Page 77 of Cold Curses

“Coward,” he murmured, and walked toward Gwen.

“Would you like to tell me why I had to haul ass from five miles out to see”—she cast her gaze over Theo’s shoulder—“an empty lot?”

“Well,” he began with a sigh, “it wasn’t empty before.”

* * *

She was surprisingly magnanimous about the fact that we’d lost evidence without documenting it first. The note and Theo’s pictures helped. And I think she felt a little bad for us.

“You have to tell Petra,” she said. “That will be worse.”

“Still not it,” I said quickly before Theo could. A textbook case of situational cowardice.

“I’m intrigued by the note,” Gwen said, looking at it through an evidence bag while her team collected samples from the field. “I don’t know if it’s fake or planted, but I am intrigued.”

I could maybe help there. I pulled up the realty sales contractPetra had provided; it bore Dante’s signature. I looked it over, then showed the screen to Gwen and Theo.

“The note’s handwriting is comparable to his signature on the contract,” I said. “And the note sure does sound like a threat.”

“It might be just enough for a search warrant if we can find a friendly judge who hasn’t left the city. When I thought about the apocalypse,” she added after a moment, “I hadn’t really considered the bureaucratic challenges.”

“We’re all doing the best we can,” I said thoughtfully.

But Gwen just gave me a look.

“Too soon?” I asked.

“Too soon.”

We gave her a report about what we’d seen before the evidence had been burned away, and she coordinated with the forensic team and the district attorney. I’d taken to pacing back and forth on the pitted sidewalk while she talked. Finding a judge was, as she predicted, proving to be a problem. The roster was lean right now, and the judges she’d managed to find apparently weren’t eager to risk pissing off a demon. Apocalypse problems were weird.

While I waited, I called and messaged Black again, and got nothing. He’d gone silent again. By order of his client or because he wasn’t able to respond?

“Let’s just go talk to Dante,” I said, stopping in front of Theo. “He’s linked to this one way or the other, and if the upstart is doing this to his people, he may be feeling revengy.”

“You can’t force your way in,” Gwen said.

“I know. But we have information he may want.”

“He seemed surprised by the copper-ash magic,” Theo said with a nod. “If these are his people, he may not know they’re down, or how. That gives us leverage.”

I hoped it would be enough.

THIRTEEN

Monster had been well-behaved at the lot, but we were entering a demon’s lair—or at least a demon’s million-dollar condo—and the risk of it acting out seemed high.

We need him to help us if we’re going to wake her up,I told it.So, you have to behave.

I got its vague agreement, which I figured was good enough for now.

The security desk was empty again. The elevator doors opened as we neared them, and a cluster of demons emerged, Dante at their center.

Theo held up his badge, focused his gaze on Dante. “We need to talk.”

Demons shifted restlessly, like fighters waiting for the bell to ring. Or for Dante’s order to dispense with us.

Dante’s jaw tightened, but he maintained his composure after a quick glance around—maybe remembering he was in a semipublic space. Violence wouldn’t help his efforts to present himself as a legit businessman.