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“Hello?”
“You’ll find each other sooner or later, and when you do, you’ll see how pointless your cowboy antics really are.”
I hear a click and the call is over. I drop the kid’s phone in my pocket and take out my own. I hit redial and call Candy.
It rings twice and she picks up.
“You all right?” I say.
“Yeah. Why wouldn’t I be?”
“No reason. You weren’t feeling well earlier.”
“Where are you?”
“Bamboo House.”
“I’ll be there soon.”
“Don’t bother. Cops are on the way.”
“Are you okay?”
I switch the phone to my left hand. There must have been blood on the kid’s phone. I wipe my right hand on my coat.
“I’m fine,” I say. “You stay put, lock up the store, and I’ll bring home some donuts.”
“Yum.”
I try to slip out the front of the bar, but the cops are already there. It’s the two that were in the bar earlier. When they try the bully-boy routine, I use the only weapon I can think of. One that might backfire in my face. I flash my Vigil credentials at them. They back off. Reluctantly, but they back off.
“I understand you removed evidence from the accident scene,” says one. The one who looked at me funny before. He’s still looking at me kind of like I’m a talking lobster.
“I’m taking in a cell phone to the Vigil’s labs.”
“You don’t think this was a traffic accident?”
“I don’t know what it is, but I know the kid is a person of interest in a Vigil inv
estigation, so I’m keeping the phone.”
“Let me see that ID again.”
I pull it out but keep it close enough that he can’t grab it from me.
He writes down my ID number and closes his notebook.
“We’ll be in touch,” he says.
“I’ll count the seconds.”
I walk around the corner into the alley next to Bamboo House. The headlights of the cop car throw a nice shadow on the wall. As I step through I catch the cop with the notebook watching me. I keep going. This is Hollywood. Fuck him if he can’t deal with a little street magic.
I’M HOME MAYBE twenty minutes when someone pounds on the front door of Max Overdrive. I grab my Colt and head downstairs. The front of the store is all glass, so if someone really wanted to get in they could. Still, I’d like to know who I’m dealing with. I flip on the outside light and go behind the counter. We installed a surveillance camera over the door when Kasabian and I had the place fixed up. Except tonight all I can see is the outline of a body outside and heavy rain. More pounding on the door.
“Stark. I know you’re in there. Open up, dammit.”
It’s a woman’s voice.
