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“Feel free,” says Sandoval. “But after you recover the artifacts.”

“What if I forget?”

She gets up from her desk.

“That would void our agreement and you can spend the rest of the weekend with your friend Marcella, watching your body rot down to the bones.”

I’m definitely killing all of them when this is over.

“I’ll bring back what I can. But I can’t guarantee it’ll be everything.”

“Bring back enough that we believe you put in a good effort. Enough that we can decipher their plans. If you do that, Howard will go ahead and fully restore you to life.”

I pick up the bag again.

“Tell him to be ready for me.”

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“He will be,” she says.

I leave the office with a bad feeling in my gut. Killing I’m good at. Playing retriever, I’m not. But what choice do I have? And if that’s what it takes to get back to where I want to be, fuck it. I’ll back up a truck to the chapel and pry every pew out of the ground and every cherub off the wall.

Before I take off, I go to the bowling alley to see if there’s anything else I can get out of Marcella. When I come in she jumps up from the mattress and runs to the far wall. Crouches there like an animal. When I get closer, I can see why. Her shirt is gone. Her face and arms are bruised. Both eyes are black and swollen. There are marks on her chest like bug bites. I try to get closer, but I can tell she’s about three seconds from jumping me. I set down the bag on a chair and stay where I am.

“I told you it would hurt if you tried to leave.”

She laughs.

“Leave,” she says. “I didn’t try to leave, you idiot. A bunch of your friends came down here in the night. They asked the same stupid questions you did, only they weren’t as polite.”

“What are those marks on your chest?”

She runs a hand over the bug bites.

“You like these? They’re cigarette burns.”

“Who did it?”

“I don’t know. A guy. A young guy.”

I take out the Shermans and show her one.

“Were the cigarettes like this?”

“Yes.”

Roger.

“First off, I didn’t have anything to do with this.”

“I know, Boy Scout.”

“Second, I’ll make sure it doesn’t happen again.”

“How? It looks like you’re on your way out.”

“Trust me. It’s taken care of.”