“Dayna…” He rolled his eyes.
“I know, I know. Don’t worry, I don’t want to go over that ground again, I swear.”
“Maybe we can call it even. You can be a little mad that I didn’t tell you about Isabel, and I can be a little mad that you didn’t tell me about going on one-third time to get more involved with that other world.”
Now I smiled. “That’s the best bargain I’ve heard all week, bar none. Deal.”
“Good. And speaking of our secret fantasy world, I’m hoping that they can cut you some slack this weekend. I’ve still got that nice evening out planned, if you’re interested.”
Alanzo had suggested this to me a few days ago. I’d eagerly circled the date on my day planner, first in pencil, and then in bright blue permanent marker.
“Oh, that?” I said offhandedly. “Yes, I suppose I can make time. I’m glad you said something, it might have slipped my mind.”
He threw me a glance to see if I was still kidding around, but I was poker-faced. “Yes, glad I did…I was hoping for last weekend, but it just wasn’t going to happen. I got trapped working the door for the hordes of ‘trick or treaters’ that showed up at my tía’s place.”
“I was pretty busy that weekend too,” I said.
That was a bit of a dodge. I’d planted myself in bed for Halloween, ignoring the holiday. Instead, I tried to recover from a week’s worth of depression and insomnia over the events at the Reykajar aerie.
Then I’d spent the next day being grilled by Fitzwilliam’s court. I don’t think I won any hearts or minds among the nobles, but that didn’t bother me as much as I thought it would have. I’d gotten a victory of the kind that I truly treasured – when Grimshaw and I had reconciled over the same events. I needed the big lunk of a bird-lion more than I cared to admit.
And there was one more thing that happened. Something that wouldn’t be resolved until this very afternoon.
“In fact,” I added, “you were right. About why I needed to speak to you privately.”
“Andeluvia.” At least he didn’t say it like a curse word.
I nodded. “They need me there for the rest of the day. So I can’t stick around to finish the crime-scene work.”
He seemed to chew this over in his mind, and then nodded. “You have to take care of what you need, Dayna. We’ll manage here.”
I squeezed his hand one more time, and he walked back into the tall grass to confer with his officers. I got my regular shoes back on, closed up the van’s rear doors, and slipped into the driver’s seat. The glass greenhouse of the van’s windshield had turned the cabin into a steel-and-fabric sauna, so I quickly cranked down the windows to get some air. Then I located my phone and put a call in to the OME’s admin center.
It took me a few moments to navigate through the automated call menu until I got the department admin who normally handled the schedule.
“Naomi, it’s Dayna,” I said. “Looks like I’ll need to call in the schedule transfer like we talked about. Definitely need a bag-and-tag.”
The sound of rustling papers. “Gotcha. Looks like I’ll have to pull Myun-Hee from en route to Durham Boulevard. I’ll let his boss know. Martinez won’t be pleased, but we have to do it.”
That surprised me. “I thought that Shelly Richardson’s people were covering this shift.”
“They are, but Martinez is supervising today. Didn’t you hear? Richardson’s still out.”
“Still out?” A chill went down my spine. “She’s called in sick…what, three, four days ago?”
“Think so,” Naomi replied, in a disinterested voice. “To be honest, I haven’t had time to check the records.”
“Did she leave a message or anything?”
“I don’t see anything. Actually, she hasn’t even called in sick past that first day. After that… she just didn’t show.” A beep sounded in the background. “Whoops, I’ve got a call on another line, is there anything else you need?”
“Not now, thanks.” The line clicked off, leaving my head spinning for a moment.
Shelly rarely if ever called in sick. Then she’d been present at a standoff between Deputy Chief Robert McClatchy and a young, magically gifted pooka by the name of Destry. I was sure that the mind-bending powers Destry had used on Bob had somehow affected her mental stability. She’d been out every now and then for the past month.
But never for this long.
I needed to follow this up. But, dammit, I needed to be in Andeluvia this afternoon, or my time there could very well be forfeit. I hated to do it, but I turned the ignition key to get the van’s motor running and promised myself that I’d check on Shelly the very next morning.
Forty minutes later, I got the van parked inside the garage. The roll-up door hadn’t even touched the driveway by the time I locked everything up and ran into the house. I went into the bedroom, where carefully I’d laid out my chosen outfit early this morning. Then went into the bathroom to set out all the cosmetics I wanted to use, as well as the multiple torture devices I would need for my hair.
A quick disrobe, shower, and towel-off later, I dressed and found myself turning in circles, making sure that I looked presentable from all angles. Then I went to work on the hair and makeup. Luckily, I still spent enough of my time at the OME offices proper. So I wasn’t out of practice when it came to what my grandmother would have called ‘gussying up’.
When I was done, I looked at myself critically in the mirror.
You’re a good-looking woman, Esteban had said.
I suppose that I looked okay. As far as I was concerned, I had the pale hacker’s tan from all the time I spent staring at computer screens. My hair looked like well-tamed stringy black yarn. The green eyes helped, at least when they weren’t bloodshot from lack of sleep. And you could use my chin to chip ice with.
I’d never had too much of a problem attracting guys in the past. In college, at least, I had to learn a very special scowl to drive them off. Now, I wasn’t so sure. Working with dead bodies didn’t exactly put me in a male-rich environment.
Maybe I was being foolish, chasing dreams in Andeluvia, when Esteban clearly wanted to make a go of things with me.
Maybe I was re-evaluating how permanent life really was after what had happened to Vazura and Hollyhock. Vazura had never gotten a chance to be with his lover, Lady Behnaz. Even if their taste and timing had been questionable, it seemed that they really had cared for each other.
And Hollyhock?
I was still working my way through that one. Even with her whole life ahead of her, Holly had been blinded and ultimately destroyed by her thirst for revenge.
She’d done everything with me simply to hide the fact that she was working for the enemy.
The mysterious him.
I looked at the clock above my dresser. I didn’t have time for any more introspection. I slipped on my high heels and carefully walked out to the center of my living room. I had to get going or I’d be running around going ‘I’m late, I’m late!’ like the white rabbit in some fairy tale book I’d read.
In fact, I realized, I was stepping into my very own fairy tale right now.
I grabbed the medallion infused with Galen’s portal spell and took a deep breath.
I was excited to be heading back to Andeluvia.
After all, I was about to be made a Dame.
(…continued...)
The full story for
A Perjury of Owls
will be found at all major
eBook retailers
in Early 2016.
Also by Michael Angel
The ‘Fantasy and Forensics’ Series
Centaur of the Crime
The Deer Prince’s Murder
Grand Theft Griffin
A Perjury of Owls (Coming Early 2016)
Standalone Fantasy and Sci-Fi Novels
The Detective & The Unicorn
The Wizard, The Warlord, and The Hidden Woman
The Adventures of Amanda Lo
ve
Treasure of the Silver Star
The ‘Apocalypse with a Side of Spam’ Series
Episode One
Episode Two
Episode Three
Episode Four
Entire ‘Season One’ Compilation
The ‘Fringe Space’ Series
A Shovelful of Stars
Pay To Pray
Dogfight
A Planet Torn
The Complete Collection: Fringe Space Tales
Meet Michael Angel
Michael Angel’s worlds of fantasy and science fiction range from the unicorn-ruled realm of the Morning Land to the gritty ‘Fringe Space’ of the western Galactic Frontier. He’s the author of the bestselling Centaur of the Crime, where C.S. Lewis meets CSI. His many books populate shelves in languages from Russian to Portuguese.
He currently resides in Southern California. Alas, despite keeping a keen eye out for griffins, unicorns, or galactic marshals, none have yet put in an appearance on Hollywood Boulevard.
Find out more about his latest works at:
www.MichaelAngelWriter.com
Editing/Proofing services provided
by Cassandra Campbell at
Campbell’s Book Soup
and
Leiah Cooper from
SoIReadThisBookToday.com.
Cover art by Annah Wootten-Pinéles,
whose art can also be found at
www.annahlouise.com.
Grand Theft Griffin Page 30
