Page 131 of Red Marked
“Someone has to do it.”
It takes him a full seven minutes to write me a ticket.
After all that, he sighs. “Tell you what, friend. I’m not going to give you this ticket. I’m going to call this a warning, on account of the good work, and on account of you being polite about it.” He hands me my ID, and I take it. “But you need to slow down. We have a lot of humans living here now, and they are fragile. They’re not like us. They get hurt, and it takes them forever to heal from their injuries. They die like that.” He clicks his fingers.
“It was irresponsible of me. Thank you, Officer.”
“You have a good day now. You too, ma’am,” he tells Star, who smiles at him.
He straightens and pats the roof twice.
I push my ID back into my wallet. Then I wait until he’s all the way back in his patrol car before I pull off. I do so slowly and carefully.
We wave at one another as I crawl up the street. There’s no use speeding anymore.
The phone lights up in the holder, and of course, it’s Magma.
I answer on speaker. “Yeah.”
“Where are you? It’s two minutes past nine.”
“I got pulled over. I’m still nine minutes out.”
Magma swears. A lot.
“They can’t wait that long,” he says when he’s done. “Looks like I’m coming through myself tomorrow morning. I’ll be in touch with the details. And Flint? You had better actually look at your fucking phone this time.”
“I will. And I’m really sorry.” I blow out a breath. “I’ll make it up to you, I swear.”
“You absolutely will. Bring that Red female of yours. I want to meet her.”
“She isn’t mine, Magma.” I widen my eyes, glancing at Star, who is smiling.
Fuck!
What is he doing to me?
“Bring Star along. I want to meet the female who has you so flustered.”
Magma is killing me!
“I overslept. I’m not flustered. Can you leave it alone already?” My voice is clipped.
“Probably not. Maybe never.”
I roll my eyes.
“And by the way, the two officers who signed off on the accident are clean. The doctor who treated Tank the night he went into the hospital is also clean. There were reports filed, and procedures followed. Most importantly, there were no unusual deposits into any of their accounts, then or since. My guy went deep; that’s why it took a little longer. There’s nothing there.” A pause. “If you want to go and knock on their doors, go right ahead. I think it’s a waste of your time.”
It stings hearing it. I was hoping one of them would be dirty. It would have given us a thread to pull.
On the other hand, I’m desperate to be back inside Star.
I know it’s wrong, but it is what it is.
“And Red Gate Holdings?”
“The kid is still working on it. It’s layered. Companies inside companies inside companies, and the ones he’s cracked so far are shells that lead to more shells. He says it’s going to take him several days at a minimum, and he isn’t promising anything after that.”
