Page 36 of A Subtle Scar
“I’m quite at ease, Lucy, thank you.”
“Not you, Charrie. Are you harassing Chandler? I swear, if he complains to me—”
“No harassment whatsoever, Lucy. We have worked it out perfectly between us. Chandler will have both of us to care for him and dote on him—”
“And make sure he is at all times well-fucked,” Hermes added.
“I suppose that too. We already ensured he could spend a relaxed night last night, and although Hermes offered both French toast and his cock, he was not such bad company after all.”
“You liked my cockjust fine,” Hermes whispered.
Lucy hummed. “I see. That sounds promising then. Spread them, babe. Yes, that’s the way. I like when you’re being so good for me.”
“I…what do you want me to spread?”
“Not. You.This is promising. We could all go on a double-and-a-half date to the zoo while our boyfriends talk about murder and corpses, and about how wonderful concise crime reports are. Very well. Find Sherry Macallan. She has strong human magic, the attack type, and she should be on the first floor, in a part of the building that is in thorough need of refurbishing. Left from where you walk in. She’ll show you around. Also make sure to stay on the good side of Detective Rice, obviously.”
Hermes nodded. “We can do that. Thank you, Lucy.”
“Yes, thank you, Lucy.”
“Yes, that’s right, that’s where I want you. And you are welcome, Charrie. I have to finish here now. Bye.”
The Devil hung up on me. “I suggest we find Ms. Macallan,” I said.
Hermes nodded. “If ‘lover’ and ‘human’ is off the table, do we get to call him our boyfriend then? Has a nice ring to it.”
I considered it. “Well, Lucy has already been bragging about his boyfriend to whoever wants to hear it, so I suppose that’s acceptable.”
We nodded at each other.
“Let’s go and charm our boyfriend,” Hermes said.
Chapter Ten
“Sowhatdowehave?” I asked, leaning over a desk Detective Rice had apparently commandeered in the open concept part of the homicide unit she was the head of.
She looked up, and instead of her messy bun, I saw her face, sort of ashen in the way people who hadn’t gotten a lot of sleep looked.
“You’re fast,” she said. “I have the case file in my office. Deacon went home because the latest vic was reported late last night and he’d already done raisings before he worked on that one, and you know the regulations. It’s just me and the rest of the team.”
“And me now,” I said. “It’s not like I normally have the luxury of a handy necromancer. Did forensics find anything interesting?”
“They did. It’s downstairs. Magical Evidence Unit. You want that first? I can always fill you in on the way.”
It made sense to look at the evidence first, especially if there actually was magic involved here after all and they were too short-staffed at the moment to get to it fast. “Yes, please.”
Rice nodded and walked around the desk, then led the way to the elevators.
“Basically, it’s what you’ve already seen, but since they dumped that first woman into traffic, they’ve become more conscious of hiding their traces.” She pushed the call button on the elevator. “One vic we found by the side of the interstate just within city limits, another on the subway tracks.”
The elevator arrived. I raised my eyebrows. “Are we lucky enough to have found her before the subway found her?”
Rice shook her head and hit the button for the first floor. “That one’s a bit of a mess, and we couldn’t get anything from her yet. ME is trying to get the skull and the jawbone into such a state that Deacon can work on her. And they’re documenting the symbols on her skin as best they can. The Interstate victim’s name is Gladys Miller, and she didn’t have anything more than the first one for whose raising you were present, Margo Cooper.”
“Fuck.”
“Yup, sums it right up. Today’s victim was outside of town, in a field. Dog walker found her early this morning, and from what I’ve been able to find out, the field is being used by the university. Crops are forced by magical means, and they would have harvested the test batch of a new wheat variety—” She checked her phone, “—right about now. We’d have lost all evidence. Combine harvesters make a real mess of everything, or so the ME tells me. I’m very happy to say I cannot back that up with personal experience.”
