He nodded and rocked a little bit, as if my question made him uncomfortable. “I got a place nearby,” he said defensively. “But I like to be here in case Peewee has to tell me something.”
“Okay,” I said. Judging from the deeper green hue of his skin, he managed to slip away to use, too. “What happened when the mayor came back at ten?”
“He had a man with him. Asian.” He peeked from under his lashes at me. “And a pretty lady with red hair.”
The lady was Volos’s lawyer and girlfriend, Jade. But I was obviously curious to learn who the mysterious Asian dude might be. “Did you manage to hear them talking about anything when they went by?”
“The redhead was saying that she wanted them to meet somewhere else, but the non-mayor man said there was no time.”
“Hmm,” I said. “Did they mention his name or anything?”
He shook his head. “Peewee says he’s tired now.”
I pulled a twenty from my pocket and handed it to it. He slipped it under the turban.
“Listen, next time the mayor comes back late at night like that, you give me a call, okay?” Clearly, the reports after the fact weren’t going to help me much. I’d need to see what was happening with my own eyes despite Sweet Ray’s claims about the superiority of Peewee’s vision.
“You said only call if something is strange,” he said.
“Well, now I’m asking you to call if you see the mayor with anyone who looks Chinese or who you know works for the covens.”
He sighed. “I don’t know. This sounds a lot like of work.”
“How do you figure?”
“If I want to call, I gotta go find a phone. They won’t let me inside the building, so that means I gotta go three blocks to the bodega. Plus, I gotta find change.”
“You don’t have a phone?”
He shot me a very lucid bitch-please look. “You think I’d spend my days on this step talking to pigeons if I could afford a cell-a-phone?”
Thus far, my new CI was turning out to be a huge pain in the ass, but he was the perfect person to keep an eye on Volos for me without the mayor knowing he was being watched. “Tell you what. If you actually ever manage to bring me something useful, I’ll buy you a burner phone.”
His brows disappeared behind the turban. “No shit?”
“No shit.”
He sat up straighter. “Girl, I’m gonna bring you the best shit. Just you wait.”
“I can’t wait,” I said, trying to sound optimistic. “Take care of yourself, Sweet Ray. I’ll look forward to that call.”
With that, I left the man to brag to the pigeons that he’d have his very own “cell-a-phone” soon.
Chapter Sixteen
I rolled into the gym around ten a.m. I expected the workday to be in full swing, but when I walked in, I only found Shadi, Dixon and McGinty sitting in the boxing ring.
“Where is everyone?” I asked.
“Mez is in the john,” Shadi said, “and Gardner’s in her office. She wants a team meeting once she’s off her call.”
I frowned because no one told me we were having a meeting. “Morales checked in?”
“Just called him about the meeting. Why aren’t y’all together?”
“I had an errand to run first thing. He on his way?”
She shrugged. “Left a message.”
“Now that you’re here,” McGinty called, “maybe you can settle something for us.”
“Settle what?”
“Dixon here has a theory. He says cops fall into two categories.”
“Oh, yeah? Which ones?”
Dixon leaned forward in his chair. “Supermen and Batmen.”
I just stared at him.
He shifted in his seat, warming up to having a bigger audience as Shadi climbed into the ring to listen as well. “On one hand, you got the Superman. He’s a real hero, right? Plays by the rules. Got into the game because he wants to help people. Really good guy.”
Shadi pressed her lips together and shook her head. I caught her eye and smirked. “And the other?” I said, egging him on.
“The Batman cop is a hero, too, but a reluctant one. He went into the business because he wants to make bad guys pay. He isn’t afraid to dirty his hands to get the work done.”
I rolled my eyes. “Let me guess—you’re a Superman.”
His face fell. “No, I’m a Batman.”
Shadi laughed out loud. “Please. You’re a Boy Scout, Dixon.”
“I got darkness in me,” he protested.
I met McGinty’s eyes. He was grinning like he was enjoying fucking with the new guy. “Dixon was just educating me on which category each of us fell into based on his astute observations.”
I climbed into the ring. “And?”
“Morales is a straight-up Batman.”
He clearly loved the idea of being in the same column as Morales.
“Mez, too, although technically he’s more like Alfred,” he said. “Seeing how he makes all the cool toys for the team.”
“I’m sure Mez would love to know you think of him as a stuffy old white guy,” Shadi said.
“What about McGinty?” I tipped my chin toward the veteran cop.
“He used to be a Superman before the job made him all jaded.”
McGinty just shook his head and took a pull from his coffee mug, which I’d bet cash money was ninety-proof.
“What do you think, Shadi?” I asked. “What are we?”
She shook her head. “I think that patriarchal bullshit don’t apply to us.”
“Huh?” This from Dixon.
“Listen, white boy, it might get you off to imagine that you’re Batman, but girls like us? We didn’t have superheroes to look up to when we was girls. We were given Barbies and told to pretend to be someone’s mama.”
I laughed out loud. “Speak for yourself. We couldn’t afford Barbies, so I played Wiz and the Fuzz with the rest of the Cauldron boys.”
“Are you saying you looked up to superheroes?”
“Nah,” I said. “You’re partly right. I knew even back then those weren’t supposed to be role models for me.”
“Who’d you look up to, then?” Dixon asked with breathtaking cluelessness.
I didn’t bother to admit I looked up to my Uncle Abe. Instead, I searched my memory banks for some version of a female role model I could remember. Finally, I said, “Xena.”
“The motherfucking Warrior Princess?” Shadi said, laughing. “Hell, yeah.”
“Right? She kicked all sorts of ass.”
“Got her some ass, too,” Shadi said, waggling her eyebrows, “from that cute little blonde.”
“Shut up,” I said, “Xena and Gabrielle didn’t have sex.”
“Bitch, please.” Shadi gave me a pitying look. “They totally scissored by the campfire at night.”
“I don’t remember any indication they were a couple.”
“That’s your hetero bias showing, girl. If you had been a little lesbian girl, you would have seen it all over that show.”
“Well, either way,” I said, “we can agree she was a badass.”
Shadi high-fived me. “Amen, sister.”
I looked over to see Dixon and McGinty furiously typing into their phones.
“What are you doing?” I asked.
“Checking to see where I can find this Xena show.”
“When you do, let me know,” McGinty said.
“Perverts,” Shadi said without heat.
“Who’s a pervert?” Mez asked, coming out of the locker room.
“These two,” Shadi said, hooking her thumb at them.
“I knew I liked them,” he said. “What’s shaking, Prospero? Where’s your partner?”
I opened my mouth to say I didn’t know, but the sound of the door downstairs opening interrupted. I listened for a second. Once I heard the telltale strike of boots on wood, I said, “Speak of the devil.”
A moment later, he appeared at the top of the steps. We hadn’t spoken since the previous afternoon when he dropped me off at my car. I studied his face for signs of trouble or hope, but his poker face wasn’t giving anything away. But he did search me out of the group with his eyes and nod. That was something I guess.
“Am I late for the party?” he said.
Gardner’s door opened and she rushed out. “Good, you’re all here. I want an update on the Valentine case. Morales, go.”
She climbed into the ring like a fighter preparing for a bout. Morales followed more slowly, like a man who didn’t expect to win this round.
“Evidence is pointing to a deal gone bad between the Votaries and the Fangshi,” he said.