“Please,” Gardner added with a fuck-you smile.
The attorney glanced at Volos, clearly expecting him to countermand the request. Instead, he nodded. “I’ll take one, too.”
As she walked out, Jade’s movements were stiff and her hands clasped at her side. Someone was silently cursing everyone in the room.
When I turned from watching her go, I caught Gardner and Morales exchanging a quick victorious glance. Their gamble to get rid of the attorney paid off, but I had to wonder about Volos’s easy compliance. Either he wasn’t concerned about being questioned without an attorney present or he merely wanted us to think he was.
“So?” Volos prompted.
Gardner cleared her throat and sat forward. “Three nights ago, a suspect murdered a woman in an alley off Canal. He was drinking her blood when Officer Prospero arrived on the scene.”
Volos shot me a speculative glance. “And you think he’s the one who killed the gentleman downstairs?”
Gardner shook her head. “No.”
When he dragged his gaze from me back to Gardner, I felt visceral relief. “How can you be certain it isn’t the same perpetrator?” he asked her.
Morales glanced back at me. “Prospero was forced to shoot the suspect when he attacked her.”
Volos stared at me. I met his searching gaze without flinching. He opened his mouth to say something but thought better of it. He cleared his throat and looked back at Morales. “So what’s the connection to this murder?”
“The man Prospero killed was freaking on a new potion,” Morales said. “Yesterday, we questioned the dead man downstairs about it.”
“And what did he say?”
I stiffened. Were they going to show all our cards?
Morales rested back in his chair like a man without a care in the world, but then he wasn’t the one about to be accused of federal Arcane and homicide charges. “He said it was your potion.”
Volos didn’t flinch. “So you figure I had him killed.”
“That’s for the BPD’s homicide detectives to determine,” Gardner said. “It’s quite a coincidence, though, don’t you think?”
“Perhaps. Luckily for me the courts haven’t suddenly started accepting coincidences as proof of guilt,” he said. “But as it happens, my attorney, pilot, and business associates can attest I was at a meeting in Toronto last night. I only found out about the murder when I got off the plane this morning and I headed right over.”
Gardner didn’t argue that it would have been easy enough for him to communicate with his people here to make the kill order. “Did you know the deceased?” she asked instead.
“I was told he hadn’t been identified yet.”
“His name was Marvin Brown,” Morales offered. “On the streets he was known as Picasso.”
Volos frowned. “I knew him back when Abe was still in power. He was young then. As I recall he was always doodling on stuff.”
“He was arrested a couple of times for vandalism. Graffiti,” Morales supplied. “It’s believed that the Votary Coven used him as a Herald.”
Volos raised his hands. “I wouldn’t know anything about that. It’s a shame, though. He was pretty young, yes?”
“Twenty,” I said, looking at him. “Older than a lot of coven kids get to be these days.”
“Sadly true,” he said, shaking his head. “What’s the potion you’re investigating?”
“It’s a strange formula,” Morales began. “Blood magic—”
“You’re on the wrong side of town, then,” Volos interrupted. “You need to be having this conversation with the albino.”
Technically Ramses Bane was not an albino, but since he spent all of his time underground, he was somewhat melanin-challenged. “You didn’t let me finish,” Morales said. “There are some minor characteristics of blood magic, but the main components are definitely alchemical. That’s your specialty, yes?”
“One of them,” Volos said, smooth as an elegantly extended middle finger.
Morales sighed heavily at the other man’s obvious obtuseness. “Are you familiar with the Gray Wolf?”
He leaned back in his chair and steepled his fingers. “It’s another name for the purifier, the king.”
“Huh?” Morales said.
“Antimony,” I explained. “The king is an alchemical symbol for gold. Antimony dissolves all metals except gold so it is often added to molten gold to destroy any impurities.”
Volos nodded to confirm what I said. “It’s used in the calcinatio phase of classical alchemy—baptism by fire.”
“Yes, that’s fine,” Gardner said, losing her patience. “What do you know about a potion by the name of Gray Wolf?”
Volos smiled. He was enjoying this. “More than I want to know, but less than you want to hear.”
“Humor us.”
“It’s exceedingly dangerous. Both to the user and anyone who crosses their path.” He held up his hands. “But you already know that. My guess is whoever is behind it has a motive beyond profit. Otherwise, why put so much of their customer base in danger?” He leaned forward. “Obviously, Kate has told you that my specialty is alchemy and that’s true. But before you decide to pursue me as a suspect I’d ask you to consider what possible motive I’d have. For the last several years I’ve worked to improve the Cauldron and haven’t had so much as a speeding ticket. You ask me, the wizard behind this potion left that body here as a message.”
The door opened and Jade returned with a tray bearing a few glasses and a bottle of some fancy sparkling water. “What did I miss?” Her tone was cheerful, but her posture was stiff. She set the tray down and handed glasses to Morales and Gardner. I shook my head when she offered me one and mulled over Volos’s words. He sounded genuinely pissed off. I couldn’t tell if it was because he was guilty and didn’t want to get caught, or if it was because he was innocent and angry about being dragged into the case.
Plus, I’d been wondering myself about the motives someone might have for putting Gray Wolf on the streets. No wizard looking for a quick buck would mess with such a dangerous potion. Not only was the market extremely small given the cost, but they also risked killing off potential customers. We had to be missing something. Question was, did Volos know what that something was?