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“I will, I promise.” I was pissed and worried, but I wasn’t stupid. Or at least not that stupid. I continued to give terse updates as I maintained the pursuit, though my worry changed to bafflement after the sedan made a turn that took it through a residential area. “Not heading out of town after all,” I said. “I can’t figure out where the hell they’re going. They’re not trying to shake me, that’s for sure.” I hung back as the sedan stopped at a corner before turning. “They seem to be driving around randomly. Could they be tracking some sort of arcane signature?” Or, they know I’m following them, I thought with a wince.
“It’s possible,” Idris said uncertainly though no less tense. “Try to keep track of your route so we can see if there’s a pattern.”
My phone beeped with an incoming call and Cory Crawford on the caller ID. “Hang tight, my former sergeant is calling. I should take this.” I stuck them on hold without waiting for an answer and accepted Cory’s call. “Whatcha need, Sarge?”
“Hey, Kara, I got two people dressed as surveyors over here,” he said. “They have the equipment, but they’re not using it. They’re camped out on that asphalt patch in the parking lot. I’m sending you a pic.”
“Shit!” I took a hard right into a driveway and slammed to a stop then pulled up the picture. “The red-haired woman goes by Gina Hallsworth, though no guarantee that’s her real name. I don’t recognize the man with her, but I’m willing to bet he’s armed. Gina might be too, for all I know.” Katashi and Tessa weren’t driving around to track arcane crap. They were leading me on a wild goose chase to keep me fucking distracted.
“Son of a bitch,” he breathed. “You want them off the parking lot, I take it?”
“Not if you risk getting hurt.”
He let out a disparaging grunt. “Gimme a fucking break. I’m a cop, remember?”
“I vaguely remember that,” I said, smiling despite everything.
“I think I miss your sweet charm the most,” he said. “Anyway, I’m on it. I’ll let you know what happens.”
I switched back over to the boys and filled them in.
“We’ll meet you there,” Bryce said, then hung up.
• • •
When I arrived at the PD, there was no sign of surveyors, fake or otherwise, though I saw that orange cones and caution tape now cordoned off the valve. On the far side of the lot Cory leaned against his personal vehicle, an old but lovely Chevy Nova with a giant antenna on the trunk. I parked and did a quick in-passing assessment of the valve as I headed his way.
He lifted his chin toward the cones. “I asked them why they hadn’t posted an SG-243 placard by the work site,” he told me. “They said they’d go get it and skedaddled.”
“I doubt they wanted to get into a confrontation in a police station parking lot,” I said. “And what on earth is an SG-243 placard?”
Cory shrugged. “Some shit I made up. You don’t make sergeant without serious bullshitting chops.”
“Niiiice.” I grinned. “I also like how you’ve found the farthest possible place away from that asphalt patch, short of leaving the lot.”
“You think I didn’t consider doing just that?” he said. “I’m heading out of town right after work and didn’t want to risk that Bertha might get sucked into a black hole or eaten by a dragon or whatever the fuck else might happen.”
I gave him a blank look. “Who’s Bertha?”
He patted the trunk of the car. “This is Bertha. 1976 Chevy Nova. V-8 engine. Sucks enough gas to make a tree-hugger cry, but I’ve had her since college.”
“Uh huh. Why do you have ‘kasoxe’ on the license plate?”
Cory grinned. “K-A-5-O-X-E. I’m a ham radio operator. That’s my call sign.”
That explained the big horking antenna, and the arrival of Bryce and Idris cut short any further discussion. I introduced Bryce and Cory, but Idris veered straight to the valve, dropped into a crouch, and unslung his messenger bag from his shoulder.
Oh, fucking shit, I thought in sudden panic, please don’t pull Katashi’s arm out in the middle of the PD parking lot! To my undying relief Idris simply removed a notepad and pen, and proceeded to scribble notes while he muttered under his breath.
“He’ll be like that for a while,” I told Cory with a wince of apology.
Cory let out a resigned sigh. “I’ll tell people he’s an asphalt inspector.”
Sure beat the hell out of the truth.
Chapter 11
As soon as we made it home, Eilahn set to work adjusting the warding to respond to Tessa as an enemy. Ugh. I grabbed my laptop, flopped onto the sofa, and pulled up all the photos I had of Katashi and his people. After reviewing them for anything odd—such as a demon in the background—I emailed them to Cory as persons of interest along with a request to notify me if any of them showed up on his radar.
