the other Son

Chapter 7

The taste of greasy pizza lingered on his tongue like a bad omen when Lesza and Sorcha returned to the police station in Kingston shortly after noon. Frustration was boiling underneath his skin after a very short visit to Myers & Myers where the secretary had told them Mister Myers wasn't available and to book an appointment. She wasn't deterred in the slightest by his badge and suggested a meeting on the twenty-first - more than two weeks from now. He had been inclined to throw her damn calendar out of the window.

"Beran!"

Sorcha had the decency to flinch and throw him a sympathetic look but on the other hand didn't hesitate to scurry off down the hallway, effectively leaving him standing there in front of Silvertsen's office.

Lesza shoved the door open fully and walked into the room – at least twice the size of the office he had to share with Sorcha and with a nice view over the courtyard.

DCS Silvertsen looked up from the papers in front of him and waved his pen. "Please close the door."

Lesza did as told and stepped closer to the desk which, despite it's impressive size, was close to bending underneath the weight of the countless files and documents that were piled on top. The DCS might enjoy the perks of having an office to himself but Lesza suspected he didn't have much time to savour the view or the nice furniture with all the responsibility he had to carry on his shoulders.

Finally, the Superintendent placed his pen down and leaned back in his chair. With the pale light streaming in through the window behind him he appeared even larger.

"You were right," he admitted with a half-hearted glare and his mustache shivered in what had to be a smile. "Your victim was a-"

Lesza watched him rummage through a pile of papers.

"Ah, he was a Krampus."

"Oh," Lesza made for a lack of words. The result was underwhelming, to say the least. He felt the embarrassment of clinging to a wrong lead creep up the back of his neck. Every police officer who intended to become a detective naturally got drilled into their head to not follow one hint rigidly nevertheless he had expected something else, something more unequivocal.

"And Mrs Guttman, Sir?"

The Superintendent shook his head. "Not a drop of supernatural blood."

Lesza nodded at the information. "Thank you, Sir."

"Any progress on the case?" He leaned forward to feed the document to the paper shredder next to his desk, destroying any evidence.

"Not yet, Sir."

Silvertsen smoothed his mustache with thumb and forefinger. "Alright. Keep me updated, Lee."

"Of course, Sir." He hesitated and the Superintendent raised his bushy eyebrows. "Uh, would it be possible to assign more personell to the case?"

Silvertsen looked at him for an uncomfortably long time and Lesza struggled not to fidget on the spot. He hadn't done a single thing in the last seven years they had worked together to make Lesza feel wary but he somehow never quite got comfortable around Silvertsen and at times like this that intense gaze peeled back layer after layer like one would with an onion.

"I'll see what I can do. Smith might have a few Constables to spare," he agreed in the end and reached for the phone which Lesza took as his cue to leave.

"Thank you, Sir."

Silvertsen waved him off.

Lesza didn't even make it back to his own office since Sorcha nearly ran him over on the staircase.