so I followed you until I saw you go into that apartment. At that point, I figured you were safe so I went and got some breakfast. I was eating eggs up at one of those rooftop places when I saw you go running underneath.”
I tried to slip my other foot in but couldn’t hold my pants correctly with the one hand. I let myself lean against the counter while I forced my foot into the pant leg. I tugged the pants up and started fumbling with the button.
“Jesus Christ, let me do that.”
I stood there like a four-year-old letting her button and zip me up.
“What’s wrong with you? You gonna go through the rest of your life with one hand?”
I chose not to respond.
“You know that cap is just a temporary, don’t you?”
I shook my head no.
“You can’t just leave it like that. And when those pain blockers wear off it’s going to hurt like a son of a bitch.” She caught the surprise on my face. “You really are a dumb shit, aren’t you? You wanna go back inside?”
I looked across the street at the door I’d exited a few minutes earlier. The door was unmarked, anonymous. I looked up at the second-floor windows, dark glass staring down. “No.”
The temporary cap would have to do for now. I had more pressing matters, like the fact that Mota hadn’t killed Froelich or Wu. There was a serial out there, a fucking lizard-man.
And one by one, he was killing my crew.
I clenched my fists but was half robbed of the sensation. Christ.
Time to move. “Where the hell is my shirt?” I snapped at the kid. “What you waiting for?”
He nervously cleared his throat. “Um, short sleeve or long?”
Eleven
A piece of me was missing. I was unbalanced. Incomplete. Not whole.
I had to get it back.
But it was too dark behind this tree. Couldn’t see shit. Was it asking too much to get a little daylight?
I looked up, my gaze climbing through boughs and leaves, and settling four stories up on police tape wound around a railing. Right where I’d almost gone over this morning. Would’ve been quite a fall.
The courtyard patio was quiet, no sign of KOP. They’d probably wrapped the crime scene hours ago.
Gotta be around here somewhere. I roamed, my squinting eyes straining to see the ground. I kicked something, felt it through the toe of my shoe. I reached down with my right but came up short. Forgot. I switched to my left and pawed through ash and crisped leaves.
There. I blew out a sigh of relief and unfolded the glasses with a snap of my wrist. Lucky I hadn’t stepped on them. I held them up in what little light there was. They’d survived the fall intact, thanks no doubt to landing in a soft bed of ash.
I blew off the dust and slipped them on with a relieved smile.
I was whole again.
“Juno, you stupid hump, where the fuck are you?”
I picked my way back through the tree’s weeping canopy, the rustling ruckus serving as my answer.
Detective Mark Josephs approached from the patio entrance, Maggie following a few paces behind. “We got your message. Who was that who called us?”
“Maria. A friend.” I didn’t know what to do with my right arm. Hide it? Give an empty wave? I let it hang by my side. “Thanks for coming.”
The courtyard tree had me cast in night shadow. Maggie hadn’t noticed yet. “We spent a few hours working the crime scene upstairs. Wu’s wife and kids are all dead, butchered, but there may be a witness. Somebody took a couple shots at the killer and chased him down to a sweatshop before getting himself wounded and disappearing. We were ready to start canvassing hospitals when Lieutenant Rusedski pulled us off the case.”
“He say why?”
“He said a second dead cop makes this case too high-profile to run a regular investigation. He’s going to create a task force and run it himself.”
“You ask if Mota was behind the move?”
“No. I figured Rusedski just didn’t want me working such a big case.”
“Why not?”
“He doesn’t want to share the spotlight. He thinks I’m after his job.”
“Are you?”
“I just got a promotion.”
In other words, not yet.
I dropped the first bombshell. “Mota didn’t kill Wu.”
Josephs dropped his jaw. “The fuck you say? You said it was brass who did Froelich.”
“I didn’t say I was sure.”
“You shittin’ me? Dammit, Juno, that’s a helluva thing to be wrong about. How do you know he didn’t do it?”
“Because I’m your witness.”
“You were here?”
“I was inside when the killer came back with Wu’s head.”
“That was you in the firefight?”
“Yeah.” I raised my right. “Caught the short end of it.” Bombshell number two.
Maggie snatched me by my new short sleeve and pulled me out into the light of a patio lamp. She stared at the void where my hand should be. “Why aren’t you in a hospital?”
“It’s all fixed up,” I lied. “No big deal.”
“No big deal?”
“The thing didn’t work right anyway.”
Her voice gained volume. “Shit, are you crazy? We’re not talking about a broken phone. You lost your hand. Your hand! ”
I shrugged. I was getting used to the idea.
“Dammit, Juno, you should be in a hospital.”
“I can deal.”
“Are you kidding me? You can deal? Is that all you have to say?”
“Um, yeah.”
She popped me in the chest, a quick shot with her fist.
“What was that for?” I said with max indignation. “What do you want me to say?”
She turned away and started pacing, her angry heels muffled by a carpet of ash.
I looked at Josephs. “What am I supposed to say?”
Josephs shook his big, round head. “This is some fucked-up shit. Even for you.”
Maggie paced, left and right, back and forth. I stayed silent, letting her work it off. I didn’t know why she was so upset. I really didn’t.
“Does it hurt?” asked Josephs.
“I’m on pain blockers.”
With a sigh, Maggie stopped pacing and ran her fingers into her hair. She squeezed down on her long locks like she was wringing the agitation out of her face, forcing it all the way down into her tapping foot. “Tell us about the killer.”
I gave them a description. Tall. Skinny. Dark hair and darker eyes. Skin the color of dead vines.
“A local?”
“Right down to the ratty clothes. But this punk could shift. He became a lizard just before he clamped my arm.”
