Reunion in Death

A little smirk tipped up the right corner of Sanchez's mouth. «Didn't keep her in.»

«That's not my job.» Eve leaned back. «You're going to be in another ten to fifteen, given your fondness for jabbing sharp implements into sensitive areas of other people's anatomy.»

«Don't do nothing to no motherfucker they don't try to do to me. Woman's got to defend herself out in the bad, bad world.»

«Maybe, but you won't breathe the air in that bad, bad world for at least a dime more considering your in-house record won't earn you the crown for Miss Congeniality or cop you toward an early for good behavior release.»

«What the fuck I care? Place like this, you can do a dime standing on your head scratching your butt.»

«You get conjugals in here, Sanchez?»

Her eyes sharpened. «Sure. Part of the rehabilitation gig. Gotta keep the machine in tune, right?»

«But you're a violent tendency. VT's just get to hump droids. Could be I can wrangle you an LC. A genuine warm body for a night of romance. In exchange.»

«You fucking with me?»

«No, but I'll get you a pro who will if you give me something I can use. Who'd she talk to, who did she use. What do you know?»

«I want a big guy, good-looking, who can keep his dick up till I get off.»

«Tell me something I want to hear, and I'll get you the conjugal, the rest is up to you. Julianna Dunne.»

It was a choice between real sex and screwing a cop. Sanchez went for real sex. «Bitch. Texas gringo beauty fucking queen. Kept to herself much as she could. Treated the guards like they were Sunday school teachers. Yes, ma'am, thank you, ma'am. Made you wanna puke. They lapped it up, gave her extra privileges. She got coin in. Greased palms, paid some of the lesbos to lay off her. Free time she spent in the library or the gym. She had Loopy for her bitch. Not a sex thing, more like a puppy.»

«And Loopy would be?»

«Lois Loop, funky junkie, doing twenty for icing her old man. Had the cage other side of the bitch. Heard them talking sometimes.» Sanchez shrugged. «She'd promise to set Loopy up somewhere cozy when she got sprung, said how she had a lot of money and a nice place to live. Texas, maybe.»

«She planned to go back to Texas?»

«She said she'd have business in Dallas. Unfinished business.»

Eve let that simmer in her brain, and sent for Lois Loop.

She wouldn't have needed Sanchez's ID. The woman had the bleached out skin, colorless hair, and pink rabbit eyes of the funk addict. The mind mister had the side effect of eradicating pigment. Detox could turn the user around, but it didn't put the color back.

One glance at her pinprick pupils told Eve detox wasn't doing much good either.

«Have a seat, Loopy.»

«Do I know you? I don't know you.»

«Have a seat anyway.»

She started toward the table, her movements a mechanical jerk. Wherever she was getting her fix, Eve thought, she hadn't had one recently.

«You jonesing, Loopy? How long since you scored?»

Loopy licked her white lips. «I get my daily synthetic. Part of detox. It's the law.»

«Yeah, right.» Eve leaned in. «Did Julianna give you coin, so you could score the real funk inside?»

«Julianna's my friend. Do you know Julianna?»

«Yeah, we go way back.»

«She went back in the world.»

«That's right. She staying in touch?»

«When you see her, you tell her they must be stealing her letters, 'cause I didn't get any and she promised. We're allowed to get letters.»

«Where are the letters coming from?»

«She's going to write and tell me where she is, and when I go back in the world, I'll go there, too.» Her muscles jerked as she talked, as if they weren't connected to flesh and bone. But she smiled serenely.

«Tell me where she went and I'll find her for you. I'll let her know about the letters.»

«She'd maybe go here, she'd maybe go there. It's a big secret.»

«You ever been to New York before?»

The wasted eyes widened. «She told you?»

«Like I said, we go back. But New York's a big place. It'll be hard to find her if I don't have an address.»

«She has a house, all her own. Somewhere. And she's maybe gonna do some traveling. She's going to come visit me when she comes back to Chicago.»

«When's she coming back?»

«Sometime. We going shopping. New York, Chicago, New L.A.» She sang the cities, like a child singing a nursery tune. «Dallas and Denver. Ride 'em cowboy.»

«Did she talk about the people she was going to see? Old friends, new ones? Did she say the names, Loopy?»

«Should old acquaintance be forgot. We had a party for New Year's. There was cake. Do you know the bone man?»

«I might.»

«She read me all kinds of stuff about the bone man. He lives in a big palace in the city. He has green thumbs and flowers grow out of them. She's going to visit him.»

Pettibone, Eve thought. First hit. «Who else is she going to visit?»

«Oh, the sheep man and the cowboy and the Dallas dude. She has people to see, places to go.»

«When she read you about the bone man, where were you?»

«It's a secret,» she whispered.

«You can tell me. Julianna would want you to so I can find her and tell her about the letters.»