Pizza did help. We sat outside, and I called the fyrhund. He padded up to me, and sat down, in bloodhound form. As if he’d sensed that a manhunt was in the offing.

Kanesha reached down and fondled his ears. Without getting burned.

“Risky.”

“I think I trust him not to hurt me.”

“Deliberately,” I pointed out.

He panted and wagged his stern. I finished my pizza and paid the check. “Okay, let’s go find the deadbeat dad.”

“Deadbeat dad?” the waitress, not quite far enough away, asked.

“Yeah. Friend of ours. His sperm donor’s in town and we’re going to corner him and get him to actually at least pretend to be a father,” I explained. Which was even, somewhat, true.

“Oh. Good luck. Nice dog.”

The fyrhund lolled his tongue at her. Then stood up as I did. I murmured to him. “Find the efreet.”

I trusted there would only be one in the city.

“What if there’s more than one?” Kanesha commented.

“Seems unlikely. But I suppose if we find the wrong one we cross them off the list.”

She laughed. “I don’t have to get up early.”

It was rather late at this point. But I didn’t want to wait any longer. “If you have to go sleep, go. I don’t plan on fighting him.”

“Nah. Let’s go.”

The fyrhund led us away from the restaurant. I got a sense, almost an image from him. “It’s not that far, at least. Or at least there’s an efreet a few blocks away.”

“In the direction of Derek’s place?”

“Yup. Maybe he’s staking it out.” He didn’t want to deal with his ex, but he could watch hidden. “She’ll spot him eventually, though.”

“Maybe she’ll let him stick around as long as he doesn’t talk to Derek.”

“Maybe.” I was skeptical, though. She didn’t like him. She had every reason not to like him. To be honest, I didn’t like him with a lot less reason. “At least it shows it’s probably the right guy.”

Or girl. There were female efreet, after all. But he wasn’t all the way to Derek’s.

We spotted him leaning against a wall, smoking a cigarette. It wasn’t tobacco.

“Ugh,” Kanesha pronounced. “I hate the smell of weed.”

He looked up. “You.”

“Yeah. Us. Don’t worry, we aren’t here to beat you up.”

“You’re here to pass some message from my son.”

“I’m here to find out what the heck you gave him.”

The efreet started to laugh.