Things at the table went very quiet. I let the silence go on for a little while before saying, in a conversational tone, “Oh? And what new drug might that be?”

Calabrese looked at Loquasto. The consigliere was usually a hard man to read, but this time the small shrug, combined with his facial expression, said clearly, You might as well – we can’t go back now.

Calabrese hesitated a few seconds longer before he looked at me and said, “On the street, they call it Slide.”

I can’t say I was exactly blown away when he said “Slide”. It was pretty damn unlikely that two new drugs were being sold in this town.

“Sounds like that name’s something you guys recognize,” Calabrese said.

“I heard it for the first time just a couple of nights ago,” I said, “from an elf I was questioning. We busted him and one of his buddies when they tried to take down Jerry’s Diner. Turns out they wanted the money to buy more of this Slide.”

“Our sources tell us that it’s been on the street for about a month now,” Loquasto said.

“Something like that’s not supposed to exist,” I said. “A drug that addicts multiple species of supes.”

“Yes,” Loquasto said. “We find it very puzzling – not to mention unprecedented.”

“I know that elves can get hooked on it,” I said. “I’ve seen that with my own eyes. But I also heard a rumor that it has the same effect on vampires – I didn’t know whether to believe that one or not.”

Calabrese and his consigliere exchanged a look. Whatever passed between them ended with Calabrese saying, “Yeah, it affects us, alright. And fuckin’ weres, too.”

Karl whistled softly, which must have been hard to do through his fangs. Then he looked at me and said, “Worse and worse.”

I said to Calabrese, “And this shit is coming from the new guys – the Delatassos. Not you.”

“You got that right,” he said grimly.

“Takes some pretty big balls,” I said. “Selling stuff like that, right under your nose.”

“Yeah, well, there’s one thing about having big balls,” Calabrese said. “They’re easy to find when you’re ready to cut ’em off.”

“So that’s how the war started?” Karl asked. “Delatasso Junior sent some people into town, who started pushing Slide. And you… objected.”

Loquasto started to say something diplomatic and non-incriminating, but Calabrese interrupted him. “Yeah, we objected, alright,” he said. “We got hold of two of those guys, tied ’em up good, then left the fuckers in a field to meet the sunrise.”

I swallowed. Vampires exposed to sunlight burst into flame. What Calabrese had done, or ordered someone to do, was the equivalent of pouring a gallon of gas over somebody, then dropping a match on him.

“How’d you know they worked for Delatasso?” Karl asked.

“We had a little conversation before they went out to that field,” Calabrese said. “One of my guys poured some holy water on them until they felt like talking. It didn’t take long.”

Of course it had been Loquasto. He was the only member of Calabrese’s crew who could handle a vessel containing holy water, and I bet the screams hadn’t bothered him at all. Loquasto might not be a blood-drinking monster – but he was a lawyer, which was close enough.

If I’d needed any reminder of what I was dealing with, Calabrese had just provided it. Not that it changed anything – it was either deal with him or try to reach an accommodation with the Delatassos, if they took over. And Ronnie Delatasso didn’t sound like the reasonable type.

“Did you ever consider just letting the Delatassos sell Slide in Scranton, in return for paying you a hefty commission?” I asked. It was too late for that now, of course – I just wanted to see Calabrese’s reaction.

“No fuckin’ way,” he said. “You let those bastards get a foothold, and before long you’re the one who’s on the outside, looking in. And besides…”

Calabrese hesitated, and I wondered why. He hadn’t exactly been shy about saying what he thought, so far.

After a few seconds, he said, “For the sake of discussion, say that we do a lot of business involving… illicit pharmaceuticals – heroin, coke, crack, even marijuana.”

“Not meth?” Karl asked him.

“Naw, that shit’s too hard to make, and dangerous besides. Independent operators handle that, and we let ’em. They can sell it to the fucking goblins – they’re animals, anyway.”

Calabrese drank some more blood from his glass. “But all that other stuff is for humans. If they wanna put it in their veins, or their noses, or their lungs – that’s their problem. But I’m not gonna sit back and let our own kind get hooked on this new shit, like a bunch of fucking warm-bloods.” He looked at me. “No offense.”

I just shrugged. You can only be offended by those you respect.

“So you’re OK with pot, coke, and heroin,” Karl said. “But Slide’s bad, because supernaturals can get hooked on it.”

“Fuckin’ A right,” Calabrese said. “It’s bad for morale, bad for discipline, and bad for business.”

“Speaking of business,” I said, “You got hit pretty hard the last couple of nights. You gonna be able to keep these guys from taking over?”

“I got plenty of soldiers left,” Calabrese said. “Besides, the Delatassos lost a few, too.” He grinned. “Thanks to you and me.”

The urge to put my fist through his face was growing stronger, and I didn’t know how much longer I’d be able to resist it. I drained my coffee cup and pushed my chair back.

“I assume it doesn’t matter to you,” I said, “whether the Delatasso soldiers are in the ground or in jail.”

Calabrese spread his hands. “Don’t make any difference to me, long as they’re off the streets.”

I nodded. “I’ll see what we can do about that. In the meantime, it might be good if we had a way to stay in touch.”

Calabrese looked at Loquasto and nodded. The consigliere produced what looked like a business card and wrote something on the back. Handing it to me, he said, “That’s my private number. You can reach me there anytime, day or night.”

I put the card in my pocket and stood up. “Thanks, Counselor,” I said. Then I looked at Calabrese. “There’s not gonna be a war in the streets. Not in this town – I won’t let it happen.”

He gave me a sharp-edged grin. “Hey – I’m a man of peace, Detective. Ask anybody.” Then he stopped smiling. “Maybe you’d better talk to the other guys – and good luck with that.”

“Being lucky is one of the things I do best.”

Back at the squad room, Karl went to brief McGuire on our meeting with the local Mafia, and I went downstairs to see Rachel Proctor, the Department’s Consulting Witch.

When I got to Rachel’s office, the door was open, as it often is. She was sitting with her back to me, watching something on her laptop. I figured I’d better announce myself – startling a witch is never a good idea, even one who practices white magic like Rachel.

I rapped on the frosted glass that makes up the door’s top half. Without looking up, she said, “Come on in, Stan.”

Rachel’s body may be a size 2 – she barely tops five feet and is lean as a whippet – but both her brain and heart are generously proportioned. Whatever the Department pays her, it’s not enough.

As I got closer, I saw that she was looking at one of those “TED Talks” lectures that Christine is always telling me about. “Who’s doing this one?” I asked her.

“It’s some professor from MIT, going on about the physics of magic,” she said.

“I didn’t know you were good at physics,” I said.

“I’m not – maybe that why this thing is giving me a headache.”

“How’d you know it was me at the door – witchcraft?”

“Uh-uh. You’re the only one who ever knocks.”

She logged off the computer and then swiveled her chair around to face me. “What can I do you for, Stan?”

“You ever hear anything about Slide?” I asked her.