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“What happened?”
“I killed everyone there. Every single person who’d been at the ritual in the Backbone.”
Janet says, “How many people?”
“I don’t know. I told you I was a killer.”
They put their arms around themself.
“I guess I understand. You were a little crazy right then.”
“It was probably my sanest moment of the night. Can you deal with that?”
“I don’t know. Let me think about it.”
“Okay. I think I’m going to sleep a little.”
They get up from the bed.
“I’m going to get some coffee.”
“Maybe we can watch a movie later.”
“That would be nice.”
Around eleven in the evening the next day, I steal a big, flashy party bus parked down the block from the Cinerama Dome. After loading everyone inside, I drive down Highway 27 to Topanga State Park. We roll into the parking lot with the lights off because the damn place closes at eight. I hate nature, but it seems weird that people who like it only want you to see it on their timetable. I put a hex on the bus so that if someone tries to tow it they’re going to be puking spiders all night.
Alessa, who grew up in the area, takes us up a hiking trail that leads to one of the tall peaks. It’s not an easy walk, pushing a dead Frenchman up a mountain in a wheelbarrow—in the dark—but we make it with a minimal amount of cursing and only one scary moment when Vidocq tried to slide out of the wheelbarrow into a cavern where his stupid carcass would have fallen a hundred feet into who fucking knows where. We finally make it to the top in a little over a sweaty hour, with me and Allegra doing most of the grunt work. The others try to help, but the tripping and the muscle pulls are what we two signed up for and we see it through.
Vidocq is mummified in layers of silk and cotton sheets. I lay him out flat with his head angled facing the wild expanse of stars in the dark northern sky.
For a few minutes we all stand around looking at each other and the dark outlines of nearby mountains and cliffs. Up here, it’s cooler than in the city this time of night, and a light wind blows down from the higher peaks.
Allegra gives me one of Vidocq’s old books. It’s small. One of those travel books the rich used to haul all over Europe a couple of hundred years ago. Get a case of these books, and you’d have all of the world’s knowledge at your fingertips. I like this little book because I know Vidocq well enough to be certain that he stole a whole set from some rich French prick touring the continent who would never miss the thing. I can’t read a word of French, but Allegra tells me that it’s a history of Egypt, including one of the first collections of their mythology. Vidocq loved the hand-colored illustrations most of all. They reminded him of his youth, when he was a simple thief and not a doomed-to-live-forever mad scientist. I hold on to the book with both hands as I start talking, like if I don’t it’s going to run away like a jackrabbit.
“Vidocq always said that he didn’t like being two hundred years old, but I think he was lying. After all those years, a lot of them running from the law, I think he liked where he ended up. Here. With us. He got me through a lot of bad times, before I went Downtown and after. He knew everything about me, but now that he’s gone I don’t think I ever knew enough about him. I never thought I was smart enough to understand his alchemical work, so I never tried to. Now I know I didn’t have to be smart. He was smart. If I’d asked him more he could have explained it so I’d understand. I feel shitty that I never thought of that until now. I took him for granted. He was always going to be here. Way after I was gone. Now I can’t tell him I’m sorry. He was a smart guy. A good one too. I always said that I never had a father. But that wasn’t entirely true. Goodbye, old man. I’m going to miss you like crazy.”
I put the book in my pocket and step away from his body. On one side, Janet takes my hand. On the other, Candy loops her arm in mine. Good thing. Looking at Vidocq lying there, I get that disembodied feeling again, like maybe if someone wasn’t holding me I’d blow away on the breeze.
Allegra puts a rose and a piece of blue amber on Vidocq’s body before saying anything. Her voice cracks the first time she tries to speak, but then she gets it under control.
“Vidocq was my love. We had our problems, but we’d worked them out. You know, I was this close to moving back in with him. I knew it was going to happen, but I was waiting for the right moment. Now that’s never going to happen. Don’t make the same mistake I made. Whatever you love, whoever you love, hold on to them tight. The world doesn’t need more proud or stubborn people. We have enough of those already. Hang on to everyone around you. They’re all that matter. As for Vidocq, I’m not going to say goodbye. Just good night. I’ll find you in Hell or Heaven, my love.”
She stops and nods, a few tears running down her face.
“Yeah. I’ll find him.”
When she’s done, she comes over to me and says, “Do it.”
I look at her, lit up under a billion little points of light.
“Don’t you want to?”
She blinks a couple of times and wipes her eyes.
“Don’t fuck around, man. Just burn him.”
But I pull her back to Vidocq’s body.
