The Getaway God (Sandman Slim 6)

“They really think she’s working with Mason?”

“All Lurkers are suspect right now. If you’re not human, you might as well be an Angra.”

“If any of those fuckers tries to hurt her . . .”

“They’re all too scared of you and Wells to do that, but I won’t lie to you. Her chances of getting out of here get worse every day. Homeland Security is talking about renditioning captured Lurkers to camps out in the deep desert. The only way they won’t come for her is if I can make it look like she’s part of your work.”

“I won’t forget this.”

“I won’t let you forget. You’re going to owe me plenty before this is over.”

“I already do.”

“Just remember that when I reopen my detective agency.”

She opens the attaché case and hands me my gun and other toys.

Would someone be stupid enough to try and rendition Candy? No. That’s not going to happen. I’ll let the Angra in myself before that happens and I’ll go Saint Nick on anyone who gets in my way.

As Julie and I come out of the office, Wells is going by with a gaggle of his pencil pushers. He stops when he sees us.

“Don’t you have somewhere to be, Marshal Sola?”

“Yes, sir,” she says, and disappears like she never saw me.

“How about you, Stark? Shouldn’t you be with Mason doing your job?”

“I was just going in to see him.”

“Did you hear what happened last night?”

“Do tell.”

He hands a thick manila envelope to one of his lackeys.

“It looks like Mason tried to pull some pixie magic. Shut down our surveillance for almost an hour and locked himself in his cell.”

“That naughty boy.”

“That he is. There’s just one thing.”

“What’s that?”

“He wrote a spell in blood, but the only cut we could find on him was a scratch on his little finger. And he had a black eye and some bruised ribs. You wouldn’t know anything about that, would you?”

“Maybe he fell off his bunk.”

Wells purses his lips like he’s thinking.

“That’s what he said. I guess accidents happen. We just need to make sure they never happen again or we’ll have to transfer all the other prisoners out of this facility. You understand?”

“Yeah. I get it.”

“Are we done here?”

“I was done five minutes ago.”

Wells takes my arm and leads me aside.