5. It’s nothing you did, but you’re not going to like the news.

FIVE

It’s nothing you did, but you’re not going to like the news.

Wednesday, May 2, 2057

Mid North Lake, Precinct 153

Cauldron City, Nebraska.

Captain Farthan, who wore a new pair of oxfords, waited for us in the parking garage. According to his expression, someone would be going to hell in a hurry. As I couldn’t think of a single thing I’d done to earn the trip, I killed my cruiser’s engine, got out, and began walking Miranda through the process of registering the confiscated firearm. Making use of a magicker trick, I unsecured the box from my trunk, carried it by the handle, and eyed my captain. “What’s wrong?”

“It’s nothing you did, but you’re not going to like the news.”

As that was nothing new since the dead weight case first hit, I nodded, closed the trunk with my free hand, and replied, “Let me turn in this firearm I got from some guy in the park. I gave him the option of putting it down or coming to the station. I didn’t think I could get backup in time, and Miranda isn’t ready for a potential firefight, so I took the route of caution. I’m hopeful for fingerprints.”

“And considering her situation, you made the right choice. I’m not calling you into my office about that. Was it otherwise quiet?”

“It was quiet. Disturbingly so,” I admitted. “Outside of the gunman in the park, who gave up his weapon without a fight, it was one of the more peaceful trips I’ve had in a while. I’m not happy about that.” Aware Miranda would be confused over my stance, I added, “This kind of quiet means there’s something big about to go down, always. A lot of people around here have a keen sixth sense for that sort of thing. When trouble brews, people behave. When the storm hits, they’re somewhere safe, which makes our job a little easier. But something is going on, and I have no idea what.”

“We suspect there’s going to be a big hit. The hospitals are already on guard. We don’t know if it’s going to be severe poisoning cases, tests on magical species, or what, but the black unicorns are particularly edgy. They called in backup from Chicago, New York, and San Diego.”

I raised a brow at that. “Three cities? Are they all black unicorns?”

“They’re bringing in unicorns of all colors. Dr. Erik wants to see if other unicorns can learn the trick to this toxin like Smithson has. I’m sending Smithson to the hospital for work shifts for the next two weeks. That’s what I need to talk to you about.”

I foresaw a great deal of trouble on the horizon. The white unicorn would not take being sidelined for two weeks well. “How did he take the news?”

“Surprisingly, he’s okay with it. He wants to be working on the dead weight case, but you need time with his digital board, the hospitals really need him, and you’re my best bet on actually getting us somewhere on the case. I’m counting Smithson’s work on this as a success. He’s made mistakes and there are inconsistencies, but I don’t think any of us would have avoided some of them, as the inconsistencies were created at the crime scenes before we could really investigate them.”

“That’s what happens when you have one group trying to frame another, isn’t it?” Miranda asked.

“Now that we know it’s multiple groups at play, I suspect we’ll make progress,” the captain replied, and he offered the cadet a smile. “You’re already worth your weight in gold on the investigation front, and I suspect once you learn the ropes, you’ll blitz straight up to detective level. I’ll be proposing we use your working hours for your education, which you’ll need. Lovell, I want you to handle as much of the organization as you can. Get her tested for if she has sufficient applicable knowledge for her high school diploma. Once you secure that, get on the horn with the local colleges and universities. Discuss her educational interests with her, but the judge wants her pursuing upper education.”

I nodded, wondering how we’d make her shifts work with education. “Will she be schooling on shift hours?”

“I’m going to pitch four hours a day of paid education and four working with you to start with. And if you need to help with her education, so be it. When she isn’t in classes, she can do her classwork in your office during her education hours—or you can teach her if you have a slump in your cases.”

I had slumps in my cases? Rather than laugh at the captain, I focused on the important thing: I’d be able to keep a close eye on Miranda.

That would work well, as it would make her accessible while we improved her general education. At the elevator, I pressed the up button, hoping we wouldn’t be waiting for twenty minutes. “Can Marrinni be assigned to me?”

“You’re the seventh person today to ask if I’m going to be assigning him to you.” The captain laughed. “Yes, I’m going to approve it. I’ve already asked Smithson if he can live in the orchard, but you can take him home with you if you’d like.”

“I can set my house up to be suitable for a hummingbird—and I don’t mind setting up my yard to be suitable for a nest. I can get Lance and Rubella to install some protections for his little ones.”

“That would work nicely. We have a list of plants suitable for them, although I don’t foresee you having any problems with maintaining a feeder for your flock. I’ll dig out the compensation sheet for being a caretaker. Marrinni has a pair of sentient girlfriends in his flock of ladies, and his first babies are in our new crew. You’ll end up with the whole lot of them, so you’ll get their caretaker fee.”

That would improve my finances, and if any of his babies ended up being hired, I would be paid to manage their finances, as hummingbirds didn’t understand money. They worked because they wanted to.

I would use their salary to get them enrichment items, their food, and take them on trips for relaxation and a break from working .

Some days, I wished I could be one of the station birds; everyone treated them like royalty, they got paid well, and their human servants made certain they had plenty of playtime, a safe haven for their families, and everything they needed to be happy and healthy. When a bird died, everyone pitched in to comfort those left behind.

In some ways, I suspected the humans, dragons, and others among us grieved harder and longer than the birds. When Marrinni passed, I’d be given a day off work to grieve, and the birds without partners would swarm me in their attempt to help.

I’d be expected to attend courses on grief management, as while our birds lived longer than their mundane counterparts, they didn’t live that much longer.

The elevator opened, and the Black Dragon of New York waited inside, his arms crossed while scowling. I stepped in, and with my free hand, patted the old dragon’s shoulder. “Did Captain Farthan give you a hard time today?”

“He only bought one pair of shoes, and that’s only the start of it,” he complained.

I chuckled. “Then he dared to take your unicorn, too?”

“He really did.”

I bet Lance had informed the Black Dragon of New York I had coffee secrets. “If you go find me a bag of raw Arabica coffee beans, I’ll make a few batches tonight, and you can even have some of the beans. You can text the captain for my address. But, if you step into my domain, you will need to bring enough chicken for me, Miranda, and two black unicorns. Come over around seven.”

That would give me a chance to get home, settle in for the night, and prepare for the influx of people .

“Deal.”

With amusing haste, the Black Dragon of New York headed off in the garage. I wasn’t the only one to sigh from relief.

“I thought he’d never go away,” my captain confessed in a whisper.

“The trick is to give him something to do. If we were wise, we’d try to figure out how to give him something to do in New York. I thought he would have gone to keep an eye on his granddaughter.” I rolled my eyes at the thought of the black dragoness storming into the station and taking it over.

We’d let her. The ladies of the station enjoyed her company and would make us pay should we upset her or her unicorn.

“She’s going to be back in the middle of the night. Grant beat her here and intends on picking her up from the airport.”

“Oh. She’s coming back early,” I observed. I wondered how Alicia and Miranda would get along.

Well, I hoped they hit it off. If they got along, I could recruit Jace to help keep an eye on the shifter.

“It seems they are suffering from separation anxiety. Apparently, her and Smithson simply cannot handle being unable to check on each other. Her parents are going to help get her critical things moved here. She’ll be able to do most of the work in Cauldron City, fortunately. She’ll go volunteer at the hospital when she isn’t working. I expect chaos. I’m sure they’ll stop posturing eventually.” The opal dragon crossed his eyes. “Eventually.”

While some elements of their whirlwind relationship baffled me, the pair fit well together .

That Jace had hidden from the Black Dragon of New York with the black dragoness and his animals told me all I needed to know.

He viewed her as a safe haven.

The elevator released us on the third floor without incident. I stepped out, held my arm in front of the doors so it wouldn’t try to eat Miranda or the captain, and while I was keeping an eye on them, one of my asshole co-workers decided to fling confetti and paper streamers in my face.

Someone would pay. “I did not earn the cheese. I didn’t even earn that. What the hell?”

The culprit, a grinning Dowdren, shrugged. Where Dowdren went, Hardy wasn’t far behind, and I spotted the black dragon perched on a nearby desk. He waved at me. I slid my foot into the elevator to keep the doors open. After making a show of removing confetti and paper streamers, I commented, “Your grandpa is visiting me tonight. At my home. Watch it, Grimstone.”

He snickered. “As he isn’t visiting me at my home, I’m viewing this as my win until tomorrow, after which it’ll likely be your win. Your gunman from the park had lit dispatch up, and we’re celebrating we didn’t have to do anything to defuse the incident. I’m volunteering to handle the firearm investigation.”

I offered him the locked case, which he took. “It uses a standard key.” We had several locking cases for the cruisers, and mine had two. One could be unlocked with a standard key. The other required two keys and some magic to get open, and I only used it for extra sensitive evidence. “If you can ask forensics to not count my case as evidence, that might save my life. ”

“I’m sure I can find a replacement case if they decide they’re scared of a little gun,” Captain Farthan said, and he picked off a few streamers from the top of my head and tossed them onto the ground. “Someone clean this mess up. Grimstone, find Lovell a replacement box and get it signed out for him. I’ll be having a chat with him and his cadet in my office. Get Annalee to load it into his cruiser. And just because she fussed over our new cadet’s apparel, make sure she finds a triple locked one for him. She might even have to go to our sister station for that.”

“Ouch. She’s going to be sending up flowers and asking for forgiveness after that,” Hardy replied, and he shot the captain a salute and bounced into the elevator.

“I’d prefer good coffee over flowers. She might get off lucky if there are donuts accompanying the coffee.”

I moved my foot so the doors would close and hoped Hardy survived his adventure to turn in the gun and begin investigating the park gunman. While the case would eventually work its way back to me, if it turned out to be nothing more than someone making poor choices with no intent of firing the weapon, I would consider it to be a good day.

Dowdren shook his head and meandered in the general direction of the office he shared with the young black dragon.

Everyone else scattered and went back to work, a wise decision all things considered.

Captain Farthan escorted us to his office and closed the door behind us. “Before either of you panic, all I’m doing is giving you a report on our New Hampshire canary.”

Ah. Roger, our rather cooperative serial killer. “Have we learned anything new from him? ”

“Roger has been an absolute gold mine of information. He agreed to hypnosis to see if there was anything he had repressed due to trauma. It turns out he was repressed with magic. Once we learned that, a magicker was able to reverse the repression. We have some good intel that’s going to change the nature of the investigation.”

“Are we still dealing with organ theft and illegal transplants at least?”

“We are. Some of our guesses were correct. The scale of it is horrific, however. Essentially, Dr. Lerrans is attempting to open a global network of organ traffickers. They currently intend to target only known criminals. They’re starting with everyone on the sexual offenders registries. Should they exhaust the pool of available ‘donors,’ their plan is to target those convicted of any violent crimes. Should they exhaust the pool of violent crimes, they’ll target thieves and petty crimes. Nobody with a record will be safe.”

“And the toxin?” I asked, afraid of the answer.

“Population control, and he’s of the opinion that those who can’t withstand the toxin should be used for organ donations,” my captain replied in a disgusted tone. “It only gets worse from there.”

When I’d first joined the force, I’d struggled with the depraved depths some would dive to in order to appease their greed or ambition. Over time, I’d accepted reality with resignation.

In many cases, the people believed the police worked to solve crimes and secure justice, but every last one of my fellow cops wished for nothing more than to prevent the worst from happening. From theft to murder, if only we could stop it all, we would .

Sometimes, like with the gunman in the park, we succeeded, rendering his behavior to something close to harmless. Choosing to let him go might bite us later, but for the moment, I had secured peace and removed a firearm from the wilds—at least for a while. He might come in to claim his weapon, and if he did, he’d receive a lecture for having brought it to a Cauldron City park.

“Do I want to know how it gets worse?” I finally asked when Captain Farthan didn’t elaborate.

“He plans to use the children of convicted criminals as unwilling living donors.”

Fury, the kind that turned Paul into a force of destruction, sliced through me. “You’re serious.”

“Roger was pretty confident about it once the repression was removed. Just be glad you weren’t a fly on that wall. A dragon or three lost their tempers. Fortunately, the FBI was wise and had brought a magicker along adept with water, thus sparing their building from burning down.” Captain Farthan sighed. “Our timeline will need to be completely revisited, as our autopsy reports did not account for the use of stasis storage on the bodies.”

That would make a mess of the general investigation, although it would simplify some elements of it. When we knew our information was wrong, we could work around it. It was when we weren’t sure that assumptions colored the situation and often sent us skittering in the wrong direction.

That we’d gotten anywhere with the investigation had been one part novice ingenuity, one part luck, and one part stubbornness.

Our precinct had more than its fair share of stubborn entities, and law enforcement’s sole unicorn was a contender for the top spot.

His novice ingenuity had won him a great deal of respect, as I doubted we would have made much progress before Miranda’s arrival without him looking outside of the box. I never would have considered online criminal registries.

Had Dr. Lerrans been a little wiser and hadn’t written his crimes down for the world to find, he might have gotten away with many counts of murder. That led me to one question I didn’t want to ask but needed to. “Are Dr. Lerrans and his group being classified as mass murderers or serial killers?”

“They’re being classed as serial killers. While we don’t believe Dr. Lerrans is engaging in any sexual acts with his victims, all other components are present—and the sexual component is more popular opinion than legal terminology. It just happens many serial killers include a sexual component with their murders. The method is shared, there is a cool down period, he has a set target group, and they have far more than just three kills. Under normal circumstances, serial killers tend to be independent, but the whole group has been classified as serial killers. Team serial killers are uncommon—far less common than individual serial killers—but they do exist.” Captain Farthan sighed, went around his desk, and thumped down on his chair, kicking off his new shoes and propping his feet up. “Sit or not as you want. If you sit, kick your shoes off and use the desk as a footrest. I feel that’s all it’s there for this week.”

I chuckled at that, and I followed his lead, sat down, and took my shoes off, glad I’d bothered to match my socks that morning. “I’ll have access to Jace’s board for two weeks? ”

“You are getting your own board. It’ll be here tomorrow. Temporarily, you’ll have access to Smithson’s board so you can compare notes side by side, but it’ll be returned once he’s done with his hospital tour. He’s going to be the on-duty cop in the hospital in addition to helping teach other unicorns how to handle this toxin.” The opal dragon sighed, leaned back in his chair, and weaved his fingers together behind his head. “There will be one digital board per office and three cubicle farm boards anyone can use.”

That would streamline our investigations. “Got a good price for the diamond?”

“There was a bloody fight over the damned thing, as it came from Smithson’s mother and everyone knows it. And since I refuse to spend it on anything other than our precinct, I’m getting the boards, stocking Annalee for the next two years, adding to the employee surplus if we get screwed on the budget, and sharing with Captain Ferdinand’s station.”

I glanced at Miranda. “And Captain Dupont?”

“While Captain Dupont is aware we received a donation of a diamond from a civilian, he is not aware of the details, nor will I be informing him of the details.”

“Is there a problem with this Captain Dupont?”

“If I began listing all the problems with Dupont, we’d be here for a week. If anyone mentions Dupont to you, especially in terms of you speaking with him, going to his station, or at all being involved with him, call or text me immediately. He knows he isn’t to screw around with my team—and I play at not screwing around with his, although everyone at his station knows to come to me or Captain Fernandez if there is a significant problem.” Wrinkling his nose, the opal dragon tapped at the air with his feet, a warning he struggled to contain his temper.

“Did something happen, sir?”

The gusty sigh indicated something had happened, and I expected to regret having asked. “When hasn’t something happened in Precinct 153, Lovell?”

“We do seem to attract more than our fair share of trouble,” I conceded. “But what has Captain Dupont done now?”

“He feels the stations should be shuffled and resources moved.”

I scowled. “Where do I need to send a rather stern letter that I absolutely will resign should I be put under his supervision?”

“I already instructed all the other officers to submit their resignation warnings. Captain Fernandez has done the same, as have the other captains in our precinct. As I had everyone submit it to the commissioner, I expect Captain Dupont will either be fired or transferred elsewhere. It wouldn’t surprise me if we get an imported replacement. There are a few opal clans on the west coast who’d love to send someone over. I’m hoping we can get one of the Oletton opals. They’re spunky, and the ones ranked sufficiently would mesh well with us.”

“Do you think Captain Dupont will go without a fight?”

“For a chance to work in San Francisco? Without hesitation. He believes he has more routes to higher ranks over in California. Reality will not be so kind to him.” My captain huffed, shook his head, and breathed until he no longer growled. “He’s complicating things at the worst time. I do not need my entire station threatening to resign due to his interference.”

“What if he’s in support of Dr. Lerrans and wants to disrupt Cauldron City’s law enforcement?” I asked, aware I’d infuriate the opal dragon at the mere mention of corruption and general betrayal of the force.

“That is a possibility that’s been brought up numerous times today, and that possibility is part of why I think we’ll be doing a captaincy trade with California. We need a united force, and California has captains with solid experience dealing with organized crime and serial killers. If we can get one of them in, I think we’ll have all the tools we need to get this case solved. That isn’t a slight against you, your partners, or Smithson. We’re biting off more than we can chew, and Captain Dupont putting up a fight now might get us better resources for this investigation.”

I could already see a few key issues that might hamper Captain Farthan’s plan to get rapid closure of the dead weight case. “But Captain Dupont’s station has nothing to do with the investigation.”

“All the stations work together—well, mostly. Dupont has done a good job of creating rifts between the various stations in Precinct 153. But for the most part, everyone is pitching in. There are officers at Dupont’s station helping on the sly. They’ve taken to contacting our dispatch about legitimate matters and having one of us meet with one of them about intel they’ve uncovered.” Heaving a sigh, the opal dragon slid his feet off his desk, sat up, and dug through one of his drawers, retrieving a folder, which he offered to me. “After you have tendered your resignation notification and helped Miranda file a notice with the judge, I want you to go through this file. It has a list of the unsolved thefts that might be relevant to our dead weight case. Take it home with you rather than work late. You can even write notes on the papers, as these are photocopies.”

Being able to jot notes on everything would make my job a little easier, especially as I couldn’t take the digital board home with me. “How might they be relevant?”

“They were thefts from medical offices, veterinarian offices, doctors, or nurses. A few paramedics and ambulance drivers were also targeted. Essentially, we looked into the property types and who owned them and isolated anyone who might be involved with medical services.”

Miranda’s eyes widened. “Money to help fund their efforts, supplies to save them some time, and possibly medical records? Were any records stolen?”

“That’s what we don’t know. We don’t think they stole any physical records, but we have no way of knowing if digital records weren’t stolen.” Captain Farthan sighed. “This case was complicated before, and it’s that much more complicated now.”

That was an understatement. I checked my watch for the time. “I think I can squeeze out another hour after submitting the resignation threats. I’ll even get on the phone with the judge to discuss the problem. I’d like to at least feel like I’ve made a little progress on this case.”

“We all do. We’ve made progress, we just haven’t made enough progress. Try not to let it bother you, Lovell. This one is going to get worse before it gets better.”

Of that I had no doubt. “I’ll try,” I promised.

“Good. Off you go. Feel free to screw around with your fellow detectives on your way out of my office. They need a little excitement in their life. ”

Rather than suggest we’d had enough excitement already, I did as told and left, taking Miranda with me.

Wednesday, May 2, 2057

North Lake Education District, Precinct 153

Cauldron City, Nebraska.

Per Captain Farthan’s roared order to go home, I fled the station with the papers rather than squeezing in an extra hour of work. A second roar summoned little Marrinni, and I gathered everything he would need to begin his empire in my home. It cost twenty minutes, but one of the avian experts promised to locate all of Marrinni’s nests and bring them over to my home.

The little hummingbird fluffed his feathers and whined, not that I blamed the little guy. To comfort him, I petted his little chest and did my best to reassure him.

I kept him on my shoulder while I drove, taking care to avoid hitting the brakes or gas too hard.

The hummingbirds always became stressed in the face of change, and had I been in charge of relocating him to my home, I would have moved him over the course of a week. However, I understood my captain’s reasoning for the swift relocation.

The warding protecting my new home would protect the little flock of birds.

An hour after my arrival, Yuri, a tiny firecracker of a woman with graying hair, parked in front of my place and emerged carrying a large box. Judging from the clicks, peeps, and other sounds, she’d successfully relocated Marrinni’s family.

The hummingbird zipped over to the box and flitted back and forth, clicking and chirping.

Five minutes later, Yuri released the beasts, fashioned a spot on my porch to hold the branches with the tiny hummingbird nests, and checked on the tiny occupants inside. Two of the nests had eggs, and the mothers had moved only long enough to show us their prizes.

In the wild, it was unlikely many of the little eggs would survive.

In my home, most of them would.

I needed to call Lance and Ruby to see what else I could do to protect the little ones.

The list of things I needed to do would grow into a mountain destined to crush me if I left it unattended.

After thirty minutes spent settling in her charges, Yuri left. The written instructions on how to care for everyone would help. The nests with eggs would vex us all, as Marrinni would stress until his little ones made it into the world alive. And even if all the eggs hatched, I understood the cycle of life.

Not all the little birds would make it, not unless the pairs were particularly lucky.

Marrinni would grieve, and we’d make a journey to the precinct’s miniature graveyard for the sentient birds, which occupied a corner of the memorial gardens above the necropolis. We’d make the journey on a day off, as work would give the bird purpose .

I would stack the deck as much in their favor as I could, and I’d make the black unicorns scheduled to come over help with caring for my new hummingbirds.

Maybe, with a little luck and intervention, we wouldn’t lose any of them at all.

“I’ll bring your supper out in a moment,” I promised the birds, heading inside to do just that. I took the time to draw up a rune to purify the water before adding the powder that turned it into nutritious nectar for the birds. Within twenty minutes, I had two feeders filled, which I installed on the porch. “Please try not to fight much over the feeder. There’s enough for everyone, and I’ll make more if you drink it dry.”

My promise worked, as the birds swarmed, everyone took a spot, and I determined I would need four feeders to give everyone a chance to drink at one time. I texted Yuri that I would be claiming three additional feeders, as the babies would need to drink without fighting over their meals.

A few minutes later, Yuri texted me that I should take five extra; she’d counted at least twelve eggs across three nests, and it wouldn’t surprise her if there were some she missed. She also promised sufficient nectar issued in monthly supplies along with a comment that all of Marrinni’s females appeared to be new stock to the area.

Yuri’s magic somehow let her know which birds had already contributed to the chaos that was her breeding program.

With him having at least fourteen females, two of which were sentient, he’d serve as a foundation for the next generation of sentient hummingbirds in the area .

Marrinni had been fathered by an imported hummingbird, and his mother had come from a little bred line.

His genetic diversity had played a huge role in his acceptance into the police program, and his intellect and drive had made him popular among everyone at the station.

After thanking Yuri for her help and checking on the birds to make certain they settled and understood what was and wasn’t my yard, I dug out my phone to give Lance a call.

“Is something the matter?” Lance answered.

“I wouldn’t say that, but I’d like to hire you for some extra services. I have one of the station hummingbirds now, and his ladies and his nests are at my home. There are several nests with eggs, and I’d like to have my porch protected for them.”

“Easily done. We’ll be over in about twenty minutes. Were his ladies living in the park?”

“I think they were at your old place. Yuri was able to just cut the branches the nests are on, and she set them up on the porch.”

“We will bring potted trees with us and take care of transferring the nests properly. We’ve the magic for it, and we can convince the birds we are helping. Are they stressed?”

“They seem to be settling well. They were just fed, and everyone is either exploring or keeping their eggs warm.”

“We’ve magic to help with that, too. This will be your first hatch as a caretaker?” Lance asked.

“It is.”

“Get the black unicorns to pull their weight, and we’ll take care of making sure the nests are best conditioned for when the little ones hatch. That should keep all the eggs sound. If one of the eggs won’t make it, the black unicorns will know, and we can deal with the problem now.”

It was always easier on the birds if an egg failed to hatch at all—or someone took away the eggs that wouldn’t bring a healthy bird into the world. While a part of life, I would appreciate knowing right away.

I would also appreciate not having to deal with a bunch of grieving hummingbirds and a trip to the bird cemetery.

“The blacks will be over shortly, so we can have a group chat about the best care for my new partner and his ladies.”

“Sounds good. I’ll bring a bag of beans so you can pay us in coffee.”

“Bring three bags, please. I’ll pay you for the whole lot.”

“How much coffee are you going to be roasting tonight?”

“All of it, apparently. Between the black unicorns, you, and the Black Dragon of New York, I’m going to run the entire city out of beans.”

“I’ll bring five bags to save you a trip,” Lance promised before hanging up.

Miranda, who had glued herself to the front window to watch the hummingbirds, giggled at their antics. “They’re showing each other their nests, Valor. And it looks like the females without eggs are trying to talk Marrinni into more eggs.”

If Marrinni ended up with another batch of eggs, I’d drown in hummingbirds. I’d have feeders dangling from every available surface, and I’d spend an hour every day and night providing nectar. That wouldn’t bother me much.

Where hummingbirds went, joy followed.

“I’ll make sure to let him know he can breed any time of year he’d like, assuming the females are interested. Once Lance and Rubella leave town, I’ll hire other dragons to handle the work I can’t readily do myself.”

“Are you going to be roasting coffee?”

“I will be, and I’ll teach you my coffee secrets. Until everyone gets here, I’d like to go over the victim list to see what we’re working with. I’m mostly going to take pictures of the file, send them to my work email, and get a feel for what I have to work with.” I chuckled at the thought of the captain having forced us to flee the station. “Captain Farthan basically rewarded us with getting out of work early and being able to relax at home while handling the small amount he knew I wanted to get done.”

“After stealing his shoes, I thought we’d be signed up for a bad time.”

I grinned at the woman. “I’m sure he was ready to skin us alive when he realized what had happened, but he’s a good sport. Most of the dragons are.”

“Except this Captain Dupont fellow.”

“Not all dragons are good dragons, and I’m of the opinion he’s just smart enough to be dangerous. With luck, he’ll be on route to San Francisco sooner than later.”

“He won’t seek out revenge on anyone for the transfer?”

I shrugged, joined her at the couch near the window, and enjoyed the show. The hummingbirds took turns showing off their nests, and three proud mothers preened over the attention, especially when it came from Marrinni.

Marrinni doted on the entire flock of females, making sure they all got equal attention.

“The mundane hummingbirds aren’t nearly this nurturing, are they?”

I shook my head. “The males breed with the females and then leave. They have no involvement with the building of nests or rearing of young. Sentience completely changed hummingbird behavior. Marrinni is a fairly extreme example of a doting father. He is such a good nest builder and tender that he has attracted numerous females, and his females stick around. We have a few other doting hummingbirds. Billy Bob is one of our older males, and he won’t live for much longer. When he dies, I’ll propose that his females come here. They’ll be close to dying from old age, too. Marrinni is compassionate, as are his females, so they’ll keep them company until they pass. It means we’ll be paying more than a few visits to the memorial gardens for burials, but it helps the birds cope.”

“That’s sweet but sad.”

“It really is.” I urged Miranda away from the couch and to the kitchen, where I dumped the file the captain had given us. “The faster we get this done, the faster we’re off work for the day and can enjoy playing with coffee.”

She chuckled at that, grabbed half the stack, and asked, “How do you want to sort these?”

“Let’s sort by profession and specialty. Surgeons that can do transplants should go into one pile. Standard surgeons into another. We’ll sort everyone else by their profession to start with. It shouldn’t take long to get everyone sorted, assuming he’s listed everyone by job.”

“It looks like it, though each sheet has numerous references.”

I went to my junk drawer, pulled out several pads of paper and a few pens, and tossed them onto the table. “We’ll number everything on the photocopies and list the corresponding number on the pads. That should work for now. If you see anything relevant, just jot a note.”

Miranda grabbed a pen, tore off a sheet of paper, and labeled the top as for surgeons with transplants. “I’ll do this, you make us coffee. I can have this sort of work done in ten minutes flat.”

“Excellent. I’m sure those home invaders are going to want coffee, too.”

“For good reason. I had no idea coffee could taste that good until you gave it to me.”

Well, if the woman wanted me for my coffee, I wouldn’t complain about it. “Let’s get this yucky work done so we can get to the important business of making coffee and being merry.”

“That sounds like an excellent plan.”