Chapter Nine - "Cali vamps tan"
"You know, when people on the force told me they thought you might be a jinx, I had hoped they were kidding," Detective Gao said to me. "But no, I should have heeded the advice of my elders and been more wary of the sort of mayhem and carnage you bring in your wake."
"Hey hey hey, this one ain't on me, Gao," I said to him. "Well." I scowled for a second. "That's not entirely true, I suppose. It's
mostly
not on me. The only things that I contributed here are the shattered window and the two living secretaries, instead of this being a triple homicide. Not that anyone'll say thanks for that. How're they doing, anyway?"
"Astonished you're alive, more than anything," Gao said with a roll of his eyes. "I had to bust in a window a couple of floors down to give you a plausible alibi. Said a wind gust shoved you and the guy you fell out with back into the building and through a window."
"And they bought it?"
"It's more likely than 'He used a magic spell to stop himself from turning into sidewalk pizza,' don'tcha think?"
I nodded with a grim smile. It was the most useful tool those of us who protected the Veil had - people's inability to believe in what they
know
for a
fact
they saw. "Yeah, we get that a lot in my line of work. But you didn't answer my question. How are they?"
"Their boss was just shot, and his corpse was thrown out a window," Gao said to me sarcastically. "They're doing just peachy. They're in fucking shock, Sexton. The fuck you think they're doing? And what do you mean this one ain't on you? You're
here
. You were literally outside of the room when the man got shot, and I didn't see a second body down there on the ground floor. You're lucky one of the secretaries basically ironclad's you being out of the room when the shots were fired, or I'd probably be hauling your ass down to the station right now."
"Wrong place, wrong time, Detective," I told him with a shrug. "That's all you got on me here. I was coming to see the man with good news, and to offer him a promotion. Scout's honor."
"So, wait, you're telling me this one's tied to the other stiff you stumbled across a couple of days ago? She gets killed and this guy's next in line to the throne or something?"
"Without getting too into the weeds, Detective, that other stiff held an extremely important job, and when she died, it fell on me to find a replacement to assume those job responsibilities."
"Seems like somebody didn't like your choice of who to take over the gig, huh?" Gao asked me.
"I'd been thinking along similar lines myself, Detective," I told him, rubbing the back of my neck. "Although this guy was by no means a slam dunk for the position. Sure, he'd gotten a handful of key recommendations, but I hadn't met him myself to size him up. That's what this was supposed to be - me dropping by his office, getting a chance to meet him, take the measure of the man and then offer him the gig, if he wanted it, that was."
"There a chance he wouldn't want it?"
"Probably not," I said calmly. "It brings with it a lot of passive income for not a lot of work. Sure, there's responsibilities that can be a bit troublesome here and there, but for the most part, it's easy money and a step up in respect, and that's the kind of win-win most people love hearing about. It's a good chunk of change, but I wouldn't think it's worth killing folk over. There are a
lot
easier ways to make a buck in my community, and most of them don't involve murder."
"You wanna tell me about the guy who went out the window with you?"
"Didn't get all that great a look at him before he transformed into a bat and flew off into the night," I said to him. "Tall build. Long, black, stringy hair. Pale white skin. Fangs. Did I mention the whole 'transformed into a bat' thing?"
"Should I put out a bolo for a V.E. Tempes?" he asked me as dryly as he could.
"Good to see you've got your sense of humor about this," I said with a smirk. "This is going to be one of those cases where you're just going to attribute it to a random John Doe you get in the morgue in the next day or two, somebody who fell out a window and then died as the result of his fall. Worry about me trying to do the whole law and order thing here."
"Maybe I skip all that and just stamp it with the little crossed revolver stamp my boss gave me on the first day of work that I swore I'd never use," Gao grumbled. "She told me that there would come a day when I'd get a case where I'd know what truly happened, but that I couldn't possibly put it in my report for fear of being committed to the nuthouse. Every so often, I'd come across a cold case file with that little insignia stamped on it, crossed old school revolvers, and I'd wonder what the hell had really happened. Guess I'm finally having to deal with those kinds of cases myself."
"You had to know the day would come," I told him. "But hey, you're closing cases. You can close this one and the DiMaggio case. Chalk it up to the same John Doe. I'd originally figured that was just a crime of opportunity, somebody breaking into her office, not really knowing who she was, but that murder and this one? Definitely connected."
"Could be coincidence."
"I don't believe in coincidence, and I don't think you do either, Detective," I said to him. "No no, either there's a hidden connection between these two or the obvious connection has details I'm missing and need to find out."
"Not to be
that
asshole, but how's
my
case coming?"
I sighed, sitting back down in the little lobby chair I'd been waiting in when I'd heard the shots fired about an hour ago, looking up at him. "So, she
didn't
run off on you. That much I'm pretty sure of. And while I don't have any direct proof that she's tied up in all of this, I've got this gut feeling that I can't quite shake that there's some kind of link between all of this mess that I'm missing. Some piece of the puzzle I haven't found yet that'll connect all the various pieces. Your girl's Queen thinks pretty highly of you, though, and the marriage had been sanctified by their internal government body, so whatever's happened to her, they probably aren't involved, I think. Her body hasn't turned up yet, and her Queen hasn't declared her dead, and the Queen'd know if she kicked it, so that's proof positive that she's still alive, wherever she is." I shrugged a little. "Not the update you wanted to hear, I know, but I did promise I'd give you the truth, as uncomfortable as it might be."
Gao nodded, rubbing his chin. He hadn't shaved since I'd seen him last, and he was starting to get scruffy in all the worst ways. The bags under his eyes were deeper set, and the despair had begun to creep in around the edges. "How sure are you that she's still alive?" His voice was pleading for good news, something he could cling onto as a beacon of hope.
"98%," I told him, putting forth as much confidence as I could. "The death of a leannΓ‘n sΓdhe can't pass the Queen's notice, and if she had died, the Queen would've contacted me to let me know. So, unless she was taken off this continent before she was killed, she's still alive. Take comfort in that. Besides, if she's not dead now, then whoever's taken her has a need for keeping her alive, and that doesn't seem like it'll end any time soon. I'll keep working the case, and sooner or later, I'll figure out who's taken her, why and how to get her back. I can't guarantee you'll be happy with the end result, because without knowing why they took her, I can't predict if her usefulness is going to evaporate or not before I get there. But it hasn't so far, and you should take that as a good sign."
"Alright, Gunslinger," Gao said to me. "We'll do it your way for now. But I want it known that I'm way more concerned about her safety than I am helping you cover shit like this up, at least until you've honored your end of the deal. I'm paying for results, not speculation."