That night as Detective Fog returned to her office to conduct additional office work regarding her investigation, she heard the woop woop of a police car and then a voice from a speaker from the car like a foghorn said, "Malyssa Alafogiannis, stop, you're under arrest. Put your hands up."

She was crushed into the cement building wall by the time the voice had finished, and her hands were barely up before Leander Prince forced them behind her back and snapped handcuffs on her. She didn't recognize the voice of the officer on the loudspeaker and wondered where Dianthea was.

"You're under arrest," said Leander, "for illegal magic." He started to pull her toward the cop car.

She didn't resist, but she did object. "Finally figured that out. It's redundant to say illegal magic when all magic is illegal," she pointed out.

"We determined that the warehouse door couldn't have been opened without magic, was blown off its hinges. You're pretty tough, but you're not the Hulk." He opened the door to the backseat and forcefully placed his hand on her head to keep her from hitting it against the car and screaming police brutality.

Then Leander got into the passenger seat next to the female driver covered in shadows who kept her head turned away but wasn't Dianthea. The conversation continued.

"You know who we usually arrest for illegal magic charges? Mafia members." Leander had a look on his mouth like he wanted to spit but wouldn't do it in the car.

"Well, when you make something illegal, the effect tends to be that the people who do that something become criminals. When you put out blanket laws to make magic illegal, whether it's used to kill people and obscure forensic evidence or to save lives, then you're going to arrest a lot of bad guys — and a lot of good guys too. That doesn't make me part of the mafia. It just makes me a lawbreaker."

The lights on stores and bars streamed by, and so did the blocks of dark empty buildings, empty lots, gray corners barely touched by streetlights. The driver missed the turn for the police department, and Detective Fog sank back in the police seat. "Where are we going?" she asked.

Neither officer responded. Seconds passed, putting them further from the safety of a holding cell and closer to the depths of the industrial wasteland between the good part of the city and the waterfront on the east end. Neither officer responded to her question, but under a minute later, Leander had more to say. "So you admit to blasting open the warehouse doors?"

"No," said Detective Fog. "I have super strength. The ordinary variety, not magic. And I want to talk to my lawyer."

"I didn't like that guy," said Leander. "I don't think we'll be calling him up anytime soon. What a smart ass attitude. No thank you, I don't feel like dealing with him. We'll work this out between just us."

"So you're not going to arrest me, I guess. Am I going straight into the bay?" She unbuckled her seatbelt and leaned forward to give Inspector Prince a death glare, a challenging duel staring contest. When he met her stare and locked his eyes with hers, there was also a gun in her face.

"You're at a disadvantage, Inspector," said Fog. "You haven't killed me yet because you want something. You want to have a talk. But you can't hold me at gunpoint because you can't disarm me. I can't be disarmed. Whenever I feel it's safe to do so, I can flip this car off the road. You have no time. Pull the trigger this second, or we're all going to become vehicle crash mortality statistics. Do you have any additional leverage, or should I just make my escape right now? I'm stalling too, I'll be honest, because I'd love it if there was some other way I could get out of this alive."

"For one thing," said Inspector Prince, "we have your sister." The way he was speaking, haltingly, and with lots of pauses, suggested he was buying time for something too.

"You have my sister? What's that supposed to mean. She's an officer of the law, she works with you. What do you mean you have her?"

"You'll see," said Inspector Prince, and from then on, he kept his mouth shut.

The car pulled up to a beautiful historic pier building, which was abandoned and empty inside, with no lights. It was a busy area, usually, but after dark, something about the cars going by, speeding, gone in seconds, made it feel like every car was empty, and there were no pedestrians. Just faint streetlights and the march of headlights onward and past where the cop car stopped and Inspector Prince held Detective Fog at gunpoint and told her to get out of the car. She could see the Bay Bridge out the car window and assumed anyone on it could see her. Except that she would look like a black ant on the dusty ground on a dark night from up there, and it was hard to tell if a black ant was living or dead from afar at night.

She looked over her shoulder as she got out of the car as if expecting to see Dianthea. The building, with gold lettering that read PIER 38, had a main entranceway shaped like a Mexican house, with a clay mission style barrel roof and a white painted facade. Two wings extended to both sides, and the building went on forever down the pier at the back. The area was so quiet, so apathetic to what might happen to a girl left alone with two rogue police officers here. Inspector Prince gestured with his chin toward the entrance barred by chain link fencing and a steel padlock.

His companion was a wordless, expressionless statue. While Inspector Prince kept his eyes and the weapon trained on Detective Fog, the partner wordlessly and expressionlessly unlocked the padlock and pulled the chain-link gate open on one side.

Again Inspector Prince indicated which way to go with a nod of his chin in the direction of the pier building.

"I get the feeling if I go in there, I'm never coming out alive. Let's renegotiate the terms of this meeting," said Fog. "Ask me what you want to know out here where maybe I'll get lucky and a passerby will be there to see you shoot me. Win, win. Or lose, lose, but it depends on how badly I want you to get caught on murder charges and how badly you want me dead. Or there's still a chance we could all walk away from this alive and free. I'm not your guy. I'm not working with the mafia. I really did just blow the door off its hinges because I wanted to get to Paul in time."

"Why didn't you bring him back from the dead?" asked the partner officer, speaking for the first time since calling on the megaphone. "Can't you heal wounds? That sort of thing, witch?" her voice was gravely, but feminine, even if she had the proportions of a dwarf, with broad shoulders, stout in height and muscley, filling out her police duty uniform coat.

A good answer to that could have gone a long way towards getting out of this alive, but Inspector Prince didn't give Detective Fog time to reply. "Come inside, now," he said. "Maroulis, stand watch." He cocked the gun and waved threateningly with it.

"You're saying if I don't enter this abandoned building with you, alone, with your partner keeping watch outside, and a gun pointed at me, you'll kill Dianthea?" asked Detective Fog.

Inspector Prince gestured again with the weapon, not admitting to anything, giving no verbal confirmation.

"Because that's what you need to be saying for me to enter this abandoned building with you instead of knocking you both on your asses and running."

Prince's eyes locked on hers, saying volumes. She didn't need to see the barely perceptible nod, it wasn't necessary. His eyes said yes, he would kill her sister.

"All right then, now that's cleared up . . ." She went first ahead of him into the echoey pier building, stepping without sight into the unlit blackness. Her hands held in front of her, she put one foot in front of the other and felt the cold metal of the gun lift up the back of her tailored jacket and the camisole underneath to touch flesh, encouraging her to keep putting one foot in front of the other.

They walked like that in silence, straight into the depths of the pier building without making any turns or passing through any doors. From the outside, she had noticed the building continued onto the pier for some distance. Now she walked along one hallway leading down that length. It felt like maybe ten minutes of walking in silence until Inspector Prince said, "You can stop," and the jingle of keys on a ring coming out of his tailored jacket pocket continued to break the silence that had permeated their journey so far.

Malyssa was shoved out of the way of a heavy iron door as Inspector Prince opened it swinging wide. There was no light in the room beyond either. No sound, nothing like Dianthea whimpering in the darkness or even sitting, breathing, tied to a chair or something, just a room that every sense, though sight was limited, said was empty.

She didn't have to be told to enter. Reading her captor's mind, she went forward blindly, hands still out front. What she wanted was a light switch to see where she was and how to get out of this.

Probably the best way was to convince Inspector Prince she wasn't mafia. He hadn't asked any questions, but she tried to answer what might be unspoken. "I didn't bring Paul Aniston back from the dead," she paused to clear her throat, "because that's not what I do. I did it once, and that was enough toying with fate and destiny for one lifetime. I was also very preoccupied with catching the killer and, you know, basic survival, keeping my guard up and making sure I didn't get shot as well.

"My focus was sort of divided. That doesn't make me mafia, Prince. I'm just an ex-cop working freelance and doing my best to continue to fight crime. What can I say? I made a choice. If you can understand that choice, to let the dead lie in peace, then great. If there are any questions I can answer to set your mind at ease, ask away. If you're mafia and I'm about to die with no way out, then . . . checkmate. Well played, sir. Good game."

One shot entered Detective Fog's skull and ended her life while the second to her chest was like a signature, useful for nothing except to say "Sigler Mafia Was Here 2015."

Thank you for reading Detective Fog. I am so grateful for your support and your stars! Stay tuned, friends <3