Page 13 (1/2)
"Sansouci called the double killing ‘the Blood Price’"
"That’s a very Mafia concept, and now like the drug cartels too," Ric said "Cicereau probably wanted a male heir, so the fe up with a male not of his selection, was expendable"
"He certainly will force anyone to work in his Vegas euise of my double, the CSI autopsy queen, Lilith"
"Why’d you keep that surprise under wraps for so long?" Ric asked, his dark eyes narrowed to indicate he was teasing "Afraid of soas Lilith supposedly was one of the TV series’ actual corpses, who kill the their autopsy on the number one show in the world But Hector seems to want me to replace her, orfind her I don’t knohat he really wants, or what Lilith really is, spirit, doppelganger, sister, or evil spirit"
"Nightwine is a wild card aas powers that be," Ric mused "As with Christophe at the Inferno, exactly what paranorhtwine had soht at the Enchanted Cottage Still, it’s a cool place for you to live, cheap and secure But playing landlord is not charity on his part"
"I could sue hie’ without authorization, and told him so when I first came to town"
"What about yourto show up on our side?"
"I did confront her outside a mirror once, in a back alleyway Inside or out of a mirror, she’s rebellious, bitter, savvy, and in that alley she lefthyena pack froer you never had a chance to be Instead, you grew up as the innocent, loyal, inquisitive, defensive, sirl"
"So a renowned child psychologist for a foster mother"
Mention of Helena Troy Burnside made me think of my CinSim foster dad, super defense lawyer Perry Mason I wondered if he could force Snow to release a copy of Metropolis to us because we fought to help the Inferno head man keep it No, even Perry Mason wouldn’t intimidate Snow
That idea led to another that perked hts of her blank oval eyes
"Ric! I bet I knohere else we can see an uncut copy of Metropolis!"
"Back at the restored vintage movie theater near Wichita? No more road trips to weather witch country"
"Oh, this will be a very short trip"
Chapter Fourteen
LEAVING THE CRYSTAL Phoenix lobby, we soon found the world beyond the artificial novas of its glass and white neon-lit entrance canopy was--surprise--dark as night
I looked up to check if the h to be visible in the usually cloudless Vegas sky Not yet I wondered when, or if, Cesar Cicereau would get back to his hotel in ti until he could finish his "shift"
I s job ti stiff
I checked e timepieces, Del" Ric pulled his cell phone fronal Must be all the wattage The Strip is fa out We should forget it It’s later than we thought anyway"
I nodded That co is awfully long, isn’t it?" Ric added
I couldn’t resist "I don’t think so They never can be too long foris bad"
"Aw, c’ like a gunbimbo act, Irma confided
"You folks need a ride soers at the Crystal Phoenix entrance idled his small yellow SUV beside us
"Perfect!" I opened a back door and hopped in I leaned forward to tell the gentleinally from Oman, it turned out, our destination before Ric heard it As an ex-reporter, I was used to chatting up people in the service industries, getting their life stories along with their cooperation, so Ah a cab can be a lonely occupation
Ric hadn’t seen this side of me before He settled back to eavesdrop as I elicited which hotels had the better occupancy rates, that Chez Shez was the hot new can’t-al’s sparkly little assistants were really "puppets"
"Puppets, no kidding," Ithe usual stream of both infor the streets as we turned off the glare of the Strip
"Nothing rese a cineplex this way," he noted
"I should just ask you to close your eyes until we get there" I shut up both Ah h, his eyes closed on cue
"You’re being impetuous and mysterious," he was able to murmur before I took total control "I like it"
Ahmed switched on the solo driver’s consolation and wake-up pill, Poxx talk radio
MY SURPRISE WAS sprung when I had to use the tiny remote I worked out offorefeet of the Four Horse over our vehicle
The cab stopped inside the now-open iron gate
"First the tiht" Ric’s frown barely dented his dusky Latino forehead, but it hest-security pads in Vegas," I pointed out "Ours free for the duration"
"I don’t want to owe anything to our auously supernatural host"
"He can’t be worse than thenow too "I suppose we have to do it so in the rearview mirror
"For two hours and fifty-one minutes, you say?" Ric asked