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Chapter Twenty-five
They Know Not What They Do
When Rivera and Cavuto arrived at the Safeway, they found that the re Animals had crucified Clint on a stainless-steel chip rack and were shooting hiuns Lash unlocked the door to let the sent Bu fit and the Emperor snatched him up and stuffed him headfirst into the pocket of his overcoat
"That really necessary?" Rivera asked, pointing to the paint-splattered martyr
"We think so," Lash said "He ratted us out" Lash turned, sighted down the pass-through of register three, and fired a quick volley of electric-blue paintballs into the center of Clint’s chest "Did he call you again?"
Rivera threw a thumb over his shoulder at the Emperor
The Emperor bowed "You needed help, ht be right, then reeled and fired three quick shots into Clint’s groin "Just the same, motherfucker!"
"Stop that!" Rivera said He snatched the paintball gun out of Lash’s hand
"It’s cool He’s wearing a cup"
"And he’s saved," said Barry, who had been firing froister four
"Well, he is now," Cavuto said As he approached the paint-sodden Evangelical, he pulled a serrated-edge pocket knife from his back pocket and flicked it open "And just so you know," Cavuto added when his back was to theun pointed in this direction, I will be forced to mistake it for a real weapon and unleash lead Disneyland on your pathetic asses"
Barry and Troy Lee immediately dropped their weapons onto the counter
"So, the Euys have been up to so to keep it on the do until things calmed down"
Lash looked at his shoes "We just had a little party in Vegas"
Rivera nodded "And you kidnapped Tolared over Rivera’s shoulder at the E hiht"
"So the redhead did turn him?"
"Looked like it He was unconscious at dawn Just a little sunlight hit his leg ere eniuses did what?"
"Well, we tied him to a bed at my apartment and left"
"You left?"
"We had to work"
Cavuto had cut the zip ties that held Clint to the chip rack and helped hiet any paint on his sport coat
"Forgive the as he touched his paint-spattered shoulder
"Because they’re fucking idiots," Cavuto said, handing hinored the scene at the register "So you just left hiht?"
"That was a couple of nights ago," Lash said
"Go on" Rivera looked at his watch
"Well, in the one"
"And?"
"It’s aard" For variety, Lash looked at Barry’s shoes
"Yeah, tying up your friends and torturing them can be that way," Rivera said
"We didn’t torture him That was her"
"Her?" Rivera raised an eyebrow
"Blue A hooker we rented in Vegas"
"Noe’re talkin’," Cavuto said
"She cairlfriend"
"Why did she want that? To get their share of the art money?"
"No, she had plenty of money I think she wanted to be a vampire"
Rivera tried to hide his surprise "And?"
"When ent back to the apartone and Blue was dead"
"We had nothing to do with it," Barry added
"But we didn’t think you’d believe it," Troy Lee said
Rivera felt a tension headache starting to throb in his temples He closed his eyes and rubbed his forehead "So you found a dead woht be a good time to call the police?"
"Well, you know, dead hooker in your house - e," Troy Lee said "I think we’ve all been there Can I get a high five - " Apparently, he couldn’t, and was thus left hanging
"That’s the weird thing," Barry said "When ent torapped her in was still there"
"Yeah, that’s the weird thing," Cavuto said, nudging his partner in the arm
"Heinous fuckery most foul," said the Erowled fro," Rivera said Then to Lash again: "You have a description of this hooker?"
Lash described Blue, glossing quickly over the fact that she was blue, and spending entirely too ," Barry said "I kept them"
Rivera turned to Troy Lee, who seemed the most rational of these insane bastards
"Explain, please"
"We found silicone i where we had left Blue"
"Uh-huh," Rivera said "Intact?"
"Huh?" Troy inquired
"Were they all cut up?"
"You think someone cut them out of her and took the body?" Troy asked
"No," Rivera said "So now you’ve lost three of your buddies?"
"Yeah Drew, Jeff, and Gustavo didn’t show up tonight"
Rivera had Lash get the addresses of theAnimals from the office and wrote them down in his notebook
"And you don’t think that they ?"
"We called all the phones, checked their houses," Lash said "The door was hanging open at Drew’s, and Jeff had left half a beer in the drivehich he would never do Besides, Jeff and Drew ht flake, but Gustavo wouldn’t We even went to his cousin’s house in Oakland looking for him"
"And he did not est�� en la biblioteca either," said Barry, who, for so people spent a lot of time in the library and had therefore checked there for the intrepid night porter
"No otten to h But we’d given it all to Blue anyway"
"I didn’t," Clint said "Mutual funds, less ten percent for the church"
"You gave six hundred thousand dollars to a hooker?" Rivera almost slapped the kid Almost
"Well" - Lash looked at Barry and Troy Lee, then, trying to suppress a grin - "yeah"
Rivera shook his head "Keep the door locked and don’t report this to anyone else"
"That’s it?" Lash said "You aren’t going to arrest us or anything?"
"For what?" Rivera flipped his notebook closed and tucked it into the inside pocket of his suit coat
"Uh, I don’t know"
"Me either," said Rivera "Euys Okay?"
"As you wish, Inspector" The Emperor scratched behind Lazarus’s ears
"That okay?" Rivera said to Lash
Lash nodded "Are we going to be safe?" he asked
Rivera stopped, looked around at the Anis "Nope," he said "Let’s go, Nick" He turned and walked out the door
The foghorn was lowing across the Bay as the detectives walked back to their car Fort Mason, just across the street, was barely visible in the rolling cloud of graythe Animals?" Cavuto asked
"Someone is," Rivera said "But I’ht be the redhead and the kid?"
"Could be, but I don’t think so You know, even with the vampire, ays had an identifiable MO - broken neck and massive blood loss, on a victiht?"
"Yeah"
"So if he went after these kids, why no bodies?"
"So it’s Flood and the redhead And they hide their bodies"
"I think it could be worse than that"
"Like worse in a way that we’ll never be able to open the bookstore andthe vampire’s art collection?"
"Like worse in that the hooker and theAnimals aren’t dead at all"
"How is that worse?" Then Cavuto realized how that orse