Fox's Fire

Chapter 4: Tobias

Tobias gave the syringe to Nelson. Though the goblin/elf hybrid irritated Tobias from time-to-time, he was the only one in the trio who was at least half decent at his job. Given time, he might have been able to find the syringe on his own. If he had half the desire to search the area. Henley and Forbes were completely incompetent. Henley made jokes to distract from the fact that he was slower on the uptake than most. Tobias was convinced that Forbes simply was not "all there," as he had heard some of their human colleagues whisper. Something in his breeding came out more goblin than elf, but even most goblins had a bit more sense than Forbes. Shaw had never had anything good to say about the trio either, further solidifying Tobias's opinion.

Tobias flicked his ears towards the other two's snickering as Nelson carefully sealed the syringe in a plastic bag. Of course, the syringe still had the form of a cellphone, but Tobias had little desire to break the illusion himself. They had "professionals" for that at the precinct. Nelson flashed him a grin, and Tobias stared at his perfectly square teeth. Had he any common decency, he would tell Nelson that the charm he bought to hide his features was not strong enough to cover the minor details.

Tobias had always had a problem with common decency, especially when it involved mediocre illusions.

"Good job finding this piece of evidence." Tobias smiled back at Nelson. He knew from the grimace Nelson let slip that his smile came across as fake as the other man's. Nelson's grin was smaller now. "I'll have these two sweep the crime scene one more time to see if anything else got left behind. The last thing we need is the humans getting their hands on this."

Nelson shook the bag. The syringe-cellphone flopped around. Tobias tapped his chin. "I'm sure you would have found it, given a little more effort." Tobias paused. Forbes snickered, and Henley scratched the back of his head. "It might look like a simple phone, but given the experience you three possess, at least one of you may have noticed the traces of magic bleeding from it."

Nelson's face pinkened. Henley leaned closer to the bag and squinted. He rubbed his chin. "It is just a phone."

Tobias widened his eyes to keep his smirk at bay. Nelson was a dull red now, and his glare would have set Henley on fire had he possessed any magic. Tobias knew from Shaw that most of the hybrids working at the station were impotent—incapable of performing any magic. The good ones, Shaw insisted, still possessed the ability to sense magic though.

Nelson, Henley, and Forbes were not some of the good ones.

"Appreciate the help," Nelson grunted. He stored the bag in the front seat of his cruiser and pulled a notepad from his back pocket. He jotted down a few words, which Tobias doubted was necessary but more an attempt to look competent. Tobias yawned. Nelson tapped his pen against the notepad. "Yep, we'll get our people in forensics to check it out. It's probably just from some junkie with a pixie dealer. This area's had an uptick in cases the last few months. They like to disguise their product as some joke or something."

Tobias smiled, but on the inside, he rolled his eyes. A pixie drug dealer? Tobias would have stumbled across that during his late-night walks by now if that was true. It likely had nothing to do with the body decomposing behind him—belatedly covered by a tarp—but Tobias had learned decades ago to always give coincidences a second glance. When there was a lack of motivation to search for explanations, "chance" became the scapegoat for shoddy work. It was out of his hands though, and frankly, he held little desire to delve deeper into the case. Unless Shaw was hired as an outside consultant, which were slim odds at best seeing as how Nelson was already chafing at being outclassed, Tobias doubted he would see the syringe again. He had a more important issue to deal with at the moment anyway.

Tobias released another exaggerated yawn. "You do what you think is best. It's far past my bedtime."

Nelson's chest puffed out, and his square teeth glowed against his dark grey lips. Henley mimicked his stance a second later. Forbes continued to snicker. "Of course! You just leave the real work to us real detectives. We'll have this sorted out in record time."