widow Juice, but she finally agreed.”
“Your bingo spot?”
“It was a prime spot, Kate. Right next to Ernie Lipshitz.”
“Who’s that?” My phone chimed to indicate another call coming in. I ignored it for the moment.
She made a pitying noise. “Only the hottest widower at the senior center.”
“Her husband just died. Isn’t that sort of fast?”
“At our age, you got to lock it down quick.”
I shuddered, not really wanting to know what exactly was getting locked down. “Okay,” I said, “when does she want to meet?”
“Tomorrow around eleven.”
I pumped a fist in the air. “That’s amazing, Baba. I owe you one.”
“Don’t mention it, kiddo. Just remember your promise.”
The reminder that I told her I’d go easy on Danny reminded me that he and I had barely spoken since our argument in the kitchen. I made a mental note to make an effort with him once I had a minute to breathe on the case. “Roger that.”
I hung up with her and filled Morales in on the plan. By that time, we had reached the car and busied ourselves climbing in and buckling up. He was pulling the SUV out of the jail’s lot when he finally brought up the meeting with Puck.
“Was that a waste of time?” he asked.
I thought about it for minute. “I don’t think so. I mean, he didn’t exactly tell us anything we didn’t already suspect, but I did find the news that the Chinese deal came down from Abe interesting.”
“You think he was telling the truth?”
“Seems like,” I said. “I just wish we knew what angle Abe was playing. He never partnered with outside covens in the past. Why start now?”
“You think we need to pay him a visit?”
“Not until we know more. If we go in with half-cocked ideas, he’ll eat our lunch.”
“So, what now?” he said.
“Tonight, I’m running surveillance on Krystal’s house of hand jobs. How about you?”
“I’m going to get in touch with some of my contacts in L.A. See if someone’s heard anything about the Fangshi partnering with the Votaries.”
My phone dinged to let me know I had a new voicemail. I’d forgotten about the call that came in while I was talking to Baba. “Hold on. I need to see what this is.” I clicked the button and lifted the phone to my ear.
“Detective Prospero, this is Dr. Lynn Hidalgo, principal of the Conservatory for the Arcane Arts. I received your email and wanted to reach out to see if you’d like to meet to discuss the prospect of Danny joining us this fall. I’d really love to answer any of your questions and give you a chance to see the school itself. Please let me know when it would be convenient for you to come by for a chat.”
I hung up and cursed.
“What’s wrong?” Morales asked.
“That was the principal at that school.”
“And?”
“I think Volos called her.”
“Why?”
“Well, I emailed her last night, but I didn’t give her my phone number. And this morning, I talked to John about Danny and the school. I think he put a bug in her ear and gave her my cell number.”
“I guess that means your meeting with him didn’t go well.”
“I thought it went fine. I told him not to contact Danny except through me. He urged me to let Danny go to the school. I told him he didn’t get a say.”
“Obviously, he’s trying to keep you in his sphere of influence.” He shot me a side-eye. “Face it, Kate, the guy’s got a long game planned where you’re concerned.”
I looked out the side window. This was not a conversation I wanted to have again. It’s not that I believed Morales was wrong, but believing Volos did what he did out of some emotional place made it harder for me to keep my own emotions in the safe red zone. Anger was way easier to live with than any of the more complex feelings that sometimes raised their ugly heads when it came to my ex.
“Whatever,” I said finally, “he’s exceptionally good at backing me into corners.”
“So, tell Danny he can’t go to the school and have that be that.”
I shook my head. “It’s not that easy.”
“Isn’t it?”
“No, it’s not. I can’t ignore Danny’s wishes just because I have personal shit with Volos. It’s not fair to the kid.”
“What about what’s fai
r to you? You ask me, you let him guilt you into whatever he wants too much. Maybe try saying no for a change.”
It was the first time since we started seeing each other that Morales had tried to express his opinion about my parenting. Unfortunately, he said the perfectly wrong thing.
“When I need your parenting advice, I’ll ask for it, okay?”
“Whoa,” he said, “chill. I’m just saying don’t let your guilt—”
I slashed a hand through the air. “Drop it.”
A chilly silence settled inside the car. Morales punched the accelerator to beat a yellow light. I crossed my arms and settled in for an indignant pout.
Only, once we made it through the intersection, he let out a long breath. “I’m sorry.”
I looked up hesitantly, not trusting the olive branch he appeared to be offering. “All right,” I said slowly.
“We’ve been pretty good at keeping work and personal separate, but sometimes it’s gonna rear up. Volos has been tangled up in our work since the beginning, and now he’s weaseling himself into your personal life more and more. On a professional level, it’s concerning because I don’t trust him for a lot of good reasons. On a personal one?” He paused and shook his head. “I’m not proud to say this, but I’m jealous as hell of the guy.”
My mouth fell open. “What?”
“He was your first love. That’s potent stuff. Not to mention he’s now a powerful millionaire and political mogul.”
“You forgot to mention that he’s an asshole.”
Morales pulled the car over to the side of the road and put the car in park. He turned to me. “That’s the thing, Kate. Distrust, I’d believe. Anger, for sure. But you hate him.”
“Right,” I said slowly. “What’s your point?”
“Hate is a passionate emotion. We don’t hate something unless it gets under our skin. Unless we actually care a whole hell of a lot.”
I blinked at him, letting the implications sink in. I opened my mouth to respond, but I was so dumbfounded that the words dried up on my tongue.
“I’m not saying you’re secretly in love with him or whatever. Jesus, I hope not,” he said almost to himself. “But there are unresolved issues there. I have to wonder if there’s a part of you that enjoys the cat-and-mouse game you two have going on.”
I threw up my hands. “That’s the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever heard.”
He arched a brow.
“Seriously, Drew. You’re mental.”
“Regardless, you can’t blame me for being a little jealous, can you?”
“Yes, actually, I can.” I crossed my arms and refused to look at him.
“All right,” he said, “then answer me this. Did you tell him about us?”
“He already knew,” I said.
That stopped him. “Really? What did he say?”
You’re going to hurt him, Kate.
I huffed out a breath. “Nothing worth repeating.” Time to change the subject. “I forgot to tell you that I asked him about the Chinese.”
“And?”
“He had a meeting with some high-powered Chinese guy right after I left. I saw him but didn’t recognize him.”
“Did Volos say anything about the Fangshi?”
I shrugged. “He claims he hasn’t heard anything about them. Just said there’s some legit Chinese businesses moving into town.”
“Yeah, because that timing’s not suspicious.”
“Right. Might be worth checking out the business section of the newspaper today to see if there’s word of some Chinese outfit moving in.”
“I’ll handle that tonight while you’re on stakeout duty.”
“Sounds good,” I said.
The car was quiet for a few seconds. Then he said, “Are we cool?” He kept his eyes on the road.
“Yeah.”
He nodded.
And that was that. But as much as I wanted to believe our minor tension over Volos was just a blip, the ghost of it lingered between us. And the problem with ghosts is it’s only a matter of time until they get restless and start causing trouble.
Chapter Ten
Being on a stakeout is sort of like taking a really boring road trip. The scenery never changes and you don’t really get anywhere, but at least there are lots of snacks.
That evening, I sat in the beater car with Shadi, surrounded by bags of M&Ms and beef jerky. A good pig-out required a balance of sweet and salty. “It’s a good thing I don’t do this more often or I’d have an ass like a weather balloon,” I said, shoving a handful of pretzels into my face.
Shadi shot me a judgey glance. She did stakeouts all the time, but she managed to have a tight caboose and a midsection you could wash clothes on. While my side of the car looked like I was cramming for finals, her side had a bottle of water and a pack of chewing gum. That’s it.
“I could have handled this alone,” she said.
This was her subtle way of telling me she would have preferred I not be there. Guess my jerky wasn’t the only thing salty in that car. “And miss all this bonding time?” I said. “No way.”
She pressed her lips together and turned to look out the window again.
I’d fully expected to do the stakeout alone that night, but when I showed up, Shadi was already there. She told me she could take the shift and tried to send me home. But I was the only member of the team who hadn’t taken a turn yet, so I refused.
“Hey, Shadi,” I said.
“What?”
“Why’d you stay tonight?”
She shifted in her seat. “Nothin’ better to do.”
I frowned at the back of her head. “Seriously? Literally anything would have been better.”
She sighed and turned to look at me. “My kid’s at my ex’s for the week.”
“So?”
She narrowed her eyes as she weighed her options. Eventually, she realized that I wouldn’t let up and spilled it. “I had to put my mom in a senior center a couple of months ago. House is too damned quiet with them gone.”
I put down my pretzels. “Are you crazy? You’ve got the house to yourself and no responsibility for a week? You should be out living it up.”
“I don’t know. I mean, don’t misunderstand—I can still catch a cat, you know?”
I nodded. Morales had told me all about how Shadi was quite the ladies’ lady.
“But one-night stands lose their appeal after a while. It’s just easier to throw myself into the job. That way, I don’t have to think about going to that lonely house or dealing with some chick blowing up my phone because I didn’t text her the next day.”
I blew out a breath. “Well, hell—I don’t know what to say.” This literally was the longest and most personal conversation I’d ever had with her.
“Don’t say anything at all would be my vote.”
I huffed out a breath and shoved more snacks into my mouth instead of commenting. But after a while, I didn’t like the fact Shadi’s story had made me think about how lonely my house would be in a couple of years. So, I decided to bug her again rather than swim in my own maudlin thoughts.
“How are things working out with Dixon and McGinty?”
She sighed, giving me a chance to redact my question and let her sit in silence. I just waited. The truth was Shadi scared the heck out of me, but she was also fun to mess with.
“They’re fine,” she said, finally. “Dixon’s got lots of potential and he’s good with tech shit. McGinty’s…well, he’s McGinty.” Her tone hinted that she might be having some issues with the veteran cop, but I was torn about whether to push my luck by asking more questions.
After another couple of moments, she said, “The thing is, you can tell he used to be real police, you know? A natural?”
Not wanting to chance saying the wrong thing, I just murmured something vaguely affirmative and nodded.
“But now he’s tired. Like he’s just putting in his time until retirement. Spends most of his days arguing with Dixon and
reading the sports page.”
“Does he have enough to do? I mean, he can’t exactly go to the buys like Dixon.”
Dixon’s black skin and youth meant he could go undercover pretty easily. Same went for Shadi. But if McGinty tried to stroll through the Cauldron trying to buy potions, they’d smell the bacon on him in a heartbeat.
“Maybe not. I mean he’s good at planning and shit, but with the cases we’re working, there’s not a lot he can do.” She sighed and looked over. “You and Morales want him?”
“We could probably use some help with tracking stuff down.”
“Really?”
“Sure,” I said. “I’m sure Gardner wouldn’t mind us sharing him as a floater when we need desk work.”
“The thing is,” she said, “I don’t know that that would be a good use for him either. Did you know he used to be homicide?”
“Why did he stop?”
“Some shit went down. That’s my guess, anyway. He doesn’t talk about it. But I figure he must have pissed off the brass. That’s the only way Eldritch would give us anyone, right?”
It was hard to argue with her theory. Since the beginning, Gardner had been fighting with Eldritch for more manpower from the BPD to round out the task force, but he’d resisted and had lots of excuses. Then, a few weeks earlier, he suddenly handed us McGinty, all magnanimous like we were lucky to have him.
“How old is he?” I asked.
“Forty-nine,” she said.
He looked like he was at least a decade older than that. “Past his twenty,” I said.
After twenty years of service, most cops could retire and earn fifty percent of their pension. Lots of unis took that deal and started new careers. Others, who had the option, stayed on because they were able to move up the ranks into brass positions. But McGinty had stayed on despite the lack of promotions.
“His wife left him six years ago and they didn’t have any kids,” Shadi went on. “I think he stayed on because he didn’t have anything else to do.”
“It’s sad. Especially if he’s as talented as you say. Maybe you should talk to Gardner about giving him more challenging assignments.”
“Yeah, you’re probably right.”