Raven Mortis's Arc

Chapter 5 of 5

Steven tapped the printout and pointed to a line below the fine. A second case number. No description, just a code and a date three weeks out. "That's an open matter," Steven said. "Not closed. Board's still building it." Then Steven grabbed a duffel and left for the old owner's place. Raven stood in the kitchen with the paper and a code she couldn't read. She called the waitress at the diner. No answer. She'd been told not to come back for a week. That door was shut. Raven needed someone inside town hall who could tell her what the code meant before the auditor walked in with it. She drove to the grow house on the edge of town. Clem answered the door in a rubber apron streaked green, goggles shoved up in her hair. Clem sold clones to half the county and filed her permits at the same window as the cannabis board. She knew the clerks. She owed Raven nothing, but Raven had never told anyone what pulsed in Clem's basement. "I need a favor," Raven said. "Pending case, cannabis board. Number's on this sheet. I need to know what they're building." Clem chewed the inside of her cheek. "The girl at the third window owes me a flat of cuttings. I can ask. One hour. You wait in your car." Raven waited in the lot behind the hall. She drank warm coffee and watched a crow work a dumpster. Forty minutes in, Clem climbed into the passenger seat and shut the door hard. "It's not about Steven," Clem said. "It's about your lease. The board flagged the address. Previous tenant sold unlicensed product out of that unit two years back. They kept the file open. When your permit crossed their desk, they attached Steven's incident to it. They're coming Friday to argue the location is compromised. Denial of opening license." Raven set the coffee down. "Friday. Not next week." "Friday morning. Nine." Steven's amendment wouldn't matter. The fine wouldn't matter. The audit wasn't about the budtender. It was about the building. "Who signs the denial?" Raven asked. "Regional inspector. He drives in Thursday night. Stays somewhere in town, I don't know where. Files the report Friday afternoon from the board office." Raven nodded. Clem got out and walked back to her truck without a goodbye. Raven called Marcus. Marcus ran deliveries across three counties and had done twelve years on the force before the pension. He'd told Raven once, over a dropped case of soda he refused to let her pay for, that he owed her for a night she didn't ask about. She'd never cashed it. "I need you to find someone," Raven said. "Regional cannabis inspector, arriving Thursday. I need to know where he sleeps and what he's carrying before nine Friday morning." Marcus was quiet a beat. "I'll call you tomorrow night." Raven hung up. The fine was the smaller problem. The building was the fight.