Lula nodded. “I can see you thought this through.”
“It’s a chance of a lifetime,” Slick said. “I’d be willing to give you a credit if you could get me better equipment. I could list you as an assistant or a grip or something.”
“My name would have to be in a prominent place,” Lula said. “I’d need to get a producer credit. And what about the filming? Would we get to be seen with the zombies?”
“I hadn’t thought about it, but sure, we could do that.”
“It would enhance our prospects for future film roles,” Lula said. “It could lead to us being movie stars.”
Slick was visibly excited. His eyes were wide and his face was flushed. “Exactly! That’s been my plan all along.”
“Okay, it’s decided,” Lula said. “Let’s do it.”
I raised my hand. “Hello? Have we forgotten something? This man is a felon. We’re supposed to be apprehending him.”
“Yeah, but I don’t see where there’s such a rush,” Lula said. “We got a mission. It could be critical that we document the zombies.”
I rolled my eyes and thunked the heel of my hand against my forehead. “Unh!”
“I gotta get back to my post,” Slick said. “I don’t want any zombies sneaking into the portal without getting their picture taken.”
“And I gotta go to the projects and find my camera friend,” Lula said.
Lula hustled off to the parking lot, and I followed after her.
“We have to find Cheap Slim,” Lula said. “He’s my electronics source these days.”
I knew about Cheap Slim. He sold cameras, smartphones, watches, and laptops out of the trunk of his 1998 Cadillac Eldorado. Best not to ask about the source of his goods.
“You’re going to buy a camera to film something that doesn’t exist,” I said to Lula.
“Well, something came out of the cemetery and followed Diggery home,” Lula said. “And something’s collecting brains.”
She had a point. So maybe putting Slick in the cemetery with a camera wasn’t such a bad idea.
“It’s almost noon,” I said. “I called my mom a while ago and told her we’d be around for lunch. After lunch we can look for Cheap Slim.”
“Sounds good. Now that I think about it, I might even have a camera at my apartment. It was left over from when I did the bungee jumping demo.”
THIRTEEN
“YOU PICKED A good day to come for lunch,” Grandma told Lula. “We got leftover meatloaf, fresh bakery bread, and coleslaw. And I got a new picture of my honey.”
“Is this the guy who looks like George Hamilton?” Lula asked.
“Yep. This is a picture of him on his scooter.”
Lula and I looked at the photo on Grandma’s cellphone.
“He’s almost as dark as me,” Lula said. “He spends some serious time in the sun.”
“Well, he’s in Florida and that’s the way it is. I’m told everyone looks like this in Florida,” Grandma said. “I might have to go to a tanning salon before I visit him.”
“You are not visiting him,” my mother said.
Lula and I took a seat at the kitchen table. I made a meatloaf sandwich and helped myself to the coleslaw.
“Have you heard anything new about Johnny Chucci?” I asked Grandma.