“We‘ll take this up some other day,” Wulf said.
He released my arm and stepped away from me. There was a blast of heat and a flash of fire, and when the smoke cleared, Wulf was gone. The car was still there.
Diesel was hands on hips, looking disgusted. He gave his head a small shake. “Mr. Hollywood.”
“I didn‘t see nothing,” Mendez said, still on the ground. “I don‘t know what just happened, and I didn‘t see it.”
I made a move to the car, and Diesel pulled me back. “You don‘t want to touch Wulf‘s car,” he said. “You never know what might happen.”
_________________
I PROCESSED MENDEZ and returned to Diesel. He was parked in the public lot across the street from the court, and he was zoned out behind the wheel. I slid onto the seat next to him and buckled myself in.
“You look deep in thought,” I said to him.
“I should have known Wulf was in the building.”
“Maybe his blood vessels were expanded.”
Diesel grimaced.
“Or maybe he wasn‘t in the building. Maybe we caught him going in. Maybe he‘d just got there,” I said.
“That‘s a happy idea. That would make me feel much better, because the possibility that I might have lost my ability to sense Wulf depresses the crap out of me.”
“How did he disappear in a flash of fire?”
“The fire and smoke is right out of the Magic for Dummies book. Any nine-?year-?old kid can do it. And it creates a diversion for his exit.” Diesel rolled the engine over. “Now what?”
“Back to the office so I can collect my capture money.” We got to the office in less than ten minutes, due to the fact that every light was green and traffic was non ex is tent.
Diesel parked at the curb and grinned at me.
“That was pure luck,” I said to him. “I don‘t for one instant believe you can control traffic lights.”
“I didn‘t say anything.”
“You grinned.”
“We could make a bet,” Diesel said.
“Can I set the stakes?”
He shook his head. “No. It‘s my ability that‘s called into question. I think it‘s fair that I set the stakes.”
“No way.”
“Afraid you‘ll lose?”
“Not willing to take a chance.”
“This isn‘t doing a lot for my ego,” Diesel said.
“Your ego doesn‘t seem especially fragile.”
“That doesn‘t mean I can‘t be crushed. I‘m only human… sort of.”
I did a mental eye roll and got out of the car. “If you said that to a health care professional, they‘d shoot you full of Thorazine.”