“Fuck ’em,” he said.
He’d been monosyllabic since we left the apothecary. I wanted to question him about it, but it would have to wait until we left the precinct.
I took a sip from my paper cup and immediately regretted it. “At least the MEA has better coffee.”
He huffed out a forced laugh but didn’t look up from his paperwork.
We worked for several minutes, occasionally asking each other questions about what went down at the apothecary so our reports would be accurate and identical. I was almost done when a voice called from the doorway.
“That paperwork better be for the Valentine murder.”
I glanced up to see Duffy glaring at us from the doorway. “It’s related, yeah.”
“My office,” he snapped.
Morales and I exchanged an unimpressed look and then put our heads back down to continue working.
Two minutes later, Duffy reappeared. “Hello?”
I signed my report with a flourish. “What’s up?”
“I just asked you to meet with me in my office.”
“Actually, you just said, ‘My office.’” I looked at Morales. “You want to go grab some food once we drop these with Butch?”
He stretched and yawned. “Sure. Chasing people works up an appetite.”
“Jesus H.,” Duffy said. “Will you come to my office? Now. Please.”
“Oh, fine,” I said, “but only because you asked so nicely.”
He hovered by the door this time to make sure we got up to follow him. Once we left the breakroom, we followed him until I detoured toward booking to give Butch the paperwork. Morales stayed with him so he wouldn’t blow a gasket.
When I ducked in to give everything to Butch, I saw that Lenny and Jake were gone from the bench. Butch saw me looking and said, “They’re getting mug shots now.”
I turned in the report and slid my business card across the desk. “You run into any trouble, call me.”
He lifted the card and read it. “Aren’t you fancy?”
“Yeah, it’s all designer coffee and white-collar crime up in the MEA.” There could be no missing the sarcasm in my tone. “Thanks, Butch.”
When I entered Duffy’s office a few moments later, the two men weren’t talking. I’d kind of been hoping Morales could handle whatever bullshit Duffy was pulling, but I guess it just wasn’t my day.
“What’s up?” I asked, taking my seat.
“What’s up is it’s been four days and I ain’t had a single update on the Valentine case.” A vein in Duffy’s neck bulged and his eyes were red, like he hadn’t slept in a while.
“Maybe it’s time to switch to decaf, Duffy.”
“Fuck you, Prospero. I’m serious. Gardner told Eldritch we’d be kept in the loop on this.”
“Hey, you’re the one who begged us to take the case because you were too overworked. We figured you’d appreciate not being bothered.”
He tilted his head. “How generous of you. But since you’re here…” He leaned back in his chair and raised his arms, as if to offer us the floor.
“The two scumbags we just brought in were selling a potion for Valentine. Virility pills,” I said. “According to them, a couple of days after the lab exploded, Valentine’s girlfriend showed up with some Chinese wizards who demanded they stop selling the pills.”
He frowned. “Chinese wizards?”
I nodded. “Fangshi. Mostly a West Coast gang. We think they’re trying to move into the Cauldron and Valentine was helping. The girlfriend’s involved too.”
“What’s her name?”
“Krystal LeMay. She’s a Votary girl.”
Duffy frowned as if he was having trouble keeping up. He was an Adept but had spent most of his career working homicides on the Mundane side of town. He’d been promoted to head of the Cauldron precinct murder squad several months earlier after he’d helped on a big case. Personally, I thought he was a good cop, but he didn’t know enough about Cauldron politics to be in charge of solving all the murders there.
“So, you figure the Chinese killed Valentine. What’s the motive?”
I glanced at Morales in case he wanted to jump in, but he looked about as ready to talk as a perp in an interrogation room. Realizing I was on my own, I continued to explain to Duffy. “Valentine—probably with the help of his girlfriend—screwed over the Chinese.”
“How?”
“The Fangshi wizes supplied Valentine with a virility potion that he was supposed to put out to test the market. Only, Valentine got greedy. He cut the Fangshi potion with a dangerous ingredient and put it out in pill form. That doubled the supply so he could double his profits.”
“Which cut the Fangshi out of more profit,” Duffy supplied.
“Exactly. Only, the thing he added? It made the potion unstable and we’ve connected it to at least three recent deaths.”
“Which begs the question—why haven’t you arrested the girlfriend or any of these Fangshi people?”
I laughed. “Because we literally got confirmation of the connection less than an hour ago.”
He didn’t look convinced. “If it were me—”
“Yeah, well, it’s not you,” I cut in. “Remember? You couldn’t handle it so you asked us to take over?”
He lifted his coffee mug to his lips. Finding it empty, he muttered a curse and slapped it down again. “Look, I’m not trying to bust your balls, Prospero.”
“Yeah, you are, and you seem to forget that we don’t report to you. You work your cases and let us work ours.”
“I’m just saying it’s only a matter of time before Eldritch comes in here and puts my balls in the vise. When I tell him you haven’t made an arrest, he’s gonna be knocking on Gardner’s door. Then guess whose balls will be in a vise?”
“Enough with the ‘balls’ already, man,” I deadpanned. “It aggravates my penis envy.”
He cleared his throat. “Sorry, but you know what I mean.”
“Look, Gardner wants this case closed too, but not by cutting corners and making arrests based on hearsay. If the Fangshi are involved, there’s no evidence thus far connecting them to the crime scene except some potions.”
His expression cleared. “Huh.”
“What?” I snapped.
“Nothing, it’s just—well, it’s refreshing to hear someone worried more about making a strong case than getting a closure on the score card.”
“Thanks, I think,” I said. “Look, we’ll loop you in once we have something concrete. If you have questions, you can certainly call. But until then, I figure you got enough on your plate without us checking in every day.”
He scrubbed a hand over his face. “You’re right. Sorry. About earlier…and the ball thing.”
“Don’t lose any sleep over it. I worked this precinct for five years, remember? I know how it gets.”
“Yeah, well, according to what I’m hearing, it’s worse now. Ever since Volos became the mayor and made it his mission to reduce violent crime in the Cauldron, the heat’s been on.” He shook his head. “Makes me wish I was still across the river. Mundane murder cases can get plenty fucked up, but they ain’t got nothing on the crazy shit the covens pull on each other.”
I almost felt bad for the guy, but I also knew he was more of a political animal than he’d ever admit. He wouldn’t have taken this post if he didn’t think it would pay off in promotions down the road.
I glanced at the clock on his desk. “All right, we good?”
He nodded. “Believe it or not, I do appreciate you taking this off my plate.”
With that, I stood. Morales was looking at his phone, so I had to nudge him. He glanced up sharply and then realized the meeting was over. “We good?”
Dragging him after me, I called over my shoulder, “See ya, Duffy.”
I held my tongue until we were outside the precinct and on our way to the car. “All right, what’s eating you?”
“Nothing.”
“Bullshit. You’ve been weird ever since we arrested those two jackasses.”
He stopped walking and ran a hand over his scruff. “We’re in trouble.”