Jimmy sat and stewed, unwilling to go back to the apartment and listen to Sandee bitch and whine, along with the brats whining that there was nothing to do. Shit, Fanny was so bored she wanted to go with Lizzy to that room everyone was pretending was a real school. But if Fanny was allowed to go, then Clarence would want to go because he wouldn’t want to be excluded, and Clarence more than Fanny had been banned from the Courtyard. As if those freaks had any right to ban a real human from anything. But you couldn’t say shit like that, not since the Humans First and Last movement fell.
He sat and stewed until the sawhorses were removed from the archways and the Market Square was once again open for business. Then he sauntered to the butcher shop.
The glass case was so clean, even his mother wouldn’t find fault. It was also completely empty.
“Morning,” Jimmy said when the brown-feathered freak walked out of the big refrigerator. “I was hoping to get a couple more slices of that meatloaf. The kids really liked it.”
“Got nothing,” the male replied. “We got cleaned out last night.”
So those bastards had managed to do the job.
Jimmy put on his down-on-his-luck expression. “That’s too bad. But, really, you got nothing? I wouldn’t be asking but . . . the little ones.”
The male shook his head.
Furious but knowing better than to show it, Jimmy headed for the door. As he reached for the handle, the male said, “Wait.”
He went back to the glass case. The male didn’t look happy and kept glancing at the door, as if he needed to make sure no one would see him.
“After this happened, a delivery of special meat came in. We don’t usually sell it to humans, but you need to bring something back for your mate and young, right? I’ve got one piece left—part of a foreleg. It should be enough to feed the four of you.”
“How much?” Jimmy asked.
“Ten dollars.”
He thought about trying to bargain for a better price but realized that was pointless. If this was the only piece of meat available, the male could sell it for twice that price to the next person who walked into the shop. Which meant Jimmy could sell it for at least that much outside the Courtyard. “Sold.”
“Being the last piece, it’s already wrapped,” the male said. “I’ll get it for you.” He was back in less than a minute with what looked like a long roast wrapped in heavy butcher’s paper and tied with string.
Jimmy eyed the package. “You sure there’s enough meat on that?”
“Plenty. Lean meat too. Hardly any fat.”
Jimmy paid for the roast and left the shop, feeling triumphant that nobody else would have meat tonight. Not that bitch Eve Denby or the bitches who were sleeping with the cops. Maybe he’d be a generous son and invite Mama over for dinner. Maybe he could talk her into doing the cooking so the meat wouldn’t end up overcooked or too tough to chew.
Seeing Kowalski walking toward him, he held up the roast in triumph. “You’re too late. I bought the last piece of special meat.”
He had just enough time to register the weird-ass crazy look in Kowalski’s eyes. Then he was on the ground, struggling as Kowalski hauled his arms behind his back and handcuffed him. Then Kowalski stepped back, not trying to restrain him any further.
“You fucker!” Jimmy screamed as he rolled to his side. “This is harassment! This is— I’ll have your badge for this! I’ll have your ass for this!”
A girl with dark eyes and long black hair rushed out of a nearby shop, wearing nothing but a white slip.
“Officer Karl!” she said when she reached Kowalski. “What’s happening? Do you need help? Should I peck its eyes out?”
Jimmy stopped thrashing as if he were helpless and sat up. Peck its eyes out? What kind of shit talk was that?
“No, thanks, Jenni,” Kowalski replied, sounding way too calm when his eyes still had that weird-ass crazy look. “I’ve got it under control. But could you ask Officer Michael to bring me a large evidence bag and then call a patrol car? Tell him we need both ASAP.”
She pulled the slip over her head and let it fall. Nice body, Jimmy thought, momentarily distracted from the crazy-ass cop. Nice and naked and . . . Seeing downy feathers covering her pussy instead of normal hair creeped him out. Seeing her change into a large Crow and fly off creeped him out even more.
He didn’t know how long he sat on the ground. Felt like forever but couldn’t have been more than a minute or two before Debany came running and said a patrol car was on the way, before Kowalski and Debany hauled him to his feet and carefully put the roast in an evidence bag.
Evidence his ass. This was a shakedown. That’s what it was. They would haul him in; CJ would spring him because he hadn’t done anything wrong; and those two bastard cops would “lose” the evidence until they cooked it for dinner.
Full of righteous anger that he would blast at Captain Bastard Burke and CJ, he didn’t resist when Kowalski put him in the patrol car that pulled into the delivery area, then got in the front with some officer named Hilborn. No, he didn’t resist because he’d take this all the way up to the mayor’s office if he had to—and he’d do it before any of the scrapes and bruises caused by Kowalski slamming him to the ground had begun to fade. Yes, he would take this to the top, and when he was done, he wouldn’t have to pay for a single mouthful of food for the rest of his stay in Lakeside.
? ? ?
Meg watched the patrol car pull out onto Main Street with Lieutenant Montgomery’s brother in the back. Being taken in to the station wasn’t the same as being arrested. But given a limited number of images that could be used to convey a vision, would the prophecy cards make such a distinction? Or was it enough that someone was going to jail, even if the stay was temporary?
If that was the case, if this was the first part of what the cards had revealed, there had also been a death. Whose death?
She looked at Nathan, who watched her with an intensity that made her feel small and tasty—and made her glad being a blood prophet made her inedible.
That thought made her uneasy—and a little bit queasy.
“Do you know what’s going on?” she asked Nathan.
He didn’t answer, didn’t even try. But he seemed pleased about Cyrus Montgomery being taken away in handcuffs, and Meg wondered if whatever pleased Nathan was the reason Simon had avoided her since last night.
CHAPTER 20
Windsday, Messis 22
Monty walked into the interrogation room sick with fear. When he’d first caught sight of Kowalski as his partner hauled Jimmy into the station, he’d thought Karl had been hopped up on some kind of drug. And there was Jimmy with scrapes on his face and bruises already blooming, screaming that Kowalski was off-his-head crazy—and judging by the scared expression on Officer Hilborn’s face, Jimmy’s assessment of Kowalski might not be wrong.
Then Monty unwrapped the “roast” Jimmy had bought at the Market Square butcher shop and understood Kowalski’s behavior. He understood a lot of things as he slammed into a stall in the men’s restroom and threw up. Now he needed to convince Jimmy to give him the information he would never get from Simon Wolfgard—because Wolfgard had already sent a clear message that Jimmy was involved up to his neck in whatever had happened in the Courtyard last night.