they were trying to make it work.
Midas wasn’t sure when he fell asleep, only that he woke in an empty apartment with a note stuck to his forehead and a blanket pulled up to his chin.
A knock on the door provided him with the reason he was up earlier than usual, and he was tempted to pretend he didn’t hear and go back to sleep.
After he removed the note, saving it for when his eyes were less blurry, he trudged to the door and found Ares waiting on him with blood smeared across one cheek.
Yeah.
Some nights it didn’t pay to get out of bed.
Six
As I sipped my second café mocha of the night, I listened to Reece’s update, plucked straight from the cleaners’ database, and regretted the sweet fullness curdling my stomach.
The wall in front of me was painted an unrelieved black, and the two rows of monitors anchored there blended in when not in use. The upper row held four monitors, each about thirty-four inches and filled with the shadowed outline of a teammate. We had a full house tonight, which was always nice. The lower row mirrored the one above it, but those were always on and flashing surveillance mooched off city cameras as well as our own private mounts.
“Station Thirteen retrieved fourteen bodies,” he announced. “Eleven of those were gwyllgi, so it’s safe to assume they’re the Knoxville pack members Claudia reported missing. We’ll have conclusive results in two weeks. The other patrons are unidentified, except for one regular whose wife called in to ask if her husband had been found since he, and I quote ‘parked his ass on the same stool five nights a week and drank until he fell off it.’”
The cleaners would handle identifying the remains and notifying the families, so there wasn’t much for me to do on that front but wait for the results and see what dots they connected for us later.
“We’re almost through the list of Choco-Loco employees.” Anca rustled papers on her desk. “All the alibis we’ve been given have checked out so far, but this changes things. Under the circumstances, I doubt we’re dealing with an employee.”
“Send me half of what’s left.” Lisbeth vanished from the screen then returned with a mug. “I can help.”
“Thank you,” Anca said warmly. “I appreciate it.”
“Once we eliminate Choco-Loco’s staff, we’ll get started on the bar workers.” Lisbeth shrugged. “Probably a waste of time, given the second location, but better safe than sorry, right?”
“Right.” I sloshed my drink, which had gone cold. “You ladies have my thanks.”
“What about the origins?” Milo drummed his fingers. “Any commonality there?”
“Both the fire and the bomb were set in the women’s bathrooms.”
“That doesn’t mean we’re dealing with a woman.” Lisbeth hummed. “It’s not like there are bathroom police, and the stalls are private.”
“We can speculate the arsonist entered the ladies’ room at Choco-Loco out of habit and at the bar out of necessity,” Anca said, “but we can’t afford to eliminate half our suspect pool based on conjecture.”
“Neither establishment uploaded their security footage to a cloud,” Reece added, annoyance in his tone. “They kept their backups on site. Needless to say, any evidence on the recordings was destroyed along with the equipment.”
“Are we sure we’re not dealing with two bombs?” Bishop rocked back, his chair squeaking on its wonky caster. “The first might have been a dud.”
“I’m looking into it,” Reece assured us. “The fact Choco-Loco was on fire prior to Hadley’s arrival might indicate its timer was faulty. That could mean it failed to ignite as intended, but the result was the same thanks to its magical components.”
“If that’s so, I’m grateful the bomber is inept,” Lisbeth tossed in then frowned at me. “We could have lost you.”
“The ineptitude is what bothers me.” Anca leaned forward, fingers in front of her mouth. “The coven is a ruthless and merciless enemy. They’ve proven they’re well trained, organized, and intelligent. Why, then, are they fumbling now?”
Until she mentioned it, I hadn’t framed it that way in my head. “You’re right.”
Milo leaned back in his chair. “Are we sure it’s the coven?”
“The chemical and magical signatures are identical to the samples we gathered after Hadley’s apartment was bombed.” Reece clicked more keys to pull up a graph for us all to see. “Either the bomber is a coven member, or they had access to the coven’s blueprints and materials.”
“I don’t trust this.” I sloshed the cup in my hand, and it drew Ambrose’s attention. “Any of it.”
Twining