I made sure to walk on the side where the streetlamps were and kept a close eye on traffic. The fancy black car I’d thought was following me the day before sat parked just ahead. Like the little girl, I gave it a wide berth. As I passed, however, I realized it was a Rolls.
Why would an immaculate Rolls-Royce be parked in this area?
“It’s okay,” the little girl said. “Jessica told me I have to think of others, too. So I do. I think how dumb they are or how ugly their shoes are or how they don’t brush their teeth enough. Can I brush your hair?”
“Maybe later.” I didn’t have the heart to tell her she probably couldn’t hold a brush, being dead and all. “Where’s Jessica now?”
“At Rocket’s place.”
Rocket? I stopped and turned around, my chest cavity oozing with hope. “Is Jessica about yea tall with red hair?”
“Mm-hm.”
My visitor from the storeroom. The one who was swallowed by the black smoke that might or might not have been Reyes Farrow. She’d been the only one who seemed to know who I was. If Reyes did silence her before she could tell me anything, then he would have a lot of explaining to do.
“Is she okay?”
“I guess. Where are you going?”
“Back to work for a bit. Can you go get her?”
“No. She won’t come here anymore.”
I stepped closer. “Why not?”
She stepped back. “He told her not to.”
“Who did? Reyes?”
Her nose crinkled. “Ew, no. I don’t think you should give food to that man anymore. He lives in a box and he stinks.”
“Okay, well, first of all, that’s not very nice.”
“His smell is not very nice.”
“And second, who told her not to come here?”
She blinked at me as though trying to understand the question, so I tried again.
“Do you remember who told her that? Did she tell you?”
She just stared ahead, her expression suddenly blank.
“Are you having a seizure?” I asked, coming up with no better explanation.
Her gaze slid past me, her eyes growing bigger by the second.
A heavy dose of dread crept up my spine. “Is there something behind me?”
She nodded and took another step back.
“Does it have wings and a sword?”
She shook her head.
“Oh, then how bad can it be?” I turned to see and stumbled, tripping on my own feet and landing on my ass beside the little girl. The headless horseman was staring down at me. Or he would have been if he’d had a head.
The horse reared up onto its hind legs. Her whinny echoed along the houses, and even though it wasn’t pretty, I scrambled to my feet and ran. I thought about stopping at the motel and pounding on Reyes’s door, but his windows were dark. So I ran all the way to the café, the sound of hoofbeats following close behind.
When I got to the café, my lungs burning and my legs boneless, I found Reyes in the kitchen. They were about to close up for the night. As long as I got there before they closed, Dixie let me stay as long as I needed to. We didn’t have to use the key to lock the back door as we left. But he’d worked that morning. Why was he there now?
“Hey,” I said, leaning against the doorframe. Mostly so I wouldn’t fall down.
He stopped and gave me a once-over before saying, “Hey, back.” He’d pulled out one of the refrigeration units that was on the fritz and was working on it. Tools decorated every available surface. “What’s going on?”
A fine sheen of sweat covered my face. So that was great. Someday I’d meet him when I looked normal and not sleep deprived or sweaty or on the verge of passing out. Sadly, today was not that day.
“Nothing. I was going to use Dixie’s computer for a bit. What’s going on with you?”
He lifted a shoulder. “I get easily bored, so I offered to do some maintenance work.”
“That’s funny. I get easily distracted.” And now I was going to try to get some work done while the man voted most likely to cause spontaneous orgasms was lurking nearby.
He let a smile as smooth as aged whiskey soften his features.
I wanted to ask him, “So, did you give me that hundred-dollar bill? And if so, did you hear me when I said I loved you today? And if you did, how did you write a response on a bill that I got before I spilled my guts?” What came out was “Want some