I never enjoy any of the time my job requires me to spend in flophouses, and I was particularly glad to leave this one.
Bradley and I went out through the front door, and I took a deep, grateful breath of comparatively fresher air.
There was a downside; I wasn’t thrilled to be leaving a crime scene unattended – any evidence there was now well out of the chain of custody, and totally unusable at trial – but I didn’t see that there was much choice. With the alert that I’d just called in, the Captain was going to need all hands just to keep the border covered, let alone if there was, Goddess forbid, another emergency. They’d be pulling in the off duty Iron Badges too, all three shifts.
I had better, I realized, actually collar this spurk. I’d be facing a decidedly frosty atmosphere in the break room if this all turned out to be for nothing.
Bradley unlocked the car doors and I slid in to the passenger side. He sat in the driver’s seat, and moved the key to the ignition. Then he stopped and looked at me.
“I was pretty sure we were dead, there,” he said.
I nodded, “Whatever the hell he is, he’s tough.”
Bradley seemed surprised. “You don’t know?”
“Nope. He fits some of the key Fae criteria: Big, misshapen, some kind of connection to nature. But he’s not a standard model. George,” I added, “might have some ideas. He knows the Bestiary better than I do.”
“So,” Bradley said, looking a little horrified, “The tactics you used. Which worked. You were…?”
“Improvising,” I agreed, “Yeah. We do that.”
His lip twitched. “And you guys wonder why normal cops don’t like you?”
“I didn’t see you coming up with any brainstorms,” I snapped, and I could feel myself flushing, “Or was getting tossed through the door your way of lulling him into a false sense of security?”
I turned away and looked out the window. I thought I’d seen an olive branch for a moment there, and I wasn’t sure which one of us had thrown it away.
“Hey, maybe if you’d seen fit to pass along some of your fancy pixie-piercing ammo, I could have done some good. You didn’t tell me the guy was a ringer.”
“I…” I almost said didn’t know, but stopped myself. “I wasn’t sure.”
“You gave me nothing to go on,” he said, “I walked in there blind. It’s a damn miracle we’re both alive. Fine, credit where it’s due, you got us out of it. Well, you got us into it too.”
I bit back the first response that came to mind, and the second.
Also the third.
I counted to ten, then – and only then – turned back to look at Bradley.
“You going to start the car, Ace?” I asked.
“You going to fill me in this time, Maverick?” he replied.
I thought for a moment, “We need to find the nearest major stormwater overflow outlet… Yeah. Queen’s Quay, east of Bathurst. Right at the waterfront. Give me a minute and I’ll confirm the street address.” I pulled out my phone.
“And when we get there?” he asked.
“Not sure yet,” I said.
“Right,” he said, “Improvising. Jesus.”
And he turned the key in the ignition.
To Be Continued
