Good Things Come to Those Who Take

Excerpt

I’ve never had much of a memory for the ranks in Enforcement and Investigations. This guy isn’t wearing a badge or a uniform, though, so he’s not just some junior investigator. Brightly coloured clothes, a gold earring in one ear and the opposite eyebrow has been dyed electric blue. Emilia and I are talking behind the counter of the showroom when he comes in. He looks around the shop, clasps his hands behind his back, and steps forward, dripping with conviviality. A little too much. If you ask me, he’s nervous about something.

He doesn’t offer a hand to shake, but nods instead. I nod back and Emilia does the same. He smiles a broad smile.

“I heard you had an incident.”

“That’s one word for it.”

“I’m Adam Ògúndíyà, this is a nice place you have here.”

“We try.”

“I also heard you have something to show me.”

I hold up the stone and he looks at it without reaching out to take it. His hands are clasped firmly behind his back.

“Ah, yes I though it might be one of these. Mirabilis adamantiae, a close cousin to the diamond, useful in industrial power generation. They’re not common, though, so where did you get this one?”

I place the stone back on the felt mat on the counter. Ògúndíyà follows it down and leans in to look closer, but doesn’t touch it himself.

“In a dead man’s intestines. Another one fell out of his stomach as we were bagging it up, so he must have swallowed a handful of them. I would show you the stomach, but we had…”

“An incident?”

“Exactly.”

“Given the circumstances, you won’t be surprised to hear that these are valuable. Extremely valuable, actually. Partly because they’re so hard to find, but mostly because they are vital to the power generation systems which keep our little utopia running.”

Emilia asks my next question, “So why would he swallow them?”

Ògúndíyà offers a smile, half sardonic, half apologetic.

“Industrial espionage. Smuggling. Infighting amongst the families, you know how it is.”

“Thankfully, not intimately, no.”

“You’re lucky. They’re a pretty nasty bunch, though they don’t usually go as far as killing each other. Or if they do, they don’t let us know much about it.”

Emilia slaps my shoulder.

“I told you it was murder. No way that setup with the table and the extension cord was an accident.”

Ògúndíyà shakes his head.

“No. I think it was an attempted kidnapping gone wrong. They would have abducted him and locked him up for a couple of days until they were sure he’d shit them all out, but they’d have let him go. I think the guy got scared, ran onto the balcony, tripped, and got tied up. He definitely died by accident, unlikely as it was. The kidnapper probably would have run off anyway, even if there hadn’t been someone on the lower balcony shouting her head off about being rained on by blood.”

He gestures to the stone, but still doesn’t touch it.

“But this beauty… When this thing is cut and polished, it will split and redirect enough energy to power this entire district. From your description it seems that he was carrying at least two, but as you say, probably more. In this kind of situation, if you’re going to take a risk, you might as well push it as far as you can.” He rolls his eyes, “For family pride.”

I look at the thing on its felt mat. So much trouble in such a small stone. I’m glad see it go, “So what’ll you do with it?”

Ògúndíyà looks surprised. “You’re giving it to me? Technically, you found it in your corpse, so it’s yours to do with as you like.”

Again Emilia asks what I was thinking, “What would we do with it?”

“Keep it? Give it away? Have it cut into a pendant? Start a power company?”

“And when that guy pours out the contents of that stomach and finds that one of his precious stones is missing?”

“Well, he probably won’t kill you, if that’s what you’re worried about. And he won’t be coming back here. The families are powerful, self-indulgent, and impulsive, but they also know when to cut their losses. Imagine the humiliation of one of their goons getting caught returning to the scene of the crime.”

This guy is much too blasé for my liking.

“Somehow, I don’t find that reassuring.”

He smiles a condescending smile.

“Trust me. This is all just an elaborate pissing contest. Occasionally an innocent bystander gets clipped, but it’s rarely fatal. Like I said, the guy on your table died accidentally. For the most part the families keep their squabbling to themselves. That guy you have back there is a low-level family member, but you’re just doing your jobs, so you have nothing to worry about.”

“If I get whacked over the head by a nutjob looking for a priceless magic stone, I’m filing a formal complaint with your department.”

Ògúndíyà laughs, “It’s a deal. Now, if you could just bag that up for me, I’ll see that it gets to the right place.”

With practised hands, Emilia folds the black felt mat around the stone and ties it with a red ribbon. She holds it out for him. Instead of taking it from her, he opens the flap of his satchel and holds it out in turn. Emilia takes the hint and drop the stone into his bag. He closes the satchel, smiles, and heads for the door with a relieved sigh. Germophobes don’t do well in a shop like this, full of dismembered body parts. I’m honestly surprised he even made it through the front door.