Page 19 (1/2)

Frenchmen Street was deserted except for bartenders, waitresses, and local musicians ready to play a set for tips

"Won’t get busy here until after nine or ten," Cassandra said "If you like, once we’re done, we can hang out and listen to the best jazz in town"

I wasn’t sure what to say We’d come after a zombie, and once we put him back wherever Cassandra wanted to listen to uess By then I probably would need a drink

"Nohat?" I asked

"Noe start walking through alleys, peeking in bars"

"Seeot a better idea?"

Actually, I did

"Hey, Charlie!" I shouted "Chaaaaaaarlie!"

One bartender and taitresses stepped onto the sidewalk, saw us, shrugged, and went back to work

I glanced at Cassandra "You said names have power"

"I did, didn’t I?" She took a deep breath and shouted, "Charlie!"

Farther down, past the jazz clubs, a head poked out between a grocery store and an abandoned building I recognized that head even before Charlie stepped into the flare of a streetlight

"Bingo," I whispered

"Get the powder"

I did as she said, and each of us took a little into our hand

"Reht into his face"

We took one step in Charlie’s direction and he ran

"Hell!" Cassandra snapped, and started to run, too "He isn’t supposed to run"

I hustled after her I had longer legs, but Cassandra had less weight on hers "Why not?"

"Because it should be all he can do to shuffle This guy is weird"

"This guy is dead"

She didn’t bother to answer Charlie was too fast to keep up a conversation and keep up with hihts of Frenchn, past signs I couldn’t see without a light Cassandra didn’t see

Nevertheless, I didn’t think it was a good idea to chase a corpse all over New Orleans when all we had for protection was a zoht not work

"Maybe we should let hio," I wheezed

"Not on your life" Cassandra wasn’t wheezing, of course "This is the closest I’ve ever gotten to a zo up the chance to - "

Ah, she did have to take a deep breath I felt so much better

"To what?"

She frowned, her gaze flicking pastPark"

I stopped running

Louis Ar Park was not a place anted to be after the dark The only place worse was -

"He’s going into St Louis Ceuidebooks said, in big, bold, red letters, not to enter any of the ceht And not because of a zombie problem, either There was a certain diceyness, even in the daytiroups

Up until about eighty years ago, this part of New Orleans had been known as Storyville and was the only legal red-light district in the country Customers could peruse a book that listed the bordellos and even had pictures of the prostitutes Jazz flourished, too, since the itimate until al again, Storyville reirl well into the 1960s

A police station had been built nearby However, the area still had a dangerous aura that never seeo back to your place" I tugged on Cassandra’s arm

"No" Her mouth thinned into a stubborn line

"Why are you so obsessed with this?"

Her face took on a faraway expression, and for an instant I thought she ht confide in me; then the stubbornness returned "I have my reasons You still have your powder?"

"Yes But I’d feel better if I had a gun"

I thought about the one Adaiven me, which was still locked in the trunk ofto be of so , Cassandra reached into her bag and withdrew a very long knife I gaped Who was this woood idea to walk around with that"

She lifted a brow "Believe hborhood, it is"

"There’s no one here but us"

"You’re wrong They’re all over the place" She headed for the celed Who were "they"?

Not wanting to be left alone, I scurried to catch up just as Cassandra reached the front of St Louis Cemetery Number One Barbed wire lined the top of the stone fence The front gate was iron and sported a big lock

I breathed a sigh of relief until Cassandra reached out and gave it a shove The gate slid open

"Dalance "How do you think Charlie got in?"

"He couldn’t just slide through the walls?"

"He’s a zohost"

"You’re sure about that?"

Cassandra lifted a palm filled with powder "Let’s find out"

Without wailing for lanced longingly at the street, which was lit up like the Superdome on Super Sunday There were lots of cars and even a few non-zombie people; I wanted to stay

"Diana!" Cassandra snapped

I couldn’t let her go alone, so I followed her inside