"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."