The boy returned with an older Japanese fellow with grey hair and deep frown lines in his forehead. Furthermore, he didn’t have the same uniform as the kid. His navy suit was expensive and pressed to perfection. Not what I expected. Then again, were demons ever predictable?
His brown eyes widened as he spotted me. “What can I do for you, young lady?”
I took a deep breath. “I wanted to talk to you about a specific order for an important client.”
He searched my face for a long moment and then waved a hand. “Sure. Come with me. I’ll just be a moment, Kevin.”
I followed him to his office in the back, wiping my sweaty palms on the legs of my jeans as I went. No one jumped out to grab me. That was definitely a first.
He closed the door behind us when we reached his office and took a seat, eying me. “So you’re the Seer.”
I didn’t know how to respond, so I waited for him to say something else.
He tilted his head a bit and continued. “Thought you’d be taller.”
I bristled. “I’m average height, thank you very much. Should we get down to brass tacks?”
Fenton spread his hands. “What do you want? Clearly it’s not to take me in, or you’d have brought the pretty boy with you.”
“Okay, I changed my mind. Shoot him,” the archangel said. I almost smiled. I was the only person allowed to call him that, apparently. Instead, I kept my face blank. “We want to know if someone tried to fence the museum items stolen yesterday morning. We’re prepared to make a generous offer if you cooperate.”
“Oh? Have the archangels gotten so desperate that they would directly fund an illegal operation?” He folded his hands on the desk and tapped his thumbs together.
“I wouldn’t put it that way. More like choosing the lesser of two evils.”
“How so?”
I shrugged. “Well, they could either pay you, no muss, no fuss, or kidnap you and torture the information out of you.”
Fenton tossed his head back, letting out a bark of laughter. “An angel? Torturing a demon? I’d like to see that.”
“He keeps this up, and he might,” Michael growled in my ear. I bit my lip to stop a second smile. The grumpy Peanut Gallery was not making this any easier.
“The offer’s on the table. What d’you say?”
The demon dug his pinky finger inside his ear, giving me nothing but a cool look for a handful of seconds. “Well, my pockets are a bit light these days. Ten thousand bucks and I can give you what you need.”
“Which is?”
“The occupation of the person who ordered the break-in. I’m not exactly in the know these days, but I do keep my ears open.”
“So they didn’t try to fence the weapons to you?”
“Nope. Didn’t try with any other of the low level fencers in town either. They want the stuff here in Albany for a reason.”
“And that would be…?”
He smirked. “Money first, jou-chan.”
I scowled at the term. I’d watched enough anime to know what it meant—the equivalent of “young missy.” I dug into my jacket for the already-signed check from Gabriel. I wrote in the amount and handed it to him. He took a moment to verify its validity and then spoke again.
“Word is that there’s an archdemon in town. Not sure who yet. He or she has plans to bump off the pretty boy to give our side the advantage. All I know is they’re a doctor.”
“What kind of doctor?”
“Don’t know. Don’t much care. None of my business anyway.”
“We just paid you ten grand for some vague crap that anyone could have said. You’ve gotta give me some kind of details.”
Fenton’s eyes narrowed and Michael chimed in. “Easy, Jor.”
I tried again, keeping my voice level. “Is it Belial?”
“No. He’s still down below after you and the angels smoked him.”
Some of the tension in my back relaxed. I was safe for now. “Do you know when any of this is going down?”
“Before the week’s out. I’d be careful if I were you, jou-chan.”
“Thanks.” I cocked my head to the side, murmuring into the mic. “Anything else you need me to ask?”
“No. That’s good enough. Let’s not test our luck.”
I left the office, letting out a relieved sigh as I exited the shop. Michael met me at the food court and we headed outside into the cool night air.
“Is it really okay to pay off a demon? Sounds sketchy even to me.”
Michael clucked his tongue. “O, ye of little faith. It’s not a normal check. It’s got a microchip with a tracker inside it. The second he goes back to his lair to store it with all his other ill-gotten gains, a strike team’ll take him out. He won’t go away forever because he’s got good lawyers, but it’ll keep him off the streets for a while.”
“Impressive. So what now? All we’ve got is confirmation, no real details.”
“I’ll start digging to see what I can find on his doctor claim. In the meantime, we’ll help Jacob cross over tomorrow.”
“Busy week.”
“Isn’t it always?”
He nudged my shoulder, giving me a fond look. “You did good in there. Maybe you should’ve been a cop instead of a waitress.”
“Nah. Outfit’s too uncomfortable.”