Cade sat down on the couch and swung his feet up onto the coffee table.
“Tell them I had you Google something,” he said. “I’m sure they’ll see the expense is worth the good relationship I’ve formed with the local LEOs.”
“Slightly more complicated than googling,” Lem said, one finger raised to make his point. “Fair enough, though.”
“Marlow?”
Lem pulled his phone out of his pocket and flicked his thumb over the screen. The smart screen on the wall flickered to life and the SDPD website loaded up.
“Really?” Cade asked. “A background on one local cop is involved enough that you need visual aids?”
“I don’t need them,” Lem said. He grinned toothily. “It’s just cool.”
He tapped the screen again, and the front page of the website was replaced with a picture of Marlow. It had the awkward stiffness of a pose held too long, a tightness around Marlow’s mouth that said the smile had started to hurt. Cade leaned forward with interest before he could stop himself. In the photo, Marlow looked mostly the same and much younger. It was something about the mouth. Like the laid-back expression had been completely natural back then.
“Officer Kit Marlow,” Lem said. He crossed the room and stopped in front of the screen, a slice of Marlow’s face projected on the side of his face and his teal shirt. “Apparently his full name.”
Thatexplained the glare over the catnap comment.
“He was born—”
“I’m not writing a biography,” Cade said. “Fast forward to anything interesting.”
Lem shrugged. “You’ll wait a while. Kit Marlow isn’t an interesting man. He’s good at his job. Top five in his class at the academy, good patrol officer, qualified for Night Shift on his second try, and—”
Cade braced his elbows on his knees.
“Six years ago,” he said. “What happened then? Not just with Marlow, something with the Night Shift.”
Lem raised an eyebrow. “You could let me finish.”
He flicked a screenshot of theLA Timeswebsite onto the screen. The headline was about cuts the Mayor had made to public spending, but Lem stepped back and pointed to a story about halfway down.
Decorated Night Shift sergeant injured on duty?
“Marlow,” Lem said. “He was in a coma for a week. Then the shit hit the fan… only quietly. Public story was that he was shot by a null burglar, who he interrupted in the act. And he might not look like much, but he’s a tough bastard. Shot three times in the back, lost a shit ton of blood, needed a bullet pulled out of hislung.And he’d managed to blow his knee out too during whatever happened, and that needed to be pieced back together like a jigsaw puzzle. Pretty much nobody expected him to pull through… including Ned Piper.”
Cade scowled. The imagery was… uncomfortable. Wolves died or got better from most things. Nobody lingered, except the very young. The idea of Marlow laid out in a hospital bed, white as the sheets and hooked up to all sorts of machines, made the back of his throat itch.
Most people had null relatives, even if only as part of their extended family. The Deacons never had. Not that his dad or grandparents had been willing to claim anyhow. Or who’d been willing to claimthem.
“I take it Piper was the one who shot him?”
Lem nodded and pulled up a picture. Ned Piper looked like he’d been born in uniform and probably shot a rogue wolf on his way out. Tall and handsome, with dark brown hair and just enough stubble on his square jaw to make him approachable.
“Sergeant Edward Piper, widely assumed to be the next Night Shift lieutenant,” Lem said. “Until Marlow pointed the finger at him for the shooting.”
“Lover’s quarrel?”
Lem shrugged. “No idea. There’s no motive on record. Piper made a deal the minute the handcuffs went on. He pled guilty and got a reduced sentence at a dedicated null prison in New Mexico. Hot as hell, but he only has to worry about being shanked, not eaten.”
Lem paused and waited, nearly vibrating with smugness.
“But?” Cade asked as he stood up.
“But… suspended. Bounced back to patrol. Bounced totraffic.” Lem flicked face after face up onto the screen. A woman with a cropped gray pixie cut, her scarred mouth set and eyes focused past the camera. Another woman, much younger, with short red hair and a nervous smile. An ugly-handsome man, one hair shade off ginger. A tough-looking woman with shoulder-length dark hair and a cocky grin. “Early retirement. Disciplinary. Disciplinary. Suspended without pay.”
Cade stood up.
