Volatile Bonds

by Jaye Wells

  “Baba called me last night.”

  I held up a hand. “Look, Mez, I really don’t want to get into this here. So, if you’re planning to lecture me about how I need to raise my little brother, you can save your breath.”

  He shuffled his boots a little. “It’s not that. I just wanted to apologize for my role in everything. They swore they were going to tell you.”

  I sighed. “Look, I don’t have time for this right now.”

  “I know,” he said, “but for what it’s worth, I understand why you might have reservations, but I know Dr. Hidalgo personally. We went to Thoth U together. She’ll take good care of him.”

  “Prospero,” Morales called. “Tick-tock.”

  I ignored him for a moment and focused on Mez. “Look, I get that everyone just wants what’s best for Danny, but I’m playing catch-up here. I need some time and space to think about this before I make a decision.”

  “Okay,” he said. “I just wanted to make sure we’re good.”

  “Yeah, we’re good.” I actively released the tension in my shoulders. “Just promise me that next time, you’ll come to me.”

  “You got it.” He smiled to seal the pact.

  I turned to go, passing Morales, who followed in my wake.

  “What was all that about?” he asked when we reached the sidewalk outside.

  “Nothing,” I snapped and threw open the door to go out to the street.

  He caught my arm and spun me around. “Will you talk to me?”

  “Why? So you can lecture me about how I’m a shitty mom too?”

  He pulled back. “What?”

  I quickly told him about the school drama. When I mentioned Volos’s involvement, his jaw tightened but he didn’t interrupt.

  When I was done, he sighed. “What are you going to do?”

  “I’ll do my homework on the school and then I’ll make a decision.”

  “That feels like the right move. You can’t let them gaslight you into believing their deceit is somehow your fault.”

  Hearing him put it that way went a long way toward easing my anger. He’d put his finger on precisely the issue I hadn’t been able to articulate for myself. “Exactly, yes. Thank you.”

  I smiled at him across the car. Something sparked in his face, and I felt a corresponding ignition in my chest.

  “You’re doing good by that kid. You’ll figure out the right thing when the time comes.”

  “Thanks.”

  “You’re welcome. Now, can you do me a favor?”

  I cross my arms. It was as close to agreement as I could give him right then.

  “Next time there’s personal stuff happening in your life, can you tell me about it so I don’t have to find out secondhand at work?”

  My first instinct was to deny that I’d hidden anything, but he was totally right. I’d had plenty of opportunities from the time I picked him up to go to the morgue up until we got to work this morning to fill him in on what happened. Pen’s pointed words about me saying I’d take a bullet for him but not call him my boyfriend came back to haunt me. “I’m sorry. I should have looped you in. There was just a lot going on.”

  We were in full view of the office windows, so he settled for bumping my shoulder. “Understood.” He dipped his head until I looked him in the eye. “You know I’m here for you, right?”

  “Of course,” I said automatically.

  “I mean it, Kate.”

  “I know.”

  He hesitated with his key halfway to the ignition. I braced myself, praying he’d let it go so we didn’t have to have some sort of messy emotional conversation. Luckily, he thought better of whatever he’d been about to say and started the car.

  “All righty,” he said, “let’s go see the Wonder Twins.”

  Chapter Six

  Since it was springtime, the twins had resumed their daily visits to the city park near the old steel factories. Originally, the park had been built for the families of steel workers, but since the steel bust, it was little more than an empty lot with junked-out playground equipment and a few chipped benches.

  We left the SUV parked at the curb and started over toward their bench. The back of Mary’s head was swathed in sunlight, which illuminated the patches of pink scalp showing through her greasy brown hair. Not wanting to startle her, I cleared my throat as we approached. She turned her head sideways to look at us from the corner of her eye.

  “It’s Lady and Macho.” She tilted her head down as she announced our arrival to her brother.

  “No shit?” The voice that responded to her sounded like it belonged to a thirty-year-old man who’d grown up hard.

  He might sound mature, but Little Man was no larger than a six-month-old baby. Mary toted him around in a carrier strapped to her chest, but he was no infant. Instead, Little Man was her conjoined twin. Technically he was a homunculus—the product of their mother’s addiction to a nasty fertility potion. Mary had gotten all of the physical strength, but Little Man’s mind ran the show.

  “I was hoping we’d see you two assholes today,” he said with characteristic charm.

  I crossed my arms and smiled down at LM. “You miss us, LM?”

  “Nah, just need some money for cigarettes and a sammich.” His laugh sounded like the grinding of rusty gears. He raised his two chubby arms. “What can we do for you?”

  “You hear about Basil Valentine?” I asked.

  Little Man chuffed out an offended breath. “That’s a rhetorical question, right?”

  “What you hearing?”

  He leaned an elbow back on his sister’s flat chest. “Other than Basil got shot before he got blowed up, you mean?”

  “Right.”

  He sucked on his front baby teeth. “There’s some rumors.”

  “What kind of rumors?” Morales said.

  “Expensive ones.” Little Man rubbed his tiny hand over his belly. “Sure am hungry.”

  Morales pulled a twenty from his wallet and shoved it toward the homunculus. Mary’s hand reached out to snatch and stash it.

  Once the transaction was made, LM smiled. “Rumor is Basil got himself tied up in some shady shit at the urging of his lady.”

  “Who’s his lady?”

  “You ain’t heard?” He crossed his chubby arms over his belly. “Sad day when the law don’t have any idea what’s going on in their own town.”

  “Cut the shit, LM. Give us her name.”

  “Y’all are no fun today.” He turned his cupid’s bow mouth down into a pout. “Her name’s Krystal LeMay.”

  “Is she in porn?” Morales asked.

  Little Man laughed. “You ain’t too far off, Macho. She runs a rub ’n’ tug joint over on Blackmoore Avenue.”

  “What’s her story?” I asked.

  “I’m disappointed in you, Prospero. You of all people should know who’s running your uncle’s outfit now.”

  My mouth fell open. “Bullshit.”

  “Scout’s honor,” Little Man said. He held up two fingers in salute. “She was dating that asshole Puck Simmons before he went away for killing Charm.”

  Morales and I exchanged a shocked look. “Hold on,” I said. “You’re saying Puck’s ex, who sold him out to BPD, is also the new head of the Votaries who happened to be dating the victim of our murder investigation?”

  “Pretty much.”

  I grabbed Morales’s arm. “We saw her before, remember? At Charm’s wake.”

  “Was that the time you broke Puck’s finger?” he asked.

  “Yep.”

  “I remember her. She kept glaring at you like the two of you had some old beef.”

  “Which was weird, seeing how I’d never met her in my life.”

  “What’s this about Krystal selling out Puck?” Little Man asked. He tried to sound casual, but I realized our error too late. We were supposed to be getting gossip from Little Man, not providing it.

  “Oh, no, I meant they were dating when Puck went away.”

 
His eyes narrowed. “Uh-huh. Anyway, that’s who you need to talk to.”

  “You mentioned something about Basil getting into shady shit because of her?”

  Little Man wiggled his fingers again.

  I crossed my arms and tilted my chin down at him. “We already paid you.”

  “A pittance,” he said. “When I give you so much.”

  “Tell you what,” Morales said. “You tell us and we’ll decide whether it’s worth an additional payment.”

  He pressed his lips together, clearly annoyed. “So, Basil used to work for the O’s, right? Seeing how he’s Aphrodite’s nephew, he got special insight into the sex potion business. Apparently, Krystal decided to use that.”

  “But you said Krystal’s Votary. Why would she want a cut of the sex magic trade?”

  “Who knows? Bottom line is I heard she and Basil made some deal with some Chinese motherfuckers to distribute their shit.”

  “The Fangshi?” I said.

  “Never thought I’d see the day the Chinese would be selling on Babylon’s streets.” Little Man shook his head sadly, but his tone betrayed anticipation instead of disappointment.

  “I’m thinking Aphrodite won’t be too happy with that development,” Morales said, shooting me a look.

  “They did mention something about young wizes,” I said.

  Little Man leaned forward, suddenly very interested. “Hold up, you went to Aphrodite before you came to see me? The shemale working for y’all or what?”

  “Relax, LM,” I said. “Aphrodite would no sooner work for the MEA than give you a blow job.”

  He leered. “Please, that he-bitch would pay me for a taste of my prime beef.”

  I threw up a little in my mouth, considering the beef in question was currently encased in a full diaper.

  “Anyway, that actually is pretty helpful, LM.” I pulled an extra ten from my wallet and handed it to him. “So, thanks.”

  He handed the bill to Mary and laid his hands across his bare belly. “So…you two fucking, huh?”

  The change in topic was so fast, I got vertigo. “Whoa.”

  “Don’t be ridiculous,” Morales said.

  “Please. You got the look of a lady who been getting it on the regular, and he’s strutting around like he’s dipping his wick in a special candle.”

  It was nice to hear that he thought of me as a “special candle,” but there was no way in hell I was going to discuss my private life with a horny homunculus. As much as I’d relied on Little Man’s intel to help solve cases, I was under no illusion that he was on our side. He was a businessman who sold information. If word got out on the street that Morales and I were romantically involved, it could eventually be used against us by any number of lowlifes.

  “You need to cut back on whatever you’ve been smoking.” I shot Morales a grossed-out look. “I know better than to shit where I eat.”

  Morales’s brow shot up, but he played along. “Yeah, gross.”

  “Don’t bullshit a bullshitter.” LM tipped his chin to shoot me a frank look. “Hey, no judgments. I get it. Y’all working long hours together. Things are bound to get horizontal. Just sayin’, though, shit’s gonna get messy.”

  “We don’t pay you for relationship advice, Little Man,” Morales said.

  He smirked at us. “Nah, I do that for free.”

  Mary, who until that point had been sort of staring off into the middle distance, perked up. “Macho and Lady sitting in a tree,” she sing-songed.

  Little Man cackled like a loon. “F-u-c-k-i-n-g.”

  I shook my head and waved away their perverted nursery rhyme. “You two ain’t right in the head.” I plucked at Morales’s shirt. “Let’s go.”

  As we walked away, the sound of Little Man’s laughter followed us. But then he yelled, “Don’t arrest Krystal today.”

  I stopped and turned. “Why not?”

  He made a jerk-off motion in the air. “I got an appointment tomorrow morning!”

  * * *

  Once we got to the car, I called my friend Joyce at the county clerk’s office. According to the records on file, Krystal LeMay had gotten permits to open a massage parlor five weeks earlier.

  After I hung up with Joyce and told Morales what I learned, he said, “Timing is interesting.”

  Krystal’s ex-boyfriend Puck had been arrested a week before she got her permit. Sometime between choosing not to corroborate her boyfriend’s alibi and opening the salon, she’d come into enough money to open a business.

  “Something to ask about when we chat with her,” I said.

  “Do you really buy LM’s claim she’s running the Votaries now?”

  “On one hand, he’s rarely wrong. But on the other, she didn’t strike me as the type.”

  He shot me a look.

  “What?”

  “You met her for what? Ten minutes in that bar that one time. And you two didn’t even talk.”

  “Morales, I grew up in that coven, remember? You learn how to size people up quickly.”

  “Well, she had Puck fooled, so maybe she’s a good actress.”

  “Maybe.” I shrugged. “You want to talk about the fact that it’s looking more and more likely that the Fangshi have infiltrated Babylon?”

  A muscle in his jaw clenched. “Not especially.”

  Several years earlier, Morales had been undercover in the Fangshi. While he was there, the coven killed a dirty cop and Morales had helped them cover up the murder. It had been a secret he’d carried by himself for a long time, but the previous fall, a psycho wizard dosed us both with a truth serum and the truth had come out. Later, we discovered that Mayor Volos also knew his dirty secret and even had a written account of the crime signed by a member of the coven named Gan Ji, who’d been there when it happened.

  “You know once Gardner finds out, she’s going to start asking questions and your past in that coven is going to come up.”

  He shifted in his seat and veered the SUV into traffic. “Kate, there is no way that the wizards I dealt with in Los Angeles are in Babylon now. From the sound of it, it’s a low-level guy wanting to earn some quick cash.”

  “But Gardner—”

  He cut me off. “If L.A. comes up, I’ll tell her everything I know about the inner workings of the Chinese coven so far as it pertains to closing the case. There’s no reason for the incident to come up.”

  By that time, we’d pulled onto the street where the massage parlor sat. It was not the nicest area of the Cauldron, but it wasn’t the worst, either. The block held a couple of dive bars, a check cashing joint, and had a bus stop on the corner. We parked across the street.

  The massage place was in the center of the block with a pink neon sign in the window that read, Happy Ending Massage Parlor.

  “Well,” Morales said, “that answers that question.”

  I shot him a look and reached for the door. “Behave,” I warned him. “And don’t touch anything.”

  The air inside smelled like coconut oil and stale semen. The combination was less pleasant than it sounds.

  Behind the front desk, a woman with orange skin was talking on the phone. The hue was the result of a fake-tanning potion. The clean magic version of the potion was expensive and gave a convincing sun glow to the skin. The dirty version was cheap and left one looking like they’d rolled in cheese-puff dust. This chick clearly had gone for the discount version.

  As she talked on the phone, she smacked her gum and filed her nails into daggerlike points. “So I tells him, you gotta warn a girl before you put it there—”

  “Excuse me,” I said.

  She held up one of her fingers. “And he said, ‘It slipped.’ Can you believe it?”

  “Hey, it happens,” Morales said to me, straight-faced.

  “It better not,” I said to him, darkly. To the lady behind the desk, I said, “Ma’am.” I held up my badge. “You need to hang up now.”

  She paused mid-smack and squinted at the badge. “I’m gonna have to
call you back.” She dropped the phone into the cradle. “We don’t do couples massages.”

  “You have a lot of cops come in asking for massages?” I asked.

  “You’d be surprised who we get in here.” She shrugged. “What do you want?”

  “We need to see the boss lady,” Morales said.

  “You got an appointment?” Smack, smack, smack.

  I looked up at the video camera behind the desk and waved. “Come out now or I’ll have my friends come raid your back rooms.”

  The phone on the desk rang. The Smacker answered. “Yeah…Uh-huh. Yep.” She hung up. “You can go on back. Third door on the right. The right, you hear? You do not want to go left.”

  “Got it,” I said.

  With that, Morales and I walked through the lobby to the curtained doorway. The hallway was dark and each of the doors was closed. Suspicious moans filtered out into the cramped space.

  “We should go left, right?” Morales joked at my back.

  “Very funny.” I opened the third on the right. Even though I shared my partner’s amusement about the location of our errand, I was tense about the reason for our visit. If Krystal really was the new leader of the coven, she wasn’t someone to underestimate.

  The door opened into a storage room. Shelves lined with dingy white towels and industrial-sized bottles of massage oil lined the walls. I shuddered upon seeing boxes upon boxes of rubber gloves.

  Just past all the shelves, a doorway was blocked by a bamboo-beaded curtain. Morales went through first, but he stopped short on the other side, which forced me to run into his back.

  “Hey!”

  He pulled me around him so I could see what he was looking at. Instead of entering an office, we’d entered a control room. A semicircle of TV monitors displayed the action inside all of the massage rooms. Nothing really prepares a person for seeing half a dozen illegal hand jobs projected on large screens, but it’s not something I cared to repeat—ever.

  “Jesus!” I looked at the floor so fast, I experienced vertigo. “Warn me next time.”

  “I didn’t get any warning,” he muttered.

  “Why are so many of them weeping?” I asked.