Teddy gestures toward graveyards in the distance, using the cigarette like a pointer.
“He collected our first cemeteries around the same time he struck it rich in silver mining. He believed these two events were inextricably linked, so he saw it as his duty to create a haven for ghosts. He joined Lucifer’s temple because the political connections made it easier for him to shave the taxes on the silver income and to bring in foreign graves.”
“A lot of ghosts seem to stay here. You don’t try to keep them earthbound?”
Teddy shakes his head.
“My charges stay or go as they please. Perhaps if God presented Himself more readily, they wouldn’t be so afraid of what awaited them when they finally crossed over.”
“I can’t argue with that.”
Teddy’s unlit cigarette is driving me crazy. I still don’t have any Maledictions.>Traven sips his mineral water. I probably shouldn’t have said that last part. I spooked the poor guy again.
“I guess I finally saw the famous Via Dolorosa.”
“Yes. After you returned to Hell, I decided I couldn’t just read about all this arcane knowledge and do nothing with it. I had to act. I had to learn to make use of it. How do you think I did?”
“You freaked out the Devil groupies pretty well, so good choice of ways to be scary. Just don’t try it on crackheads knocking over a gas station. It’s a little slow for that.”
Traven smiles his tired smile.
“I’ll remember that.”
“Where does a nice academic like you pick up tips about something like the Dolorosa?”
He hesitates. He runs a hand through his hair.
“I found it in a sixteenth-century book of Baleful magic.”
I nod.
“You know that’s illegal, right? You’re an outlaw. Jesse James with a dog collar.”
“Thank you,” he says. “What are you going to do now?”
I wish I had a Veritas. It would help me answer the question. Muttonchops left his tarnished silver coin on a coffee table. I pick it up with my Kissi hand.
“You’re going to help me decide. Kill King Cairo or talk to Teddy Osterberg about the girl and Saint James?”
I flip the coin high in the air.
“Call it, Father.”
“Heads,” he says.
“Always an optimist.”
The coin hits the floor and I put my boot down on it.
It’s heads.
“You win. Which is it?”
“Go talk to Teddy Osterberg.”
I go back to the buffet.
“You didn’t care what the second choice was, did you? You just don’t want to make it easy for me to kill Cairo?”