by Jaye Wells
About the time Mary hit puberty a large mole on her chest had grown into her brother, Little Man. He never grew larger than a baby so she could easily carry him around in a carrier strapped to her chest. One time I asked if they ever thought about having surgery to separate. Mary’s reaction to the question was… violent, so I never brought it up again. But I knew from experience she was fiercely protective of LM, and there was no way he could survive on his own in this world, and Mary could never survive the mental rigors of living without his guidance, so in a way their relationship was symbiotic.
Morales had met the pair before during our last big case a few months back. Still, his shoulders tensed once we spotted them on their normal bench. The last time he’d met them, Mary had had a negative reaction to an offhand comment my partner had made, so I couldn’t blame him for his caution. Especially since the last time we’d tried to talk to the pair, they’d run like frightened animals. Still, it was odd to see such a big guy get freaked out by an intellectual cripple and a homunculus who would have lost a wrestling match against a toddler. “Relax,” I said. “As long as you don’t do anything to make her think you’re a threat to Baby”—Mary’s pet name for Little Man—“it’ll be fine.”
“That’s the problem. That little fuck loves to stir the shit.”
“Then keep your mouth closed and let me do the talking.” It had taken me a while to trust Morales enough to introduce him to my snitches. But now that I had I didn’t want him doing anything else to jeopardize my relationship with them. As tricky as it was to deal with LM and Mary, they tended to give me good intel most of the time.
“Is that bacon I smell?” A bored voice floated back over the bench toward us. I wasn’t sure exactly how he knew we were there, since Mary’s back was to us and LM couldn’t see over her shoulder. Still, I’d learned not to underestimate LM because of his size.
Mary didn’t get up or turn to address me. Instead, she waited for Morales and me to come around the bench. When we did, I stopped and gaped. “What the fuck happened?”
Little Man had a busted lip, and one of his wrists was swollen and purple. Mary had her left hand in a cast and a large bandage across her forehead that bore smears of blood that had seeped through the gauze. LM chuckled, but the noise morphed into a pitiful cough. “Had a little trouble.”
“No shit,” Morales said, coming forward. “Who did this to you two?”
The move earned him a menacing growl from Mary.
LM raised his uninjured right hand. “Careful, Macho. Sissy’s a little more protective than usual ever since the attack.”
Morales shot a worried look at the woman and backed away. “Sorry,” he said to Mary.
“Tell us,” I prompted. “Is this why you ran from us the other day?”
His gaze scooted left, as if he’d been hoping I’d have forgotten about that. “Had a misunderstanding with a business associate is all.” LM sighed and leaned back, like he was enjoying sharing his woes with an audience. “The fucking moon. Got people acting a fool.”
“Which people?” Morales asked.
LM shrugged, his eye skittering to the side. “Forgive me, Special Agent, but I’m not at liberty to share details about our confidential business with an officer of the MEA.”
Morales rolled his eyes. It’s not like we didn’t know that LM and Mary were tits-deep in the magic trade in the Cauldron. It’s just that by comparison they were relatively small fish in a filthy pond full of bottom feeders. Arresting them for their small-time potion deals would be like capturing a tadpole when there was a school of barracuda swimming past.
“If this business of yours has anything to do with the case we’re working,” I said, “it’d be in your best interest to give us some names.”
LM shook his head. “This ain’t none of your business, Prospero.” His tone was so serious it gave me pause. Little Man wasn’t ever Mr. Happy Good Time, but he usually enjoyed busting my balls during our meetings. Something was up. He knew I’d go to bat for him if it was in my power to do so, but for some reason he believed I either wouldn’t or—more likely—couldn’t help him with this one.
I nodded. “I hear you. Just make sure you two watch your asses. I don’t have time to train new snitches.”
That finally earned me a chuckle. “Ah, shit, girl. You’re a trip, you know that?”
“That’s funny. I thought she was just a pain in the ass,” Morales added.
LM laughed again. “I hear that, Macho.” He held up his uninjured hand. Morales paused only a fraction of a second before he leaned in to slap the homunculus some skin. When he pulled back I held my breath, worried he might do some stupid thing like wipe his hands on his jeans, but he didn’t.
“Anyway, don’t worry about us,” LM said. “This busted lip is a fucking pussy magnet.”
Vomit rose in the back of my throat at the mental image conjured by his words. I felt rather than saw Morales shudder next to me. LM cackled and raised his hand for another high five, this time in my direction, but I sidestepped it verbally. “Anyway, we were wondering if you two heard anything about this asshole calls himself Dionysus.”
Mary, who’d been staring off into the middle distance, as was her habit, suddenly became very alert. Her massive melon head jerked up and she stared at me like I was her enemy. LM felt her go tense and started patting her arm. “Shh, Sissy,” he whispered. To me he narrowed his eyes. “Who told you?”
I froze. “Wait. He did this to you?”
The small face scrunched up with confusion. “You mean you didn’t bring him up like that to see how we’d react?”
I frowned and shook my head. “No, we’re investigating him for real. I had no idea you were connected to him.”
LM crossed his arms over his tiny chest. “Well, fuck. I knew we shoulda skipped out of town before this fucking moon got its claws in the city.”
“Why didn’t you?” Morales asked.
LM’s posture changed. His movements hesitant, as if he was worried about giving away too much. “That’s the thing. This business I mentioned, it came up last minute right before we was gonna leave.”
“Wait,” I said, “Dionysus approached you?”
Mary stiffened again at the mention of the name. LM shushed her and then reluctantly looked at us again. I raised a brow. “Fuck,” he said. “Fine. What’s-his-name came to me couple weeks back—just after the last full moon. Said he heard I was the man to talk to for information.”
I nodded because that much was true. No sense asking how Dionysus figured out LM was the guy. It was common knowledge in the Cauldron that the homunculus knew everything. The only thing keeping the little shit alive was his sister’s reputation for violent overprotection and that most people were just plain freaked out by the pair. “What kind of information?” I asked.
“Said he wanted to know who the key players in town were. Paid real well for a list of the top wizes and their specialties.”
“Was he after something particular?” Morales asked.
LM shrugged. “At first no. He just took the list and paid me. But last week he comes back demanding to know why I didn’t list all the Cauldron’s wizes.”
I frowned. “Who’d you leave off?”
The homunculus looked me in the eye. “Aphrodite and Volos.”
“Goddamn it.” I felt Morales shoot me a look but ignored him. “What about them?”
“I left the Hierophant off the list because I was afraid it’d get back to her/m and s/he’d poison our asses.” Little Man crossed his arms with a huff. “And I didn’t put Volos on the list ’cause he’s all legit and shit.”
I raised my brows to indicate I didn’t believe Little Man was naive enough to think Volos was really out of the game completely.
He shrugged. “Leastwise, ain’t nobody knows of any new potions he’s produced in a few years.” He waited for me to acknowledge that.
Truth was Volos had put a potion out in the last few months, but it was the legit antipoti
on he’d created with my help to battle the dirty potion Ramses Bane put on the streets. Still, LM’s point held up because all that aside, Volos still hadn’t been a player in the Votary Coven in years—not since he betrayed Uncle Abe and testified against him in court in exchange for a clean slate.
“So Dio”—Morales shot a worried glance in Mary’s direction—“err, the asshole came back demanding to know why Volos wasn’t on the list specifically?”
LM shook his head. “No, he came back saying I had to have left someone off. Got the impression he’d checked out all the other alchemists on the list and didn’t find whatever it was he was looking for. So he figured I musta left someone off.”
“Did you figure out what he was looking for?” I asked.
“Said he knew a wizard in Babylon had ordered a large shipment of calamus root recently. That’s what he was after, see? When he checked out the others and didn’t find those barrels, he knew I’d left someone off.”
“Calamus root?” Morales asked.
“It’s used in some Hoodoo traditions to gain control over someone’s will,” I explained quickly. “I didn’t see it listed as an ingredient for Aphrodite’s potions.”
“So it was Volos.” Morales didn’t sound surprised, and frankly neither was I. He was developing a bad habit of getting himself tangled in my cases. A bad habit I was going to have to cure him of ASAP before it got more people hurt—or worse, cost me my job.
I turned back to LM. “Is that how you ended up hurt? He beat you until you gave him their names?”
The silence was the only affirmation I needed. “Son of a bitch.” I scrubbed a hand over my face. “So what happened after you gave up the names?” I didn’t even bother to ask how a lone man managed to rough up Mary, but the fact he’d done it spoke volumes about what we were up against.
“He told me if I left anyone else’s name off the list he’d be back. He said if I went to the cops, he’d be back. He said if I so much as thought about him, he’d be back.”
“That’s why you ran the other day?” Morales asked.
He nodded. “This asshole wasn’t no joke.”
The fear in his tone shocked me. Little Man was usually full of piss and vinegar. I’d never heard him admit to being intimidated by anything.
“Anyway, I heard he already hit up Aphrodite’s joint,” LM said. “That asshole better hope the herm doesn’t catch him before you guys do.”
I chuckled despite the bad feeling swirling through my abdomen. “I’d actually pay for ringside seats to that show.”
Morales crossed his arms and gave LM a hard look. “Hold up, so you’ve known for a while that this asshole was gonna knock over wizes and it didn’t occur to you to call us?”
LM shrugged. “He paid better. Plus”—he pointed to his face—“I was pretty sure if he found out I was snitching to you bitches, he’d come back to finish what he started.”
Morales opened his mouth to deliver what was no doubt a meathead threat to the only source we’d spoken to who’d had contact with our suspect. I elbowed him in the ribs before he could deliver it. I ignored the glare it earned me. “Did he give you any indication what he was planning to do with the stuff he took?”
LM shook his head. “Just said something about how he had some fireworks planned for the city of Babylon to celebrate the Blue Moon.”
Something dropped in the pit of my stomach. LM had just confirmed both Abe’s predictions and the letter the mayor received. “He said that? Fireworks?”
LM nodded. “Yeah, so?”
I shook my head because there was no sense giving him more rumors to spread on the streets. “Is there anything else you can give us? Any detail, no matter how small, that might help us find this guy?”
LM leaned back against Mary’s flat bosom. “I might be convinced to call you if I hear something.” He raised his little left hand and brushed his thumb across the tops of his fingers.
“You fucking got to be kidding me,” Morales said. “If you’d called us earlier we could have arrested the asshole and saved that ugly mug of yours. But now you want us to pay?”
LM grimaced. “I might be an asshole, but I ain’t your bitch, Macho. Pay up.”
I nodded at him. He jerked his wallet from his back pocket and threw a twenty at them. The wind caught the bill and whooshed it up so it landed on Mary’s large noggin. Despite her catatonic look, her hand had no trouble snatching the bill and stashing it quick as lightning.
Little Man leaned back with an elbow on Mary’s bosom. “It’s been nice doing business with you.”
Morales looked like he wanted to strangle the homunculus, but I tugged his sleeve. “Let’s go.”
Little Man pursed his split lip and blew Morales a kiss. “Bye-bye, Macho.”
Chapter Fourteen
October 22
First Quarter
All right, people,” Gardner said, “if you got ideas about how to find this asshole, I want to hear them.”
We were gathered in the old boxing ring back at the gym. Gardner stood next to a large whiteboard pasted with the picture of Dionysus we’d gotten from the mayor and a list of facts we knew about him—not many—as well as information I’d gotten from Abe—very little—and facts about the crime scene at Aphrodite’s temple—slightly more, but not nearly enough to inspire confidence that we’d get this guy.
Even though Mez and Shadi hadn’t had the pleasure of getting their asses chewed out by the city’s mayor, they’d been fully briefed on the shit show. The instant we’d left the mayor’s office, Gardner had called Shadi in off patrol so she could help. But like the rest of us, she sat silent, totally stumped about how to track down a madman armed with a rape potion.
“Eldritch is working the robbery now, right?” Morales said.
Gardner nodded. “He’s sending some of his guys over to go over the crime scene in case we missed anything,” she said, her tone dripping with rancor.
Mez’s posture stiffened with pride. “They won’t find shit.”
“Of course not,” Gardner said. “Not our issue anymore. Our goal is to track down the potions.”
Morales leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees. “How about the other covens?”
She tilted her head. “What do you mean?”
He shrugged. “Maybe they’ve been robbed, too, but aren’t too eager to get a visit from the BPD.”
“It’s possible,” I said. “Little Man said he gave Dionysus a list of all the top wizes in the city.”
Gardner crossed her arms and thought it over. “I’m pretty sure we don’t have the manpower to interview every wizard in the Cauldron.”
“If Dionysus has the balls to go after Aphrodite Johnson, he’s not going to waste his time with two-bit sorcerers selling snake oil on the corner,” I said. “He’ll go after the other big dogs.”
“Volos,” she said.
I paused before nodding. The thought of having to interview John made my skin feel too tight. After our talk at my party I wasn’t too eager to spend time with him anytime soon. Especially when it was because I needed his help breaking another case. “Harry Bane, too,” I said, trying to redirect focus. “He’d be an excellent target for a Raven since he only just took over his daddy’s coven.”
Hieronymus Bane had turned on his own father to escape jail time in the Gray Wolf case. According to my snitches, Harry was now running the Sanguinarian Coven out of a junkyard.
Gardner nodded. “Wouldn’t be a bad idea to check in with him anyway with Ramses’s trial coming up soon.”
“We’ll go talk to Harry, then,” I said quickly.
Morales blinked, as if he’d been expecting me to volunteer to talk to Volos instead. I shrugged.
Luckily, Gardner didn’t find anything weird about me asking for Harry duty over Volos. “Shadi, you go have a chat with Volos. Even if he hasn’t been targeted, he might have heard something on Dionysus that might help.”
“Fine by me,” she said. “Interviewi
ng a suit like Volos in his sweet office beats chasing stank assholes down by the river.”
“Can I get that embroidered on a pillow?” Morales asked.
“Embroider this.” Chuckling, she flipped him the double birds.
“Okay, you guys have a place to start. Mez, what’s your next move?”
The wizard rose and stretched his arms over his head. “I’m going to call Val over at BPD and see if she’ll share what she found on the letter the mayor received from Dionysus.”
Val was my friend in CSI at the precinct. Despite Mez’s constant flirting with her, she sometimes helped us on the down low when we needed information Eldritch wouldn’t want us to get.
“And if she refuses?” I asked.
Mez smiled at me like he was humoring me. “Then I’ll start working on a new super-strength protection amulet just in case we don’t find this asshole in time.”
Gardner’s jaw tightened. “And I’m going to call in some favors to see if I can get us access to the mental hospital databases. If we can figure out who this guy is, we might stand a chance of catching him before he can make good on his threats.” She looked around the room, meeting each of our gazes directly. “I don’t care what games Eldritch is playing, we’re going to do our jobs and protect the people of this city.”
You could smell the junkyard long before you saw it. Squatting on the edge of Lake Erie in an old industrial area that used to be full of steel factories, Harry Bane’s new headquarters made Rooster’s Gym look like the Four Seasons.
“Least he’s aboveground now,” Morales said with unusual optimism. I nodded absently and kept my eyes on the eight-foot-tall chain-link-and-barbed-wire fence that surrounded the place. Before Harry’s dad, Ramses, was arrested for trying to frame John Volos with his crimes, the Sanguinarian Coven was run out of the abandoned subway tunnels that ran under the Cauldron. But not long after Ramses was arrested—thanks to Harry turning state’s evidence on his father—the city condemned the tunnels and filled all the entrances with concrete. Luckily for Harry, before his dad’s arrest Ramses had diversified the family’s crime empire to include waste management.
