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“So we won’t be fighting monsters or kicking in doors?”
“Right now I’m just looking for a phone number and maybe an address.”
“You were right. This is boring,” she says. “Who is it?”
“A Tick-Tock Man named Atticus Rose.”
“Are you looking for a pet? I can see you strolling down Sunset Boulevard with a lovely poodle. Or perhaps a white cockatoo on your shoulder. A very butch cockatoo, of course.”
“How do you butch up a bird? Get it a little leather cap and chaps?”
“That’s your fantasy, Jimmy. Not mine.”
“Do you think you can find me a number?”
“Of course. I can get anyone’s number. But just remember that everything comes with a price.”
“What does that mean?”
“I’ll call you later with Herr Rose’s information.”
“What price, Brigitte?”
Too late. The line is dead. Once a killer, always a killer.
I DITCH THE Charger by the Whisky a Go Go and walk the rest of the way back to the Chateau.
When I get back to the room, Candy is just waking up. She rubs the sleep out of her eyes and stretches like a panther. She blinks when she sees me.
“Oh. I thought you were off bringing me coffee in bed. What are you dressed for?”
“I was out talking to Manimal Mike. I tried waking you.”
“Try harder next time. Where did he shoot you?”
I hold up my arms so she can see me.
“No blood. See? I made it back unmolested.”
She runs her foot up my leg to my thigh.
“Maybe we should do something about that.”
I close the bedroom door and turn up the new Skull Valley Sheep Kill album on the stereo. Kasabian doesn’t like to listen when we smash up the furniture.
AN HOUR LATER and we’ve only broken one side table. The gunshot and the blast took a little more out of me than I like to admit. I light up a Malediction and look for some Aqua Regia, but the bottle is still in the living room.
Candy is lying next to me in one of the absurdly plush hotel robes.
“So what did you and Mike talk about?”
“The 8 Ball. He says he knows who made it.”
“Great. Let’s go pay Dr. Frankenstein a visit.”
“Can’t. He didn’t have a number for the guy, so I called Brigitte.”
“She knows the guy?”
