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Joel raises his hand as a call for peace "Do you have a resuuy? A job application?"
The coroner nods "We handed over copies of those iteinals If you&039;ll co them out of our files"
"Go ahead," I say to Joel "I want to browse, check out the sights"
He rolls his eyes "Don&039;t disturb the dead"
I check the individual freezer lockers in the back My keen sense of ss me quickly to the one Yaksha occupied The aroma of the venom-still there even in death, in ice Yet the odor is not precisely as I reo There is so with the faint traces of his blood that remain in the cold locker Soer over the hollow space If Yaksha is in fact dead, he did not leave the world thinking about Krishna, as he hoped My disquiet deepens
While Joel stays with the coroner, I wander deeper into the ue and find an office space with a secretary with her feet up on her desk, doing her nails I like a woal doesn&039;t even bother to sit up as I walk in Of course, to soer About thirty, she has a National Enquirer and a two-liter bottle of Diet Pepsi sitting on her desk beside a co: TEMPORARY MALFUNCTION! Her lips swi Twenty pounds overweight, she looks jovial, a little slutty
"Wow," she says when she seesin this haunted house?"
I sent Joel Drake My na a murder"
Now she sits up "You&039;re FBI? You look like a cheerleader"
I sit down "Thank you You look like an executive secretary"
She pulls out a cigarette and waves her hand "Yeah, right And this is the executive suite What can I do for you?"
"Did you know Eddie Fender?"
"The guy who stole the stiff?"
"Did he steal it?"
She lights her cigarette "Sure He was in love with that corpse" She chuckles "It did more for him than I ever did"
"Did you see Eddie socially?" She leans forward and blows smoke "You mean, did I screw him? Listen, sister, I would just as soon blow et " I nod
"What&039;s your name?"
"Sally Diedrich I&039;ot the name Is Eddie a suspect in a round infor you could tell ive you background on that guy that would make you want to turn your back and run the other way Listen, you got a minute? Let me tell you a story about Eddie and his relationship to reality"
I crossyou know"
"This happened three h so X rays Don&039;t believe what the cops and the papers tell you-none of that forensic evi?dence should hold up in court We&039;re forever uy who stayed here a few days, and it says on his death certificate that he croaked because of a tubal pregnan?cy Anyway, the teston and she was pretty as pie, if a bit slow Eddie flirted with her and asked her out, and she said sure before I could warn her By the time I did talk to her, she felt &039;committed&039; That&039;s an exauy compliments her on her dress and offers to take her to dinner and she feels coated to buy every?thing that gets sold over the phone I visited her ho knives that they say can be used as dowsing rods to find water and oil
"So Heather went out with Eddie, and let me tell you, that was one date for Ripley&039;s Believe It or Not! First, he took her to McDonald&039;s for dinner She toldelse No drink, no fries, no nothing He ate the haers plain- meat on a bun Then he took her for a walk Guess where he took her?"
"The ceot it! He wolfed down his burgers and took her hand and they went toot to the graves He wanted to lie down on top of theive her a rush like she wouldn&039;t believe Well, she believed it Theycorpse Heather said he wasn&039;t a bad kisser He swiped soave theesture touched her, I swear" Sally shook her head "Isn&039;t it just lovely when two loonies get together?"
"As lovely as when two uglies get together," I say
"I hear you Anyway, here comes the sick part Eddie takes her back to his apartuess what he pulls out of his drawer?"
"Pornographic fil breasts crush last week&039;s work and push her bottle of Diet Pepsi aside "Snuff films Do you knohat those are?"
"Yes Videos made where people-usually woman -are supposedly killed"
"Sick, huh? Eddie had a whole set of them He showed Heather three or four-they&039;re usually pretty short, I understand-before she figured out she wasn&039;t watching the latest Disney releases Then she got up and wanted to leave The only problem was, Eddie wouldn&039;t let her"
"Did he threaten to harm her?"
Sally scratched her head "I&039;m not sure I don&039;t think so But what he did do was tie Heather up in his bedrooh school jacket-and nothing else-and force her to suck on Popsicles all night"
"How did he force her?"
"He would tickle her if she stopped Heather was very ticklish She worked those Popsicles until the sun caled a whole pint of novocaine"
"But he didn&039;t hurt her in any way?"
"Her wrists had rope burns on theet her to talk to the police about what had happened, but she wouldn&039;t She wanted to go out with hiain! I said no way I went to Eddie and told hiain, I would personally speak to the police about his collection of snuff filal, you know Of course you know that! You work for the FBI Sorry, I forgot that for aand everything Anyway, Eddie backed off &039;cause he didn&039;t want to lose his job Jesus, I tell you, that guy was born to ith the dead You&039;d think they were his Barbie dolls"
"You said he loved the corpse that was stolen What do youwith it"
"Exactly how did he fool with it?"
"I don&039;t know He just always had it out is all"
"Didn&039;t anyone tell hiled "No! The corpse never complained"
I pause awith Yaksha&039;s re with his blood Could the blood of a dead va vampire? I didn&039;t know
"He didn&039;t bother Heather again?" I ask
"No"
"Did he take any revenge on you for threatening hiaiety faltered "I don&039;t know for sure I had an old cat, Sibyl, that I&039;d owned since she was born I was very fond of her Two days after I spoke to Eddie, I found her dead in my backyard"
"How did she die?"
"Don&039;t know There wasn&039;t aher to a vet for an autopsy" Sally shivered "I get enough of that here You understand"
"I do I&039;reen eyes, bony hands, and an acne-scarred face?"
Sally nods "That&039;s him Has he killed anybody?"
I stand I feel no relief that I have found my man He is worse than I feared
"Yes," I say "He ishis own snuff films now"