Free Dead Matter by Anton Strout Page B

said. His eyes were wary. “Plausibly enough. Although, truthfully, ever since your whole Fashion Week- zombies incident, most of what I’ve been spinning has been a bit dull … except for a few strange incoming calls about some new kind of creature bounding around town, but the zombie market seems to have dried up for now.”
    “No pun intended,” Jane said with a giggle.
    “Huh?” Davidson said, giving her a distracted look before turning his full attention back to me. “Oh, right. Sorry.”
    I wondered if Davidson meant the monster that had attacked Jane and me two nights ago, but that wasn’t what I had come here for at the moment. “Let’s talk about something a little more implausible,” I said, taking a seat. Jane did the same. “Why don’t you tell me about the Gibson-Case Center?”
    Davidson was in the middle of putting the award back on its shelf. He paused.
    “That new building up on Columbus Circle … ?” he said. “What about it?”
    “So you’ve heard about it?” I said.
    “ Everyone’s heard about it,” he said, looking at me like I was stupid. “I think Emeril’s got a place opening in there.”
    “We were told it’s under special permit from the Mayor’s Office.”
    “You want to tell us why it’s off-limits?” Jane asked.
    “ Want to tell you?” he asked with a laugh. “That’s debatable. The real question is can I tell you?”
    “Fine,” Jane said, keeping her cool. I would have exploded by now. “ Can you tell us?”
    “That’s better,” Davidson said, leaning back in his chair, “but the answer is no.”
    “Why not?”
    Davidson shrugged. “It’s a big city. Do you know how much of this town is under special permit for one thing or another? There’s a lot of things I’m not privy to, okay? And I get to keep my job if I keep my nose out of things that aren’t my business. So a new building goes up! Emeril Lagasse wants to put a restaurant in! You think I need to sound the alarms? There are projects here that are not my bailiwick, so when you ask if I can tell you what’s going on, the answer is truthfully no.”
    “Great,” I said. I leapt to my feet, slamming my hands down on his desk. “What’s the point of having a liaison with the Mayor’s Office? I thought you’re supposed to help us.”
    Davidson narrowed his eyes at us. “Calm down,” he said. “Why don’t you tell me what exactly happened? Are you implying there’s a paranormal element to something going on at the Gibson-Case Center?”
    “Pretty sure,” I said. “Connor Christos has been off duty for a little over a month and he’s being haunted, so we checked it out, found some creepy crawler staking out his apartment. Traced it back to the Gibson-Case Center, only to be turned away with some ‘sovereign land’ bull. Something that’s literally driving Connor mad is in that building, but it sounds like you’d rather feign ignorance and hide behind your office. C’mon, Jane …”
    Jane stood to join me and we both turned toward the door.
    “Look,” Davidson called out. “Zoning isn’t even my department. And even it if was, I couldn’t tell you the first thing about the Gibson-Case Center. Like I told you, that matter hasn’t been discussed with me. I know of it, but that’s all. I can’t tell you anything.”
    I turned back with pure annoyance in my voice. “Just like when you couldn’t tell us about the Sectarian Defense League?”
    “Easy, now,” Jane chimed in. “Evil or not, that’s my alma mater.”
    Davidson rubbed his eyes, giving a weary sigh. When he pulled his hand away, he looked tired. “Look, I can’t investigate this without raising all kinds of alarms around here,” he said. “I like my job, and I’d like to keep it. There are rules, procedures … I have to follow them.”
    I felt for him. I knew how hard it was to work among all the red tape and still try to get a job done.
    I went to speak, but Jane squeezed my arm and gave Davidson that