I frowned at him. “I hadn’t thought of it that way.”
He smiled, turning toward me fully. Now I could see the smoky eye and subdued nude lip on the female half of the Hierophant’s face. Having both sides visible gave me the uncomfortable sensation of being regarded by two separate people. Almost like conjoined twins, only more attractive than the other set of twins I knew.
“Interesting.” Now the voice had changed. She was in charge again.
“What’s interesting?” I asked. “The fact I didn’t screw you over.”
She nodded. “Can’t say I would have blamed you if you had. All’s fair in the war on magic, right?”
“Don’t misunderstand,” I said, “I think you’re guilty as hell for a dozen other crimes. But if and when I take you down, there won’t be any doubt about the facts of the case.”
She laughed, a deep, rich sound that probably had seduced more people than I’d arrested in my career. “This is going to be fun.”
“What is?”
She tilted her head. “Didn’t they tell you?”
“Who?”
“Your bosses?” She waved an elegant hand, as if dismissing an insignificant thing. “Even after I was cleared of the murder of our beloved mayor”—she said it like he was a stranger and not a customer who no doubt paid her very well—“your Special Agent Gardner still saw fit to charge me for obstruction for breaking into Dionysus’s apartment.”
“Which you deserved.”
A slight tip of the chin was the only acknowledgment of that comment. “However, I managed to convince handsome US Attorney Stone that a person in my position might prove useful in future cases.”
“And they believed you?”
The feline smile was back. “I can be quite persuasive.”
“I’m sure. So what? They offered a reduced sentence in exchange for future snitching services?”
That half-painted mouth pursed in distaste. “Kate, please, I am no bitch’s snitch. Let’s just say I’ll be a consultant, and leave it at that.”
I barely managed not to roll my eyes. “You’re a real piece of work, you know that?”
“Oh, honey, you have no idea.” She chuckled. “Anyway, I just wanted to thank you personally for taking care of my little problem.”
“Don’t mention it.”
“I mean it, Prospero. A person doesn’t have as many enemies as I’ve collected without also fostering allies.”
I opened my mouth to tell her we weren’t allies, but she held up a hand.
“Relax, I understand where things stand. I’m just saying I like to pay my debts. And I owe you three. One for clearing me for the mayor’s murder, and two more for punishing that fucking Raven and my treacherous priestess.” She spat the words out. “Day’s gonna come when I can be of service to you and yours.” That shrewd gaze met mine. “Consider these my markers.”
She held out her hand and dropped three tokens into my palm. I held one up to the streetlight. Most sex magic temples got around having their girls deal with cash by selling tokens to customers. Each temple had its own custom design, and some people even collected them, like other people collected stamps. Aphrodite’s tokens bore her pentagram and spiral logo on one side and the words DULCE POMUM QUUM ABEST CUSTOS on the reverse.
“What’s this mean?” I asked.
She smiled. “Forbidden fruit is the sweetest.”
I clasped the coins in my fist until the metal bit into my skin. Seeing the tokens reminded me of my mother and Shayla’s taunting words on the boat. “What happened to her?” I asked, looking up. “My mother.”
The Hierophant’s smile faded and she sat back, totally in shadow. “Are you sure you want to know?”
I held up one of the tokens. “I’m calling in my first favor. Tell me what happened.”
“Telling you would do you no favors.” She pushed the token away. “You want to know what really happened, you need to ask your uncle. But I’ll give you some advice free of charge.”
I raised my eyebrows and waited.
She leaned forward so I could see her full face again. “Some ghosts need to remain buried for the living to have peace. Don’t go digging for secrets you aren’t prepared to learn.”
My stomach dipped. It wasn’t an admission that Shayla was right, but it was damned close. I slipped the tokens into my pocket. “I’ll take that under advisement.”
She smiled, sadly this time. “No you won’t, but don’t say I didn’t warn you. Good night, Detective.” She flicked a hand to signal the driver.
I stepped back and watched the limo drive off into the night. Pen ran over to join me.
“What was that about?”
I released a deep breath. “It seems I have a new friend.”
She flicked a suspicious glance at the retreating limo. “With friends like that, who needs enemies?”
Chapter Thirty-Two
November 6
Waning Gibbous
There are twenty-seven steps from street level to the door of city hall. With each one I climbed, my uniform felt tighter and tighter. By the time I reached for the handle of the huge wood-and-brass doors, the damned thing felt like a straitjacket.
I let out a breath and paused before allowing myself to enter the lion’s den.
I hadn’t seen Morales since the night we’d been fished out of Lake Erie. I knew he’d been released from the hospital. I knew that, like me, he’d had to report to the gym to make an official statement because Gardner mentioned when I was finished that he would be in that afternoon.
Debriefings were always framed as closure, but sometimes they felt like ritualized reopening of wounds. Having to stand in front of someone with the power to steal your badge and defend the choices you made in the line of fire felt like its own sort of hell. Not the watery hell of that lake with the monster and the madman, but a hell lorded over by the demons Would Have, Could Have, and Should Have.
Anyway, I also knew Morales hadn’t tried to contact me. But then, I hadn’t tried to call him, either.
The summons to report to city hall came from Gardner on Thursday night. “Just a press conference,” she’d said. She tried to keep her tone casual, but there was an undercurrent of tension. “Be there at nine in your blues.”
Considering all that had happened under that Blue Moon, part of me was worried the press conference was some sort of ambush where I’d be exposed for the liar I was. It wasn’t my most rational thought ever, but then my life hadn’t been unfolding in any sort of rational pattern lately, anyway.