Greywalker - Kat Richardson [86]
“I don’t see how Cameron benefits from Edward’s demise.”
“By my gratitude,” she growled.
I shook my head. “No. I don’t think so. Not inclined to rely on the generosity of vampires, considering Edward’s example. Who protects me from you?”
She ground her teeth. “I assure you you’ll come to no harm if you do what I say.”
I managed to shake my head. “I won’t kill anyone. I’m not a hired gun and I’m not interested in playing in your political pool.”
Alice leaned forward and her eyes blazed. “Then what good are you to me?”
“I’m not here to help you. I’m here to help my client. I’ll find Edward’s weaknesses, his mistakes, rake up the muck, but the rest is up to you. And you’ll owe me.”
She laughed and stabbed out her cigarette with a hard jab in the ashtray. She sipped her drink and watched me over the rim, smiling razor slashes. “All right, we’ll do it your way, for now. But I will still be watching you.” Then she sat forward and put out her hand, palm up. “Let me see your list.”
“What list?”
“The list of names. Cameron must have given you one, else how would you have found me? Hand it over,” she demanded, beckoning her crimson-clawed fingers at me.
I dragged out the list. Alice snatched it and read it. A new gleam entered her eyes. “Oh, very interesting . . .” She pulled a fountain pen from her tiny purse and wrote a new name at the bottom: Wygan.
“There,” she said, flinging the page back to me as dismissal. “Start with Carlos. That should loosen up the dirt under Edward’s feet. And don’t worry—I’ll keep Edward’s attention off of you. I did promise. By the time you’ve finished with that lot, his problems will have just started.”
I got up from the table and walked out. I could feel her gaze on me all the way to the elevator, like freezing water rolling down my back.
I did not want to follow Alice’s orders, though I felt a mental nudging to do so. I stared at the list as the elevator descended. Unfortunately, the closest vampire was Carlos. If I was going to talk to anyone else tonight, it would have to be him.
I was crossing the lobby when my pager went off. I used a desk phone to call the number. Cameron answered at the other end.
“Where are you?” I asked. My head throbbed and a matching ache had grown in my innards.
“I’m at Sarah’s place. Uh, she says to say hi and she got two ferrets instead of one.”
“I’m happy for her. I just finished talking to Alice and things are . . . well, they’re trickier than I thought. Could you meet me tonight?”
“Not tonight. Tomorrow. Call it an hour after sun-down, which is . . . eight twenty-seven, so, nine thirty?”
“All right. I’ll see you then. For now, I’m going to see Carlos.”
“Oh, man . . . be careful, Harper. If I don’t see you tomorrow, I’ll know who to ask, at least.”
“Thanks for the vote of confidence, Cameron.”
I checked my watch as I left the lobby; it was twelve thirty-nine and dread was twisting in my stomach. I did not want to precipitate a palace coup, but Alice’s point about the protective behavior of vampires was giving me an idea. I didn’t know if I could manage it, but my other options seemed feeble. I had to trust Alice to cover my tracks as she’d said. If she hated Edward enough, she would. I was banking on hate.
The list said I could find Carlos at Adult Fantasies, a sex shop just behind a strip of businessmen’s motels from which they probably culled most of their clientele.
Less than ten minutes’ walk from the swanky shops and condos of downtown, the tangled area of odd-shaped blocks housed a strip joint, two all-night bar-and-grills, and Adult Fantasies in their own little commerce park of public embarrassment and private greed. Efforts to move them off or shut them down were never completely successful. Even a plan to make the area into a park had come to naught; eighty years