Chapter 45

A Detective Come to Deliver an Important Communication

Had they found Candy? Or her body?

Someone tapped me on the shoulder. Someone who smelled like menthol cigarettes.

“You were right here and weren’t going to say hello to an old friend?” said Detective Pinkstaff in a too-jolly tone. He nodded toward his office. “C’mon. I got a break. And some coffee and donuts.”

“Sounds good.” I followed him into his office, shutting the door behind me. Pink sat behind his desk.

I looked around at his messy but food-less office. “Where are the coffee and donuts?”

“Sheesh, don’t you recognize a ruse when you see one?” Pink opened his desk drawer. “I’ve got some information for you. Didn’t want it spread around.” Cops and PIs didn’t always get along. I was lucky to have Pink on my side. He pulled an evidence baggie from his top drawer and handed it to me. “These look like that pill you gave me?”

I took the baggie. Inside were two blue pills, exactly like the one I’d given Pink to have analyzed. I rolled them over inside the baggie. Same numbers stamped on them too. “They look identical. Did you find out what they are?”

“Sort of. They do seem to be some sort of diet pill: a mix of a laxative, a thyroid hormone, and a little bit of amphetamine—speed—for a kick. We think they’re manufactured in Mexico. And they look like they’re, um, custom.”

“Custom?”

“Yeah. Not widely available on the open market.”

“Are they dangerous?”

“Probably. Hard to tell exactly what’s in them since we just did some preliminary tests, but amphetamines are never a great idea.”

“Thanks.” I put the baggie on his desk. “It’s really helpful, even if it did take a while.”

“You’re kidding, right? Stuff like this, favors like this, can take weeks. This got rushed through.”

“Sorry. Double thanks. I mean it.” I turned to go. “Wait.” I turned back around. “Why did it get rushed through? Though I’d like to think it’s me, I can’t flatter myself that much. And if the pills are custom, where did you find the ones in the baggie?”

Pink grinned. “There’s the PI I know and love.”

“I was thrown off. It’s been a hell of a day. And I was promised donuts and coffee. My brain works better with coffee.”

“You didn’t miss anything. I make shit coffee. So my friend in the lab actually hadn’t gotten to your sample yet, but we just found a big stash of the other ones at a recent crime scene. Ran ’em through a quick and dirty field test, just to see what we were dealing with. They’ll do a more careful analysis later.”

“A recent crime scene? Like the one I was just interviewed about?”

“No comment,” Pink said, but I saw his almost-imperceptible nod.

“Babette must have been giving them to Candy.” I didn’t know I’d made fists until I felt my fingernails digging into my palm. “And Candy? They were asking me about her. Did they find her?”

“I can’t tell you that.” Pink stood up. “Good to see you. Sorry about the coffee and donuts.”

“Wait, wait, wait. You can tell me about the ingredients in these pills, but you can’t tell me if they found Candy?”

“Two different things.” Pink came around his desk, put a hand on my shoulder, and steered me toward his office door. “You came and asked about the pills before all this happened.”

“But I’m investigating Candy’s disappearance. Can’t you—”

“This is a murder investigation. I can’t tell you anything more.” He opened the door, caught a glimpse of something over my shoulder, and grimaced. “Though you probably won’t have to wait very long to see something on some sleazy so-called news site. Vultures.”