Blind God's Bluff A Billy Fox Novel - By Richard Lee Byers Page 0,54
be okay?”
She smiled a nasty smile. “I’m the only one who’s still got a gun.” And it was a pretty good point even if she was a lousy shot.
“And you and I are square?”
“Yeah. The piteog with the fingernails brought the money.”
“Then I’ll see you around.” I climbed off Leticia, and then Vic and I headed for the front door.
CHAPTER NINE
Vic and I caught a break when we came out of the crafts store. There was a cab just a few feet away dropping off a guy with a saxophone case in front of a pawnshop. I shouted, and Vic and I ran to catch it. The driver’s mouth tightened when he saw her bruises, and he started to shake his head. But I showed him my roll of bills, and then he let us get in. Money’s a wonderful thing.
As the cab pulled away from the curb, I took my first good, close-up look at Vic’s face, and then I couldn’t blame the driver for thinking we were trouble. “Take us to where she can see a doctor,” I said.
“I’m all right,” said Vic.
“You’ve been beaten up,” I said, then hesitated. “But I guess I could try to take care of it.” Meaning that Red could.
“What?”
“I… have this trick I learned. It’s like the laying on of hands. But I’m not sure how much power I’ve got left.”
She stared at me. “I have no idea what you’re talking about. But maybe the clinic is a good idea. For you. I saw how that man Raul hit you.”
“Okay. We’ll both get checked out.”
“And then go on to the police.”
“No. No police. You can’t tell anybody what happened to you.”
“Billy, those people kidnapped me! On school property!” She was vice-principal at a middle school, and apparently, in her mind, getting snatched right off the playground or the parking lot somehow made it even worse.
“I know,” I said, “but still.”
“Is it because they have something on you? Because if you testify in a capital case, I’m sure no one will care.”
I snorted. “Somebody still watches Law and Order.”
“Don’t make fun of me! I’m trying to help us both!”
“I know, and I wasn’t, really. It’s just… look, think about the really weird parts of what happened. Your mind may want to ignore them, but don’t let it.”
She just sat for a few seconds, while the cab rolled out of Ybor and turned right on Nebraska Avenue. Then she murmured, “Shit.”
“Yeah,” I said.
She laughed the way you do when it’s not really funny. “Not Law and Order. Buffy.”
I’d never seen that show, but I was willing to take her word for it. “Pretty much. The world is full of monsters, and the number-one thing on their to-do list is making sure normal people don’t find out. They’ll come after you if you tell.”
“And who’d believe me anyway?”
“There’s that, too.”
But she wasn’t ready to let it go. “Still, people were shooting guns. You said you shot somebody yourself. I’m sure the police showed up eventually.”
“Maybe, but that doesn’t mean anybody got arrested.” The taxi pulled into the parking lot of a place called the Lane & Harvey Doctor’s Walk-In Clinic. I paid the driver, and Vic and I got out.
It took us a few minutes to get checked in. She didn’t have her insurance card, and I didn’t have insurance. But cash took care of that, too.
We filled out our paperwork, turned our clipboards back in to the front desk, and settled down in the waiting room with the rest of the walking wounded. The TV droned through a loop of info about cholesterol and fibromyalgia while children whined and fidgeted. A nurse bellowed a patient’s name every couple minutes.
Eventually, Vic said, “Okay, monsters are real. Succubi and magic spells are real. What does it have to do with you?”
I looked around. Our fellow patients were busy with their own conversations, their smartphone games, music, or videos, or their misery. So I explained, although for some reason, I downplayed A’marie’s part in the story.
When I finished, Vic said, “You haven’t changed.”
“Did you catch the part about the magic powers?”
“You haven’t. You’re just as reckless as ever.”
“I didn’t know you’d get pulled in.”
She glared at me. “And if it were just you who got hurt, that would make it all right?”
“It would make it a risk worth taking.”
“Well, you took it and you won. You got your money and cleared your debt. Now you should get away.”