Volatile Bonds

by Jaye Wells

  I shook my head. “Absolutely not. I won’t compromise him like that.”

  “You don’t trust me to keep your information protected?”

  “With all due respect, sir, I think you’re too worried about not pissing off the mayor.”

  “Watch yourself.”

  I backed down and changed direction. “Look, I’m sorry, but there’s some dirty shit happening between the Chinese and Volos.”

  “Your job was the find who killed Valentine and LeMay, not try to build some sort of conspiracy case around the mayor.”

  “Our job is follow the clues and intel to find evidence of crimes being committed. The clue led us to Hung. Hung is involved with both the Votaries and Volos. Don’t you find that weird and troubling?”

  “What I find troubling is your obsession with John Volos.”

  The air escaped me, as if she’d thrown a fastball at my chest. “Excuse me?”

  “Face it, Prospero, you’ve been chasing after him since you joined this team.”

  My mouth fell open.

  “That’s a gross mischaracterization of the facts, sir,” Morales said. “She’s not responsible for Volos being tied into all of the dirty shit happening in this town.”

  “And you used to be my top agent,” she spat. “Now you’re letting her lead you around like a dog in heat.”

  I jumped out of my chair. “Whoa—where do you get off?”

  She crossed her arms and stared at me. “Stand down, Detective.”

  “Fuck that.” I raised my chin. “I don’t know what angle you’re playing politically, but I told you this case smelled bad from the beginning. If we have to give the murder cases over to Duffy, that’s fine by me. But there is something rotten brewing in this town. It starts with the mayor and goes all the way down to the street corners.”

  “You think I don’t know that?” she shot back. “I’ve been in this job longer than you’ve been able to drive, sweetheart. Everyone’s always dirty. That’s the world we live in. You don’t throw your first punches at the highest guy on pyramid. You gotta kick out the foundations first. You get the corner boys to turn on their captains and on up until you got enough evidence to bring down the power brokers. You can’t let them see you coming, either, because the minute they smell the ambition on you, they’ll put a bullet between your eyes.”

  I clenched my jaw. I didn’t want to admit she was right. It was easier to pin the blame on her. Harder to accept that we were fighting a war where our enemy wasn’t bound by inconvenient ethics.

  “Furthermore,” she said, “you seem to be forgetting that Volos has all of us in a sling. We kidnapped Volos to get to Souza, and then we sat by and watched him murder a man. You think he’s not already angling to bring each of us down one by one before we can get him?”

  Guilt crept up the back of my throat like bile. Now was the chance for me to come clean about the gun I had hidden in the floorboards of my house. But I didn’t, because something in my gut told me it wasn’t good to be the only person in the room without secrets. Everything had gotten so complicated and political. Being the good girl who told her bosses everything she knew seemed like the sort of thing that would get me dead one day. And if there was one Prospero trait I needed to embody, it was the marrow-deep need to survive no matter what.

  When I didn’t respond, Gardner turned to Morales. “What do you have to say for yourself?”

  He scrubbed a hand over his stubble. “Not much to say. We tried but couldn’t get the solve.”

  She huffed out an ironic snort of laughter. “That’s it?”

  He raised his hands in a futile gesture. “What do you want from me? LeMay died twenty-four hours ago. We didn’t even have the fucking labs back from Mez yet.”

  Her eyes flared. Normally, Morales was a real cool customer when he was dealing with the boss. I’d never heard him take that tone with her.

  “Prospero, give us a moment.”

  I froze. “Uh.”

  Morales’s face gave nothing away.

  “Now,” she said.

  I shot Morales an apologetic look and slinked out the door. Once I closed it behind me, I walked calmly over to Shadi’s desk, which sat along the side of the boxing ring.

  She tossed down her pen. “Damn, girl, what did you two do this time?”

  I kept my back to the door. “Tell me what’s happening in there?”

  She craned her neck to look around me. “Gardner just sat in the chair you vacated. She’s talking calmly. Morales is shaking his head.”

  I blew out a long but not-so-calming breath. “Fuck.”

  “Now he’s talking and she’s shaking her head.” Shadi looked up at me. “What the hell is going on?”

  “This case,” I said, “this fucking case. I knew it was bad news from the start.”

  I turned to lean against her desk and chanced at peek at the office door. I couldn’t tell if it was a good or bad sign that they weren’t yelling. Sometimes, quiet conversations had the loudest repercussions.

  “Where are Dixon and McGinty?” I asked, trying to distract myself.

  “Cut them loose once the boss lady started hollering.”

  About that time, Mez came out from his lab. He glanced around until he noticed the closed door to Gardner’s office. “Hey, Prospero.” He waved me toward his lab. “Come here.”

  I pushed away from Shadi’s desk and went to see what he was up to. Once I stepped inside the lab, he pulled the curtain closed behind me. “What’s up?”

  He pulled me over to the counter, where a thick file folder sat. “Gardner told me to bundle all my lab reports to send over to Val since BPD’s taking over the case.” He tapped the stack. “But I thought you might be interested in seeing it before I do.”

  Part of me wanted to tell him there was no point, but something in the way his eyes were sparkling told me that’d be a mistake. “Tell me.”

  His mouth widened into a grin. He flipped open to the top page on the report. The sheet was covered in all sorts of columns with numbers and chemical symbols. “We were right—it was the tea. They sent Autumn Tieguanyin, which is a premium variety of oolong. Also called the ‘Iron Goddess of Mercy.’ The aroma is quite strong, which is probably what masked the presence of the poison.”

  “What kind of poison?”

  He did a little dance, indicating he was excited about the answer to my question. “At first, I didn’t believe it, because I’d never seen it before—just read about in obscure arcane books. Even then, it was only theoretical.”

  “What?”

  He sighed as if disappointed I wasn’t keeping up. “The poison in the tea is called gu. It’s an ancient Chinese form of poison created when, on the fifth day of the fifth month, five venomous creatures were sealed inside a container. They fought and devoured one another until all of the toxins were concentrated into the single super toxin.”

  “Holy shit,” I said. “That’s hardcore.”

  “Right?”

  I shuddered. “Good thing I’m a coffee drinker or that would put me off tea entirely.”

  “Anyway, that’s what killed her. Looks like the Fangshi weren’t going for subtlety on this.”

  I tapped a finger on the report and thought it through. “That doesn’t make a lot of sense, though. I mean, our theory was that whoever killed Basil blew up the lab to try and cover up the murder, right?”

  He nodded.

  “So, why be so blatant with Krystal? Especially when they had to know we were sniffing around their operation.”

  “Who knows?” he said. “I mean, maybe it was a warning to the other covens not to fuck with them. After all, just because we found the link to Chinese magic in the poison, it doesn’t help us identify the wizard who made the poison, right?”

  I paused. “You got that sample?”

  He went to grab a slide. “This is the tea sample. Why?”

  Before I could figure out a way to convince him to let me look at it under a microscope without lett
ing on I wanted to read the poisonous potion, Morales threw open the curtain.

  “Prospero,” he said, “time to roll.”

  “Where?” Part of me was hoping he was about to tell me we were going to go find Hung. I also was watching him to see if there were any clues about how his conversation with Gardner went. But he wasn’t giving anything away.

  “Home.”

  My shoulders fell. “Oh.”

  “We have to get ready for the wedding tomorrow.”

  I perked up again. “Oh?”

  The corner of his mouth lifted. “You said it yourself—the who’s who of the Cauldron will be there, right?”

  “Yeah,” I said. “But there’s no way Gardner will let us go now.”

  A new voice came from the doorway. “Yes, she will.” Gardner stepped inside. Shadi followed behind her, as if she’d been summoned as the boss passed by on her way to the lab.

  “Morales convinced me we’ve been approaching this all wrong,” Gardner continued.

  Her words didn’t make a lot of sense to me, but they sounded positive, so I just nodded and shot Morales a questioning look. He wouldn’t meet my eyes. I’d left Gardner’s office both hoping and worrying that he was about to come clean. Judging from her lack of shouting and his lack of eye contact, it had gone another direction.

  “We have?” I asked.

  “I’d been so focused on the murder angle that I missed an opportunity here with the Fangshi.” She turned to Mez. “What you got there?”

  I tried to read Morales, but he was busy not looking at me. Impatience made me itchy. I wanted to demand an explanation, but given the tension still echoing in the gym from the confrontation earlier, I thought it best not to test Gardner’s suddenly improved mood.

  Gardner reached for Mez’s slide, but he pulled his gloved hand out of reach. “Watch yourself—this shit’s nasty as they come.” He quickly filled them in on the potion’s components.

  “Hold up,” Shadi said, “they sent ancient Chinese poison hidden inside Chinese tea and a Chinese teapot?”

  Gardner frowned at the report. “I thought you said the Fangshi were good,” she said to Morales.

  “They are. None of this makes any sense.”

  “Well, it’s Duffy’s problem now,” she said. “I’ll drop these off at the precinct on my way home tonight. I’ll put a bug in his ear about this.”

  I watched her hand the poisoned tea slide back to Mez so he could bundle up the evidence for her to take to Duffy. There was no way I could get a chance to read the poison’s signature now.

  Morales caught my eye, as if to ask what was wrong. I looked away. He wasn’t the only one who got to have secrets.

  “I’m confused,” Shadi said. “I thought we were going to the wedding to continue working on the case.”

  “No,” Gardner said, “we’re going to work an investigation I just opened into the Fangshi’s conspiracy to distribute dirty magic in Babylon.”

  “We’re still trying to get potions and money on the table?” I asked.

  She shrugged. “We’re the MEA, that’s our job—not solving murders.”

  We all exchanged knowing looks to confirm that we understood what she was telling us.

  Gardner clapped her hands. “All right, everyone be here early tomorrow to prepare. I want that entire theater cleared before the wedding begins. And, guys, try to look like guests, not cops, okay?”

  “What’s that supposed to mean?” Shadi said.

  Gardner shot her a look. “It means dress up.”

  “Wait, you mean like an actual dress and shit?” she said. “God damn.”

  “I got one you can borrow,” Mez said. “You need one, too, Kate?”

  I shook my head, a plan forming in my mind. “I got someone I can borrow one from.”

  “All right,” Gardner snapped, “now that we’ve all discussed what we’re going to wear, I’ll remind you all to watch your asses at this event. Judging on past experience in this town, this wedding is going to be a real shit show. Be ready for anything.”

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  An hour later, I parked Sybil on the street outside an old peach stucco apartment building. Morales and I had gone our separate ways after the meeting. Actually, what had really happened was he ran off once we left the gym as fast as he could after muttering something about needing to go buy some new socks for the wedding.

  It was a bullshit excuse. He was avoiding telling me what really went down in Gardner’s office. It was apparent from her good mood that he hadn’t used to the opportunity to come clean. The good news was, he convinced her to let us keep working the Fangshi angle. The bad news was, he seemed determined to avoid talking to me about his reasons.

  But instead of forcing another argument, I drove over to Pen’s apartment with two goals in mind. The first being to apologize for being such an asshole to her about the Danny intervention episode. The second was seeing if she had any dresses that would accommodate a thigh holster.

  When she opened the door, I held up the snack cakes and bottle of wine I’d picked up on the way over. “Don’t slam the door in my face. I come bearing peace offerings.”

  She crossed her arms and pursed her lips, considering my meager gifts. “Is that the buttery chardonnay I like?”

  “Yes, ma’am. It’s even chilled.” I offered the bottle for her inspection. She played it cool, raising a finger to poke at the condensation on the bottle’s surface.

  Finally, her frown broke and a bark of laughter escaped. “Get in here.” She hauled me inside and slammed the door behind her.

  I handed over the treats, which she took and set down on her coffee table. “You know, you can’t just buy back my affection with alcohol and sugar, Katie.”

  I sighed. “That was just to get me in the door,” I said. “I’m hoping my sincere apology will earn me the right to stay awhile.”

  She chewed on her bottom lip. “I’ll accept it on one condition.”

  “Name it. Anything.”

  “That you accept my apology, too. You were right. I shouldn’t have encouraged him to ambush you like that.”

  “Pen, no—”

  She held up a hand. “Unfortunately, you were sort of right. I’d been so sick of myself and my problems that I was butting in where I shouldn’t have as a way to distract myself.”

  “That’s okay. I mean, don’t do it again, but I understand.”

  She shot me an amused but contrite look. “Anyway, Baba said you met with the principal?”

  “I’ll tell you all about it while you open the wine.”

  “Deal.” She took the bottle and spun on her bare feet to go grab an opener from the kitchen.

  As she opened, I told her all about the meeting at the school and the compromise we’d come up with. She poured us each a glass and handed mine over when I was done. “That sounds like a good plan,” she said. “Plus? Bonus two weeks without the kid this summer.”

  I paused to savor both the wine and the thought. “I hadn’t considered that part yet.”

  “You and Morales can run around the house naked if you want.”

  I almost spit out my wine. “Oh, Baba would love that.”

  “How many times have you seen her naked since she moved in?”

  “No, I mean, she literally will love it. I’m afraid Morales is going to charge her with sexual harassment.”

  “That woman ain’t right.” She snickered. “Where is Macho tonight, anyway?”

  I sighed and set down my glass. “We have this wedding to go to tomorrow, so he’s off making sure he’s got the attire he needs.”

  She pointed her glass at me. “Why does it sound like there’s trouble in paradise?”

  “It’s nothing. This case we’re on is just stressing us out.”

  “You sure that’s all?”

  I nodded and took another swallow of cold wine to scrub the half-truths from my tongue. I was afraid if I spoke to Pen about my half-formed concerns, they’d become real. />
  Luckily, she seemed to have another topic she wanted to discuss. “So,” she said, taking a coy sip of her wine. “I have some news.”

  I looked up, relieved to have a distraction. “What?”

  “I got a job.” She danced a little jig.

  “Shut up! Where?”

  “There’s this new clinic opening in the Cauldron. It’s a new approach to helping with addiction by treating the body and the mind. They’ll have physicians and nurses on staff along with counselors.”

  “Wow, Pen, that sounds amazing.”

  “It’s really exciting. They haven’t even broken ground since they’ll be opening in the fall. But the woman who’s starting it was in town to interview prospective employees this week. I went in yesterday to interview, and she called me an hour ago to tell me I got the job.”

  “That’s so great. You like this woman?”

  She smiled over the rim of her glass. “We really hit it off. She’s run clinics in New York for years and is expanding her practice to other areas that have high dirty magic epidemics. She said my own struggles with addiction in the past would help me be a more empathetic counselor.”

  I nodded. “Makes sense.”

  “The best part is, I’ll be making more at this community clinic than I made at Meadowlake and the benefits are amazing.”

  “If they don’t open until the fall, when will you start?”

  “Nicola—that’s my boss—is flying the new staff out to New York in a couple of weeks to tour her other clinics. We’ll be there for a week, shadowing their staff and helping out. But after that, I’ll be helping get everything ready here from writing procedure manuals to interviewing support staff.”

  I held up my wine for a toast. “Cheers to new beginnings.”

  She clinked her glass against mine. “And to old friends.”

  After we each took a celebratory sip, I looked at her over the rim. “Speaking of new beginnings, you know this wedding I need to go to tomorrow?”

  She tilted her head and shot me a knowing look. “Is it black tie or cocktail attire?”

  I made a pained face. “There’s a difference?”

  She grabbed my hand and pulled me toward the bedroom she’d converted into a closet. “Come on, Cinderella. Let’s find something for you to wear to the magic ball.”