I didn’t get a chance to look around, because I was dragged into an apartment before my eyes had even adjusted, and another door slammed shut behind me. “He’s dead? Are you sure? What happened?” The luduan’s tail was twitching excitedly back and forth as he prowled across the floor. He looked freaked.
“Yes, yes, and someone gutted him,” I said, looking around for a chair and not finding one.
“But he had protection!” The little thing looked genuinely upset.
“You mean Naudiz?”
“That thing!” He wrinkled up his features in what I guess was a scowl. “I wish I’d never heard of it!”
“That seems to be the consensus. So what happened?”
He sighed and sat back on his haunches, but that still left his head too low for his liking. “Sit down, can’t you?”
“Where?” The apartment was clearly set up for nonhuman use. The weak streetlight angling in through gaps in the blinds striped a nest of blankets on the floor, a large rawhide chew bone with one end gnawed off and a couple food dishes. I assumed these were for the cat, because a wash of junk-food wrappers had collected in the corners.
“It’s over there,” he said, reading my body language. “I keep one for bipedal clients.”
He used the horn to point to a stack of folding chairs in the dining room area and I fetched one, bringing us closer to eye level. “Tell me.”
“Worst night of my life; I thought I was dead for sure.”
“You were there? You were in the office when he was attacked?”
“Yeah. I’d been there maybe a minute. I was late because I had to wait for that vampire who owns the club to leave. There was supposed to be a diversion to get him out of the office, but it wasn’t needed. He left on his own and I walked up. And a few seconds later the attack came.”
“You were working for Geminus.”
“I didn’t want to do it, but I needed the cash. I was in debt to him, big-time. Fin’s boys will just beat me up; he would have killed me.”
“In debt? For what?”
He blinked those massive eyes at me. “You’re kidding, right? Geminus owns half the illegal fights around here. Between fey and humans, fey and fey, humans and humans—anything, really, as long as someone will pay money to see it. Or to bet on it.”
I stared at him, a few things sliding into place. Along with drugs and weapons, no-holds-barred fights were another illegal import from Faerie. Ironically, it was the sort of thing the Dark Fey, who were treated like animals by some of their light counterparts, were fleeing Faerie to try to escape. But, once here, they had few contacts and fewer choices.
The authorities shut the matches down when they stumbled across them, but it wasn’t a priority. They weren’t a factor in the war, and that was all anyone cared about right now. Or maybe there was another reason.
“You’re telling me a senator was involved in a smuggling ring?”
“Involved in it? He runs it. He’s been smuggling for longer than anybody. He started bringing people over for the fights, and then branched out. He’s into a little of everything now.”
I sat there, growing quietly furious. No wonder we’d had so much hell stopping the smugglers. Geminus must have been tipping them off to our every move. Leaving us to clean up his competition—like Vleck or Ray—while he grabbed a bigger and bigger share of the pie.
I guess he’d been telling the truth when he said he wasn’t interested in politics.
“Why did he want the rune?”
“He didn’t give me the details. But I guess so he could control the fights. Give the stone to the fighter he wanted to win, and he could determine the outcome of every bout. And clean up even more than he already does. My debts were nothing compared to that.”
“You agreed to make the switch.”
“I thought it would be easy: a little sleight of hand, and no harm done. Jókell would get his money, I would get out of hock to all the people I owe and Geminus would get off my back. But I didn’t expect to be attacked!”
“What happened?”
“I’d barely gotten in the door. Jókell had taken the rune out of its carrier and was about to hand it to me, when the door burst open and someone threw me across the room.”
“Who attacked you?”
“I don’t know. I didn’t see.”
“What do you mean, you didn’t see? You were right there!”
“Right there and almost unconscious. I hit the wall and all but cracked my skull open. I heard the fight going on behind me, realized something had gone wrong and knew I had to get out of there. But the only window was bricked up, and the fight was between me and the door.”
“What did you do?”
He shrugged glossy shoulders—withers—whatever. “The only thing I could do. I went through the portal into Faerie. But time’s running a little slower there, so it took me this long to get back.”
I’d said it was like he’d fallen off the face of the Earth. I just hadn’t realized it was literally true. “You didn’t see anything?”
“I glanced back just as I crawled through the portal, to see if anybody was coming after me. And I glimpsed somebody in a dark cloak. But I didn’t see the face.”
“So tell me what you did see. Was he heavyset or skinny? Tall or short? Did you see hair color?”
“I saw the back of a cloak and it had the hood up; I couldn’t tell. And you all look tall to me.” He mumbled something that sounded like “planet of mutants.”
“Scent, then—what did he smell like? Or sound—did he say anything?” At this point, I’d take what I could get.
“I don’t have senses as acute as yours, and that club was too smelly and too noisy to make much out. Besides, I don’t think he said anything.”
I regarded him in utter frustration. I had an eyewitness who hadn’t bothered to use his eyes—or anything else. Perfect.
“You knew I was dhampir before I even opened my mouth,” I reminded him. “You must have sensed something.”
“I can tell species, even under a glamourie. It’s the whole truth thing.” He waved a paw.
“Then what was it?”
He started to open his mouth, and then stopped, frowning. “You know, that’s weird.”
“What is?”
“I hadn’t thought about it. But if I didn’t know better, I’d swear it was a human.”
CHAPTER 34
The luduan’s evidence hadn’t helped as much as I’d hoped, since the only human involved in the case was dead. But vamps had human servants, even mages on occasion. And he had provided one tasty little nugget.
I had my phone out before I’d reached the bottom floor. “Geminus,” I told it.
“The master is—”
“Going to be really sorry if he doesn’t take this call. I can talk to him, or I can talk to Marlowe about the smuggling ring he’s been running. His choice.”
Geminus was on the phone in less than a minute, which told me a lot on its own. SOP was to let people like me hang, but then, he was probably afraid I’d do the same to him. One call to the Senate, and Geminus was going to be a very unhappy boy.
“What do you want?” The question was snapped in my ear before I’d even had a chance to say hello.
“I already told you that.”
“I don’t have it!”
“That’s too bad. I’m sure you’ve managed to cover your tracks pretty well up until now. But that was because no one was looking too closely at you. Once that changes, I don’t think the evidence for your smuggling operation will be hard to find. And that doesn’t even count what the fey are likely to—”
“Where are you?” he asked abruptly.
“Chinatown. Why?”
“Stay there, and keep your phone with you.”
“If this is a stalling tactic—”
“It isn’t. I really don’t have the damned stone. But I may know who does.”
“Who?”
“You don’t need to know that. I’ll get it and meet you.” The phone went dead.
I looked up to find Frick and Frack staring at me. “That was Senator Geminus,” Frick said.
“You do talk.”
“You’re blackmailing him?”
I put my phone away. “We’re reaching a mutually advantageous agreement.”