"Rosita sounds like my stepmother. Judith is sick with worry that I'll be an old maid."
"You're what, twenty-four?"
"Mm-uh."
He just shook his head. "Sometimes I do not understand women."
It was my turn to grin. "What am I, chopped liver?"
"Anita, you know I didn't mean..."
"I know, I'm one of the boys. I understand."
"You are better than any of the boys at work."
"Sit down. Let me pour coffee in your mouth before your foot fits in again."
"You are being difficult. You know what I meant." He stared at me out of his solid brown eyes, face very serious.
I smiled. "Yeah, I know what you meant."
I picked one of the dozen or so mugs from my kitchen cabinet. My favorite mugs dangled from a mug-tree on the countertop.
Manny sat down, sipping coffee, glancing at his cup. It was red with black letters that said, "I'm a coldhearted bitch but I'm good at it." He laughed coffee up his nose.
I sipped my own coffee from a mug decorated with fluffy baby penguins: I'd never admit it, but it is my favorite mug.
"Why don't you bring your penguin mug to work?" he asked.
Bert's latest brainstorm was that we all use personalized coffee cups at work. He thought it would add a homey note to the office. I had brought in a grey on grey cup that said, "It's a dirty job and I get to do it." Bert had made me take it home.
"I enjoy yanking Bert's chain."
"So you're going to keep bringing in unacceptable cups."
I smiled. "Mm-uh."
He just shook his head.
"I really appreciate you coming to see Dominga with me."
He shrugged. "I couldn't let you go see the devil woman alone, could I?"
I frowned at the nickname, or was it an insult? "That's what your wife calls Dominga, not what I call her."
He glanced down at the gun still lying on the tabletop. "But you'll take a gun with you, just in case."
I looked at him over the top of my cup. "Just in case."
"If it comes to shooting our way out, Anita, it will be too late. She has bodyguards all over the place."
"I don't plan to shoot anybody. We are just going to ask a few questions. That's all."
He smirked. "Por favor, Señora Salvador, did you raise a killer zombie recently?"
"Knock it off, Manny. I know it's awkward."
"Awkward?" He shook his head. "Awkward, she says. If you piss off Dominga Salvador, it's a hell of a lot more than just awkward."
"You don't have to come."
"You called me for backup." He smiled that brilliant teeth flashing smile that lit up his entire face. "You didn't call Charles or Jamison. You called me, and, Anita, that is the best compliment you could give an old man."
"You're not an old man." And I meant it.
"That is not what my wife keeps telling me. Rosita has forbidden me to go vampire hunting with you, but she can't curtail my zombie-related activities, not yet anyway."
The surprise must have shone on my face, because he said, "I know she talked to you two years back, when I was in the hospital."
"You almost died," I said.
"And you had how many broken bones?"
"Rosita made a reasonable request, Manny. You have four children to think of."
"And I'm too old to be slaying vampires." His voice held irony, and almost bitterness.
"You'll never be too old," I said.
"A nice thought." He drained his coffee mug. "We better go. Don't want to keep the Señora waiting."
"God forbid," I said.
"Amen," he said.
I stared at him as he rinsed his mug out in the sink. "Do you know something you're not telling me?"
"No," he said.
I rinsed my own cup, still staring at him. I could feel a suspicious frown between my eyes. "Manny?"
"Honest Mexican, I don't know nuthin'."
"Then what's wrong?"
"You know I was vaudun before Rosita converted me to pure Christianity."
"Yeah, so?"
"Dominga Salvador was not just my priestess. She was my lover."
I stared at him for a few heartbeats. "You're kidding?"
His face was very serious as he said, "I wouldn't joke about something like that."
I shrugged. People's choices of lovers never failed to amaze me. "That's why you could get me a meeting with her on such short notice."
He nodded.
"Why didn't you tell me before?"
"Because you might have tried to sneak over there without me."
"Would that have been so bad?"
He just stared at me, brown eyes very serious. "Maybe."
I got my gun from the table and fitted it to the inter-pants holster. Eight bullets. The Browning could hold fourteen. But let's get real; if I needed more than eight bullets, I was dead. And so was Manny.
"Shit," I whispered.
"What?"
"I feel like I'm going to visit the bogeyman."
Manny made a back and forth motion with his head. "Not a bad analogy."
Great, just freaking, bloody great. Why was I doing this? The image of Benjamin Reynolds's blood-coated teddy bear flashed into my mind. All right, I knew why I was doing it. If there was even a remote chance that the boy could still be alive, I'd go into hell itself--if I stood a chance of coming back out. I didn't mention this out loud. I did not want to know if hell was a good analogy, too.
Chapter 5
The neighborhood was older houses; fifties, forties. The lawns were dying to brown for lack of water. No sprinklers here. Flowers struggled to survive in beds close to the houses. Mostly petunias, geraniums, a few rosebushes. The streets were clean, neat, and one block over you could get yourself shot for wearing the wrong color of jacket.
Gang activity stopped at Señora Salvador's neighborhood. Even teenagers with automatic pistols fear things you can't stop with bullets no matter how good a shot you are. Silver plated bullets will harm a vampire, but not kill it. It will kill a lycanthrope, but not a zombie. You can hack the damn things to pieces, and the disconnected body parts will crawl after you. I've seen it. It ain't pretty. The gangs leave the Señora's turf alone. No violence. It is a place of permanent truce.
There are stories of one Hispanic gang that thought it had protection against gris-gris. Some people say that the gang's ex-leader is still down in Dominga's basement, obeying an occasional order. He was great show-and-tell to any juvenile delinquents who got out of hand.
Personally, I had never seen her raise a zombie. But then I'd never seen her call the snakes either. I'd just as soon keep it that way.
Señora Salvador's two-story house is on about a half acre of land. A nice roomy yard. Bright red geraniums flamed against the whitewashed walls. Red and white, blood and bone. I was sure the symbolism was not lost on casual passersby. It certainly wasn't lost on me.
Manny parked his car in the driveway behind a cream colored Impala. The two-car garage was painted white to match the house. There was a little girl of about five riding a tricycle furiously up and down the sidewalk. A slightly older pair of boys were sitting on the steps that led up to the porch. They stopped playing and looked at us.
A man stood on the porch behind them. He was wearing a shoulder holster over a sleeveless blue T-shirt. Sort of blatant. All he needed was a flashing neon sign that said "Bad Ass."
There were chalk markings on the sidewalk. Pastel crosses and unreadable diagrams. It looked like a children's game, but it wasn't. Some devoted fans of the Señora had chalked designs of worship in front of her house. Stubs of candles had melted to lumps around the designs. The girl on the tricycle peddled back and forth over the designs. Normal, right?
I followed Manny over the sun-scorched lawn. The little girl on the tricycle was watching us now, small brown face unreadable.
Manny removed his sunglasses and smiled up at the man. "Buenos días, Antonio. It has been a long time."
"Sí, " Antonio said. His voice was low and sullen. His deeply tanned arms were crossed loosely over his chest. It put his right hand right next to his gun butt.
I used Manny's body to shield me from sight and casually put my hands close to my own gun. The Boy Scout motto, "Always be prepared." Or was that the Marines?