call it a night?”
“Not after that. That wasn’t very nice.”
“Assaulting women who are walking alone—”
“Gee, thanks,” Death said.
“—isn’t nice, either.”
“We weren’t assaulting. We were…flirting.”
“Is that what you call it? I’m going home now. You guys should do that, too, before something bad happens.”
Hoodie guy’s eyes flicked over her shoulder, and Casey could hear the third one coming. She balanced herself on her left foot and kicked back with her right heel, connecting almost waist high with a sensitive part of the guy’s anatomy. He grunted, then sank slowly to the ground.
Hoodie guy watched with his mouth open, then frowned heavily, like a kindergartner showing his disapproval. Casey saw in his eyes what was going to happen. She stepped to the left just as he grabbed for her, and he stumbled forward, catching his foot on his fallen friend and dropping face first onto the road. He stayed there, apparently unable—or perhaps just unwilling—to move.
Casey looked over toward the car guy. He was gone.
“That way,” Death said, pointing without looking.
Car guy was hustling down the sidewalk, dimming as he left the circle of light from one street lamp, then brightening as he reached the next. Casey watched until he reached the next intersection. He stopped there and looked back. Casey waved. He jerked a wave of his own, then realized what he was doing and speedwalked around the corner and out of sight.
“Now what?” Death hovered over the unconscious boys.
“Is there a rule about what you do with idiots?”
“None that would be acceptable to you, I don’t think.”
A light on a house across the street turned on, and a face appeared in a front window.
“Great,” Casey said. “A nosy neighbor. That’s all we need. Wouldn’t the cops love hearing how I beat up two guys the same day they dropped the murder charges? You know whoever’s looking out the window has his finger on the 911 button.”
“Most women would be glad if a neighbor took interest while they were being attacked. In fact, one might say something to the paper, like, ‘If it hadn’t been for Mr. Billingsly I wouldn’t be here right now.’ And she’d be all weepy, and fragile, and everybody would feel sorry for her, and she and the neighbor would bond, you know, at least for a month until they realized they have nothing in common, and they would get back to their regular lives. You know the cycle. That whole ‘Save someone’s life, be responsible forever’ stuff is really just crap.”
“You should know by now I’m not ‘most women.’ And that whole cycle sounds exhausting.”
“Oh, it is. But it serves a purpose, not the least of which is saving the woman from a worse fate on the night in question. It’s your own fault you don’t need saving. At least not from these guys.”
Casey took a few steps away from the house, where the light still shone, then stopped and looked back at the heap in the middle of the road. “Stupid kids. They’re going to get run over.”
“Serve them right.”
“How ’bout I leave them over on the sidewalk and you call the cops?”
“Can I do that?”
“I don’t know. You’ve got enough phones.”
“Here.” Death held out a Droid. “Say something.”
“What?”
“About these two. To tell the police. I doubt they’d be able to hear my voice, even if I could get through.”
“Maybe I can just call from the nosy neighbor’s house. Unless he’s already called.”
“Come on, at least let me try.”
“Fine.” She gestured for Death to start recording. “Some drunk guys assaulted a woman on…”
“Pine,” Death said.
“…on Pine. Between…”
“Third and Fourth.”
She repeated the streets. “Two of the men are waiting on the sidewalk for you. You might want to bring a breathalizer. The third one got away. There, will that do?”
Death giggled. “We’ll see!”
Casey dragged Hoodie and his friend to the sidewalk on the opposite side of the street from the neighbor, and jogged away, leaving the drunk guys and Death behind. It would be interesting to see if the cops could make any sense of the recorded message. She was sure Death would regale her with every detail as soon as it was all over.
The lights of the all-night convenience store reminded Casey why she’d come out in the middle of the night in the first place. She’d been hungry then. Now she was famished. Nothing like examining a murder scene and dealing with three frat boys to work up an appetite.
The convenience store was empty of people except for the clerk, who was sitting behind