“Not especially.” I shook my head. “He’s not exactly known for his honesty, you know?”
Owens pursed his lips and crossed his arms. “I’d agree with you if I hadn’t received correspondence from this Dionysus myself.”
My mouth fell open. From the corner of my eye, I saw that everyone else had stiffened like pointer dogs on the trail of a juicy squirrel.
“He contacted you, sir?” Eldritch asked carefully.
The mayor nodded and went to retrieve something from his desk. He shuffled something around in the drawer before removing an envelope. “This letter arrived this morning.”
He brought it to me. Not wanting to get more fingerprints on it than necessary, I pulled the cuff of my shirt up to cover my fingers as I took it. Moving toward the meeting table in the middle of the room, I placed the envelope on the surface. “Morales?” I asked, looking up. “I have a pair of gloves in my pack. Can you bring them to me?”
He nodded and brought them over while everyone else circled the table. With the gloves on my hands, I opened the envelope and pulled out the sheet of paper. A Polaroid fell out on its face, but I ignored that for the moment.
The missive itself resembled a ransom note, with each letter cut out of a magazine. Not sure why the guy bothered when any computer and printer would suffice, but he obviously loved a little drama.
Mayor Owens,
The Blue Moon’s coming. Are you ready for a party? I’ll bring the refreshments.
Sincerely,
Dionysus
My stomach flip-flopped in my gut. Not because of the threat, but because that short note confirmed that Uncle Abe hadn’t been lying. And for some reason, knowing he was telling the truth about wanting to help me scared me more than the idea he’d been lying.
I shook off that thought. First matter of business was finding Dionysus. I’d deal with being in Abe’s debt once we’d arrested the asshole.
“How did this arrive?” I asked.
Owens shrugged. “Through the mail.”
I flipped over the envelope; there was no postmark. I showed it to Gardner. “Planted it in the mailroom, probably,” I said.
“Sir,” Gardner said, “we’ll need to take this and have our lab wiz look it over.”
“Not so fast,” Chief Adams said. “This is a BPD case.”
Gardner’s eyes widened. “If it’s a BPD case, why did your captain hand it over to my team?”
“That was when we thought the case was about some potions being stolen. That letter is clearly a threat to the entire city, which means it’s a BPD matter.”
All eyes turned toward Owens. He rubbed his lower lip with his finger. “What did he take from Aphrodite Johnson?”
I exchanged an anxious glance with Gardner. Once this was out, there was no way the case wasn’t going to become a media circus. “He took a large stash of a potion we believe makes the user sexually aggressive. Extremely so.”
The mayor’s face paled. “So this man who just threatened my city has a stockpile of rape potions?”
“I’m afraid so.”
The bad news hung in the air between for a good thirty seconds while Owens considered the angles. Probably he was wondering how to play this so he came out looking like the hero. Finally, he snapped at Eldritch, “I want an APB for this asshole and his name plastered on every TV set and street corner in the city.”
The captain shifted uncomfortably. “That’s going to be a problem, sir.”
“And why is that, Captain?” Owens crossed his arms.
“Because we don’t know what he looks like,” Gardner offered. “We don’t even know his real name.”
Without answering, Owens flipped over the picture I’d forgotten about. He handed the picture to Eldritch. He showed it to the chief and Gardner. The three of them exchanged a worried look.
“May I?” I asked, taking it in my gloved hands.
The image was grainy, like it had been taken with a vintage camera. In the center, a shirtless man whose torso, neck, and arms were littered with tattoos stood with his arms spread like Jesus on the cross. His head was back but his eyes were aimed at the camera, daring you to look away. His black hair was wild, and a large beard clung to his jaw. Despite the unkempt appearance of his hair and beard, his torso was toned with muscle and a pair of suspenders lay over broad shoulders and down to the waistband of his low-slung jeans. He wasn’t traditionally handsome by any means, but he exuded untamed sensuality and recklessness.
I shook myself. The last thing I’d expected was such a visceral response to a simple picture.
Morales pulled the photo from my hands. “He looks familiar.”
I looked again and shrugged. “Maybe.” Something tickled at the back of my brain, but I couldn’t access it.
“Now you have the picture,” the mayor said, “I want to know who this asshole is. I want to know why he’s picked my city. But most of all, I want every available law enforcement agency in this town working to find this Sinister son of a bitch.”
Sinister. Hearing my city’s mayor use such a derogatory slang for Adepts made me cringe. Granted, Dionysus wasn’t exactly a stellar example of my kind, but still, Owens’s attitude reflected that of so many of the city’s officials. According to too many Mundanes in power, Adepts were to be either controlled or feared. Usually both.
Eldritch stood. “Yes, sir. We’ll have his photo plastered all over the city within the hour.”
“And you,” Owens said to Gardner, “find out what he intends to do with that potion.”
“Yes, sir,” she said, ignoring a glare from Eldritch and the chief.
“All right,” Owens said. “Keep me updated on progress. And make no mistake about it: I expect progress yesterday, am I understood?”
Chapter Thirteen
October 21
First Quarter
The next afternoon I was sucking down the last of a soda from the late lunch we grabbed on our way to the park. Even though we were sitting on a tight deadline until all hell broke loose, I was trying to enjoy the abnormally sunny weather with the windows down. Morales looked at ease, too, with the wind ruffling his hair as he drove along the river.
“Yo,” he said over a mouthful of fries. “You ever wonder what it would have been like if you hadn’t left the life?”
I paused with the straw halfway to my mouth. “What? You mean the coven?”
He nodded and shot me a side glance.