The bar’s just opened and it’s still quiet. Not even the jukebox is playing. A handful of regulars who came back after they re-opened sit at the bar. I score a table in the back with no one else around. My back to the wall, paying attention to the flow of magic around me, the people walking by on the street outside, feeling for any disturbances, spells, draws on the pool. It’s quiet on the magic front, too.

About twenty minutes later Letitia wanders in. By then I’ve already downed two cups of coffee and am contemplating a third. She’s given in to the heat and is wearing a skirt that doesn’t seem like the sort of thing the LAPD would be okay with for on-duty detectives, and a blue blouse that’s already staining in the armpits.

She sits down opposite me and starts to talk, but I stop her with an upraised finger. I pour the table salt out into a pile, spread it with my hands, and use a finger to draw a rune through it. There’s a sudden silence as all of the sounds outside our table go away. It’s a simple spell, small and unobtrusive enough that anyone walking by probably won’t notice. It’s also a pretty crappy one. No one can hear in, but we can’t hear out.

“Okay, spill,” she says. “What happened last night? What did you do?”

“Don’t look at me. Your sicaria did it. I just spooked her.” I don’t mention Gabriela. She’s already mixed up in this bullshit and I don’t want things getting worse for her than they already are.

“You spooked her enough that she blew up Vernon?” she says, eyes going wide.

“I think it was more that I pissed off her boss, who’s also in town, by the way.”

“No shit,” she says. “We’ve been trying to find her for weeks. All the scrying comes up empty.”

“I found a loophole. Unfortunately, one that’s probably been plugged up tight since last night. I went looking for something I know she has. I found that, I found her.”

Letitia narrows her eyes, doesn’t say anything. It’s adorable when police try to do the silent intimidation thing on me. Most people hate silence. They’ll say all kinds of shit just to fill the hole.

I lean back in my seat and sip the last of my coffee. One of us is going to start talking soon, and it isn’t going to be me.

She breaks after about two minutes. “All right, before I go on to who her boss is, I’m going to ask how you knew what she had.”