The Night's Legacy Read online

  She turned to Stratton and said, “I’m sorry about that. I’ll pay for it.”

  “Not a problem. It’s just the liner. We can have it changed and cleaned in no time.” He patted the interior of the casket. “As you can see, the lining on these is as soft and as thick as the mattress you sleep on—”

  While Stratton continued to rattle on, Lois tried to imagine Dr. Johnson lying in any of these caskets. She had never considered the possibility that he might need one, let alone that she would have to decide which one. When she closed her eyes, she imagined him lying in a gold-and-black sarcophagus, like one of the pharaohs at the museum. She wondered if she could get anyone to mummify him as they had back then. She doubted anyone still did that, at least not in the ancient way. That was what he would want, since had always wanted to be a part of Egypt—

  “I think I’m going to have him cremated,” she announced, breaking into Stratton’s pitch.

  “Of course, if that’s what you want. You can rent one of these coffins to display him in for the service—”

  “We’re not having a formal service or anything. How soon can you cremate him?”

  “We can do it tomorrow if that’s soon enough. We have our own cremation oven right here on site. It just takes a few hours to fire it up and get it hot enough for the process.”

  Melanie had picked that moment to come out of the bathroom. Lois heard her gag and then hurry back into the restroom. Lois cleared her throat and said, “That should be fine.”

  “Now if you’ll follow me, I can show you our lovely variety of urns—”

  “I don’t need an urn. I already have a container in mind.” She knew exactly where it was in Dr. Johnson’s house; he had shown it to her when she was two years old. She had insisted on walking herself since she was a big girl now, but after crossing the ballroom, she gratefully accepted his offer to carry her.

  The jar had been in a glass case, made mostly of clay, with a gold lid shaped like a jackal’s head. He explained that the head belonged to Anubis, the god of funerals and the afterlife. “He looks scary,” Lois said and pressed her face against Dr. Johnson’s shoulder.

  He patted her back and said, “He’s not that scary. He’s like a big old dog. I bet if he met you he’d lick you on the face.”

  “Yuck,” she said, but with a smile. She had been too little to understand the meaning of funerals and the afterlife, but as an adult she knew the jar would be the perfect place for Dr. Johnson’s remains. The spirit of Anubis could keep him safe from Set or anyone else until Lois got a chance to scatter him in Egypt, where she knew he would want to have his ashes scattered. Then he could finally be a part of the land where he had spent so much of his life.

  Melanie was sitting on the front steps, waiting for Lois when she came out with an invoice for the cremation and other services, including a new casket lining. From the way Melanie’s shoulders bobbed, Lois guessed she was crying. Lois sat down next to her and put an arm around her. “Hey, come on, it’s all right. Everything’s fine.”

  “I’m such an idiot! I was supposed to help you and all I did was yak into a coffin.”

  “I wanted to yak into the coffin too. Did you see how tacky that lining was? You did that guy a favor.”

  Melanie wiped at her eyes and smiled. “So are we still friends?”

  “Of course we are.” She sucked in a breath to hold as Melanie crushed her in a hug.

  “You know what would be great? Let’s go get dinner and then maybe we could go dancing. You’d probably want to change first—”

  “I’d like to, but I should get back to the hospital. Mom might already be awake.”

  “Oh, right,” Melanie said, her face falling. “I should probably go home anyway. Vampire Diaries is on tonight.” She squealed but it was half-hearted. Lois was tempted to take up Melanie’s invitation to dinner, but she couldn’t. Not to see her mother, though. She needed to pay a visit to her other parent.

  She gave Melanie a hug and pat on the back. “Thanks for coming with me. I’ll see you tomorrow, all right?”

  “Sure. I’ll bring your mom a card or something.”

  “Just not any flowers or chocolate. She’s allergic to both.”

  “Really? That is so weird.”

  “Yeah, I guess it is,” Lois said. She wasn’t allergic to either, something she had probably inherited from her father. She hoped to get the chance to see what else she might have inherited from him.

  Chapter 20

  She didn’t bother with changing into the armor before visiting her father. She figured she’d blend in much better as an ordinary woman driving near the speed limit as opposed to a freak in silver plate armor driving at a hundred miles an hour. Not that there were many people around this section of town to notice her.

  The abandoned factory was easy enough for her to find a second time around. She just hoped that her father hadn’t decided to pick up and move since her last visit. With that arm of his, she doubted he’d be able to get too far on his own.

  She cut the bike’s engine as she rolled up the freight ramp and then wheeled it inside. She dropped the bike just inside the door so that if he were here, he might not hear her coming and try to scurry away. She had just found him after twenty-three years and she didn’t want to lose him for another twenty-three.

  There was no light coming from inside the old generator. Was he asleep or had he already fled? It would be just like him to run away and find another hole to hide in. If so, she was going to turn this city upside down until she found him and then chain him up somewhere.

  Of course he might not have left on his own. Set or someone from Rahnasto’s crew could have tracked him down too. In which case she’d probably find Sam at the bottom of a river by now.

  She stepped to the side of the generator and said the magic words. “Bah weep granna hi nee ho.” The armor appeared in a flash of white light on her body. She looked around with the helmet’s visor down, so that she could see into the darker areas of the room. There didn’t seem to be anyone else around or any signs of a disturbance. Despite that she took Caledfwlch from its sheath.

  Then she crept back around to the “door” of the generator and gave it a push. She didn’t hear anything inside. She decided to stick her head in the doorway. As soon as she did, she heard a metal click.

  “If I were Set, you’d be dead,” Sam hissed.

  She stepped into the room, seeing him flattened against the wall, his left arm still in the homemade sling while his right held his pistol. She flipped up the visor to glare at him. “So, what, this was all a test?”

  “I didn’t plan on it, but you made so much noise getting here I thought it would be a good idea.”

  “Thanks for the tip.”

  “You might not think it, but you’ve got a lot to learn, kid.”

  “Don’t call me that,” she snapped, thinking of Aunt Betty.

  “Fine. We got a lot to do tonight, Miss Locke. Make sure you take notes.”

  “You have a lead on Set or Rahnasto?”

  “Not yet, but we’ll find one.”

  “How? By looking for footprints with our magnifying glasses?”

  Sam dropped his pistol into a pocket. He already had his red ski mask and fedora on, but she could still see him glaring back at her. “You don’t give me a lot of credit, do you?”

  “Why should I? The only thing you’ve really accomplished in twenty-three years is alienating your daughter and the woman who loves you.”

  “You need to learn to keep your mind on the job. You may not like me, but that doesn’t mean I can’t help you. Your mom understood that.”

  “Yeah, well, I’m not like her. I’m like you. So maybe we should forget the whole thing.”

  “Maybe you’re not patient like you’re mom, but you’re not stupid. You know you need my help.” He took a step forward, close enough that her eyes watered from his smell. “You think spending a few nights on the street means you know how this city works, but you do
n’t know shit. You don’t know anything about the underbelly of this place. Not like I do.”

  “I don’t need a grand tour. I just need to know where Set is so I can chop off his damned head.”

  “Are you really that thick? He’s not going to be listed in the phone book.”

  “Fine, what’s your plan?”

  “First we need to go buy some crack.”

  * * *

  Lois hadn’t lied to Mom when she said she hadn’t been doing drugs over the last seven years. That didn’t mean she hadn’t met her fair share of drug dealers. On the streets they were easy enough to find. Most of them thought she was an easy target, a little white girl run away from home and probably flush with cash. A kick to the crotch usually told them quick enough that she didn’t have any interest in lighting up, injecting herself, or swallowing anything other than medicine.

  She saw a few dealers run inside as they saw her on the motorcycle. “Maybe I should change back,” she said over her shoulder.

  “Don’t worry about it. They aren’t the ones we want.”

  She tried not to go too fast since Sam only had one hand to hold onto her with and he didn’t have a helmet. She steered around a pothole that could have fit the entire bike and then had to whip the Kawasaki into a tight turn to avoid a second pothole. “You doing all right back there?”

  “I’m fine.”

  “Maybe Mom should have got a sidecar for you.”

  “She tried. I refused to ride in it.”

  “That figures.”

  “Pull over up here on the right.”

  “Why? If it’s about what I said—”

  “Just do it.”

  She pulled into an alley and dropped the kickstand. He had already jumped off the bike with more agility than she thought possible. Before he could stomp around the corner, she grabbed his good shoulder. “Where are you going?”

  “To find our contact. You stay out of sight and keep quiet.”

  “Yeah, sure,” she grumbled as she wrapped the cape around her body. “Just don’t walk too fast.”

  She fell into line behind him, staying back a couple of steps. Sam didn’t seem in any hurry, sauntering as if he were out for a stroll after dinner. He kept his good hand in his pocket, probably on his pistol. She put her hand on Caledfwlch’s hilt in case they ran into trouble.

  The fat black man with the long dreadlocks sitting on a stoop was probably their “contact.” No one sat around out here unless they were peddling something, or unless they had a death wish. She tightened her grip on the sword as the man stood up. “Oh hell no,” he said as Sam approached. “I ain’t telling you shit.”

  “I’m surprised they let you out so soon, D,” Sam said.

  “I got good behavior.”

  “Sure you did.”

  Lois stepped around to Sam’s left so that she could get between them if there were trouble. So far this D didn’t seem to have any idea she was here. She hoped it stayed that way.

  Sam took a step forward; D took a step back and put up his hands. “I ain’t got nothing. I clean now, pig.”

  “You’ve never been clean in your life.”

  “Cleaner than you. You smell worse than my grandma’s cunt.”

  Lois had to force herself to keep from laughing at this. Sam didn’t miss a beat in saying, “You would know.”

  She let the cape drop as D tried to throw a punch at Sam’s head. She grabbed his arm in mid-flight and yanked it around his back hard enough to hear a snap. He screamed with pain, not putting up a fight as she forced him to his knees. “There’s a good boy,” she hissed. “Unless you want the other arm broken, you better behave yourself.”

  “What the fuck do you want?” D said through clenched teeth.

  “We’re looking for a friend,” Sam said. “He goes by the name of Set. Wears a mask that looks like a dog’s head.”

  “Don’t know nobody like that.”

  “Maybe you know someone who does know him?”

  “Ain’t heard nothing about no dog-head mothers.”

  “Then how about his pal Mr. Nasty? You know about him, don’t you? Probably get the stuff you sell from him.”

  “I don’t know him neither.”

  Lois twisted his broken arm until he screamed again. “Goddamn it, I don’t know nobody! I ain’t no big time dealer. Not after you fucks put me away last time.”

  “Then we’ll settle for someone in Nasty’s employ. A bigger fish than you.”

  Lois kept the pressure on D’s arm until he shouted, “Hudler! Vic Hudler. He hangs at the Koala Club.”

  “Thanks,” Sam said. He nodded to her and she shoved D onto the sidewalk. To make sure he didn’t try to follow them, Lois kicked D in the ribs. He was struggling to catch his breath as they walked away.

  Once they made it back to the bike, Lois said, “That’s your idea of detective work?”

  “They only look around for footprints and hairs on TV.” He nodded to her. “You got good instincts.”

  “Yeah, well, I didn’t want him to knock your teeth out.”

  “He wouldn’t have. I’ve put him away twice before. We could have put him away for life on a third offense, but he’s more useful as a snitch.”

  “So now we go find this Hudler guy?”

  “That’s right. We work our way up the slimeball ladder until we find who we want.”

  “Then let’s go.”

  * * *

  The Koala Club was in a neighborhood affectionately known as the Hole. Most of it was tenements and liquor stores with a D standing on every corner. As soon as they saw Lois on the bike, the dealers faded back into the shadows. They’d probably poke their noses back out in a few minutes, once they were sure she wasn’t coming for them. This thought made her smile beneath her visor; she’d never had this kind of power before. She had always been too young and too short to intimidate anyone. She wondered if Mom had got off on that just a bit.

  They dumped the bike inside an abandoned building, where she hoped no one would find it. The Koala Club was visible a block away, bathed in buzzing blue neon lights. A koala shimmied suggestively on a palm tree, which didn’t make any sense since koalas came from Australia. Not that anyone around here would really care.

  “Is this a strip club?” she asked, the cape around her body so no one could see her.

  “Yes. Don’t tell your mother I brought you here.”

  “Gee, Pop, you sure know how to show your girl a good time.”

  “We can go out for ice cream later. Right now we got work to do.”

  She didn’t say anything, falling into step behind him. They didn’t walk up to the front doors, instead going around into an alley. There wasn’t anyone around, just some rats scurrying around the dumpster. Sam pointed up to the roof. “You go up there and wait. I’ll find Hudler and bring him out.”

  “With one hand?”

  “It won’t matter. He’ll be too busy watching the pussy on stage. I’ll be able to get the drop on him.”

  “Sure, because you’re a master of disguise. You ever think he might have some bodyguards or friends or something?”

  “He’s not that important, just a small-time operator. He’ll be alone.”

  “What if he’s not?”

  “Look, I’ve been doing this for thirty-five years. You haven’t been doing this thirty-five hours yet. So why don’t you let me handle this?”

  “Because I haven’t known you for thirty-five hours yet either,” Lois said. “I don’t want you walking in there and getting yourself killed.” She was grateful for the visor so that he couldn’t see her eyes watering as she thought of Sam lying in one of those caskets at Stratton Brothers. She didn’t want to have to plan another funeral so soon.

  He put a hand on her shoulder, giving the armor a pat. “You got more of your mom in you than I thought. But you don’t have to worry about me. I know what I’m doing.”

  “OK…Dad.”

  “Thanks…honey.”

  “Su
re.” She used the suction cups on the gauntlets to climb onto the roof. She perched on the edge of the roof, watching Sam unlock the back door. He took a pick from his pocket and worked it with one hand until the door opened. Then he disappeared inside.

  She counted to ten before she dropped to the ground and then slipped inside. She could hear loud music coming from the end of a dark hallway. She hurried down the hallway as fast as possible with the cape around her body, hoping Sam hadn’t got himself into too much trouble yet. Maybe he had been around for thirty-five years, but she doubted Mom would have let him walk into this alone.

  At the end of the hallway she came to a doorway decorated with shiny blue streamers. She stuck her head out from the streamers. A spotlight blinded her seconds later. She took a step back, worried that someone had seen her. Then she heard a DJ announce someone named Jasmine. Sticking her head back through the doorway, Lois saw a tall redheaded woman dressed only in a lime green bikini. Lois’s stomach churned as she thought of Mom, who would have a conniption if she knew Lois were in a place like this.

  She considered backing out, but then reminded herself that her father needed her help. She slipped through the streamers, trying to disturb them as little as possible. The bright lights from the stage made it hard to see the darker seating area and the pounding bass from the speakers made her ears ring.

  Sliding along the wall, she passed a row of perverts stuffing dollar bills into the girl’s G-string. She turned her head away as the stripper untied the top of her bikini. Lois moved faster; the sooner she got out of here, the better.

  The last thing she expected was to find Sam sitting at a table with a bulky Slavic man in a black suit. They were both watching the stage, but when Lois looked closer, she saw Sam’s hand under the table, his pistol aimed at the other man’s groin. There didn’t seem to be anyone watching him, which proved him right.

  She backed against the wall, watching the rest of the club as best she could. She saw a man dressed similar to Hudler sitting at the bar. The way he kept looking over his shoulder at Sam’s table meant he must be a bodyguard Sam had said wouldn’t exist. He was probably just waiting for an opening to go and rescue his boss.