"Great. Thanks," Charlie said. "And you can call me Charlie. "
"Okay, and you can call me Inspector Rivera. Now, braining the old lady with the cinder block - just exactly what were you thinking?"
"Do I need a lawyer?"
"Of course
not, you're fine, this bar is full of witnesses. " Rivera had once been a by-the-book kind of cop. That was before the demons, the giant owls, the bankruptcy, the polar bears, the vampires, the divorce, and the saber-clawed woman-thing that turned into a bird. Now, not so much.
"In that case, I was thinking that no one could see me," Charlie said.
"Because you were invisible?"
"Not really. Just sort of not noticeable. "
"Well, I'll give you that, but I don't think that's any reason to crush a grandmother's skull. "
"You have no proof of that," Charlie said.
"Of course I do," Rivera said, holding up his glass to signal to the waitress that he needed another Glenfiddich on the rocks. "I saw pictures of her grandchildren, she showed me when I went in the house. "
"No, I mean you have no proof that I was going to crush her skull. "
"I see," said Rivera, who did not see at all. "How did you know Mrs. Posokovanovich?"
"I didn't. Her name just showed up in my date book, like I showed you. "
"Yes, you did. Yes, you did. But that doesn't really give you a license to kill her, now does it?"
"That's the point, she was supposed to be dead three weeks ago. There was even a death notice in the paper. I was just trying to make sure it was accurate. "
"So in lieu of having the Chronicle print a correction, you thought you'd bash in granny's brains. "
"Well, it was that or have my daughter say 'kitty' at her, and I refuse to exploit my child in that way. "
"Well, I admire your taking the high ground on that one, Charlie," Rivera said, thinking, Who do I have to shoot to get a drink around here? "But let's just say that for one millisecond I believe you, and the old lady was supposed to die, but didn't, and that because of it you were shot with a crossbow and that thing I shot in the alley appeared - let's just say I believe all that, what am I supposed to do about it?"
"You need to be careful," Charlie said. "You may be turning into one of us. "
"Pardon?"
"That's how it happened to me. When my wife passed away, in the hospital, I saw the guy that came to collect her soul vessel, and wham, I was a Death Merchant. You saw me today, when no one else could, and you saw the sewer harpy, that night in the alley. Most of the time, I'm the only one who can see them. "
Rivera really, really wanted to turn this guy over to a psychiatrist at the hospital and never see him again, but the problem was, he had seen the woman-thing, that night and another time on his own street, and he had seen reports of weird stuff happening in the City over the last two weeks. And not just normal San Francisco weird stuff, but really weird stuff, like a flock of ravens attacking a tourist in Coit Tower, and a guy who slammed his car through a storefront in Chinatown, saying that he had swerved to miss a dragon, and people all over the Mission saying that they'd seen an iguana dressed like a musketeer going through their garbage, tiny sword and all.
"I can prove it," Charlie said. "Just take me to the music store in the Castro. "
Rivera looked at the sad, naked ice cubes in his glass and said, "Anyone ever tell you that it's hard to follow your train of thought, Charlie?"
"You need to talk to Minty Fresh. "
"Of course, that clears things up. I'll have a word with Krispy Kreme while I'm there. "
"He's also a Death Merchant. He can tell you that what I'm telling you is true and you can let me go. "
"Get up. " Rivera stood.
"I'm not finished with my wine. "