Page 53 of Lovesick Gods

“This is a high profile case, Grant, with a lot of bureaucratic bullshit on my ass because of how soon those thefts happened after each other. We need real evidence. Something more to pin it on Ludgate. Something to tell us where he is.”

Danny fought away the glare that sprang to his face and looked down at the wide array of lab results scattered over his desk. “I know that, Captain, I wasn’t—” He stopped himself before making an excuse about his phone; Shan wouldn’t care. “I’m doing everything I can. I’ve scoured what the team brought back—twice. Ludgate’s still technically just a person of interest. The forensics team—”

“I’m not asking the forensics team, Grant, I’m asking you.” Sometimes Danny would swear Shan was an Elemental from the way he seemed to make the earth tremble beneath his feet. “I expect more from you. Do you think I let you keep this space because of your father’s influence?” He glanced around the expansive room that Danny had all to himself, even though Danny would have preferred the morgue if he could be downthere alone whenever he wanted—and how messed up was it that he felt more at home in an old morgue than his office? “I don’t do nepotism,” Shan finished bluntly.

“No, sir, I know.” Danny clenched his fists beneath his desk and muttered, “Pretty sure it’s because no one else wants an office they call ‘The Tomb’.” And that was the real kicker, that the two places Danny spent most of his time were both grounded in death and decay.

Shan’s glower in response to him even vaguely talking back was withering enough to kill the plants in the room—if Danny had any that had survived Rick’s death. As the man stepped closer to the desk, Danny felt the need to retreat, even though he was sitting.

“Give me something, Grant. Anything that might be hiding a fiber we could trace to Ludgate. Even once we have him in custody, we don’t have enough to hold him. Check everything a third time if you have to. No one leaves nothing.”

Danny was so sick of hearing that—because apparently this guydid. But regardless, he nodded.

“Good.” Shan backed up a step before turning fully to head out of the room. “Can’t expect Zeus to do all the heavy lifting,” he said as he left, which only made Danny angrier, because little did Shan know, Zeuswasdoing the heavy lifting.

Shaking that thought away, Danny reminded himself that he had Andre and Lynn helping too, not to mention his father’s efforts. Even as Zeus, he wasn’t responsible for everything. It just felt like that most days. And Shan was no help.

Danny’s phone buzzed. It was Andre texting about tonight’s patrol and asking him to come down ASAP after his shift ended,with takeout to share maybe, please?, because Andre and Lynn weren’t sure if they’d get the chance to leave the precinct.

It shouldn’t have made Danny angrier, because his friends were working hard too, but now was not the time to ask him for favors.

“Hey, Dann—”

“What?” Danny barked before even looking to see who had entered.

John stood halfway to Danny’s desk with his hands raised. “Whoa. Calm down, kiddo. What’s up? Shan giving you a hard time?”

Danny sighed. He was doing it again—taking his frustrations out on everyone who didn’t deserve it. He needed more justifiable targets, though he’d prefer to stop feeling like he needed to punch something. “No more than usual. He’s right anyway. I should be able to see past this, find something everyone else is missing. It’s one thing if the evidence doesn’t point at anyone, it’s another to have no evidence at all.”

“You’re not on this case alone. We’re partners this time, remember? Hey, maybe this’ll cheer you up,” John said, smiling good-naturedly as he perched on the edge of Danny’s desk. “Got a new list of places for you to patrol tonight. Ludgate isnottrying to stay hidden. Got witnesses all over town who’ve seen him, a couple even from this morning.”

Danny wished that news could perk up his foul mood. “We’ve been trying that all week, Dad. He’s been seen around both crime scenes, neighborhoods nearby, and other places around the city, but everyone says the same thing—that sure, they saw him, but he seems to appear out of nowhere and disappear just as easily. No one knows how he’s coming and going.”

“Which is exactly why a new list of places to stakeout should narrow your search. Basic police work, kiddo. A pattern has to emerge eventually.”

“You can’t make a pattern out ofrandom,” Danny grumbled.

“I thought randomwasa pattern?”

Looking up at his father, Danny couldn’t help but chuckle at the man’s patient ‘I’ll get you to break eventually’ stare. He used to pull that all the time when Danny was younger. Danny didn’t realize how much he’d missed it these past six months while things were tense between them.

“Sorry. It is a pattern. You’re right. Which makes it even more likely that he’s an Elemental, it’s just—” Danny stopped mid-thought as he realized—Elemental.

Random. Seen all over the city. Entering and exiting places with tons of loot in almost no time at all, with no one seeing him!

“He’s a teleporter! Like Hermes! That would explain everything!” Danny tossed his phone to the end of his desk and started rifling through his spread out reports at almost lightning speed.

“Atta boy,” John said, patting the desk as he stood up. “And just think. Already had an epiphany and the day’s only half-over.”

Danny looked up with a glare at the joke, but John just laughed. Allowing himself to break into a similar smile if only to appease his father, Danny knew he had to be careful or John would start to really worry, like everyone else was. Then he’d have to sit Danny down for one of his ‘talks’. Right now Danny preferred the smile—the real smile—that had been missing for so many months.

“Thanks, Dad,” Danny said as John headed off. At least now he had some direction.

What slowly started to eat at him, though, was that the evidence definitely suggested he was right—Ludgate had to be teleporting—but that didn’t actually help. Danny’s best bet would still be blind luck stumbling upon Ludgate somewhere or trying to figure out where he might hit next to get ahead of him. But that was just as unlikely, since Virgil Labs and the glassworks had nothing in common.

Danny’s phone buzzed again. Then again.Again. Andre. Lynn. Stella wondering about next week’s family dinner already. Looking to his computer for a distraction, he saw the accumulation of emails piling up that he hadn’t read since lunch. He glanced at the paperwork that told him nothing. At his phone again.Damn it.

Even a breakthrough felt like the room was growing smaller, the walls slowly inching closer to him, with Rick’s desk looming like an unmarked grave, making him feel suffocated and prickly beneath his skin like he was about ready to—

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