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Sixteen

Mavis

The phone behind the bar rang and Mavis yanked it out of its cradle "Mount Oly," she said, and there was anoise as she cocked a hip while she listened "No, I haven’t seen him - like I would even tell you if he was here Hell, woman, I have a sacred trust here - I can’t rat out every husband who comes in for a snort after work Hoould I know? Honey, you want to keep this kind of thing fro, nasty blowjobs Yeah, well, if you were doing the words, then ht, hold on"

Mavis held her receiver to breast and shouted, "Hey! Anyone seen Les from the hardware store?" A few heads shook and a fusillade of "nopes" fired through the bar

"Nope, he’s not here Yeah, if I see hi harpy looking for hiie-style by the Better Business Bureau and they liked it, so say hi for me"

Mavis slammed down the phone She felt like the Tin Man left out in the rain Her metal parts felt rusty and she was sure that her plastic parts were going to mush Ten o’clock on a Saturday, live entertainh liquor to cover the cost of her Blues singer Oh, the bar was full, but people were nursing their drinks, oo eyes at each other and slipping out, couple by couple, without dropping a sawbuck What in the hell had coer was supposed to drive them to drink, but the entire pop-ulation see instead of drinking Wiust and there was a pinging sound froed somewhere inside of her

Wusses Mavis threw back a shot of Bushlared at Catfish, as finishing up a set on the stage, his National steel guitar whining as he sang about losing his soul at the crossroads

Catfish told the story of the great Robert Johnson, the haunting Bluesained his soul for super-natural ability, but was pursued throughout his life by a hellhound that had caught his scent at the gates of hell and finally took him home when a jealous husband slipped poison into Johnson’s liquor

"Truth be," Catfish said into the ht at every crossroad in the Delta lookin’ to sell my soul, but wasn’t nobody buyin’ Now that there is the Blues But I gots me my own brand of hellhound, surely I do"

"That’s sweet, fish boy," Mavis shouted frootta talk to you"

"’Scuse ht now," Catfish said to the croith a grin But no one was listening He put his guitar in the stand and ah," Mavis said

"Turn up your hearing aid, woot no pickup in that National They’s only so high you can go into aPlay louder And no love songs"

"I gots me a Fender Stratocaster and a Marshall amp in the car, but I don’t like playin ’lectric"

"Go get the in Play loud I don’t need you if you don’t sell liquor"

"This gonna be uitar," Mavis said

Molly

Molly sla Saloon Glass frohts tinkled to the tar shriek It had been a few years since Molly had done any driving, and Les had left out a few parts from the do-it-yourself brake kit he’d installed Molly turned off the engine and set the parking brake, then wiped the steering wheel and shift knob with the sleeve of her sweatshirt to reerprints She climbed out of the truck and tossed the keys into thefro, only the smell of stale beer and the low murmur of conversation She scampered out of the alley and started the four-block walk horateful for the cover There were only a few lights on in the park’s trailers, and she hurried past them to where her os flickered with the lonely blue of the unwatched television She looked past her house to the space where Steve lay healing and noticed a figure out-lined in the fog As she drew closer, she could see that it was not one person, but two, standing not twenty feet froon trailer Her heart sank She expected the bea any second, but the figures were just standing there She crept around the edge of her trailer, pressed so close that she could feel the cold coh her sweatshirt

A wo, "Lord, we have heeded your call and coive us our casual attire, as our dry cleaner did close for the weekend and we are left sorely without outfits withaccessories"

It was the school prayer ladies, Katie and Marge, although Molly wouldn’t be able to tell which hich They earing identical pink jogging suits withNikes As she watched, the to across the dragon trailer

"As our Lord Jesus did give His life for our sins, so we coiveth of ourselves"

The end of the dragon trailer lost its angles to curves, and Molly could see Steve’s broad head extending, changing, the door going frole to a wide horizontal e and continued to move slowly forward, silhouetted now by Steve’s jahich were opening like a toothed cavern

Molly ran around her trailer and up the steps, reached in and grabbed her broadshich was leaned against the wall just inside the door, and dashed back around the trailer and toward the Sea Beast

Marge and Katie were almost inside of Steve’s openout the side of histhe between Marge and Katie like a fullback leaping through blockers to the goal line, and smacked Steve on the nose with the flat of her sword She landed in his round just as his jaws snapped shut behind her She ca the sword pointed at Steve’s nose

"No!" she said "Bad dragon" Steve turned his head quizzically, as if wondering what she was so upset about

"Change back," Molly said, raising the sword as if to whack his nose again Steve’s head and neck pulled back into the shape of a double-wide trailer

Molly looked back at the church ladies, who see been knocked into thesuits, but oblivious to the fact that they had almost been eaten "Are you two okay?"

"We felt the call," one of thee or Katie, while the other one nodded in agreeive ourselves unto the Lord" Their eyes were glazed over and they stared right past her to the trailer as they spoke

"You guys have to go home now Aren’t your husbands worried about you or so?"

"We heard the call"

Molly helped them to their feet and pointed the noise as she pushed the church ladies away toward the street

Molly stopped thee of the street and spoke to them from behind "Go ho the children to feel the spirit too, but it was so late, and we have church tomorrow"

Molly smacked the speaker across the butt with the flat of her sword, a good two-handed stroke that sent her stu up to smack the other one when she turned and held up her hand as if refusing a refill on coffee "No thank you"

"Then you’re going and you’re not coht?"

The worip on the sword so the edge was poised to strike "Right?"

"Yes," the woreeo," Molly said As the wo alike That’s fucking weird"

She watched the, then went back to where Steve aiting in trailer form "Well?" She threw out her hip, frowned, and tapped her foot as if waiting for his explanation

His s narrowed, ashamed

"They’ll be back, you know Then what?"

He whi from deep inside, where the kitchen would be if he were really a trailer

"If you’re still hungry, you have to let h there is only one hardware store in town You’re going to have to diversify your diet"

Suddenly an electric guitar screao Blues The dragon trailer becaain, his white skin went black, then flashed brilliant streaks of red anger The bandages Molly had spent all day applying shredded with the abrupt shape change His gill trees hung with tatters of fiberglass fabric as if toilet-papered by mischievous boys The Sea Beast threw back his head and roared, rattling the s through the trailer park Molly fell in the mud as she backed up, then rolled and came up on her feet with the broadsword poised to thrust into the Sea Beast’s throat

"Steve, I think you need to take a ti man"

Theo

Such a short period of time to have so many new experiences In just the last few days, he had coordinated his firstto worried parents and the milk carton coet a picture of Mikey Plotznik where he wasn’t oofy face at the camera (If they found a better picture, Mikey would end up with great exposure on the two percent or nonfat cartons, but if they had to go hat they had, he was going on the side of the butter ranch dressing) Theo had also had to deal with his first iant aniation, all without the benefit of his lifelong chemical crutch Not that he couldn’t nurse at his favorite pipe, he’d just lost the desire to do so

Now he had to decide how to go about investigating Bess Leander’s ation? Pull them in where? His cabin? He didn’t have an office Soation with the suspect in a beanbag chair under a hot lava laht on that Jiht some incense You don’t want that"

And ao back to the Fly Rod Trailer Court and talk to Molly Michon Crazy thoughts

Finally he decided to drop by Joseph Leander’s house, hoping he uard As he pulled into the driveway, he noticed that weeds had grown up around the garden gnon over the front door The garage door was open and Joseph’s minivan was parked inside

Theo paused at the front door before knocking and made sure that his ponytail was tucked into his collar and his collar was straight For soun He had one, a Smith & Wesson 357 revolver, but it was on the top shelf of his closet, next to his bong collection

He rang the bell, then waited A minute passed before Joseph Leander opened the door He earing paint-spattered corduroys and an old cardigan sweater that looked like it had been pulled out of the trash a dozen times Obviously not the sort of attire that Bess Leander would have allowed in her ho "What can I do for you?"

"If you have a minute, I’d like to talk to you May I come in?"

"I suppose," Leander said He stepped away from the door and Theo ducked in "I just made some coffee Would you like some?"

"No thanks I’ht

"It’s coffee"

"Oh, right, sure Milk and sugar please"

The living roos An antique pew bench took the place of a sofa, two Shaker chairs and a galvanized milk can with a padded cushion on the top provided the other seating Three antique butter churns stood in the corners of the room But for a new thirty-six-inch Sony by the fireplace, it could have been the living rooh cholesterol fro roo The coffee was the color of butterscotch and tasted of cinnamon "Thanks," Theo said "New TV?" He nodded to the Sony

Leander sat across froirls PBS and so forth Bess never approved of television"

"And so you killed her!"

Leander sprayed a"What?"

Theo took a sip of his coffee while Leander stared at him, wide-eyed Maybe he’d been a bit too abrupt Fall back, regroup "So did you get cable? Reception is horrible in Pine Cove without cable It’s the hills, I think"

Leander blinked furiously and did a triple-take on Theo "What are you talking about?"

"I saw the coroner’s report on your wife, Joseph She didn’t die fro"

"You’re insane You were there" Leander stood and took theout of Theo’s hands "I won’t listen to this You can go now, Constable" Leander stepped back and waited

Theo stood He wasn’t very good at confrontation, he was a peace officer This was too hard He pushed himself "Was it the affair with Betsy? Did Bess catch you?"

Veins were beginning to show on Leander’s bald pate "I just started seeing Betsy I lovedthis to her memory You’re not supposed to do this You’re not even a real cop Now get out of ood wos down on a butter churn, went to the front door, and pulled it open "Go" He waved Theo toward the door

"I’, Joseph But I’ll be back" Theo stepped outside

Leander’s face had gone completely red "No, you won’t"

"Oh, I think I will," Theo said, feeling very ument

"Don’t fuck with me, Crowe," Leander spat "You have no idea what you’re doing" He slammed the door in Theo’s face

"Do too," Theo said

Seventeen

Molly

Molly had alondered about American women’s fascination with bad boys There seeuy who rode a love compart-ment, or a snifter of cocaine on the coffee table In her acting days, she’d even been involved with a couple of them herself, but this was the first one who actually, well, ate people Wouy How else could you explain the nue received by captured serial killers? That one was a bit too much even for Molly, and she took cootten, she’d never been te his dates

Ahters to believe that they coulda hundred-foot ht?

Fortunately, the creek bed was lined in rowth oftrees, and as Steve ed color and texture tooff blacktop

Molly made hie, then waited until there was no traffic and signaled hie like a snake down its hole, his back knocking off great hunks of concrete, and he passed through

In less than an hour they were out of town, into the ranchland that ran along the coast to the north, and Molly led Steve up through the trees to the edge of a pasture "There you go, big guy," Molly said, pointing to a herd of Holsteins that were grazing a hundred yards away "Breakfast"

Steve crouched at the edge of the forest like a cat ready to pounce His tail twitched, splintering a cypress sapling in the process Molly sat down beside him and cleaned mud from her sneakers with a stick as the cows slowly made their way toward them

"This is it?" she asked "You just sit here and they coirl could lose respect for you as a hunter watching this, you know that?"

Theo

Theo found hi to Molly Michon’s place, when his cell phone rang Before he answered, he reminded himself not to sound stoned, when it occurred to him that he actually wasn’t stoned, and that was even

"Crowe here," he said

"Crowe, this is Nailsworth, down at County Are you nuts?"

Theo stalled while he tried to remember who Nailsworth was "Is this a survey?"

"What did you do with that data I gave you?" Nailsworth said Theo suddenly remembered that Nailsworth was the Spider’s real na I ot another call"

"No, I can’t hold I know you’ve got another call You didn’t hear anything fro, understand?"

"’Kay," Theo said

The Spider hung up and Theo connected to the other call

"Crowe, are you fucking nuts!"

"Is this a survey?" Theo said, pretty sure that it wasn’t a survey, but also pretty sure that Sheriff Burton wouldn’t be happy with a truthful answer to the question, which was: "Yes, I probably aht I told you to stay away froht for a second It hadn’t been five minutes since he’d left Joseph Leander’s house How could Burton know already? No one got through to the sheriff that quickly

"Soure out hoas going to cover for the Spider if Burton pressed "I just stopped by to see if there was anything to it"

"You fucking pothead If I tell you to let so lie, you let it lie, do you understandabout your job now, Crowe, I’ about life as you know it I hear another word out of North County and you are going to be getting your dance card punched by every AIDs-ridden convict in Soledad Leave Leander alone"

"But"

"Say ’Yes, sir,’ you bag of shit"

"Yes, sir, you bag of shit," Theo said

"You are finished, Crowe, you - "

"Sorry, Sheriff Battery’s going" Theo disconnected and headed back to his cabin, shaking as he drove

Molly

In Flesh Eaters of the Outland, Kendra was forced to watch while a new breed ofenzy dubbed sucking sounds that the foley artists had obtained at Sea World, recording baby walruses being fed handfuls of shellfish The special effects guys sie quantities of rubber cement, paraffin body parts that conveniently melted under the Mexican desert sun, and transmission fluid instead of the usual Karo syrup fake blood (The sugary stage blood tended to attract blowflies and the director didn’t want to get notice from the ASPCA for abuse) Overall, the effect was so real that Molly insisted that all of Kendra’s reaction shots be done after the cleanup to avoid her gagging and going green on camera Between the carrion scene and soales-based caterer, as well as repeated propositions by an Arab coproducer with halitosis that made her eyes water, Molly was sick for three days But none of it, even the fetid falafel breath, produced the nausea she was experiencing upon watching Steve yack up four fully ested Holsteins

Molly added the contents of her own stomach (three Pop Tarts and a Diet Coke) to the four pulverized piles of beefy goo that Steve had expelled onto the pasture