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Molly was crying, and when she held up Oskar’s body I could see that"No!" she sobbed She looked up at ic--"

I shook one, Molly"

Molly rose and saw the old biker who’d shot Oskar She flew at hirabbed the back of her dress with the arraze The dress cah to wrap et at the biker, but even wounded, ere both huer than she was I held on After a ht left her She turned herself around and buried her face inin earnest

"Could soerous voice, "what in all of fuck is going on here?"

I patted Molly’s back, giving Jesse a look that said, All yours, dude

Jesse stepped forward "You were taken for a ride, that’s what happened," he said He pointed to Oskar’s body "Thiswith souy demanded "Who is he?"

"He’s just some asshole," Jesse said, and truer words were never frickin’ spoken "He uy you trusted twenty-odd years ago He got you to send your guys to do sos, Lee"

Lee, for that was apparently his nas That never happened"

"Then can you explain how you got here?" Jesse’s voice was gentle "Or why you sent your guys to be killed, just on this one man’s say-so? You were dosed"

Lee looked uncertain And then in the distance, I heard the first siren Apparently, even in City of Industry you can h noise to alarm someone

"Say I believe you," Lee said over the noise "How the fuck are we going to explain all of this to the cops?"

"I’ve got an idea about that," Jesse said gris"

Chapter 46

Telling lies to cops is a major part of my occupation I’ve done it plenty of ti via some creative mind-control But even I had to admit that the story Jesse cooked up for the police was old, and hang it on the wall in Dashiell’s mansion kind ofcollege student with a rare sunlight allergy, had had a fling with a biker, an asshole na to Lee Harrison, Carl, as not terrible-looking once you got past the greasy beard, had a couple of very real convictions for rape and assault Eventually this fictional version of Molly wised up and decided to break it off, but old Carl didn’t take the neell In fact, he showed up at her house, killed her roo, all while she ay from home Molly had run to hide with an old friend, Frederic, but Carl and his biker buddies had found her at his place Frederic had shot Carl in the foot, and his Rottweiler had killed two of Carl’s pals Carl had beaten the shit out of Frederic and taken him and Molly to the Mock-Donald’s in City of Industry, where Carl intended towell, do really bad things to her

Meanwhile, Molly’s old friend Scarlett ( and called Molly’s ex-boyfriend Oskar, as well as my friend Jesse Cruz, the famous ex-detective I convinced Jesse not to call the police, and the three of us storht Frederic’s Rottweiler, who helped us "subdue" the bikers Unfortunately, the evil bikersthem both Lee came to the Mock-Donald’s to stop Carl, but arrived too late to save hiinary) Rottweiler ran off There would likely be searches, and the press would probably have a lot to say about responsible dog ownership I felt a tiny bit guilty about that, but it orth it to keep Shadow out of all this

Under regular circuured out that this story had a few ridiculous holes But Dashiell sent his "lawyer," an Arabian vampire named Fahi us It also didn’t hurt that Molly was so obviously abused and distraught--I’d stayed close enough that she still had the black eyes and the cut on her face, not toher hair and shredded clothes And it helped that that Jesse had a solid gold reputation within the departly respected, and that counted on our side Finally, ere told we could go ho as we stayed in town