Full Boar

Chapter 5: Crystal Ball

A phone call and another order of pancakes later, a black pickup truck pulled up in the diner's parking lot. More specifically, as Mason glanced out the window, his black pickup.

After Mason paid the bill (and left their waiter the largest tip she'd seen in her life), he led Adrianna out of the restaurant. "Do you have work?" he asked.

Adrianna shook her head. "Remember when I stepped into the restroom?" she asked. Mason nodded. "I made a call to my head supervisor. He let me go early last night, I just told him I'd do some work from home."

"Good choice," Mason said, and walked towards the car.

The driver door opened and a young man stepped out. With slicked-backed hair, dark eyes, and an olive complexion, Vince Morano was handsome and he knew it. Of course, right now, his eyes were baggy and his mouth constantly yawned. "Can I just say I hate the Tribunal's paper-pushers?"

"Tribunal?" Adrianna asked, glancing at Mason.

He frowned. Vince liked the sound of his own voice, and he grew up (more or less) in the supernatural world; their trip home would involve a lot of questions from Adrianna. "The Tribunal is a sort-of government for us magical types."

"She's new, isn't she?" Vince asked. Mason frowned but Adrianna nodded. "Okay, so... do you watch police procedurals?"

"Occasionally. I don't watch much TV."

"Well, y'know how they have to find the murder weapon nine times out of ten?" Vince asked. Adrianna nodded. "Well, just think how hard that would be if someone got mauled by a thing that looked like a dog the size of a lion, but not quite."

"Like a werewolf?" Adrianna asked.

"Yeah, or maybe they're killed with a voodoo doll."

"Voodoo dolls are real?" Adrianna asked.

"Yes, and they're more complicated than Hollywood makes them out to be." Vince shuddered. "Hey boss, you remember that case with the bokor trying to kill his landlord?"

"Boss?" Adrianna asked.

Mason, meanwhile, opened his driver side door. "Vince, get in the back. Adrianna, you get shotgun."

"Fine," Vince said. "Maybe I can actually get some sleep."

"Before you do," Mason said, sliding into the driver seat, "did you leave your car by the docks?"

"Nope. Girlfriend drove it home." Vince hopped through the passenger-side window and twisted past Mason, nearly giving the man a face-full of his intern's leather jacket, but somehow Vince managed to land in the back seat, reclining.

Mason sniffed as Adrianna climbed in. "Dammit Vince, did you spill coffee in here?"

"It was one in the morning! I was drifting asleep at the wheel!"

Mason glared at his intern through the rear-view mirror. "That's no excuse. And..." He sniffed. "And what the hell were you drinking? It smells like there's more sugar than coffee in this!"

"Hey, I don't complain about your cigars. You can shut your mouth about my coffee." Mason turned around this time, and Vince quickly changed his tune. "Or, well, I'll wash it out later."

"Good." Mason started the engine and drove them out of the parking lot.

He hit Interstate 295 and had to shell out a few bucks, and most of that trip went in silence. Mason occasionally glanced at Adrianna, who stared out the window. "Feeling better?" he asked.

"Not really." She looked at him with concern in her eyes. "It still feels fake. Feels like I'm going crazy."

"That'll happen for a bit," Mason said.