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She smiles and bumps her shoulder into mine.

I say, “Kasabian won’t be happy. He wants me long gone.”

“No he doesn’t. He missed you. Just not the guns and monsters.”

“I’ll try to keep them to myself.”

“Try to not keep them at all.”

“Even better.”

Candy turns on the sofa and sits on one foot.

“What are you going to do now?”

“I’ll see if Abbot will let me stay at the UFO place. I know it was kind of a wreck, but maybe I can do something about that in my copious free time.”

“That’s good, but I meant do you know what you’re going to do with your life?”

“Not a clue. Kasabian said I could have some movies.”

“I think we can let you have movies whenever you want them.”

“Good. I have a year to catch up on.”

The door from the store below opens and Alessa comes in. She smiles at us.

“You’re finally awake,” she says.

I take a last sip of coffee and get up.

“Yeah. I should get going. Thanks for letting me crash here. I’m sorry I stayed so long.”

“It was no problem,” Alessa says. “After all the craziness at the drive-in it seemed smart to make sure you were all right.”

“I really am. See you later.”

Candy jumps up and gives me a kiss on the cheek.

?

?I’ll call you.”

“Sure.”

For once, I leave the store by the front door like a normal person. Kasabian nods to me as I go out. I nod back. When I’m outside, I go around the short alley at the side of the store and walk through a shadow by the Dumpster.

Come out in Eva Sandoval’s office.

The place is a wreck. Bullet holes in the walls. Chairs and tables knocked over. Blood has soaked into the green felt on her pool table. Her desk lies on its side. I push it out of the way and pick up the rug underneath.

Howard might have been a murdering necro-prick, but he wasn’t lying about Eva’s safe. There’s a square door and keypad just a half inch below the level of the floor. I listen for footsteps or any other sounds in the house. When it stays quiet I whisper some Hellion hoodoo to check for any magical traps, but whatever curses Sandoval had around the place were used up last night.

I bark a bit more hoodoo and the safe door slams open. I don’t really know what I’m looking for, so I grab everything and stuff it into my coat pockets.

When the safe is empty, I close it, replace the rug, and push the desk back where it was. I’m tempted to steal some other stuff, but what? There are paintings, sculptures, and expensive carpets everywhere, but none of it is anything I’d want. But I can’t leave the place entirely unlooted. I go back to the desk one more time and paw through the drawers.

Lucky me. I find a few more packs of Shermans. I squeeze those into my pockets with Eva’s other loot. On my way out, I take the only other thing worth having: a bottle of her very good bourbon.