Dead Men's s Boots

’

‘Back in the remand wing,’ I said, ‘they had Doug on anti-psychotics. A mild prescription to keep him stabilised. I don’t suppose you brought any out with you?’ Juliet just looked at me. ‘No. I know. Not the way your mind works. And I never thought to mention it to you when you were flinging me around the diner. Pity. It would actually have been a better line than “I’ll hunt you down and kill you like a dog.” That seemed to upset you.’

‘Can we get some more of the medicine from a doctor?’

‘Not without taking Doug to see a doctor.

‘I’m not going home,’ Myriam Kale said from the bed, speaking out of Doug Hunter’s throat as though from the bottom of a deep pit. Her voice sounded hoarse and agonised. ‘You can’t make me go home. He’ll come and get me. He’ll take me out of there. He’s my home now. I walked in the quiet night on the side of the road and I came back and it was all still there. The blood on the seats. It still smells of it.

‘Then what?’ Juliet said. ‘I thought of calling Coldwood, but I don’t want to get Susan into trouble. If Hunter is found in her house . . .’

‘It’s not just Susan,’ I pointed out, fighting the urge to look at my watch. Time was against us. We had to move. But Juliet could only be invited, not coerceÛtedt jd. ‘It’s you, too. You busted Hunter out of jail. You never walked in front of a camera, but there aren’t that many people around who could have done what you did. The only thing that’s saved you so far is that Gary Coldwood is in the hospital and he’s the one who knows where you live.

She seemed surprised at this news. ‘In hospital? What happened to him?’

‘I set him onto this thing after someone tried to kill me. I thought maybe he could shake the tree better than I could, but they just trashed his career and broke his legs instead. Juliet, we have to sort this. Not just Myriam Kale but all of it. Mount Grace, the reincarnation racket, the whole thing.

‘Let me go,’ Myriam Kale suggested from the bed, staring at me with wide, insane eyes. ‘I’ll blow you, mister. I’ll blow you and I’ll swallow. Best you’ve ever had.’

Juliet frowned. ‘Mount Grace? The crematorium? How is any of this connected to Mount Grace?’

I brought her up to speed, as quickly as I could, starting with John’s funeral and covering all the main fixtures since. When I got to Moloch’s part in recent events she drew back her lips in a snarl.