Gabriel glanced at me as if surprised.
"I know you didn't just randomly go over there and confront him. He must have called."
"He did. We had words."
"I bet you did."
"The call was relatively civil, but it became clear that no matter what I said, he was not going to stop trying to contact you. I decided a personal visit was in order."
"So you snuck past the gate."
"I wouldn't say snuck . . ."
"You found an alternate entrance. You rang the bell, presumably, since the breaking and entering charge was dropped. You then intimidated James into not calling for help."
"I wouldn't say--"
"You made him feel that calling for help would be cowardly."
"I'm beginning to think I don't need to tell you this story after all."
"I'm saving time. You confront him. You 'have words.' He makes the boneheaded move of hitting you in the jaw, so you gut-punched him--"
"Gut-punch is a strong--"
My look silenced him. "Do I have the basics right?"
"You do."
"Good. Anything else I should know?"
He considered, then said, "I am more concerned about him than before. No matter what I do--threats, blackmail, intimidation, or even civilized requests--the situation seems to deteriorate. I will admit that I'm not quite certain how to proceed. I could act on my blackmail threats . . ."
"The McNeil business?"
"No, that was merely a decoy. Morgan plugged the hole while I focused my attention elsewhere."
"Is he really that dirty?"
"He's a successful businessman. He has vulnerabilities. Mostly business problems that were resolved with a bribe to the proper parties. That's common enough. It would, however, damage his political chances."
I sighed and slid down in my seat. "If you'd told me he'd pull this crap a month ago, I'd have said you were delusional. The big question now is how this will affect you."
"I'll resolve it easily enough. It's simply an embarrassing footnote to my career."
When silence fell, I said, "To completely change the subject, I talked to that Huntsman tonight. The one who gave me the tusk."
I told him what happened. Well, most of it. I didn't explain exactly where I'd been or what I'd been doing when I met him. I also didn't tell Gabriel what the Huntsman had said about him.
"It sounds crazy, right?" I said.
"It does."
"What if it is? If I'm being set up with some crazy-assed scheme? Oh, look, I'm a special snowflake, and dark supernatural forces are fighting over me. Maybe I'm just unbalanced enough these days to actually fall for it."
"While I wouldn't eliminate the possibility it's an elaborate scheme for some criminal purpose, that does seem unlikely. And you aren't unbalanced. At least, not enough to fall for such a story."
"Thanks," I said.