“Decision time, asshole,” Morales said.
I reached for the door handle. The sound of the mechanism clicking open lit a match under Harry’s ass. “Close the fucking door and drive!” he shouted.
I froze and looked over my shoulder. “You sure?”
“I’ll talk to the lawyer. Just fucking go!”
I glanced at Gardner. She nodded almost imperceptibly. I pulled the door closed, shocking the shit out of the kid who had almost reached my window. In no time, I had the car in gear and we squealed away from the curb, leaving a confused potion dealer empty-handed at the curb.
“You made the right choice, Mr. Bane,” Gardner said to the now-dejected Harry.
“You are all going to fucking die.”
I met Morales’s gaze in the mirror again. He smiled, but it didn’t reassure me. Because Harry hadn’t just issued an idle threat. His words had sounded like a vow—or a curse.
Chapter Twenty-Two
Later at the station, the door to the viewing room opened and Mez walked in. “What’d I miss?”
“Nothing,” I said.
“Patience, Cupcake,” Morales said. Mez shot us a speculative glance at the nickname. “Gardner’s just warming up.”
“Did Eldritch buy the story?” the wizard asked.
I glanced around to be sure no one was around but immediately felt ridiculous since we were in a closed room. “Kind of. He looked suspicious, but once Gardner handed over your DNA evidence he stopped asking too many questions.” As part of the booking process, we’d gotten a swab of Harry’s cheek for Mez to match against the sample he’d gotten off the cigarette. Some quick work on his part in the precinct lab proved without a doubt that Harry had been at the scene where Marvin’s body was found.
In the interrogation room, Harry and his court-appointed lawyer—he’d refused to call his dad’s lawyer, all things considered—sat at a table across from Gardner, Eldritch, and US Attorney Aidan Stone. The latter looked to be in his mid-to-late thirties, but it was always hard to tell with lawyers, especially those who worked in the public sector. Most of the local DAs I met aged like dogs—for every year they’d served prosecuting the scum of the earth their faces aged seven. I suppose some women might call Stone handsome, with his salt-and-pepper hair and his piercing blue eyes, but I was too distracted worrying that Harry was going to change his mind to pay much attention.
“We’re willing to offer you a reduced charge in exchange for information directly linking your father, Ramses Bane, to the cooking and distribution of Gray Wolf.”
Harry’s lawyer, a balding public defender by the name of Steve Spalding, dabbed at the sweat on his forehead. It wasn’t every day that a low-level defender got the son of a coven leader as a client. Despite his obvious nerves, he didn’t seem to have too much trouble keeping up. “What is the reduced charge?”
“We’ll reduce the aiding-and-abetting charge to accessory-after-the-fact. Maximum sentence would be three years. Since Harry never has been convicted of a crime before, it’ll likely be less. But he’s looking at jail time either way—”
Harry blinked. “That’s some bullshit.”
Stone continued as if he hadn’t spoken. “Unless he also agrees to testify against his father in court.”
“Hell no! I’m already asking for a bullet just for talking to you people. I stand up in court and I’ll be dead before I walk back out of the courtroom.”
Stone had already anticipated Harry’s being a dry snitch, so he didn’t look too shocked by the refusal. “All we’re asking today is that you provide information leading to your father’s arrest in exchange for a reduced sentence.”
“I don’t want to spend three years in the can.”
“Then I suppose you better be sure the information you give us today is watertight,” Eldritch said. At first he’d been pissed that Gardner got a drop on Harry, but once Gardner promised to give him the camera time when Bane was brought in, his disposition became downright generous.
“I don’t know,” Harry hemmed.
“Did we mention that while we were waiting for your attorney,” Gardner said, “my agents took a closer look at your car? Imagine their lack of surprise when they found a hydraulic trap behind your expensive stereo system.”
Harry jerked upright. “Yo, if they fucked up my ride, I’m gonna sue.”
She reached in her pocket. “You might have trouble with that”—she laid the ampoule on the table that Morales and I had found in the hidden compartment—“seeing as how they found this.”
Spalding snorted. “Please, do you know how easy it will be to prove my client uses that for medicinal purposes?”
“Why don’t you tell your counselor what potion this is?” Gardner said to Harry.
He shrugged. “Just a blood potion.”
“Tell him the street name.”
“Ain’t got a name.”
Gardner made a show of flipping through a file folder. “That’s interesting. According to the lab wizards, the potion found in Mr. Bane’s car has chemical components consistent with a popular blood potion sold in the Arteries called Type X.”
The attorney’s expression remained impassive. “Never heard of it.”
“It’s for my anemia,” Harry said quickly.
Gardner chuckled. “Sure.”
“Agent, I suggest you get to the point.” Spalding’s tone was insulting.
Gardner smiled and leaned back. Harry kept his eyes glued on the ampoule. “My point, counselor”—her eyes were glued to Harry—“is in addition to the gun charge and evidence linking him to a murder, we have enough evidence here to link Mr. Bane to potion distribution.”
The attorney laughed. “Based on an ounce? Please don’t insult us. And as for the firearm, he has a permit. It also was stored safely in his glove box. That’s not illegal.”
“It is if the gun is loaded, counselor.” She glanced down at the folder. “The firearm in question held four bullets.”
Harry shot a glance at Spalding, who refused to look at him.
“In addition,” she said, “we are working on a search warrant for Mr. Bane’s residence.”
After we’d found the ampoule, Gardner called Stone to set the warrant in motion. We were hoping we didn’t need it if Harry started singing, but it was always good to have a backup plan.