At that point it was mop up. Taking a cue from me, one of the cops managed to get Mike down. He promptly went to help Thea. Within a matter of minutes, we had a bunch of tied up thugs and two bruised and battered, but alive cops.

Hargrove was regarding me with a certain amount of respect. “I don’t know what we’re going to do with you. I should bring you in for that gun, but I don’t think I can.”

I knew he couldn’t. I could see in his eyes that he wasn’t going to do that. “We need to find their boss. Thea, any idea where he went?”

“She,” she corrected. “She went out the back door the second we came in. Probably figures these guys are replaceable from any day labor site.”

It was close to that. “If they’re that expendable, how come they were giving you that much trouble?” I quipped.

“I was trying not to kill any of them.”

Hargrove was checking on the fallen cop. After a moment. “Thank God.”

I turned. “He’s not dead?”

“Nope. He’s going to need a hospital stay, but he’s not dead.”

That bit of good news did brighten my mood slightly. And we had Mike and Warwick back, and it…

…probably wasn’t over. I just had the feeling it wasn’t over. “This still isn’t good. I’m betting this isn’t all of them.”

“It isn’t,” Mike said quietly. “But thanks for getting here before they sacrificed anyone else to Satan.”

“Is that really what was going on?” There was something horribly cliched about actual devil-worshippers that almost, for a moment, made this surreal. True, it was about what I had been expecting to find, but it was harder to buy into than vampires.

“Yes. And haven’t we had a lot of demon problems lately?” He said that quietly to me.

I nodded. “We have, haven’t we.” These people might have been responsible for my demon prince problem. “If it’s true that it’s hard for them to get here without somebody opening the door…”

“…then we need to shut these people down.” Louder. “Detective Hargrove, I think we need an evidence team here.”

“Already called one.” He glanced at me. “You, don’t go anywhere.”

I nodded. “Don’t worry. I won’t.”

“But put that gun somewhere I don’t have to see it. Or give it to Mike or something.”

I tucked it inside my jacket. He was going to officially pretend he didn’t know about it. Or pretend I’d grabbed one from the bad guys. Or…something.

I decided Hargrove was okay.