We rode back in silence for a while. I was upset with myself. I was adapting too slowly. Using the wrong ammunition on the Were. Being confused by things like Juan disappearing through the fence and our perp Michael Jordaning over the wall. I didn’t have the luxury of easing myself into this. Juan almost punched my ticket, I was saved more by luck than anything else. Done in on my second day. I hadn’t even cashed a check yet. I wondered if Agent Ruthersford was already beginning to regret recruiting me. My stakeout plan had turned into a huge clusterfuck in no time flat.

The self-doubt I had worn like a blanket for the past three years began to creep back into my mind. I couldn’t take the silence anymore.

“Was it weird that Juan just freaked out and attacked us like that?”

It was unusual, yes. It was a risky decision. He could have reasonably taken one of us, but killing both of us?” He trailed off. “He didn’t even know what we wanted. I suspect his goal was to delay us to allow his compatriot to get away with whatever was in that box. At the cost of his own life. Very selfless of him.”

“Are we going to get in trouble for Juan?”

“For killing him you mean? No. Management won’t throw us a parade, but he attacked us without warning or preamble. If you hadn’t gunned him down, we’d both be dead. Nice shooting by the way.”

“Thanks.” I meant it. At least I had done something right-ish. “If we aren’t getting called on the carpet for Juan, then what.”

“I suspect the bulk of the interview will revolve around the fact that we let one get away. We aren’t any closer to answers than we were this morning. And now we have a body count.” Teddy sighed, “and then the fact that we were investigating this case at all.”

“Oh right. This isn’t something that they wanted us pursuing.”

“Director Barnum at least,” Teddy said her name like a Spanish swear word. He really didn’t trust that lady.

This conversation wasn’t making me feel any better. Being called in was never fun. I reminded myself that worrying about it was always the worst part, so I changed topics.

“What’s the deal with that monocle? It let you see that Juan was a Werecoyote and helped you see the magic in the alley.”

“Correct. It’s a magical artifact that allows me to see magical auras. It’s been in my family for generations.”

“It seems pretty useful. I’ve got these, but they aren’t nearly as cool.” I pulled out my father’s glasses. I don’t know why, I think I was trying to lighten the mood.

Agent Ruthersford became suddenly silent. He was staring at the pince-nez. “Cash, may I see those please.”

“Sure thing.” I drove with my knees for a moment while I unhooked the glasses from my waistcoat button and handed them to Teddy.

He took them carefully and examined them. Then he took out his monocle and examined them with that. Finally, he asked, “Where did you get these?”

“They were my fathers. I got them from his estate when I turned eighteen.”

“His estate? Did he pass away?”

“He and my mother were killed in a car crash when I was six.”

“I’m sorry Cash, that’s terrible.”

“It’s OK. I’m over it mostly. I was so young. My aunt raised me up, my mother’s younger sister. She was just out of college, but there was no one else, and she didn’t want me to go into the system. As I got older, it was more like having an older sister than a mother.” I was oversharing. It felt good to talk about though, I had a lot of good memories growing up with Anna.

“What was your father’s name?”

“Uh, Jack. Jackson Walter Renshaw.”

“And what did he do for a living?”

“I don’t really know. I was just a kid. I remember he wore a suit and went to an office. He worked a lot of weekends. Other than that, I couldn’t tell you. What’s with the third-degree Ted? Were those glasses stolen or something?” My chuckle sounded nervous to my own ears.

He didn’t smile. “Cash, did your father leave you anything else? Things like these?” He held up the glasses.

“Oh yeah. I had a whole room full of his knick-knacks. He had this crazy globe that would glow when you spun it. I wasn’t supposed to touch his things as a child, but I loved that globe. I would sneak into his home office and spin it and spin it. It would change to every color of the rainbow. It was almost like…” I trailed off.

“Like magic?” Teddy finished for me. “Cash, what happened to all these things? Your father’s knick-knacks.”

“Oh, they were destroyed. In the fire..” I was starting to have trouble finishing a sentence.

“I am sorry to ask this Cash, but when did your father die?”

“Well, I was 6. And I am 31 now, so 25 years ago.”

“I see. One last question and I am really sorry to bring this up, but did you ever see your parent’s bodies, or the car? Or were you just told they died in a car crash?”

“I was told, who would show a six-year-old the corpses of his parents? What the fuck is this Teddy? What does any of this have to do with those glasses?”

Agent Ruthersford took a deep breath. “The Agency for Metanatural Investigations is a young organization. It was formed in the early 2000s as a part of the creation of the Department of Homeland security. It was the consolidation of several smaller entities that had sprung up. There was a section of the Secret Service, the FBI, the CIA, and others. They were all combined and placed under DHS.

If you remember, the Department of Homeland security was created as a response to the 9/11 attacks. Around the same time, there were some incidents of a magical nature that demonstrated the need for a single entity of Metanatural enforcement. Prior to that, the government worked with its own limited resources, independent contractors and ancient organizations to deal with issues of a meta natural origin. I believe that your father may have been one of these independent contractors.``

“You think my father was a magical spook for Uncle Sam?”

“I do.” Teddy nodded. “These pince-nez are a powerful magical artifact Cash. They have the same type of magical runes that Ben put on your knife. You could sell this on the black market and retire. And you are saying you had a whole room full of things like this?”

“Well, it was more like a corner of a room, but yeah. What does that mean?”

“I’ll need to do some research. But I am beginning to suspect that the fire that claimed your wife and daughter may have been set to destroy one or more of your father’s artifacts.”

“What? Are you serious? My wife is dead because some magical asshole wanted to burn up my dad’s old junk.”

“I don’t think it was junk, Cash. The globe you were describing sounds like a scrying ball. That’s another very powerful artifact. It sounds like your father had quite a collection. Any one of those items would be worth killing over.”

My head was spinning. I had a million more questions to ask and my entire worldview had just shifted for the second time in as many weeks. My father had known, he had been a part of it. And it had gotten my family killed. I didn’t know where to start. We pulled back into the Agency parking garage.

It was time to face the proverbial music.

We exited the elevator on the 11th floor. Agents Faulkner and Santiago were standing near the elevator chatting with Tina. They came over and walked with us into the office.

“The ice queen was down here for 20 minutes screaming Northcutt stupid, “ Agent Faulkner told us with a smile. “She just left.” He looked at me. “I hear you put a were down. On your second day.” Something was different about Faulkner. He looked different than when I had met him that morning. His hair looked a few shades lighter than it had been, but I could chalk that up to the sun’s position. Then it hit me, this morning his left eye had been blue and his right eye green. Now, they were reversed.

I decided to just answer his question.“Yeah. We tried to talk to a subject we thought was related to the tattoo case and he changed right in front of us and attacked.”

We all stopped outside Director Northcutt’s office. It was a glass “fishbowl” style office and we could clearly see him through the open blinds. The big man with the salt and pepper hair was sitting at his desk. He was on the phone and held up a hand and then a finger, indicating that we should wait a moment.

“You saw the change?” Lucas looked amused. He eyed Agent Santiago and then asked Teddy, “Did he pop?”

Teddy rolled his eyes. “Yes. Agent Renshaw vomited.” He drew out the S in ‘yes’ like he couldn’t believe he had to answer.

“Ha! I knew it!” Lucas wasn’t speaking to me though. He was talking to Agent Markstrom.

Alicia sighed and held my gaze as she slowly reached inside her cleavage and removed a twenty-dollar bill. She handed it to Lucas without looking at him. I swallowed. I was both aroused by her display and disappointed that I had let her down. Fucking chili dogs.

Chief Northcutt hung up the phone and waved us in. He didn’t look mad, if anything he looked amused.

Agent Faulkner spoke low to both of us. “Good luck. We’ll hang out here. We have some info.” He and Alicia walked back toward their desks and Teddy and I entered Director Northcutt’s office.

It was a standard-looking executive office with the usual accouterment. Diplomas and certificates covered the walls and there was a shadow box display of challenge coins. I wanted to examine them all closer, but Chief Northcutt interrupted, “Gentlemen! Glad you could make it, please close the door and have a seat.”

I followed Teddy’s lead and sat in one of the comfortable chairs set across from Northcutt’s solid oak desk. My stomach was tied in knots. I was really glad we didn’t have to stew about this for too long. I had really put my guts through the wringer today. The director grabbed a crystal candy jar from his desk and popped a few jellybeans in his mouth. He offered it to us wordlessly with raised eyebrows. When Teddy and I both shook our heads, he put the jar back on his desk. He sat there chewing on his candy for a moment just looking at us. This was a common tactic to try to get us to blurt out something without thinking, but I was way too seasoned in law enforcement to fall for that old gag.

We both remained silent and after a few moments, Chief Northcutt swallowed and cleared his throat. “You boys had a busy morning.”

Not a question. Neither of us said anything.

Chief Northcutt smiled. He seemed to realize that his tactics were not going to work with us. “I heard that you bagged a werewolf, Cash. On your second day. Not an agency record, but still pretty impressive.” He sighed. “I’ve already gotten an earful from the Director about this, so why don’t one of you explain exactly what happened?”

Agent Ruthersford gave an accounting of our actions, starting with meeting Billy’s widow. It was a factually accurate retelling, but short and extraneous details. The phrase “chili dog” did not come up. He finished with us tracing the second man to the alley wall and how we suspected him of being a tattoo mage and why.

“I see.” Chief Northcutt went back to the jellybeans. He was more particular this time, picking out only red ones. He chewed and thought in silence.

“And whose idea was it to go down to this warehouse.” He asked finally.

“Mine, sir.” Agent Ruthersford said immediately. I didn’t even have a chance to respond.

“Now Agent Ruthersford, I clearly recall having a conversation with you about this. Director Barnum has made it very clear to me. And I, in turn, have made it very clear to you, that the “Tattoo Mage Case” as you’ve dubbed it should be at the very bottom of your priority list.”

Teddy started to speak, but Director Northcutt held up a finger, “We’ve gone over it before Theodore. What happened to Patrick was tragic, and we all miss him very much. But his killer is dead. Beyond that, we don’t really have any evidence of a crime. Just a bunch of scumbags offing themselves. Hardly something that we should concern ourselves with. Don’t you agree?”

The look on Agent Ruthersford’s face made it clear that he did not agree.

Northcutt’s voice dropped in volume, “Look, I don’t like it either, but I enjoy working here, and am sure you feel the same. You know how she is.”

Finally, Teddy relented, “Yes, sir.”

The director was back in his bowl, green this time. “Good, I’m sure that this will be the end of it. If there is a next time, I am not sure I can take all the heat alone, if you get my meaning.” He popped the jellybeans in his mouth and smiled.

Agent Ruthersford took that as our cue to leave, but Northcutt put up his hand and motioned us to stay put. He quickly chewed and swallowed. “Cash, I’ve already received the photos from the scene. Very clean work. Two in the chest and one in the head, just like they teach. I guess the reports from the range about you were not an exaggeration. Good job son, glad to have you aboard. Now, he stood and smiled pleasantly while offering me his hand. I took his hand in a firm shake and we made to leave.

“Boys,” Director Northcutt stopped us again. “I really don’t want to have this conversation again. I think it would go poorly for all three of us.” His smile was almost pleading this time. His eyes were red and puffy. “You can leave the door open.”

We made our way back into the squad bay to our desks.

“So, we gonna keep on this case?” I asked, already knowing the answer.

“Most assuredly,” Teddy growled, “these Tattoo Mage bastards killed my old partner and almost killed my new partner. Twice. I intend to see this through. Director Barnum can go jump in a lake.”

Fucking A Teddy, Fucking A.