“So are you,” I shot back.
“No, we got permission from Frank,” Jack replied. “Seb is right, though. You are breaking and entering. And I also want to know why you’re here.”
“Because I figured Raoul was going to break into this place to dig into the bank and get more cash.”
“How do you know about that?” Jack asked.
“Well, you see, there’s this little thing called the internet,” I started, and Jack rolled his eyes.
“Fine, I get it. I told you Andy and I were going to take care of Raoul, though.”
“Yeah, well, he’s the best suspect, and I was going to wait until tomorrow before going to speak to Beatrix again. So I figured if I could find Raoul too, then why not?”
“Instead you ruined our entire operation,” Sebastian replied. “If he was coming tonight, he’s not going to now after the ruckus you’ve caused.”
“The ruckus I caused? I figured I was alone down here, and I was just going to hide in a corner and wait for him to show up. You’re the one who slammed me into the wall. If you hadn’t done that, we both could have just gone about our business.”
“I’m an Enforcer. I’m allowed to be here, and that’s a pretty big difference,” Sebastian barked back.
“You wouldn’t have even known I was here if you weren’t here first,” I replied.
“So your defense to breaking and entering is that you wouldn’t have been caught if you hadn’t been caught?”
“Yeah, you got a problem with that?”
“Alright, both of you, cool it,” Jack said. “Seb, why don’t you get back into position? It’s still early; he could come by later on. Ali, come with me. We’re going to go discuss this somewhere else where Raoul Lupo won’t be able to hear us if he comes by.”
I couldn’t argue with that reasoning, so I followed Jack up the stairs and back out into the night. We looked carefully but couldn’t see anyone, and Jack led me into an abandoned building across the street where he had obviously set up camp.
“Seriously, I can’t believe you did that,” he said as soon as he closed the door behind us.
“Why not? Is it that unbelievable that I would come to the same conclusion as you, separately?”
“Why didn’t you ask me if we were doing anything before coming here?”
“Because I didn’t think it through that far, obviously,” I replied. “Besides, I actually was careful. I thought Raoul might be down there, so I cast an invisibility spell and checked for noises. It’s not my fault Sebastian was silent.”
Jack sighed. “I wish you hadn’t done it.”
“I wish you’d told me you were going to be here.”
“I’m an Enforcer; you’re not my boss.”
“No, I am,” Chief Enforcer Loeb said, coming out from the shadows, and I let out a groan.
“Seriously, you’re here too?”
“This is a sting operation to try and capture a known killer in my jurisdiction. Yes, I am here. What were you thinking, interrupting an Enforcer investigation like this?”
“I was thinking I wasn’t interrupting anything,” I replied.
“Well, you’re going to have to spend the night in jail now.”
“What?” I balked.
“I actually don’t want to do this, but it’s got to happen. Sebastian caught you breaking and entering.”
“Technically, he didn’t catch me; I beat him.”
Chief Enforcer Loeb’s look told me that wasn’t a distinction she really wanted to make right now. “You were caught having illegally entered the ice cream parlor. The fact is, Jack has to arrest you. I’ll make sure you’re released without charges in the morning, but it would be improper to do anything but. I assume you’re not going to make a scene?”
I wasn’t going to lie, my instinct was to make a scene. After all, it was total bull that they would arrest me for doing exactly the same thing they were doing, even if they had gotten permission from Frank, the owner, first.
When I didn’t answer for a second, Chief Enforcer Loeb glared at me. “Right?”
I was caught. I was going to spend the night in jail anyway. If I did it without arguing, I supposed one night was all it would be.
“Fine,” I answered. “I’ll go. But I’m not going to be happy about it.”
“Just be happy we’re not going to charge you with breaking and entering. I’m not happy about the fact that you interrupted an Enforcer investigation and possibly alerted a murder suspect to our being here.”
“I won’t even cuff you,” Jack said to me.
“Gee, thanks,” I replied, rolling my eyes.
“Come on, let’s get out of here.”
Chapter 17
“I can’t believe this,” I grumbled as we went back to town hall and up the stairs to the Enforcer’s station.
“You know, on the list of things I thought I’d be doing tonight, arresting you was actually pretty low on it,” Jack replied. “I know you’ve got a penchant for getting into trouble, but this is a new low, even for you.”
“I can go much lower, trust me,” I replied.
“I don’t doubt it,” Jack said. “But please try to make it on a night when I’m not on duty.”
“I’d let Andy arrest me any day,” I said as a joke, and as soon as the words were out of my mouth, I regretted them. Apparently I was on a streak of bad decisions tonight.
Jack raised an eyebrow. “Ready to hit the dating scene again?”
“No,” I replied, surlily. “You made sure of that. I was just kidding.”
“Right. Well, this is your home for the night. Please try not to break out of it. There are wards.”
I sighed as I looked at the small holding cell designed to hold prisoners temporarily until they were either released or taken to Spellcatraz. It was small, but to the credit of the Enforcers, actually somewhat comfortable. The twin size bed in the corner had a homemade quilt on it, and there were a couple of very well-used paperback novels sitting on a small table in
