Devil Said Bang (Sandman Slim 4)

“I’ll drive it myself.”

“I don’t care who. Just drive fast.”

Tiger Girl’s breathing is almost back to normal but her heart is still going Mach 5. Mild shock. She’ll be fine. My adrenaline is off the charts. I want to kick the clinic door in and find Candy but I don’t want to slow Allegra working on her.

My goddamn arm won’t stop bleeding.

“What’s your name?” I ask Tiger Girl.

“Patty Templeton.”

I wrap the towel around my arm and hold it out to her.

I say, “Tie the ends together, Patty.”

She takes the ends of the towel and pulls them tight.

“I’m Stark. You can ride with me unless you want to get out and walk home.”

“No fucking way.”

“Good. Now we’re friends and we’re going to talk to each other, and no bullshit, right?”

I fire up the van and pull it into a corner space behind some delivery vans. I’ll come back after dark and ditch it somewhere.

“Yeah. Okay. Just keep her away from me.”

“No problem. I know somewhere she’ll never find us.”

The limo pulls up with thirty seconds to spare.

“What about your friend inside?” Patty asks.

“She’s in good hands.”

Patty and I get in the limo.

“Looks like you got yourself a ticket to damnation paradise,” I say to the driver.

He turns the big car around.

“What if I’m not damned?” he says. I recognize the voice from the phone.

“Trust me, pal. If you weren’t before, you are now.”

As we pull into traffic, I glance back at the lot. The hole Cherry dug yesterday is closed up good as new. Cherry works harder dead than she ever did when she was alive.

If you ever need to pull a girl into a secret room through a grandfather clock and not have her make a big deal about it make sure she’s attacked by a knife-wielding ghost first.

I leave Patty on the couch and go to the bathroom for a new towel. This one is soaked through. When I come out, she’s sniffing the open bottle of Aqua Regia.

“You might want to skip that. There’s regular wine with the food.”

She sniffs again and pours herself a little in a wineglass. Tosses it back and makes a face.

“I told you.”

She pours more. I sit down across from where she was. She shrugs and brings the glass over. Yesterday’s food is gone and there’s a fresh spread laid out buffet-style.