My cell phone rang, the electronic music blaring out to startle me. Scrambling for it, I cursed Jenks. I usually had it on vibrate, but someone—aka Jenks—had monkeyed with it, changing my ring tones. Fumbling to the tune of “I’ve Got a Lovely Bunch of Coconuts,” I finally wrestled the thing out of my damp pocket. Real funny, Jenks. Ha-ha.

It was Glenn’s number, and after a moment’s hesitation I leaned against the kitchen counter and flipped it open. I had a bug to put in his ear.

“Hi, Glenn,” I said tightly; he knew I was usually sleeping right about now. “I hear Piscary’s out. It would have been nice if someone had told me the undead vampire I put in jail was free!”

I could hear keyboards and a loud argument in the background. Glenn’s sigh was heavy over it. “Sorry,” he said by way of greeting. “I left a message on your phone when I heard.”

“I never got it,” I said, only slightly mollified. Then I grimaced. “Look, I didn’t mean to bark at you. But I spent the night in my graveyard, and I’m a little cranky.”

“I would’ve called again,” Glenn said, and I heard papers being shuffled. “But when your demon burned down The Warehouse using their bouncers as kindling, we got swamped.”

“My demon!” I yelped, phone pressed tight to my ear. “Since when is Al my demon?” I said softly, remembering how well Trent and Quen could hear.

“Since you called him up to testify.” The FIB officer covered the mouthpiece. I heard something muttered, and I stewed until he returned.

“That doesn’t explain why Piscary is out,” I snarled.

“What do you expect?” Glenn said, sounding annoyed. “Neither the I.S. nor the FIB is equipped to deal with a demon who can walk under the sun. You weren’t doing anything. There was an emergency meeting of the City Council, and they let Piscary out to deal with it.” He hesitated, then, “I’m sorry. They gave him a full pardon.”

City Council? That meant Trent had known. Hell, he’d been in on it. What a total ass. I had risked my soul to put Piscary behind bars for killing ley line witches. Apparently that meant nothing. It made me wonder why I’d even bothered.

“This isn’t why I called,” Glenn said. “Another body has turned up.”

My thoughts were still on Piscary, apparently free to do whatever he wanted to my roommate. “And you want me to come down?” I said, my hand to my forehead and my head bowed as I got angrier. “I told you. I’m not an investigator, I’m a haul-them-in person. Besides, I don’t know whether I want to work for you anymore if you’re just going to let murderers out when things get rough.”