Read Known Devil for Free Online

Finally, Castle said, “I can think of no reason why the two of you would concoct a story like that. So I am inclined to take your account at face value.”
    “That’s good to hear,” I said. “I’d hate to think we’ve been wasting our time – not to mention yours.”
    “We’re not kidding around,” Karl said. “You’re right that we’ve got no reason to do that. But if it was all a big joke, I’d say you haven’t heard the punch line yet.”
    “Really?” Castle looked like a man who was developing a bad headache. “Then by all means deliver it, Detective.”
    Karl leaned forward a little. “There’s an unconfirmed report that at least one vampire is hooked on the stuff, too.”
    Castle just looked at him. “Cross-species addiction,” he said softly. Then in a normal voice, he told us, “I was about to say, as a reflex, that such a thing is impossible. But then, until a few minutes ago, I would have held that drug-addicted elves were an impossibility, too.” It looked like Castle’s headache had taken a turn for the worse.
    He sat there for a little while, staring at the banker’s lamp and drumming his fingers softly on the desk. Then, without taking his eyes off the lamp, he said, “What you’ve said concerns me on two different levels. One is the idea of a drug-addicted supernatural species other than goblins. My second concern is that until you officers told me, I had heard absolutely nothing about this.”
    “Could be that none of the junkies have been driven to crime before,” I said. “Last night could’ve been the first time – hell, it must have been, otherwise I would’ve heard something.”
    “You don’t understand, Sergeant,” Castle said. “It doesn’t matter whether last night’s incident was the first or the hundredth. If elves are getting addicted to this ‘HG’, then I should have known about it before it resulted in armed robbery. I am supposed to know – I am boyar .”
    “Is that your title?” I said. “Some cops refer to you as the ‘supefather’.”
    He smiled with half his mouth. “The Mafia term? Well, I suppose it’s not a bad analogy, as long as you keep in mind that the supernatural community is not made up of…” He let his voice trail off.
    “Criminals?” Karl said.
    “Yes, Detective,” Castle said, with a little more force in his voice. “Even if some of our number may have committed unlawful acts, they are not representative of our community.”
    “Hell, I know that,” I told him. “If all the supernaturals, or even most of them, weren’t law-abiding citizens, there’d be chaos in this city. My job would be impossible.”
    “Thank you for that,” Castle said. He sounded less pissed off as he said, “I should not speak of this to outsiders, but you two already know so much, it seems pointless to conceal the rest from you.” He folded his hands over his stomach and tilted the chair back a little.
    “The fact is,” Castle said, “there have been subtle challenges to my leadership lately. Nothing concrete, no overt defiance. And yet, sometimes when I give orders they are not obeyed or not carried out correctly. There are always excuses, of course. No one meant to disobey my commands, there was a misunderstanding, amends will be made, and so forth. And yet…” He shook his head.
    “Once is happenstance,” Karl quoted. “Twice is coincidence. The third time, it’s enemy action.”
    Castle looked at him. “Oh, that’s right. The James Bond fan. It may surprise you, detective, but I also have read the works of Mister Ian Fleming. Mostly, I regard them as light entertainment, but sometimes, as in your present example…” The fingers were drumming again, softly as tears falling on a coffin. “Sometimes, they contain words of wisdom.”
     
    The rest of our shift was fairly quiet, which gave Karl and me some time to talk with McGuire and the other detectives passing through about the latest scourge to afflict our fair city.
    I