“First of all, I want to hear more about this uncle of yours,” the chief said to Douglas. “He seems to be mixed up in everything that went down yesterday and though I’ve done a little digging myself, I want to hear what you have to say.”
Douglas cleared his throat. “Tallow’s my dad’s kid brother. I hadn’t seen him or heard from him in decades, but he showed up two days ago, just after you told me about Asher’s casework being suspended. He offered his help-.”
“His help as a P.I.,” she interrupted.
Douglas nodded slowly. “I know how you feel about P.I.’s, and I feel the same way, but he had information on Asher’s case. Within an hour of arriving at my house, he had found a diary Asher had hidden and helped me discover a link between Asher and the disappearance of once of his classmates.”
“Miss Polly Roberts,” Susan said, scanning his report. She pursed her lips. “You didn’t say anything about his involvement in that discovery in your report.”
This time Douglas wasn’t able to fully repress his wince. “Well, he knew about Asher’s interest in becoming a detective. He had helped Asher with some of his ‘cases’ and-.”
“I think it’s weird how much he knew about the kid,” Ross interrupted. “I gotta tell you, Chief, I don’t like the guy. I think we should keep him away from this case.”
Douglas’s face went red and he gave his partner a betrayed glance. “Look, he kind of rubbed Bob the wrong way. The first thing Tallow did when he met him was make a joke about that PBS painter-.”
“It’s not about that!” Bob said angrily and for a moment Douglas worried that he was about to spill the beans about Tallow’s use of magic. “The man’s reckless. He took Aggie with him to a murder scene.”
“He didn’t know the man would be dead,” Douglas said, though he had a hard time defending his uncle over that one.
“Look, it’s just too convenient, him showing up when he did. And his story just sounds iffy to me. I’m looking into it,” said Ross. “I don’t have any proof yet, but I think he’s up to something.”
“What is he up to?” said Douglas, dumbfounded over Ross’ behavior. “Looking for money? I don’t have any and he hasn’t asked for anything. What angle could he possibly have? All he’s done since he got here is try to help!”
“It’s . . .” Ross rolled his eyes. “It’s a hunch, okay. Back me up on this, Chief.”
Susan gave the two of them an inscrutable look. “Well, like I said, I’ve done some digging myself. I made a call out to the Boise PD last night. Your uncle has a reputation built up there. Though the chief out there called him Errand, not Tallow.”
“The name change is recent,” Douglas explained. “I checked into it and he had it done legally.”
“Yeah? And that’s strange, don’t you think?” Ross said.
Susan shrugged. “The Boise chief didn’t think so. He said Errand’s always been an odd duck. A good detective though. He played nice with the department. Didn’t waste their time. Even helped crack a few big cases.”
Douglas let out a small sigh, relieved that his gut feeling about his uncle was being backed up. “So what do you want me to do about him, Chief?”
“Well, Boise also said he was dogged. Wouldn’t let a case go. Especially if he felt he had a personal stake in it,” she said. “If I was to tell you he couldn’t help with the case, what do you think he would do?”
“Probably continue to work it on the sly,” Douglas admitted. “Agatha said he was already applying for his Georgia Private Detective’s license.”
Bob frowned, sensing he had lost the argument. “C’mon, Chief! Tell me you’re not gonna let this P.I. butt into police business.”
Susan gave Ross a long look. “You’re right. I can’t have a freelancer going around disrupting our investigation.” Ross gave her a surprised nod, but she wasn’t finished. “Which is why I’m going to hire him on.”
“Hire him?” said Douglas in disbelief.
“As a consultant,” she replied. “It’s not normally the way I like to do things, but frankly we are undermanned at the moment and this way I have some control over his actions.”
“But Chief!” said Ross.
“We’ll pay him $100 per day for each day he works the case,” she continued, raising a finger. “But this is contingent on him following department rules. Any shenanigans from him and the agreement is over.”
Douglas smiled at the development. $100 a day was a lowball price for an established P.I. like his uncle, but he didn’t think Tallow would decline. Up to this point he’d been willing to work the case for free.
“Is the term ‘shenanigans’ going to be officially used in his contract?” said Ross with a level of sarcasm that the chief could not ignore.
Susan’s eyes narrowed. “Detective Ross, I am going to assume that your attitude this morning has something to do with tiredness after your hospital stay. That being said, it stops now.”
Ross gritted his teeth, but looked away from her gaze. “Understood, Chief.”
Douglas’ phone chose that moment to off. He quickly silenced it, letting the call go to voicemail. “Sorry.”
“As for your uncle, Detective Jones, he will be on a very short leash,” Susan continued. “I will not specify a length of time in his contract and I may cancel it at any time. I want him focused on the missing persons angle. That’s where P.I.s can sometimes be useful. But he is not to run off investigating crime scenes on his own. An FIU officer must be with him at any time he is working in his official capacity.”
“I’m certain he will agree to your terms,” Douglas assured her. This was much better than he expected.
She leaned back in her chair. “He will need to be licensed in Georgia, though . . . I’ll make a few calls, get his approval pushed through. I’ll have the terms drawn up.”
Ross grunted and put his hands on the armrests of his chair. “Will that be all, Chief?”
“Not quite,” she said, reaching into another folder and pulling out a photo. She slapped it onto the desk in front of them. “I want to know about this hell rat thing that you ran into yesterday.”
In the photo, the moonrat was lying on a steel table in the forensics lab. It looked even more frightening in death than it had in life. Its limbs were contorted from its death throes, its toothy mouth gaping open, exposing nasty yellow teeth. A bloody tongue lolled from its mouth.
Ross grimaced. “Yeah. It was weird.”
She gave him a dull look. “Don’t mess with me, Ross. If word of this thing gets out to the press, I’m gonna have to field questions.”
Ross’ grimace turned into a scowl. “My wife ain’t writing a story if that’s what you’re implying.”
“He just meant that it’s hard to explain,” Douglas said, trying to keep the conversation from heating up. Everyone in the unit knew that Bob’s wife was a reporter. Judy had made sure not to write any crime-related articles, but anytime the Hotlanta Times ran anything criticizing the Atlanta PD, the other cops wondered if she was one of the paper’s sources.
“Then start from the beginning,” Susan replied. “When did you first see it?”
“Well, we were in the building and Tallow found evidence of blood in the carpet but the real estate guy didn’t want to let us in to the loading dock area,” said Douglas
“That’s when we first heard that thing moan,” Ross said with a shiver. “Sounded like some lost kid wailing for its momma.”
Douglas swallowed. “Worse than that. It was like a kid wailing over the corpse of his momma.”
Susan pursed her lips, surprisingly taking their descriptions in stride. “Alright, so that gave you probable cause to go into the dock. Then what?”
“It was dark in there,” Douglas said. “The real estate guy took off.”
“Doug’s uncle couldn’t find the light switch either, so we went in with only one tiny flashlight,” Ross said. “The thing tackled us from a stack of boxes above us.”
“
We couldn’t see what it was right away,” Douglas said. “It had me pinned under Ross.”
The chief looked at the folder containing Douglas’ statement and flipped a page. “It says here that the thing’s eyes, ‘glowed in the dark’?”
Ross and Douglas glanced at each other and Douglas said, “Yes. I know it sounds crazy, but it was like some movie effect.”
“It wasn’t too bright,” Ross added. “Kind of like those glow in the dark toys from back in the 80’s.” He snapped his fingers. “No! More like the tail end of a lightning bug.”
“But the eyes stopped glowing after it was dead,” Douglas said.
Susan cocked her head. “After your Uncle Tallow electrocuted it?”
Douglas shrugged. “We fired shots, but that didn’t take it down. Tallow saw the severed cable on the floor and thought on his feet,” Douglas said, hoping that his partner wouldn’t try to contradict him. Fortunately, Ross stayed silent on that point. “Don’t worry, Chief. He doesn’t want any credit in the press for it.”
“Hmph,” she grunted. “Alright, so do either of you have any theories on what the thing is or where it came from?”
“Hell if I know,” said Ross. “A lab experiment?”
“Or some aberration of nature that was destined for a freak show,” Douglas said. He had come up with this idea after Tallow had left the night before. It was a concept that tied into their investigation without the mention of other worlds and magic. “That fits with the theory that the travel agency was a front for exotic animal smuggling.”
“Those explanations are as good as any, I guess. Forensics doesn’t have any better ideas. They think we should send the thing off to some private lab. Or bring in a zoological expert,” she said with a frown. “I don’t want to do it though. I don’t like the idea of outsiders getting involved right now.”
This was ironic considering that she had just unwittingly decided to hire a wizard. Douglas was relieved that Ross once more kept his opinions to himself. “You want to just keep the thing on ice for now?”
She tapped her fingers on the desk in front of her. “At the very least I’m going to put it on hold and letell our guys try to figure it out themselves. If we send it off to civilian experts and they leak this thing to the press, we’ll have one big distraction on our hands. I’m not releasing the thing until I have to.”
“Smart move,” said Ross. He readied himself to stand again. “That it now, Chief?”
“Yeah, you can go,” she decided and the two detectives stood. “Just understand that I’ve got my eye on this case now. Get it solved.”
“Yes, Chief,” they both said.
They opened the door to leave and the chief called out to Douglas. “One more thing, Detective Jones.”
“Yes?” Douglas said, turning back to face her.
“What’s your daughter doing in the office?” she asked, pointing through the open door to his desk where Agatha was sitting in his chair, knitting and listening to an audiobook on her headphones.
“Oh,” Douglas said. “Uh, her usual sitter is in the hospital. Tallow was going to watch her, but he’s here giving his official statement about yesterday to the TV Squad.”
Neither Douglas or Ross could take Tallow’s statement since they had been there with him, so Detectives Martinez and Cheese were doing it. Douglas was confident that Tallow wouldn’t say anything contradictory to his own statement. He had gone over it with his uncle the night before.
Susan’s lips twisted. “I see. I guess it’s okay that she’s here for today. But this is no place for kids. And since your uncle will be working with us, you’ll need to find a different daycare solution.”
“Already on it, chief,” Douglas said, though in truth he wasn’t sure what he was going to do about it. Daycare centers charged a hefty penny. He supposed he could call around to Agatha’s other playmates. Unfortunately there weren’t many. Despite her outgoing attitude, Agatha didn’t seem to find many children that shared her peculiar tastes. The only other option he could think of would be to contact relatives out of state.
He sighed and marched over to the break room where Ross was already pouring himself coffee. At the moment, no one else was in there. It was no wonder. Nobody had brought in donuts that morning and the coffee alone wasn’t worth the trip. The stuff was like high test diesel. Only Ross and the Chief liked it.
Douglas stormed inside. “What was that about?”
Ross snorted. “I was wondering the same thing. The Hutt sure was on one. Haven’t seen her that interested in a case in years.”
“I’m talking about you, you son of a-.” Douglas gritted his teeth. “Dick. You were being a real dick in there.”
Bob raised an eyebrow. “Is dick an allowed word?”
“It wasn’t on the list Agatha gave me,” Douglas replied. “But that’s not the point. You’re my partner. You’re supposed to back me up, not undermine me!”
Ross squared his jaw. “More important than backing you up is having your back. I’m not gonna sit quietly and watch some shady P.I. waltz in and take advantage of the department.”
“You’re making no sense,” Doug said. Tallow had done nothing so far to make him suspect he was trying to take advantage. He glanced through the windows into the office to make sure that no one was listening in. It looked clear, but he lowered his voice all the same. “I think this is because of the wizard angle. I understand why you were hesitant to believe at first, but come on. The man saved your life yesterday. Twice!”
“That . . . magic stuff is not my problem,” Ross said. “As weird as it is, I can’t deny what I saw. Though I’m kinda worried about that stuff your uncle poured down me. Do you know what’s in it? As good as I’ve been feeling, I’m worried it might show up on my next drug test.” He gave Douglas a wide-eyed look. “I peed green this morning, Doug! Dark green! It weren’t no asparagus that caused that.”
“Tallow said it was elf magic,” Douglas replied.
Ross blinked. “Elves are real, too?”
“Evidently.” Douglas frowned. “But if it’s not about magic, why were you-.”
The door to the room opened and Sergeant Jimenez stepped in. He glanced at the table. “Aw man! When I saw you two in here I thought there was breakfast. Wasn’t Martinez supposed to bring Krispy Kremes in today?”
“She’s got Thursday,” Ross replied. “You can blame her partner.”
“Cheese?” Jimenez scowled. “That’s twice he’s forgot.”
“Then take it up with him when he’s done taking my uncle’s statement,” Douglas replied.
Jimenez looked across the office towards the TV Squad’s desks. “Looks like he’s done to me.”
The sergeant headed in that direction and Douglas saw that Tallow was standing over at his desk talking to Agatha. He returned his attention to Ross. “If it’s not the magic then what’s your problem with him? I thought you two called a truce yesterday.”
Ross took a sip of his coffee and smacked his lips. “Look, I was being straight when I told the chief I had a hunch. It’s his story. Something about it doesn’t add up. The emails. The name change. It’s all iffy to me.”
Douglas looked back over at his uncle smiling and chatting away with Agatha and shook his head. “I had a similar feeling when I first saw him too, but the more I get to know him the more it makes sense. I don’t think there’s a shady thing about the man. It’s hard to describe it, but he’s just . . . a force.”
“That’s part of what bugs me,” Ross replied.
Douglas gave his partner a firm look. “Think what you want. Keep looking into him even. But unless you find something legit, stop giving the man grief. Like it or not, he’s about to be on the team officially. If you keep sniping at him you’re just going to slow us down.”
Ross expression was unreadable. “I hear you, Doug. Why don’t you go tell your new buddy the good news?”
Sighing, Douglas left the break room and headed over to his desk. “Morning, Ta
llow. How did it go with Cheese and Martinez?”
“It’s not my first time giving a statement,” Tallow said with a chuckle. “It’s Aggie here that’s giving me grief.”
“He’s wearing an ugly shirt,” Agatha said, pointing at Tallow with the knitting needles that were sticking out of her current project; something floppy and green. “Am I supposed to pretend it looks good when it doesn’t?”
Douglas glanced at the green and white paisley collared shirt that Tallow wore under his corduroy jacket. “That is a bit of an antique. How long has it been since you updated your wardrobe?”
“It’s not antique. It’s retro,” Tallow replied, looking down at the shirt with a frown. “Isn’t it?”
“Yeah. Real hobo chic,” said Ross. His chair squelched loudly as the large detective sat at his desk facing them. “Welcome aboard, P.I.”
Tallow blinked. “Aboard what?”
Douglas cleared his throat. “We were just in a meeting with the chief. She says she’ll let you keep working the case on one condition. She wants you to become an official consultant.”
“A police consultant? Like on that show, ‘I See Guilty People?’” Agatha asked excitedly. It was a cable procedural that she and Asher had liked to watch about a psychic that helped the NYPD catch murderers.
“That show’s not like real life, Aggie,” said Ross. “He’s not going to be living in the department’s attic and talking to ghosts.”
“This just means that Uncle Tallow will be working with us temporarily,” Douglas replied. He looked to Tallow. “It won’t pay much. Just $100 a day. But it will mean you’ll have access to our reports. And crime scenes, as long as one of us is accompanying you.”
“Well, I don’t need the money,” Tallow said, though his smile widened. “But me? Working directly for the police? Imagine that. After years telling the Boise PD no, here I’d be.” He shook his head. “Working for Atlanta’s FIU.”
“Just until the case is over,” Ross said with a frown. “And you’re on a short leash. The Hutt-, the chief, has a set of rules you gotta keep.”
“I’d imagine so,” Tallow said. He curled his upper lip. “I’m not sure I like being bound by departmental rules. It’s the main reason I kept turning Boise down.”
Tallow Jones: Wizard Detective (The Tallow Novels Book 1) Page 17
