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“I’m going to quit while I’m ahead and get out of here. Will you be at Bamboo House later?”
“You bet.”
“Great. I’ll see you tonight.”
I go through a shadow to the flying saucer house.
I can’t really blame Kas for what he said. He’s basically right. His life has mostly been a mess. He was always a mediocre magician. Mason promised him power after he betrayed me but then never came through. And I thought I’d fucked him over like no one else could. But, no, it was some prick in an SUV who’s off having it detailed right now to take out the dents and repaint the damage. No cop will lay a hand on the bastard, and what would we tell them anyway? “He ran a stop sign and hit a man with a hoodoo metal body”? That wouldn’t fly with the LAPD. Even after he and Mason betrayed me and he shot me, I can’t hate him. What I can do is find him a new body. Manimal Mike isn’t the only Tick-Tock man in town. I have a few thousand dollars to spend. There are worse ways to go broke than helping out a fellow loser in the loser parade. Just another bug on God’s windshield.
Even with Samael and Abbot’s deadlines hanging over me, I need to clear my head after the tire fire of the last few days.
Don Tiare playing Les Baxter tunes is on the jukebox when I get to Bamboo House of Dolls with Janet. It’s a busy night. Carlos pours us drinks right away, then moves off to serve other customers. Before any of the others get there, I pull Janet into a corner in the back of the bar. No chitchat with strangers tonight. No sneaky selfies. I just want a drink with friends.
“Tell me more about Brigitte,” says Janet.
“What do you want to know?”
“You said she helped you fight the Drifters. Tell me about that.”
“This city would be zombies and rubble without her.”
“And you.”
“Thanks, but it was mostly her. She was the boss and I just tried to keep up.”
Janet looks at the happy, drunken crowd a little dubiously. It’s a funny night. Maybe a tour group came in. The bulk of the crowd is civilians who probably heard rumors about Bamboo House or read a strange online review and have come down to rub elbows with L.A.’s most exotic citizens. After thinking for a minute, Janet turns back to me.
“It’s not fair,” they say. “Punishing someone for their past when they saved so many people.”
“That’s the problem. Not many people know what she did, and that means neither do the desk trolls who decide who stays and who goes.”
“But I know what she did. She saved my life. You told me to go home, but you wouldn’t have known what to do without her.”
“True.”
They swirl the ice in their glass.
“You’re going to find whoever did this to her, right?”
“Absolutely. And Abbot’s working on it too. I’m as mad about the situation as you, but for now, there’s nothing to do but wait and see what happens from here.”
“It’s so unfair.”
I lean against the wall and Janet leans against me.
“Fair has nothing to do with it. You should know that. Was it fair that you were born with a lousy immune system? Fair doesn’t exist in this world. Just forget fair.”
Janet looks sad.
I say, “Sorry. I’m just in a bad mood.”
“Because of the ghosts?”
“Among other things.”
We both know who I’m talking about. I wait for them to defend Dan and Juliette. Luckily, they don’t.
