Page 97 of Cold Curses

“Why’d your boss kill Buckley?” Gwen asked quickly, given they were all being very cooperative.

“He didn’t,” the demon said. “He had Azod do it.”

SIXTEEN

That was almost too easy,” Gwen said with a sigh, when the Feds had been called and a sputtering Azod was hauled out in neon blue cuffs.

“Good ploy, though,” I said, “throwing that question out there so casually.”

“You were having so much fun as good cop. I wanted to play, too.”

Unfortunately, after grilling the demons for another half hour, we got nothing else useful. Dante told his minions only so much, and given they weren’t the brightest bulbs in the demonic marquee, I could sympathize. But we had Grant Park, and we had a murder suspect.

Theo came back from the hallway, where he’d been working to reach Connor.

“There are vamps at Grant Park, too,” he said. “Washington and Gray. They’ve been fighting demon minions with the wolves. They haven’t seen anyone who seems to be in charge, but they’ll keep an eye out.”

“It’s a long shot,” I said. “We have nothing other than a California demon who doesn’t show her face and wants to make it big in Chicago.”

“And maybe a human who broke the cornerstone on their behalf?” Gwen said.

Theo and I both looked at her. “What do you mean?” I asked.

“The other wards were working when the cornerstone was broken, and Rosantine was the only demon in Chicago before that happened. So, it couldn’t have been a demon that broke the cornerstone. It couldn’t have been a vampire, because it happened in daylight. And probably not a supernatural, because the work was done manually. A sup wouldn’t have wasted time doing all that work in public.”

“You have a point,” I said, and scratched my healing arm. Then felt sudden sympathy for Theo, given the many times I’d teased him for doing the same thing.

I looked at Gwen. “Any sign of Jonathan Black?”

“He hasn’t been home since he sent you the message,” Gwen said. “We’ve been watching his house.”

Gwen’s screen signaled. She checked it, lifted her brows. “But we have found someone else. Turns out, our aristocratic demon is on a lake cruise.”

Cruises on Lake Michigan and the Chicago River were popular tourist activities, and large ships hosted weddings and corporate booze cruises. The lake ships usually traveled parallel to the shore, giving passengers a view of the skyline.

“Convenient that he’s doing it after the river ward was disengaged,” I said. Not that it was working but for the single burst of functionality that had woken Ambrosia.

“If we can get an arrest warrant, it would be a handy spot to bring him in.” Gwen’s gaze was vacant as she considered. “Out on the water, there are fewer people to hurt.”

“I don’t want to go swimming again,” I said. “And I don’t think we’re powerful enough to take him.”

“Maybe Paige or Mallory can give you some kind of magical Teflon, so the demon stuff slides off,” Theo suggested.

“I don’t know if that’s a thing,” I said. But the idea of confronting Dante protected by a magical shield was intriguing.

“I need to talk to people and coordinate,” Gwen said. “So, you have time to ask. But we have to move quickly. Those lake cruises have start and end points.”

“Maybe the surveillance crew could find out our window.”

She nodded. “I’ll get on that. Find out about the magic.”

* * *

“Demon Teflon,” Petra said. “That’s exactly what you need.” She was back in the office and on video eating cheese balls with one hand, fingers of the other one flying over her screen.

“Yeah, and I need it pretty much immediately. Is that a thing?”

“I don’t see why not. But I don’t know the specifics.”