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“He loved lots of ‘things,’ not just comic books.”
“You’re lying,” snapped Clarisse.
“Just you saying it doesn’t make it so, babycakes.”
The person came into the feeblelight filtering in from outside, but she still remained largely a shadow. Then she took one more step forward and could be seen fairly clearly.
The woman had changed. Greatly.
“You don’t look good,” said Clarisse.
“You, on the other hand, look amazing. Good enough to eat,babycakes, even with the dopey wig and plebian clothes. Plebian? Have I educated myself over the years or what?”
“‘Babycakes’ wasyournickname, not mine,” retorted Clarisse.
“It would have been yours, but for me,” she said quietly, moving still closer.
Clarisse looked for a weapon on her person, even as her hand slipped inside her pocket. “Something I was always grateful for,” she said, her fingers closing around the cylinder of pepper spray in her pocket.
“Well, then start appreciating me again. We were all each other had for a long time. And from what I’ve seen that hasn’t changed. Tell me if I’m wrong. Are you married? Do you have kids? A significant other?” She smiled. “I know you’ve got nobody.”
“I had Mommy. But you have her now.”
“Mommy is just fine, never better. She’s costing me a mint in Ensure, though, but it’ll take more than that to keep her alive. She, like me, doesn’t look so good.”
“She’s had a rough life.”
“She just sat there and stared at that rough life consuming all ofus. Same as my bitch of a mother.”
“I told you what I was going to do,” said Clarisse. “So I don’t know why you’re here. And I don’t know how you found me here.”
“You think you’re the only one checking out the Feds? I was on the day cleaning shift for a month and scoping out the night shift when the time came. What a treasure trove of shit that was. And then I found you.”
“I thought you’d picked up my trail on the cleaning crew at the Creative Engineering building in North Carolina.”
“I did, but I picked you up back there, too. Wasn’t hard.”
“What was it? What gave me away?”
“Okay, I’ll tell you. It was the swagger. Change the hair, face, clothes, body, but you can’t change the way you walk. At least not to me.”
“But, really, how could you be sure?”
“I’ll tell you,” she purred. “No one else on the cleaning crew went to pick up a Zippo from behind a bush off the smoking exit.”
“Great minds,” said Clarisse, her fingers gripping the pepper spray.
“So did you find what you were looking for?”
“Maybe. Does it matter to you?”
“It all matters to me, babycakes. Where’s the stash you found?”
“In a safe place.”
She grabbed Clarisse’s crotch. “Down there, right? Same old hiding place. You need a new location, babycakes.” She let go.
Clarisse drew a quick breath.Deflect and counterattack.“‘Do as I say’? Why use that?”
