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'We're going after Diggery,“ I said. ”Stanley Berg was buried this morning in a nice new suit and a diamond pinkie ring."
“I'll drive you to the cemetery, but I'm not walking around with you. I'm staying in my car. There's a full moon out tonight. That cemetery is probably full of werewolves and all kinds of shit.”
I looked out the windshield. “I don't see a moon.”
“Its behind the clouds. Just 'cause you can't see it don't mean it isn't there. The werewolves know it's there.”
“Okay, fine. Wait in the car. Leave the window cracked so you can call the police if you hear me screaming.”
“Sounds like a plan to me,” Lula said. “I swear, you're a crazy person. You go around up to your eyeballs in snakes and dead people and exploding beavers. It's just not normal. Even when I was a 'ho, my life wasn't that freaky. Only thing normal about you is your hot boyfriend, and you don't know what the heck to do with him. To make matters worse, you got that spook Ranger sniffing after you. Not that anyone wouldn't want him sniffing after them. I mean, he is finer than fine. But he's not normal.”
“Sometimes he seems normal.”
“Girl, you aren't paying attention. He is way better than normal.”
Lula pulled up to the gate leading in to the cemetery and stopped. “I can't go no further,” Lula said. “This sucker's closed to traffic at night.”
“I'll go the rest of the way on foot,” I told her.
“You got a flashlight?”
“I can't use a flashlight. I can't take a chance on Diggery seeing me.”
“This is nuts,” Lula said. “I can't let you go out there by yourself. You don't even got a gun.”
“Binkie will go with me.”
“Binkie don't look like the sharpest tack on the cork-board. I can't turn you over to Binkie. Honest to goodness, we should all be at home watching television, working our way through a bag of chips, but no, we're out in a bone-yard. The way things are going, we probably find Diggery, and he got his snake with him.”
I got out of the Firebird and walked back to Binkie.
“I'm after an FTA who sidelines as a grave robber,” I said to Binkie. “I have reason to believe he'll be here tonight.”
Binkie looked at the pitch-black cemetery. “Oh jeez.”
I understood Binkie s reluctance to traipse through the cemetery. At first glance, it was kind of creepy, but I'd chased Diggery through this cemetery before at night and lived to tell about it. What I've discovered with my job is that there's a difference between being brave and being stupid. In my mind, bungee jumping is stupid. Stalking an FTA in a cemetery at night doesn't seem to me to be all that stupid, but the creep factor is moderate to high, so it requires some bravery. And I've found I can sometimes force myself to be brave. Usually, the bravery is accompanied by nausea, but hell, it's not a perfect world, right?
“You can wait here,” I said to Binkie.
Binkie opened his door and stepped out. “No way. Ranger'll kill me if anything happens to you. I'm not supposed to let you out of my sight.”
Lula came over and checked Binkie out. He was in RangeMan SWAT black with a loaded utility belt, and he stood a full foot taller than Lula.
“You got silver bullets in that Glock you're carrying?” Lula asked.
“No, ma'am.”
“Too bad, on account of this place is probably full of werewolves tonight, and you need silver bullets to get rid of those bad boys. And we should probably have garlic and crosses and shit. You got any of those?”
“No, ma'am.”
“Hunh,” Lula said.
I set out, walking down the private road that led into the cemetery. It was an old cemetery that sprawled over maybe fifty acres of low, rolling hills. It was laced with paths leading to family plots that held generations of hardworking people laid to rest. Some of the headstones were elaborately carved and worn by time and weather, and some were flat pieces of recently polished granite.
“Where are we going?” Lula wanted to know. “I can't hardly see anything.”
“The Bergs are just ahead on the left. They're halfway up the hill.”How far on the left? It all looks the same."
