SANDMAN SLIM

"I want a lot of things, but let's start with that." I shift around on the chair, trying to find a position that doesn't hurt my ribs. I don't find one. "Where are the cool kids hanging out these days?"

"Are you crazy? Do you know what any of them would do to me if I told you?"

When I was Downtown, I learned a lot about making threats. Make them big. Make them outrageous. You're never going to kick someone's ass. You're going to pull out their tongue and pour liquid nitrogen down their throat, chip out their guts with an ice pick, slide in a pane of glass, and turn them into an aquarium. But you have to be careful with threats. Some Hellions and humans don't know when to back down, and you might have to actually follow through. It didn't happen often, but it was always a possibility.

"You know what I'm going to do to you?" I ask quietly and evenly. "You see that body over there? I'm going to drag it to the deepest, darkest part of Griffith Park and leave it for the coyotes."

"Please don't do that!"

"Then talk to me about the others. Where's Mason?"

Mason had been the leader of our magic circle, which made me Mr. Green Jeans to his Captain Kangaroo. He was a talented magician and never passed up a chance to remind you of it. He came from money. At least he acted like he did. The truth is, none of us really knew much about his life outside the Circle. Parker did, though. They were tight. Parker was a thug with a boxer's build and just enough magical ability to make him really dangerous. Mason saw the possibilities in someone like that and made the guy into his pet pit bull. Mason never got blood on his hands because Parker was only too happy to do it for him.

Mason also made a point of calling me Jimmy, James being my given first name. No one else ever called me Jimmy because I wouldn't let them. I've always gone by Stark because the rest of my name had always been an issue in the family. I don't know how Mason found out the rest of my name.

"Are you kidding? Does it look like I hang out with Mason anymore? I rent porn and Schwarzenegger to half-wits," Kasabian says. "I've hardly seen him since that night and, to tell you the truth, I'm glad. After you were gone, those demons, or whatever they were, charged him up with power. Superman stuff. No, more like the Hulk. He changed, right in front of us. His skin, his bones, his whole body turned weird. It kind of glowed and it looked like there were things crawling around under his skin."

"Sounds like they gave him an assload of nebiros."

"What's a nebiro?"

"A parasite. They live off the energy of whatever they infest. The only reason the host doesn't drop dead immediately is that the nebiros excrete supernatural energy. They shit magic. It supercharges the host, keeping him and the parasite alive. Hellions eat those things like popcorn. I didn't know they worked on humans."

"Whatever happened, he wasn't just Mason anymore. He was Mason and something else. Like God's older brother, who takes God's money, steals his car, and fucks his girlfriend. That's Mason now. A guy who isn't afraid to pants God. He took off and took Parker with him."

I know that he's telling the truth. In the same weird way that Carlos's name popped into my head back at the Bamboo House of Dolls, I know that Kasabian is telling me the truth. It's not reassuring to know something without understanding why you know it, but I'll figure that out later.

I flick ashes off the cigarette and place it between Kasabian's lips. He puffs on it a few times and that seems to calm him down. When he's done, I set the cigarette down in an ashtray on the table. I don't want to finish it after he's touched it.

"I'm going to have a lot more questions for you over the next few days. Maybe weeks. However long it takes to settle this. Be straight with me, keep telling me the truth, and I might just give you your body back."

"Sit here and wait for Mason to get me. What a sweet deal."

"Work with me and he won't be around to get you."

Kasabian's expression goes blank, like he's staring off into the distance at something I can't see.

"You're right, you know. I am a fuckup," he says. "All the rest of them, they got power, money, and cushy jobs. But they cut me out. I got nothing."

"Then you have every reason to want some payback, too."

"Don't you think I would have if I could? Look at me! I even had to steal this stupid store just to earn a living. Then a dead guy comes in and cuts off my head. Yeah, I'm the one who's going to put down Mason Faim."

"No, I am. You just point me at him."

"I told you, I don't know where he is. He's gone. He's Kayzer Soze."

"What about the others?"

"You're asking a lot, man."

"No. I'm asking for exactly what I'm owed." I take a smoke again. I don't want to get into the next thing. "Tell me, Kas, like your life depended on it. Who killed Alice?"