Dead Ice (Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter) - Laurell K. Hamilton Page 0,248

the gag. He wasn’t worried about the noise; fuck!

“If Tomas dies, you die. If you touch Connie, I will cut your dick off and gag you with it.”

“Oh, sticks and stones, Anita, sticks and stones.”

“Tell me where you are, you son of a bitch, and I’ll prove to you that I never make an idle threat.”

“Find me, and then we’ll see who raises what.” The phone went dead.

I screamed my rage loud and wordless. If he’d been in front of me in that moment I’d have killed him, cops or no cops.

62

I HAD TO call Manny and tell him about Connie and Tomas. I started with just them being hostages, without going into details. I figured him knowing he had a long-lost son with Dominga Salvador could wait until his kids were safe, or until I saw him in person. Some things you don’t want to try to explain over the phone.

“I need you to talk to the phone company and waive your rights to the phone records, so we don’t have to get a warrant for them to use Tomas’s phone’s GPS to locate him and Connie.”

“We’re still paying for Connie’s phone, too. Does that help?”

“Shit yes, I know he has her phone, because I was talking on it.” I turned to Sergeant Hudson, who wasn’t much bigger than I was, with a neat dark mustache to match the hair hidden under his helmet. He was the smallest man on his unit now, but they all still acted as if he were about eight feet tall and would hurt them if they fucked up. Hudson and I weren’t buddies, but we respected each other, and I’ll take respect over being liked any day of the week. He let me train with his team once a month to keep me from screwing up too badly. That he let me near his men at all was the compliment. He talked to all his guys like that.

“Manny, the father, is paying for his daughter’s phone; if he waives his rights we don’t need a warrant for the GPS records.”

“Great, did you hear that?” He spoke into a phone that he’d been using to try to get the GPS location for either of the kids’ phones. They wanted to help, but legally we needed a warrant . . . but Manny could waive his rights since it was his account and not Connie’s.

It took us holding the phones next to each other and Manny giving some account information, but it was done. Hudson listened to his end of the phone for a few seconds. “They’ll call us back in ten minutes tops with the phone’s location.”

“Perfect,” I said, “now just one more warrant in hand and we’re good to go.”

“Anita, what’s happening?” Manny asked on my phone. I told him.

“While we wait for the GPS I need to ask your voodoo expertise.”

“I can’t think, Anita.”

“How complicated would the spell be to capture a soul? I mean, how long would it take?”

“I only know the theory of the spell; I had left her long before she came up with that piece of evil.”

“I know, but you know way more voodoo than I do, Manny. I need to know a time frame, and I need to know it now.”

“What aren’t you telling me, Anita?”

“Dominga’s nephew Max is the bad guy. He’s taken over where Dominga left off on the zombie slaves.”

“Why did he take Connie and Tomas?”

“I think Tomas was incidental, wrong place, wrong time.”

“Oh God, oh God, you think he’s going to do that to Connie.”

“He’s threatening it.”

“Why? Why after all this time?”

“How much time do we have to find her? I need you to think, Manny.”

“My kids are missing.”

“And the more information we have, the better the odds for bringing them back safe and sound.”

“All right, all right, if he has to make a container to house the soul, it will take weeks.”

“Assume he has a container.”

“He’ll have to draw symbols, verve, and if he’s a true believer he’ll have to persuade the loa to ride him, or to ride the victim.”

“I don’t think he’s a true believer,” I said.

“An hour, maybe. You say he had verve all over his altar area like

Dominga did.”

“Yes,” I said.

“He’ll be careful to draw the verve then, because Dominga believed very much that the symbols helped call power and protect her. If he draws all the symbology, then at least an hour, maybe a little more. Does that help?”

“Yes, it does.”

“I’m on my way to the bridal