Franklin shook his head. “I got the attending’s phone number, though. He can give it to you.”
I took down the doctor’s name. “We’ll do our best to track this down, but we’re already working the Valentine investigation. Gardner’s not gonna be real thrilled about using resources if this turns out to be some low-level wiz selling bad potions out of his van or whatever.”
“Tell that to the widow,” he said, his tone uncharacteristically grim. “Or that kid’s mom. Your brother’s about that age, right?”
It was a low blow and he knew it, but he didn’t look the least bit apologetic.
“All right,” I said, “I get it. We’ll see what we can do. Just don’t expect a miracle.”
He laughed but the sound held little humor. “In this business, miracles are in short supply, Prospero.”
Chapter Five
We got to the gym bright and early the next day. After our trip to the morgue, it was one of those mornings where it felt like even an IV drip of coffee wouldn’t be enough to get me through the day. But now that we were potentially juggling a murder case and Franklin’s virility potion case, the To Do list had grown exponentially, so there was no sleeping in.
The light in Gardner’s office was on, indicating she was already at work, and judging from the noises coming from Mez’s lab, he’d pulled an all-nighter following his visit to the morgue. But the doorway into his lab had a heavy curtain pulled across it, which meant he wouldn’t welcome an interruption. We needed to talk to both of them, but first we had a couple of calls to make.
“You take the widow and I’ll reach out to Val to see about getting evidence from the lab?” Morales said.
I nodded and dialed the phone number for Kostorov’s attending physician. After navigating my way through the hospital phone tree for about five minutes and getting a generic voicemail box, I hung up. In my cell, I found the number for a nurse named Maggie Smith that I knew at the hospital who might be able to help. Luckily, I had her direct line.
“Kate? Is everything okay?”
She was right to worry, since I only seemed to call when there was an emergency. We’d met after Danny had been hexed by a dirty magic potion, and the last time we’d talked had been after Pen had had a terrible car accident.
“Yes, everyone’s good,” I said. “I was actually hoping you could help me on a case. I was supposed to talk to a Dr. Singh, but I can’t seem to reach him.”
She snorted. “Yeah, he worked a double shift. He’s probably in a self-induced coma about now.”
“Well, the thing is I’m trying to get ahold of the widow of one of his patients who passed away last night.”
“I was working last night. Who’s the deceased?”
I told her Kostorov’s name.
She made an ain’t-that-a-shame noise with her mouth. “Yeah, hard to forget that one. What do you need the widow’s info for?”
“Medical examiner called us in for a consult. Need to talk to the wife to find out exactly what he took.”
“Geez, Kate, I’d love to help, but I can’t give out her address or phone number without her permission or a warrant.”
I stifled a curse. Stupid laws protecting people’s privacy. Made my job a real pain in the ass sometimes. “I get it. Any way you could call her and ask her to get in touch with me?”
“That should work.”
“I’d owe you a big one, Maggie.”
“Sure thing. One of my girlfriends who works over at Memorial said they had a guy come in with the same problem. Whatever they took is nasty. I hope you find whoever’s putting it out.”
“That’s the plan. Listen, if you hear of any similar cases coming in, can you give me a heads-up? Since you’re on the front line, so to speak.”
“Sure thing. I’ll text you once I’ve gotten in touch with Mrs. Kostorov.”
After I hung up, I chewed on my lip for a moment. I needed to talk to Mez to discuss the work he’d done on the Valentine potions, but before I could grab Morales from his phone to go talk to the wizard, Gardner’s door opened. “Morales, Prospero—I need an update.”
Morales hung up from the call with Val. Together, we went to Gardner’s office to fill her in.
“How’d it go at the morgue?” she asked without preamble.
“Franklin has three bodies he believes are tied to the same virility potion,” Morales said.
She frowned. “When he called, I assumed he was bringing us information on the Valentine case.”
This is where things were going to get tricky. Technically, the favor we were doing for Franklin wasn’t exactly kosher, so we needed to sell it to Gardner.
“He’s got three dead men who all appear to have taken the same virility potion that stopped their hearts,” he continued. “Based on Franklin’s initial findings, the potions probably didn’t come from Aphrodite’s crew.”
She didn’t look convinced. “Three men dying from hard-ons isn’t exactly shocking in this town, Prospero.”
“One of the vics was a sixteen-year-old,” I said. “Whatever this potion is, it’s extremely dangerous, and it’s possible a new outfit is moving into town to sell it. If we ignore this and the press gets wind of it later, we’ll be crucified.”
She sighed. “You talk to Duffy about this?”
“So far, we don’t have any reason to believe these are homicides,” Morales said.
She pursed her lips, thinking it over. “All right. Once we have Mez’s results, we’ll assess the need for further involvement. But this is not your priority—the Valentine case gets top billing.”
“Got it,” he said.
She looked down and wrote something on a pad. “Speaking of, any progress there?”
“We spoke to Aphrodite yesterday. Something strange is going on with them.”
“Them?”
“Long story,” he said. “Anyway, the Hierophant is planning a wedding.”
“Whose wedding?”
“It’s an alchemical wedding,” I said. “Aphrodite is marrying their masculine and feminine sides to each other.”
“What’s that got to do with Valentine?”
“We’re not sure yet,” Morales said. “But Aphrodite’s acting strange and seemed to imply there might be some upheaval happening in the covens.”
“There’s always upheaval in the covens,” Gardner observed in a dry tone.
“Yes, but now we’ve got multiple dead men who took virility potions that aren’t connected to Aphrodite, and someone killed their nephew, to boot,” I said. “Something’s going on.”
“I need more than speculation here. Bring me facts and evidence.”
“Understood,” Morales said. “Aphrodite also said that Basil might have been dating a Votary girl. We’re going to track her down today.”
She nodded. “Good. I talked to Eldritch first thing this morning and told him we were officially taking the case. He offered full cooperation, but you come to me first before you go to Duffy.”
“Yep. I talked to Val Frederickson before we came in,” Morales said. “She’s sending over some evidence collected at the scene. They found Basil’s cell phone in a trash can near the scene. If it’s okay with you, I’d like to bring Dixon in on that to track down call history and texts.”
“Sounds good,” Gardner said. “Let me know if you need extra hands beyond that. Shadi’s team can be available for surveillance or leg work. I want this case in the win column ASAP.”
We both nodded.
“Well?” she said. “Why are you still sitting there? Get to work.”
* * *
By the time Morales and I exited Gardner’s office, the lab “door” was open.
“I’m going to go talk to Mez,” I said.
He nodded. “I’ll see if I can get bead on Little Man and Mary.”
Walking into the lab, I called, “How’s my favorite lab rat today?” My tone sounded forced to my own ears. As much as I tried to keep work and private life separate, lack of sleep made it hard not to bring my frustration over the Danny school situation into the lab with me.
He looked up from the worktable where he was labeling samples. “Tired. I was up all night, processing everything from the arson scene and the morgue.”