Breach of Peace (The Lawful Times #0.5)(14)

“Well, I wouldn’t get too discouraged just yet.” She explained how the captain had given them permission to investigate anything within the precinct borders, and the new details she and Chapman had ferreted out.

After it was all laid out, Samuel leaned back in his chair and looked at the roof. “Well.”

“Yeah, this is big.”

“Agreed. Bigger than us. They were right to take it.” Samuel got up and looked out the window.

“Excuse me? Chapman hesitates and now you?” Khlid could not believe what she was hearing.

Samuel leaned against the sill and held his hands up defensively. “Don’t get me wrong. I want to get to the bottom of this, but now that I see the whole case, it really is a military matter. They’d be right to take it. If this involved rebels, it’s a threat to the whole Empire, not just our jurisdiction.”

Khlid had to pick her jaw up from the floor. How could he say that? Samuel was always pursuing the “wrong” cases. The captain himself had been forced to pull him off of several for one political reason or another. Khlid was the one constantly reminding Sam of the rules. One military stonewalling and he was ready to back down? Capturing all of those thoughts concisely, Khlid remarked, “That is a fat load of shit.”

Samuel stifled a bit of mirth. “Excuse me?”

“Since when have you backed down from a case? You follow leads beyond our jurisdiction all the time; even into other cities!” Khlid tried and failed to hide the anger in her voice, though she did manage to stop her foot from tapping—too much.

Sam looked up and exhaled. “This just feels dangerous. You already had…” He struggled to find the words. “Something attacked you.”

A piece of the puzzle slid into place in Khlid’s mind. “Sam.”

His shoulders hunched. “This was different.”

“It’s not, though.” Understanding replaced her frustration. “I have been shot at loads of times. A bullet would kill me just as much as a... claw.”

“You were covered in blood.”

She exhaled, knowing the next step in this dance, and said, “I’m fine.”

Sam shot back, “But you might not have been!” He seemed to be struggling to maintain his breath. A look of deep unease took hold in his eyes. “Khlid, there was so much blood.”

They had had this fight before, from both angles. She had been irrationally mad at him for almost dying, and Sam had returned the sentiment on more than one occasion. This tension came with mixing marriage and work. This work, anyway.

Khlid wrapped her arms around her husband. He reciprocated, and after a moment, she stepped back. Sticking her arms out to the sides, she turned, letting him look at every angle of her. “See? All okay.”

He responded with a soft chuckle.

“We don’t need to go over this again. Your nerves are on edge. By tomorrow, you’ll be over it and remember that I am fucking bulletproof.”

“Oh, please.”

“Hey, between the two of us, who has actually been shot?” Even mentioning it as a jibe, Khlid flinched at the memory of Samuel taking a bullet to his gut.

“That was only because I was the first one through the door. If I was the senior inspector like yourself, it never woulda happened.”

“Solve more cases and maybe one day you will be. I might even write you a recommendation.”

“The captain is just fond of you.”

“He has impeccable taste.” Khlid looked at a clock on the wall. “We need to meet Chapman.”

“You said he wanted us there in two hours? We’ll be early.”

Khlid picked up her civilian coat and tugged it on. “Yeah. I want to catch him in the act.”

Samuel raised his eyebrows at her. “In what act?”

“Speaking with an informant.”

“Informant? Who would Chapman know that knows something about this?”

Husband and wife had the same realization as his question hung in the air. “Khlid—does Chapman have an informant with the rebellion?”

“I guess we’ll find out soon. But I do have a feeling Chapman is even further out of line than usual.”



* * *



They made it to the market about half an hour before Chapman expected them. If Chapman was conducting some private business here, Khlid intended to violate that privacy, and find out how exactly he had ripped his pocket.

Why is a torn pocket bothering me?

She looked to Samuel at her side. “Go left.”

He nodded. “Mm-hm.”

The outdoor market had over a hundred vendors, selling everything from sweets to southern-decorated daggers. A tobacco vendor near Khlid eyed her with a toothless, dark-gummed grin, and the black of his mouth suddenly brought back the taste of that putrid liquid from the demon. She heaved, and began to turn away.

“Ain’t true what the Health Ministry’s saying! Smoking is good for ye. I should know!” The vendor flashed his rotting mouth again.

In response, Khlid pulled open the lapel of her jacket and flashed her badge. The vendor’s words were not explicitly illegal—civilians could disagree with the Ministries—but men had been beaten for less.

“I didn’t mean...” He stepped further behind his booth. “It was a joke!”