“Stacey?”Andy hissed back.“How did you find me?”
“Gabe,” I said.
“I’m in the third stall.Hold on.”
I reluctantly walked over.The lock on the door slid open, and Andy was there, huddled in on himself.
“Why are you here?”I asked.
“They’ll find me in my office,” he said.“DDM sent in auditors.They’re going over the expenditure reports.I’m scared they’re going to drag me out of here.But they can’t fire me if they can’t find me, right, Stacey?”
“I’m not sure that’s how that works,” I said.
Andy’s face fell.
“How goes it with Bradders?”
“I managed to talk him into giving me a camera and a week to shoot my own raw segment.”
“You brilliant bitch,” Andy breathed.“Bradders is a hard-ass.I don’t know how you did it.”
“Pluck and determination?”I said, but in truth, I had no idea what I did except keep talking.“I may have fibbed a bit about the story, but if this does work out, it’ll probably go well.”
“Look, you need tonail the shitout of this,” Andy said.“I mean it.All of our asses are riding the line here.If you can impress Bradders, we just might have enough leverage to keep doing our thing.All of our jobs are on the line.”
“Great,” I said.“So no pressure, then.”
“None at all,” Andy said.
The bathroom door opened, and Andy hissed and closed the stall door again.An understandably confused Reggie from the music review department stood in the entryway and looked at me with some trepidation.
“You may want to give that third stall a minute, there’s a real mess in there,” I said.
Reggie stared at me as I walked past him.
Chapter3
Idecided an in-person visit would be the best way to sweet talk my way into what I needed, so I took a quick stop at Hartshome Cathedral.A woman with a black veil scurried out of the doorway as I passed, nodding deferentially at me.I tried to keep my neck covered.There was a birthmark on my neck, in the shape of a crescent moon.I’d had it my whole life—every man I’d ever been with seemed to think it was gross.Every undead person that saw it seemed to get real superstitious, real quick, though.It was annoying.
It was a hazy, cloudy, rainy day.I’d brought an umbrella, shook it off, closed it tight under the eaves of the entrance, and stepped inside.The huge figure of crucified Jesus hanging over the entrance gave me pause, like usual.
Brother Aleister was a traditional vampire, to say the least.He was one of those old-school, probably from Eastern Europe bloodlines, and to see him up and about at 2 PM was unlikely.I had a strong gut feeling the weather would give him a little extra pep in his step, however.Vampires were not the only attendants at Hartshome Cathedral.The Biologically Impaired—zombies, though I had been told that was not a kind word for them—didn’t have hours too different than humans, and getting a member of the Biologically Impaired ordinated was proving to be a challenge.Or so I’d heard.
I found Brother Aleister sitting in the main chambers, head bowed deep in contemplation.He was a very spiritual person; however, I had some serious doubts about how religious he was.I slid onto a pew near him and bowed my head as well.
“Dear Lord.I know this is asking a lot.But I really need a boat,” I said.
Brother Al snorted and laughed, raising his head.
“Interesting.Might I ask why?”
“A little birdy told me you have a missing shipment.”
“That information was supposed to be classified.”
“I may or may not have two contacts inside the City Council,” I said.
The City Council was a small organization composed of four figureheads.Brother Al, Nagisa, whom I did not know well, Eddie, and Vic.The latter two I was dating.That I was in a relationship with two important figureheads in the Chicago undead community was something I had attempted to think about once and then abandoned.There was nobody I could brag to about it, after all.
